Tile

We bought our tile at National Home Center, special order for $1.99/sq. ft.  This is the Mirador (style) Mohawk (brand) Brown Pearl (color).  The floors have 20 inch x 20 inch tiles and the shower (not shown because it's not done!) will have matching 13 inch x 13 inch tiles.

This is the hallway from the master to the garage.  We (by we, I mean my husband and his brother) laid the tile on a diagonal.  I think it gives it a really grand look (but, it also created more waste than if we had just laid it straight).  

I was on a business trip when this floor went down, so I was a bit nervous... But they did a great job.  And the next day, I got my hands dirty and laid the tile in the laundry room.  I might have had to crawl out the window. (I know you are supposed to start in the back corner and work your way out, but the hallway leads straight into laundry room, so I had to pick up the pattern there.  And I would have posted a pic, but we ran out of tile.  And had to order more.  I picked that up today (along with a 50 gallon Marathon water heater), so we will finish sometime this week.

The same tiles are in the master bathroom, but to change it up a bit, we (again husband and brother) laid it on a brick pattern. The shower will be on a diagonal, so we thought it would be overwhelming and maybe odd looking to have everything diagonal in the room.

The master bath continues

The master bath has become a source of, um, problem.  Specifically, the shower.  

We originally planned to have a shower pan built at House of Marble.  For a 5 foot by 5 foot custom cultured marble pan they estimated a cost of $700.  Which I guess isn't bad.  But then we got to talking.  During my brief tenure with a company that dealt with travertine, marble and such, I acquired a piece of travertine.  It's four feet long, a foot deep and about an inch thick.  It would make an AWESOME shower bench.  But then we began questioning how the bench would work in regards to the pan.  Since it's solid travertine, the

 piece is not light.  There is no way to 'hang' it off the wall, it would definitely need to sit on something sturdy.  I suggested cinder blocks.  (And, after doing some research, I found that is in fact 

an acceptable foundation for a bench.  BUT that is because we have a slab foundation.  You might want to consider another option if you are dealing with a second story or if you have a crawl space.)

So, now we think that we may need to build a custom shower pan where the bench base would actually sit inside the pan and then it would all be tiled together.  It will have a much more custom look and be a bit more cohesive than the pre built pan.

The design for the shower will use a 13x13 tile set on a diagonal. 

This will go from the floor up to about the 5 foot mark.  There, we will use a small brick tile that I found on Ebay.  The store is Oracle Tile, (here is their Ebay store) they have great prices, and despite having to pay shipping charges from California, it was still cheaper than similar products at Lowe's/Home Depot and they have a great variety.  If you are looking for tile, these guys are a must.  I bought six sheets of the brick pattern and one sheet of a matching 1 by 1.  I'm going to use these as accents throughout.  

And above that will be the same 13x13 squared off and we will take the tile up to the bottom of the window which is around 7 1/2 feet.

If we can make the bench work, it take up the four feet and the last foot will be a higher shelf for shampoo.  If the bench will not work, then we will go with the cultured marble pan and a corner shelf.

I will eventually add a sketch of the shower design.