>Deborah a wet bed setting is also known more specifically as a mud bed or mortar bed setting. My statement about designers knowledge wasn't intended as a put down, rather more an observation. Our designs are completed more often than not with budget in mind and appearance desired. Sometimes we neglect that some materials require special considerations for installations and lean on manufacturing standards which are also concerned with budgets. Mud beds are old school and they are more expensive than thin-setting.......but they work. I personally feel that had the original poster's kitchen floor been recessed in the sub-flooring (be it framed or concrete) and a mud bed installation been used by an experienced tile layer, her finished product would have been more acceptable. The inherent properties of large tile are known, they tend to cup. This is problematic for a level installation. The designer should have known this and accounted for it in their design. A knowledgeable tile man (craftsman) would have pointed out to the owner the pit falls of a pure 50/50 split in the pattern and the distinct possibilities of lippage leaving an uneven surface. I suspect that there were a number of contributing factors in this installation...........first off a designer who didn't fully comprehend the installation issues of large tile. Secondly a less than knowledgeable installer who was winging it and still winging it with his solution. Thirdly, a timing issue........all combined, they became the perfect storm so to say resulting in an unsatisfactory finish. >Marie, while I can agree with some of your assertions........the minute the tile contractor started laying the tile, he, in essence has accepted the sub-strait. While it is the role of the GC or Project Manager to coordinate the trades in all phases and to enhance the communication between them, I wouldn't expect the concrete contractor or framing contractor, who supplied the sub-strait, to know that the tile contractor really needed a floor levelness of 1/8"/10'. Nor would I expect the GC to know that. If that's what the tile contractor needed to make a 50/50 split work, it's his responsibility to convey that information. Granted the GC might have done a better job coordinating communication, but we don't know that he didn't either. No, I'm sorry to say this all falls back to the tile contractor. Either his lack of knowledge involving large tile or his rush to complete a job in pinch (the cabinets were being delivered and scheduled for installation "within days") caused this problem. I would say the circumstances were combined to produce a failure. It was rushed plain and simple. He needed 24 hours at least just to get the thin set to set up enough for him to work on the grouting. Most tile contractors that I have worked with have asked that there be no foot traffic on an installation using thin-set until the grouting is done and then only light foot traffic for the next couple of days.........certainly no cabinet installation work.

Judy - I only have 1 relative who has homes in NYS & Florida, but the cold bothers her so much (Raynaud’s disease), that they were spending about ½ the year down there anyway. So in their case, it only made sense to decide which they wanted to be their official residence, based on taxes (FL). People also have to juggle sales & income taxes, as well as estate taxes. When I stopped working & was planning to relocate, I realized that the states with the overall best tax laws, wound up being places I wouldn’t want to live (LOL). I’ve never used Turbotax; don’t do my own taxes. My income is from investments, and it just got too complicated to do myself.

To me the higher the better. We are in the process of building and chose 10' on the first floor and 9' on the second. I wish I had done 10' both up and down! My builder said the cost wouldn't have gone up that much if I had decided to do it. I think I just went with the standard way of doing things without giving it too much thought initially. I have to say though that most of the rooms on the second floor have nothing above them so I opted to have the ceilings follow my roof line. This adds so much drama to these rooms (I did have to fight with my architect over the ceiling heights though...but I stuck to my guns and I love the way it is turning out). Here are some pics...two bedrooms and bonus room.

Hi dstreitman, Just to let you know I'm not a professional. I'm a DIY guy that works at an office desk all day and makes a mess when I get home. I'll give you my experience. My house is a raised foundation so my subfloor is made of plywood. In my case I added an additional layer 7/16" thick OSB over the 3/8" Plywood so I can make my kitchen and bathroom tiles (3/8"Ply wood, 1/2" Backerboard, then grout and tile) lay even with the flooring. It actually came out perfect. With my setup I was able use the flooring nailer to nail my floors. I ordered about 1000 sqft of bamboo flooring which was about $6000. I ordered from builddirect.com and had them deliver to my house in a truck, which was really nice. It took me about 1 solid month to finish 3 bedrooms and 1 living room. If you plan on doing something similar to your concrete foundation then you'll need to go with the floating option, since you don't have anything to nail your flooring to. In this case it's probably the best and cheaper solution. I would actually just use laminate flooring for basement floors because concrete flooring is generally level. They actually have floating bamboo floors, the click and lock type. There are also various types of laminate flooring options as well, you might want to look into them. Make sure your concrete floor is level, throw some underlayment on it, and then just click the pieces together. Depending on how big your basement is it might take you like 5~6 rows an hour. I was at around 4 rows an hour. http://www.wikihow.com/Install-a-Floating-Floor And Yes, you can always glue your pieces down, but it takes a long time to do it and not make a mess. I actually have a lot of glue left over and bamboo flooring leftover and I plan on remodeling/renovating the garage after I'm done remodeling my bathroom. The garage is concrete floor with a lot of cracks in it. I'm going to use the same bamboo flooring I used for the house so I'll have to get creative and this is my garage after all so there's no way of screwing up here. I'll pour some more concrete in the garage to make sure it's leveled. Maybe build a frame out of 2x4s then lay the OSBs ontop of it. Or maybe just make a Japanese Sunoko - Here's an image. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Slatted_wooden_flooring,sunoko,katori-city,japan.JPG Not really sure what I want to do. Still thinking about it.