a woman's prerogative...

Haven't posted lately, and I apologize, although not much has been going on. We finally started a game of phone tag with the contractor, after he was unreachable for more than a week (not just to us--to anyone!) I found time to visit a few tile stores. Some were filled with helpful people, and one was staffed by a salesman who apparently thought I was an easy mark.
I told him I wanted ceramic tiles for my kitchen floor.
He showed me some tiles that were ceramic with a top layer of Congoleum to make them softer.
I said I wanted ceramic.
He said they were ceramic.
I asked if it was vinyl on top of the ceramic.
He told me that it wasn't vinyl, it was Congoleum (apparently there is a difference--it's all petroleum based products to me)
I insisted that I wanted just ceramic.
Then he asked me if I had a certain brand in mind.
I did not. (Does anyone shop for tiles by brand? )
When I said I wasn't tied to a certain brand, he showed me one display and said this was what they had....when I could see that there were other tile displays in other parts of the store.
I assumed that he was showing me the ones with the most markup. I looked through the choices and, not surprisingly, did not see anything even remotely close to what I was looking for. So I just left, and I certainly won't be back.

One flooring store I visited had tile, but none that were right. I am definitely not with the times in my flooring ideas--everything is tumbled, distressed stone. I certainly see the practical side of that--if you scratch the floor, you can just pretend it is how the tile came. But I don'' want that look for my kitchen, and that is all that anyone is selling right now.

Anyway, the flooring store also had Marmoleum. I talked to the sales guy about our situation (cold floor because kitchen is partly over an unheated, uninsulated, inaccessable crawl space.) He suggested a vapor barrier, then an extra layer of cork, then the Marmoleum Click floating tiles (which have a layer of cork built in) He thought this might block the cold sufficiently and feel warm even without the radiant heat system under the floor (unlike ceramic tile) I do really like the look of the linoleum, and the idea of a floating floor makes me less insecure about making the wrong choice...if we really don't like it, we can remove it easily (unlike ceramic tile, which would be there til the end of time) And, there would be no ongoing cost of the electric radiant heat. AND (most important at this point in time) all I would need to do would be to bring a few samples home and pick a color....no more traipsing around to every tile store in Northern Virginia looking for the elusive perfect tile. So, I think I have used my prerogative, and changed my mind....ceramic tile and radiant heat Out, Marmoleum Click In.