Hello everyone, I'm back. As they never did answer my email, I went to the Melbourne supplier's shop and discovered that, although I do like Kerlite, it is VERY expensive. They gave me the phone number of their tiler, I phoned him, he was going to come out to give me a quote, but never did come. In the end, I didn't chase him, because he did tell me on the phone how much he charges per meter to lay them. :-) Looks like I'll be going with the suggestion of Dytecture and replace just the kitchen area tiles. Now I have a new question. I had a few people out here and am getting contradictory advice. Some say I should strip the existing kitchen, lay the tiles, THEN put the kitchen on top of the tiles ._They_ say it would look better, less cutting of tiles needed, so no patchwork near the cupboards and also the cupboards would be on "higher ground" in case of a flood. The other camp tells me that doing it this way would make the job take a lot longer, and it is better for the cupboards to "sit" below the tiles, sort of a reinforcement and the difference in the look would hardly be noticeable. _They_ say that the people advising laying the tiles first are just being lazy - it is just easier for them. Of course, I would also need more tiles if I put them under the cupboards as well, so there would be added expense as well. While, getting it done as quickly as possible is definitely an attractive proposition, that is not my only criteria, nor would having to supply a few more tiles worry me that much. What do you think?

Thank you Monty. The tiles I have are actually across multiple areas aside from the kitchen, so am erring on not going with another set. Additionally the current tiles are the right style for the house and kitchen options I'm going with. A conundrum, but will continue scouring the options. Cheers

Thank you everyone for your responses. I’m still undecided - I have a few weeks to consider what to do. The bench top salesperson showed me some photos of the few people who have added a small amount of benchtop stone to add some height (and it’s always because of a busy 60 x 30 patterned tile that the owners want to keep perfect) and in her words it looks ‘dicky’. Not least because the tile sits flatter against the wall than a 2cm thick slab of benchtop. It leaves a pronounced lip of 1.5cm where tile meets benchtop addition Then there’s the safety concerns mentioned above about flames near stone which I had not considered. Big reader - I love your maths but I’m only 150cm tall. Even with a low bench and oven height of 94cm (my oven’s lowest height setting) plus 70cm of tile between the bench and overheads, the cupboards are already 14cm above my head. This barely makes them usable for me even now! Adding another 15cm instead of the 10cm, while looking lovely and keeping the pattern intact, means my short-arse self will have real difficulty reaching anything safely. Every cm counts when you’re short! But I do appreciate your input!

We have been building our house for over two years now. The supply chain downturn has made it a nightmare. We are camping on the mezzanine floor of our warehouse so it isn't costing us to wait, but if I had rented a property while building we would be in trouble now. I purchased most of our plumbing supplies early in the build so at least those items have not gone up in price, but many others have. We ordered and paid for a cantilever pool awning in February this year, and it was sent in three lots. The last delivery was two weeks ago. I suspect the company was having a hard time getting it out of China, so not their fault. We had quotes for fly screens/security screens that totalled over $25,000. We had to forgo the security screens in favour of fly screens for most of the house. We had a quote for a large aluminium mesh panel to place on the front left corner of the house which was over $25,000 also. The fencing company got an order wrong and we ended up with the wrong colour louvre panels on the front driveway sliding gates, plus the wrong colour for a fence. We have managed to turn it into a positive by keeping the wrong coloured louvre blades, and they will now be put up vertically on the front corner of the house, instead of the aluminium mesh. They are six metres long, but the house is two stories, so all good. We had to keep the gate panels the same, so the wrong colour will have to be exchanged for the right colour. People are still building houses here, and some of them are going up very fast, so I don't understand why ours has taken so long. We have purchased most of the goods locally, but I suppose the suppliers are having trouble getting them from overseas. I am at the point where I am losing interest in this house, which is a shame because it will be a beautiful house when finished.