Hi everyone, thanks for your comments. Kate, I think you'll find it will be great with the kids. A friend has kids and a couple of dogs running around on hers and it looks great - very sturdy. I do agree the step definitely needs redoing. I'm going to walk him around the house and point out anything I think doesn't look professional. And I do agree, mistakes can happen and as long as they are rectified I can accept that. The guy we're dealing with is part owner of the business and was a layer for 10 years before going into the sales side. He has offered to come and do the fix up himself so I'm happy with that. Re the colour, I originally thought that we'd end up with a timber shade of some sort, but the house is small and I like the white washed, light beige look of the Ashland. I'll be interested to see what you choose. Very exciting times ahead, lots of work but it will be lovely to have a new house! Best of luck, Trish

Try diggers paint brush restorer. Small patch first, you don't want it to spread it. Failing that there is a company called So Safe. It produces graffiti remover and will get rid of that in minutes. My guys use a lot of it with very good results.

Always feel confident to question your tiler. Big tiles like these are easy to lay and to line up. If you are not happy then tell them. You are the customer and your satisfaction should be paramount. It looks as though the surface isn't flat. Is this the case? Or is it the tiles that make it look this way? If it is the tiles, tell them. Even if they can't fix it without costing you much more $$$, they may be able to offer you credit for future works.

We deliberately used a different tile to add interest and to contrast with the white bathtub. It really makes the bath and white shelving stand out much better than white against white. To reduce the number of different materials used, however, we matched the grey floor tile on those walls and also in the shower niche, only switching from matt floor tiles to matching Lappato tiles.