The bottom level of my house is half-underground. A few years ago the carpet there got wet, and even long after it was dry again it used to make allergy-prone people sneeze to be anywhere near that part of the house. So we ripped out the carpet and replaced it with ceramic tile. The tile looks nice and should be water resistant and last forever. The guy who installed it uses some kind of mud process that, if I'm understanding it right, doesn't involve scary glues or chemicals. We've had it for a couple of months now, and we are happy with it. We bought the tile at The Tile Shop. (I think that's it's name -- it's a big chain store.) They had about a zillion types of tile to choose from, plus around the edges of their store they had a lot of pretend kitchens and bathrooms and other rooms that all had tiled floors and other fixtures, so you could see a lot of ideas of ways that you could use tile.

I love carpet and miss it, but I'm glad that people aren't sneezing anymore. And the tile did come out looking pretty good. The whole room it's in is a lot more usable now that it has this new floor.

-Valerie