Foyer Tile Reveal

The foyer floor has been finished since mid September, but I'm just now getting around to posting pictures.  I went into all the details in the last post, but if I had to do it over again with this very expensive, hand cut terracotta tile, I would not do it.  After saying good bye to the first installer because he was painfully slow and wasn't showing up when he said he would, we moved to another who finished it fast, but who cut corners to do it.  We had a third person pull up some of the tiles the second one improperly installed and were very happy with what he did.  We wish we would have known him from the start, but whatever.  I do love the way the floor looks with my area rugs and it has an authentic, European look.  This tile would drive someone crazy who has to have everything symmetrical and even.  I love wonky imperfection and this floor takes that beyond even what I'm comfortable with, but once again, my area rugs soften it up.  In late January, I'm having the walls skim coated, popcorn removed from the ceilings, and everything painted gray, so that will also enhance the look of the black and white floor.  If I could do it over again, it still would have been expensive, probably limestone, but that would have been thinner and easier to install than this tile.  I hired one of my older son's friends to hand wax it with soft hull wax and that has protected it nicely and given it a warm luster as opposed to a synthetic product that would have sat on the top and given it a garish sheen.  A synthetic product also may have yellowed the white tiles.  This floor was a huge expense and caused lots of sleepless nights.  My advice would be to avoid terracotta!