Would someone please give me direction as I would just love to lay travertine tiles over the double sink vanities in master baths, I have two. I just don't know how to go about doing this as I've never laid tile other than the self stick floor tile. Thanks for the help.

I put ceramic tile over laminate in my kitchen. Don't know if it would be much different if it had been travertine. What I did was sand the laminate well and cleaned off the residue. Then using mastic I laid the tile and then grouted it. That was 7 years ago and the tile is just fine. If you have a Lowes nearby and they have good employees I would suggest that you talk to them. They are happy to give you advise. Good luck.

If you know specifically what you want, Lowes and Home Depot are good places to go to get it. They have terrific prices. DO NOT, however, ask for any kind of advice! I've heard so many horror stories, even from HD and Lowes associates themselves, I can't even count!! If you have any questions on tile, your best bet is to do just as you're doing now-- come to the forums and look up a pro. You've got a much better chance of getting the straight "dope".

In answer to the question of going over laminate, it's risky, but can be done so long as som prerequisites are met.
> It can't have a raised drip edge, or rounded edge.
> It can't have rounded corners. All corners must be square.
> The laminate must be in good shape i.e.-- no cuts, breaks, chips or holes of any kind. This includes holes that would be made by using a backerboard over the laminate!

Just scuff up the laminate with an orbital sander and use a unmodified thinset with a liquid latex additive instead of water.

I'll agree with not asking for help, I've heard horrible things too, but every once and a while they will give you decent advice.

I found this thread when I was looking for cost of laying tile down and I found a calculator that might be useful to you(even though this is a fairly old thread). It's found here: http://www.remodeling-guru.com/getestimate and it has a variety of different presets, the tile preset gave me a pretty good representation of what it would cost.

How about laying white marble over brick facing on a fireplace? What do I begin with to make the surface ready to accept the white marble? What kind of grout should I use and should I use spacers?

First off is the brick in good shape? That is no cracks or loose areas. If so you would need to do the following

Clean the brick from any loose material and soot if it exists.

A good quality thin set that you would use to place the marble on any other type of vertical surface will work. In fact the rough face of the brick will help the stuff stick better. As far as spacers. Its your option to do so. Do you want to see grout between the marble. Most marble faced fireplaces do not have grout. Its hard to keep clean and if any soot gets on it it will be a dog to remove.
Be sure that your not placeing to much weight on the face of the fireplace. If there is evidence of any space between the hearth and fireplace brick front get some support under it before putting any more weight on the wall. Its not hard to do but will save you some problems later.