Floor Tiles?

First off, if you want to see something really awesome, check this out.  Giac, I hope you don't think this is stalker-ish, but I've been (silently) following your progress for a long time now and, well, your work is amazing!  I hope everyone's as inspired by it as I am.  Also, something you've done really well has given me some questions about my own projects, particularly in regards to floors--your tile looks really realistic.

Which brings me to my question, everyone: what do you use for tile, and why?

Here's my dilemma.  On the one hand, I like using the real (sometimes "real", as in the case of stained glass) material whenever possible, i.e. wood, lead panes, etc etc etc.  But when it comes to tile, I can never figure out what to do--and this is why I rarely use it.  Real tile is, well, real tile, but the scale tends to be wrong.  The dips and divides between the individual tiles would be crater-like in real life.  Benefit of using the "right" material aside, they always seem, to me, to take the project out of scale.  Another option are polymer tiles--like the "marlike" tiles I discovered on another glorious blog, the Tudor Dollhouse Project.  And, of course, several talented folks have made their own tiles, using various media.  And, indeed, the "marlike" tiles are wonderful--but, specifically with the encaustic tile packages, I'm not thrilled with the scale.  Or maybe these mosaics aren't meant to be encaustic tile?

Which brings me to my (next) question: what does everyone think about paper tile sheets, such as are made by Les Chinoiseries?  On the one hand, I'm dubious of getting paper to look like real tile--but on the other, reproduced down to a (real) scale, an actual encaustic tile floor would have such tiny divisions between tiles (and the tiles themselves are so tiny!) it would really seem flat.

Also, too, what does everyone think about embossed tile sheets?  I've never worked with them, but have seen some very lovely results on others' blogs.  Are they difficult to work with?  Pro's and con's?

PS: I go back to the city every Friday for work, so next Friday--I forgot this Friday, as I had a very unpleasant meeting--I'll take some pictures of the house so far.  I'm also contemplating building a barn, but this will have to be from scratch, as the only barn kits available are for western-style barns, not English-style barns.  Unless one of you knows something I don't...?

My dollhouse really is turning into more of a farmhouse; color-wise, I've been inspired by a house down the road from where we are now:

PPS: next week, I'm also thinking of bringing up a few small projects, notably the wallpaper panels I'm making for the American Colonial, and the Chrysnbon kits I'm intending to kit-bash.  I've seen others do it--I can do it, too!  I think...