One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor....

Prayers & good thoughts to all of our fellow Americans facing difficulty and tragedy after Hurricane Ike

~*~

For those of you that are new, read a few posts back and you will find out that we have been having HUGE floor problems. The rest of you will get this, so here goes...

Okay...we picked the floor we liked. Granary Oak. Reclaimed from the outside planks of an old barn somewhere. Solid wood planks. In the showroom, it looked like this: random width, random lengths, rubbed oil finish...

See the cool markings? Those are saw marks and there are nail holes and patches...lots of character and perfect for what we are trying to do here.





Part of the screw-up at the floor place was the fact that the salesman didn't have the first clue of what he was showing OR selling. He just thought oak was oak was oak. No. And, he didn't know (or neglected to tell us) that what he was showing us was the end result...and when delivered to our home it would look like this:

While this is absolutely beautiful (see the marks??) it is unfinished. Just wood. And, after talking with the new installer, the entire process..from delivery to being able to put furniture on it will only take about 3 weeks. And that's including the 7 or 8 days that we won't be able to walk on it. Never mind the fact that this is for the front foyer and the Daughter's bedroom is right off of that foyer. Oh...and the kitties?? Just locked up somewhere, I guess.

So...to prevent me from completely losing my mind, we have been talking with the manufacturer and they are sending some finished samples of another oak. Guinness Oak. This is reclaimed from antique vats at the Guinness Brewery in Ireland. Looks kind of the same...maybe not so much color variation...but still beautiful.

But...this is an engineered product. It's been thinned down and placed on a special backing allowing it to be put down on the floor without anything extra being done. Still wood, but not nearly as solid as the Granary Oak planks.

So..what to do? We are this far into our home makeover (since June 1st) and another 3-4 weeks won't matter, right? Or, do we save our (my) nerves and go with the finished, down in 2 days Guinness Oak? The foyer will be the focal point and that Granary Oak is really nice, but we do have some overstuffed furniture in the family room so a lot of it will be covered by that anyway.

No decisions made today...waiting for the Guinness samples to arrive (wonder if they come with a beer?). But, once we decide about this, things should fall into place, the floors will be done, the new carpet can go in and we can have our house back!! How very optomistic of me...

This is the last big project, if you don't count the staining/installing of the new stair rails, the repair to the ceiling for the replacement of the old AC vents, sealing the tile by the back door and outside on the threshold and...and...and....

Repeat after me: Almost finished. Almost finished. Almost finished.....