More Floors

The wood flooring installation is going quickly, which is great.

The front bedroom floor is done, as are all the bedrooms.

The floor looks great; I was a little worried that it would be too dark (and mind you, I wanted a dark floor), but it's just the right amount of dark stain and natural wood colour.

While the flooring installers are working, the finish carpenters are doing their thing, going around the house and trimming out the windows and doors, and installing the doors.

This door is installed in the kitchen. I'm a little conflicted about this door because what I wanted was, well, maybe not the right thing for the opening and the house. This door is more in keeping with the period of the house, but I'd been thinking of a metal door with a very industrial look. For a number of reasons, including my being not very decisive or assertive for some reason, this is not the door I wanted here, but it is the door we have. And it is very possible that after some time of living with it we will not be happy about it and will replace it with something more like what I'd been thinking of in the first place.

That door had a small leaf to the left, and a wide leaf to the right, so that the door could be left open all the time without getting in the way of the counter, with the small leaf closed, but could be opened all the way to get large items down the hallway (*cough*pianos*cough*). So I'm not crazy about this door but we will see how I feel about it after living with it for a while.

And going somewhat more slowly, the herringbone flooring. Which the flooring installer resisted mightily including insisting that the herringbone pieces had not been delivered (they had, I checked) and it would be ruinously expensive for him to cut all the flooring up to make the herringbone pattern. I had to talk him down from hysteria about those floors a couple of times, but it was worth it (see earlier statement about a door I don't like; doors are a LOT easier to switch out than entire floors).

I love herringbone floors, in part because when you have one you don't need a carpet for the room to feel really finished. I like the added texture they give to the floor, because no wood floor ever lies perfectly flat and all those little pieces of wood make the floor a little ruffly. Some people freak out at that texture which is crazy: you don't choose velvet then get upset at it being too velvety.

Herringbone patterns are ways of using up scraps of material. They are beautiful and can be a real feature, but they will never lie perfectly flat. Refuse to accept that and you will drive yourself crazy.

In other news, the back bathroom countertops did not go slowly at all:

Noel stopped by the house one day and there they were. This is actually important for the tile installation in that room, which is why it was a little rushed.

posted by ayse on 03/26/17