Hardwood Floors II and House Progress

Here are some photos of the hardwood floor samples with the satin finish poly coats...Thoughts? I'm still leaning toward the middle color on the 4" plank. I also included a shot of Sally & Lucy on the couch viewing the hardwood floor samples. I need to make a pronto decision on the hardwoods as the nice guys from Cherokee called me today to let me know they are placing an order tomorrow for a shipment and after that they won't get more of the flooring I am considering till 'after the holidays' = yikes!

House progress - big news on the basement front, well, the basement floor! I haven't shared too much about the basement because there hasn't been much to share other than dirt, new underpinning and darkness. Doesn't that entry photo look ominous? But it shouldn't! I'm feeling good about the basement! I visited it Monday morning and was impressed with how much light comes into the front half moon window and then found out that the back bedroom windows are going to be really wide. I envision it with the nice Berber carpet and the glow of the recessed lights...It's going to be a really nice apartment. On the progress front, today they poured the concrete for the floor!

I didn't visit, but Super Dad went over yesterday and today to check things out. He was impressed with the basement floor progress and observed them pouring the concrete (no photos due to serious rain). He also found out the plan for pouring the concrete for the parking pads. Since the big truck won't fit into the alley, the concrete truck will park out front and they will run the hose OVER the house. OVER the two story row house. Should be a good scene.

Super Dad also inspected and approved the bathtubs for the apartment and the hall bath. He was impressed with them, so that bodes well! Hopefully they remember to repair the little hole that is currently in the bathroom wall before they install the tub...

Hardwood Floors

We're excited to have hardwood floors in the new house. We enjoy them a lot in our current place and they contribute a lot to the "historic home" look. Here are some photos of the type of wood and stain colors that we're considering. Actually, we have considered just about everything, but we really love the warmth and tone of our current heart pine floors (original to our 1916 apartment) so we would like a similar look. My general preference used to be a darker wood floor - in fact, when selecting the stain for the heart pine floors when I moved in and renovated, I wanted to go darker. I'm so happy my Dad talked some sense into me. I have really grown to love the lighter, more natural (for pine) look and appreciate how the lighter floors keep the place from looking dark since our other furnishings include a lot of dark wood furniture and dark brown leather sofa . All that to say we love what we have now!

Here are some photos to give you an idea. The first one shows my work station, just so no one can say I didn't lift a finger for this renovation! The two pieces of wood are just different grades of the same type of wood. Each piece has three different stain colors - just one coat. I think I will try another coat and add the satin finish poly coat to get a best sense of the finished product. I picked up three nice colors of Minwax Stain at Home Depot. They are, from one end to the darker end, Colonial Maple, Golden Pecan and Cherry. The next two pictures show the two sample pieces sitting on our current floor. One photo is with flash and the other is without so you can get a sense of the comparison to the current floor.

I am liking the Colonial Maple or maybe the Golden Pecan - they are fairly similar so I want to see what a second coat of stain shows. I do like the Cherry, but it is a little brown, I think. I also like the wider plank for size. It is 4" wide. Between the two samples (the different grades of lumber) I am undecided - I think they both look great!

What do you think? While you are thinking about those options, I wanted to let you know that we will have two very special guest bloggers this week! Stay tuned! They will have a lot of ideas and opinions regarding furniture placement and arrangement and tips on selecting upholstery! You won't want to miss it!