Flooring is first of many final steps

Keeping up with the progress on the house has been a challenge. Lots has happened over the past months as we move into the final stages of construction.

FLOORING
In July the laminate flooring and vinyl were installed. We found the laminate at the same store, I Got Wood, where we bought the unfinished drawer units for the closets. The flooring comes in individual planks which have slightly rounded edges, so that its just like a plank of real wood flooring. I like the grain and the color is slightly red and a mid tone between the light maple cabinets and dark chocolate mocha cabinets. I was concerned that the flooring contrast with the cabinets so that the floor didn't blend into the cabinets which would have been uninteresting visually. This laminate perfectly achieved the look I was after.

We decided to put laminate in the kitchen, adjacent dining area, and the perimeter of the great room. It continues into the hallways and the lower laundry. Our plan was to enter from the garage onto the laminate, but have carpet from the laminate into the lower bedrooms. However, the laminate installers continued it down the hall to the doorways of the bedrooms. We decided to keep it since it was installed and are having a carpet runner made to go over it with just the edges showing of the laminate. I think this will look nice and will mirror the look in the great room.

I used vinyl in the bathrooms and upstairs laundry. I didn't want tile because it can crack and I hate cleaning grout. I found a great tile-like pattern in vinyl which had a bit of green in it to go with the counter tops. Unfortunately, it was discontinued so I had to pick something else. I ended up with a gray tone granite stone pattern. Its color tone changes based on the lighting in the room, which is interesting. In the upper master bath it has green tone from the sunlight coming in through the tree. In the downstairs master bath it has a warmer color from the afternoon sun. I thought the pattern was an okay solution, however, as the counters and adjacent carpet have gone in, the vinyl really works well.

This week the carpet was installed. There's some finish work to be done still, once the entry tile and stair railings are in place, but all the rooms have carpet. The colors look great with the wall paint. Since there are two different colors used for bedrooms, masters are medium sage green, and the other rooms are desert fawn (tan) I had to find something that worked well with both. Fortunately, my original color was no longer available and I was forced to choose again. The new color is a better choice. The first color was primarily a gray green with speckles of tan. The new color is tan with various shades of brown and some green. It really looks good with both wall colors. It also is moderately light in color yet the various thread colors will hide the dirt. Yeah!

The great room has a carpeted area in the middle which is surrounded by laminate. For this carpet I wanted to bring in the green tones from outside. Originally, I'd picked a solid green pile, which was surprisingly expensive. When I had to pick a new color for the rest of the house, it made me wonder if the green for the great room was a good choice. So I decided to see what the greener version of the new carpet would look like next to the laminate. I quickly realized that it was a much better choice. It has a variety of colored threads and the green is on the tan side. The original color looked garish in comparison. Unfortunately, the original green carpet had already been received by the carpet installer. I decided that color would be a horrible mistake so had them figure out what it would cost to send that back and buy the new color. Fortunately, the new carpet was $7 per yard cheaper! Yeah, I was thunderstruck to learn that my first choice had cost $22 per yard, yikes! So the significant savings per yard resulted in me saving about $20 in the total cost after factoring in the restocking charge. Few, that was a horrible mistake prevented.

Now that the new great room carpet is installed its tone looks great with the laminate, the wall paint (desert fawn) and the stone. I saw it in the late afternoon sun and the tone looked more tan than green. Overall its a bit darker than what's in the rest of the house. The green tone is subtle. It will be interesting to see if different times of day and lighting make the green more noticeable. I also wonder if it will be more apparent in the spring when the grass outside is green.

As mentioned earlier, the tan carpet looks real nice next to the bathroom vinyl. The various tans and browns tie into to the subtle golden variations in the vinyl which are more apparent with the carpet next to the vinyl. Now that all the other flooring, the cabinets and counter tops are in the bathrooms, I am much happier with the vinyl. It all ties together nicely.