Wednesday, February 29, 2012

flooring chosen--expect delivery this Friday, March 2, 2012

In the previous post, I alluded to the flooring choice, a CarpetOne store "brand," Rustic River.  We ordered a box of the style to see the actual product on our floor, in a larger and more movable size.

According to my research, this is a Columbia Flooring product, probably from their Amelia Hardwood Floor line, the Ivory Ash color. 

I will say it was hard to get a straight answer as to who was responsible for manufacturing the Rustic River line.  The box came labeled from Mohawk.  Mohawk does not carry the ash species in the color we liked, but Columbia Flooring did...I dug around a bit more, and discovered Columbia Flooring, formally of Columbia Forest Products (plywood manufacturers) sold its flooring manufacturing plants and name to Mokawk in 2007.  Interesting, huh?

We ordered 35 boxes of the flooring for 520sq feet.  This would give us about 25% above what we need, compensating for damage and for smaller pieces.

We plan to go right over the parquetry, with a sound-damping material aptly named, FloorMuffler.

The sample box contained about 20% of "small" pieces, 24" or less.  In speaking with several flooring retail folks, this appears to be the normal for the product.


We'd like to use longer boards in the main rooms, and certainly to run the length of the floor from front to back of the house.  We'll use the smaller pieces in the closets, and to construct the sliding "barn-style" wood doors.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Work completed thus far--PICS!

Polly picked out the loo...a KOHLER Persuade 2-Piece High Efficiency Dual Flush Elongated Toilet

Paint color choices...no part of THIS process was easy...

Shower faucet was a basic Moen "Branbury" and the sink faucet was from Ikea--"Grundtal"

This is paint color we chose; behind the radiator we painted first, as the radiator sits nearly flush with the wall.      Tiling the bathtub around the niche proved challenging; it's a little wavy here...
Looking into the "living room."

Bathroom with the "heat lamps" on.  The unit is an Aero Pure 80 CFM Quiet Heater with Fan and Light

I ordered a couple of LED closet lights on eBay (at a substantial savings)--the color temps are off a bit.  One is cooler than the other--meaning less white.  As Polly's face says it, "What are you going to do?"
Bedroom radiator.  Need to get to repairing this floor next...

Polly's walk-in closet radiator.  Cute, compact, and it heats well. Again, the floor was cut to move the old radiator's risers behind the wall.  The hole damage--in the living area it is most evident--is a contributing factor in our decision to replace the old parquetry floor.

The under-base-cabinet "toe-kick" heater.  I cut a trap-door for the unit.  It was really a "lucky" fit.

 Myson | Whispa III 5000 EZ Hot Water Kickspace Heater With 3 Ft. Long Plug-In Cord And EZ-Hose Kit | Delivers 3,589 To 5,443 BTU/HR bought from H-MAC Systems
Still peeling off the wrapping...

The faucet is a Kraus product; the water filter faucet was an amazon.com find.  Pretty good quality to boot.


The peninsula--covered with an old duvet and 3/4" plywood;  makes for a great workbench!

Remote temperature and humidity sensor.  The unit relays information to a base-station which monitors up to three remotes and its current location simultaneously.  68.8 degrees and 46% relative humidity

Water filter (Culligan) and sink plumbing.  Note the dishwasher drain inlet.  Nicely done by the plumbers.

The under-the-cabinet direct-wire connectable LED lighting by ET2 CounterMax MX-L (two each--E57902-SA 10" and two each--E57904-SA 20")

finishing up with contractor and subs

Jason pointed out to us this past Friday that he had not seen a blog post in a while from us.  Agreed.  SO this post is for Jason--our friend and realtor--who, by the way, won Prudential Douglas Elliman's "rookie of the year" for LI and Queens.  Congrats Jason!

Looking back over the last two weeks,we have accomplished quite a bit--although it does not seem so sitting back now and reflecting upon it.

Anastasia and Mom help out taking up the masonite.  Thanks Mom!

The sink and base (open console) came from Empire Industries via wayfair.com

Test sands of the old floor.  We were going to refinish with Rubio Monocoat but all things considered, the floors were not worth re-finishing.

Possible stains and wood treatments.  The right most color, sapphire, was just for amusement.  ;]

The flooring we *think* we have settled on is a ash wood, 5" wide plank floor from a local Maspeth, NY CarpetOne dealer.


Searching for the actual manufacturer of the wood floor was a challenge.  Rustic River is a CarpetOne "house brand."  We think it is made by Columbia Flooring a part of their Amelia or Silverton lines.  More on the flooring in a subsequent post.

LED undercounter lights. 

Friday, February 3, 2012

weekend plans feature flooring

We are coming down to the end.  Sort of.  We still have not decided on all the paint colors; hopefully Polly will settle on them this afternoon with an interior designer friend...

Last weekend saw the finishing of the tile--finally.  the kitchen was grouted and the bath is 75% grouted--we ran out of the grout...

We're finishing the crown trim and ceiling painting this week--images coming soon.  Below are some pics from the nearly finished tile work.

Grouting...

Finished kitchen backsplash

Some final clean-up is needed before sealing.  But it gives you a good idea of the colors together.

More kitchen

Bath--note the marble edge trim.  Better image coming...

Polly's shower niche...ran out of grout...

"Shelf" in Anastasia's room--will become a closet.  More info on that project to follow...

Framing the "shelf."

Install of the electrical ceiling boxes for the lights.