Going, Going, Gone

As often seems to be the case, our house projects have compounded all at once.  I had been planning to work on my craft room while we waited for the new office furniture.  A couple trips to Nashville resulted in a long awaited purchase for our bedroom.  Among the random places I wanted to stop was discount flooring store we had visited a while back.  I wanted to see if they had any solid oak that would work for our bedroom.  With 2 dogs and lots of allergies, I’ve long dreamed of a bedroom without carpet.  Our bedroom is the only room on the first floor with carpet, so ripping it out has been high on my list since we moved in.   They ended up having a few options I thought might work, so we bought some samples on our first trip.  We probably would have bought some that day, but I didn’t think my car would appreciate being loaded down with half a ton of wood.  That gave me time to make a decision though.

The rest of the house has site finished 2 1/4″ oak floors finished in Minwax Early American.

I wanted to keep with oak since that is what we have everywhere else.  (Would have loved to go with something else though – walnut, bamboo, acacia, etc).  I was less concerned with the stain matching since almost no one but us sees our bedroom, and eventually the whole house may be refinished to a different stain which will make it all match.  (That also meant whatever we bought had to be solid as opposed to engineered so that it could be refinished).  I prefer wider planks than what we have, so I had considered using a 5-6″ plank, if possible.  I wanted it to be close to twice the width of the existing floors so it wouldn’t look like we tried to match it and failed.  I was worried a 3-4″ plank would be too close to the existing floors and just look like an error.  The Nashville store had this White Oak which I thought would be a great compromise.

The planks are 8″ wide, but are made up of smaller pieces – like butcher block.  So, it has the wide plank look I love, but also has the narrow boards like the rest of the house.  The finish is a nice neutral brown which I also like.  The store had it labeled as Cambridge Russet, but I did some searching online and I believe it’s also known as Canyon Ridge White Oak in Flint.

We drove back up there (with the truck this time) two days later and purchased 15 boxes – just under 300 square feet.  It has been acclimating in our bedroom since.

We pulled back the carpet under the window before we brought the flooring in so we wouldn’t have to move it again.  We plan to start laying it on the opposite side of the room by the door.  It is the same 3/4″ thickness as the existing oak, so we are hoping to make the transition in the doorway seamless.

(Note: The color is probably more accurate in the store pictures above.  The cloudy winter weather we are having made it difficult to get decent pictures in our room.)

We are planning to rent a flooring nailer, most likely this weekend.  It will have acclimated for 2 weeks at that point.  We installed Pergo click-and-lock flooring in our first house, but this will be our first time installing real hardwood.  I’m not anticipating too many issues once we get the first couple rows started and the transitions from the other floorings done.  I can’t wait to haul out that carpet!

Back to the craft room, I had intended to paint it last week, but never got to it.  We finally got the walls and ceiling done on Sunday.  As a reminder, here’s the before.  BM Jalepeno Pepper (2147-30) on the walls and Sherwin Williams Linen Cloth (SW1150) on the ceiling and trim.

Here is after one coat of Behr Silky White on the ceiling . . .

And a coat of Behr Cameo White on the walls . . .

And here it is after the second, and final, coat.  The wall color is not as white as the ceiling, but the old ivory trim color is making it all look really stark right now.

I’m hoping to get the trim painted (same Behr Silky White as the ceiling) tomorrow.  That will make a huge difference and I’m anxious to see it.  Our new office furniture should be at the delivery company by now, but we still haven’t heard from them.  Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to paint the old furniture this week anyway.  It’s so cold that painting wouldn’t be possible, even if I did it in the garage as planned.  Meanwhile, we’ve got the bedroom flooring to keep us busy this weekend and I’ll be sure to post about that as well as any more progress on the craft room 🙂