Been a while since the last update, so I'll post some photos. The was some good progress at the house in February, the main event being window installation. After that we had some electrical and hvac work going on which is not as noticeable but very important. Insulation was delayed by a couple of bad winter storms that hit us in February. The drywall which was supposed to start in early February ended up getting delayed to the point where it's now starting about 5 weeks behind schedule. That's a real concern so we hope things go a little more smoothly as the weather starts to improve here. We're getting very anxious to finally complete this renovation and be back in our home.
Picking out flooring and tiling have kind of consumed our weekends for a while. We've visited about every flooring store in the city I think. We finally went on the recommendation of our builder Bramel Developments, to see Glen Carastan at Carastan Carpet and Flooring. Not only did Glen remember our names the following week but he remembered our daughters name as well and which hardwood we were the most interested in. We ended up going with a natural wire brushed oak because it had a fairly clean simple look. I've never been a huge fan of strong "cathedral" grain patterns - I the like long linear grain of rift and quarter sawn boards a lot better. But it somehow grew on me and Chiyo likes it too.
That's Chiyo holding up a flooring sample next to some tiles.
Tiles are a whole other story. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted - dark gray slate in the entry, an anthracite middle gray in the kitchen... White tile for the bath surround. I was surprised to find out that "gray tile" comes in about a bazillion flavors. Well not surprised that there are options, but surprised just how much time and effort it takes to find one you like. Then there's the fact that it has to match the rest of the materials.
I ended up finding some natural black slate on sale at Lowes and decided to get it while they had it. It'll be for the entrance, which is the "genkan" Japanese style sunken entrance. This is where you take off your shoes and in really old Japanese houses the floor in this part was stone or compacted earth. So these somewhat rough slates are, I think a kinda appropriate choice. Not too neat and tidy, a bit wild and natural looking. Definitely earthy. These boxes were heavy!
Last weekend we finalized some tile choices, then focused on making selections for doors. I think we made some good progress on both fronts.
👍🏻
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