Friday, January 07, 2011

Hardwood Floors

I'm titling this puppy after what it is about. So you don't get all sucked into something you think would be cool and get ripped off by me whining about hardwood floors.

So I'll begin.

We have a 2 story home that is all hardwood flooring. It's that natural oak colour of olden days and can't be refinished because it's already been done and now the nail heads are showing and well, that will rip the sandpaper - and that's more than you ever wanted to know about flooring.

That sad fact is I know more.

Bob has decided that after 5 years of living in a renovation he wants hardwood floors throughout the house. Let's say the floor is 5 bucks a square foot and we have 1800 so let's just round for easy math - 10 grand.

10 grand hurts. Especially since Bob is about to not have a job and hasn't worked out what he wants to do next.

So Bob comes home crowing one night because he has found finished flooring at 1.99 a square.

Like dude, seriously.

Small problem - it's a cherry finish and too red for me. Bob's being a big butt head and getting all grumbly and saying that's the floor you love it and you know it. Uh, no.

So for a few weeks I've been 'buy it, NO, don't buy it, okay, buy it, no really buy it - holy shit, don't buy it'.

The other night I land on 'fuck it, buy it I'm so done' only to watch my fav. designer who 'ta-da' shows the viewers a sample of hardwood for a 1.99 and damn, if it's not the colour I want. At the end of the show the credits roll and I pick out the flooring name.

Only the designer didn't use the 1.99 floor so my hubby went on a wild goose chase as the store said 'yeah, Sarah 101, we have no idea what that floor was'.

So off my hubby goes again because I'm all fire and brimstone and refusing to pay more than 1.99 for the floor so 'get your ass out there and find me the colour I want'.

Tonight he gets home and I squee in delight. He has a sample of the floor I want. 1.99.

Only 800 of it is in high gloss and another 800 would be in low gloss.

I have 2 separate floors so to me, who cares high gloss down stairs, low gloss upstairs.

Except Bob is an Aries and the floors will have to 'meet' at some point (stairs) and it will drive him crazy for the rest of his life.

So I asked him why he even bothered to show me the sample.

Why!!!???

So I'm all, fuck it and he's all 'sigh' and I'm completely bamboozled by this stupid floor.

See, I don't want to look at the floor for the rest of my life and think 'it's too red' and Bob can't look at the floor and think 'it's not the right gloss'.

There's more to it all. Have you heard of V-groove? Prefinished floors now have a V-groove so when whacking them together the edges don't have to match perfectly. Only now, you have lines on your floor. And who says in 20 years that's not going to be something people frown about.

Plain hardwood floors in the 2 1/4 strip oak have been around forever and aren't going anywhere and I'm a classic whore so I want what I want.

What Bob doesn't want is to buy all unfinished and we'll finish it ourselves because that is a lot of work. Lots and lots and lots. Hell, I've done a few houses and it's a pain.

So I'm pouting and mad and sad and needless to say very unsettled about everything and just want this part of it to be over so I can settle back down and read some books and not fret that we're destroying our house and, oh yeah, we don't have money coming in anymore.

Fuck!

4 comments:

nath said...

Hmmm, can you put a rug in the stair, just to hide where the two glosses meet? It's always the same though... you look for something and just can't find it or if you can, not in enough quantity. But don't give up, Cindy!!

C2 said...

How about a pattern where the two finishes meet? Like high gloss on the outside of the stair and low gloss on the inside? It's decorative! And practical! Not jarring to the eye, says me. O:-)

C2 said...

It occurs to me that I might need to describe further to make sense so...

Picture this for the top of the stair (big G = high gloss and little g = low gloss):

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

See? Decorative!

CindyS said...

Nath - We finally found one that we can both live with - woohoo!!

C2 - I suggested that to him but he got all frowny. He's an Aries and Aries need things to be in an orderly, functional, logical (to them) way. Meanwhile, my Virgo doesn't like to be restrained in her creativity and cheapness ;)

CindyS