Hardwoods, windows and a workbench…

With the garage being done, except for paint and gutters, we can now return our focus to the second floor.

Steve has removed almost all the existing pine floors, which broke my heart (they were 75 years old and milled from trees cut down on this very property). We knew from the outset though, that there was a dip in the floor at the top of the stairs that continued into the front bedroom. What worried us was, the dip ran parallel to a load bearing beam and with plans of moving a wall on the first floor, that beam will have increased load. So, we have to make it right. Sure enough as the pine floors came up, it revealed we were right to be worried, the joists were pulling away from the beam. Simple enough though, beef up the beam to carry the increased load and secure the joists to it. Good thing my husband knows what he is doing!

While he does that, I am going shopping. First and foremost, I need to firm up our decision to go with Marvin Integrity windows. We really like the idea of a fiberglass exterior, it is virtually indestructible and no maintenance. The decision I need to make is whether to do a wood interior or a fiberglass interior. The exterior color will be black, for sure. I want the interior color black too (pretty sure, I really like the example below), but I cannot decide if I should paint the wood black or just go with black fiberglass, ugh! I needed to get my hands on them.

 

I found a building supply company nearby that carries the windows, so off I went. Actually, Zach had a half day of school and is trying to accumulate his 60 hours of driving to get his license, so he drove me! I have to tell you, Marvin Integrity Windows are beautiful. I love the fiberglass on the exterior and I don’t mind it on the interior, but I only got to see it in white. I am still not sure which to choose, but I have a plan. We need two windows for the second floor, one in each bedroom. They have to be sliders for egress. I decided that I will do all black fiberglass, unless it is ridiculously expensive, and see how I like them up there. If I do, then I will go ahead with all fiberglass for the first floor too, and if I don’t then I will do wood interiors and paint them. I love it when a plan comes together! Now I have to get some prices.

My second design choice to make today is flooring, for the second floor. This is not something I have thought about previously, as I assumed we would just re-finish the pine. Here’s what I know: we used hickory solid hardwood floors in our two previous houses, with various widths of 3″, 4″ and 5″. I like the idea of a solid hardwood floor but it’s time for wide plank, the wider the better.

Here is what I didn’t know: the wider you go, the more likely your options are engineered (or you could use reclaimed wide planks at ridiculously high prices). Wide plank, solid wood floors have fewer seams to absorb the expansion and contraction, of the flooring, during change of seasons. What happens? Gaps and cupping. Gaps are self-explanatory, but cupping is when the two edges push together and cannot go anywhere but up, kinda like a speed bump. On narrow plank floors, you have more seams to “sort of” spread out the expansion and contraction, so it isn’t as noticeable. although in our farmhouse, we currently have 3 1/4″ wide oak solid hardwood flooring on the first floor and it is riddled with cupping. Why? Likely because our crawl space is not sealed and we don’t have any centralized heating/cooling, so the amount of humidity in the house at certain times of year, is excessive.

So, after educating myself about engineered flooring and debating it with my husband, it’s an option. We have not ruled it out. After several days of trying to find a solid hardwood, European Oak, wide plank, oil rubbed floor, I gave up. It will be engineered. Now I just have to find out who the manufacturer is, of this picture I have. I should have been a detective (just kidding), it’s Palmetto Road. You can see it at: http://www.palmettoroadfloors.com/hardwood-flooring/Chalmers/French%20Oak/Biscuit-flooring.aspx Now I need to see it in person.

After some more searching, (thank heavens for the internet) I came across this quaint shop, Munday Hardwoods, in Lenoir, North Carolina that has it. That was our next stop. Zach continued on as my chauffeur, really banking those hours aren’t ya Zach?

The shop is located in an older home with a parking spot out front and more parking in the rear. I was warmly greeted by owner Cheryl Munday. She listened as I explained what I was looking for and took me right to their new display of Palmetto Road Hardwood Flooring. I picked out several that I had loved online and she laid them out. I immediately narrowed it down to two. Her husband, Ronny Munday, arrived at the shop and after greeting my son and I, helped Cheryl pick out samples I might be interested in. This is no easy task as they have an entire house full of hardwood flooring samples. We ended up going upstairs to look a few more samples and Cheryl pulled out one that was perfect. We laid it down, with the two from Palmetto Road, and it didn’t compare. It was the one.

Drum roll please … it is Chesapeake Hardwoods, Provence Manor Collection: European White Oak in Backing Stone. It is 7 1/2″ wide and on sale! I took the sample home to look at in the bedrooms on the second floor and I still love it. Steve and Zach liked it. I texted Gabi a picture of it and she gave her approval as well.

http://www.chesapeakeflooring.com/hardwoods/provence-manor-backing-stone

I returned to Munday Hardwoods the following day to place my order. I can pick it up in a week. Everyone there was so helpful and kind, I felt like I have known them forever. I will definitely return with any flooring needs in the future. Thanks, Ronny & Cheryl for making this so easy and being so kind.

 Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the workbench. Zach has been waiting patiently for his bedroom to be done on the second floor, as well as, for a dedicated space to work on his remote-controlled cars. While we are still plugging away at the bedrooms, an 8 foot long workbench came to life for him this weekend. It’s just the start of the workbench area, it will eventually go around the perimeter of the garage, so they can organize all their “stuff.” I’d have to say he was quite a happy boy this weekend and he still has work to do!