House Remodeling Thread (long)

[rebeccaC]

Nice choices ny biker….it does look like the quartz has a carrera look! The only things I’ve done, and that was before moving in, are some painting, changing a carpet area to wool and installing dimmers on ALL lights!!!.....but then I’m a candle person too.

Enjoy the ownership journey NoNo….if I had more time I’d luv to be able to build equity through my own major remolding work on a home. There are some interesting looking really well made new retro looking kitchen appliances being used in some of the remolding here. A friend did a small older beach house here that way and it works/looks great. If you’re so inclined you might want to look into that for ideas too.

[NoNo]

Well it took longer and was more frustrating than I'd expected, but I'm finally in my house! The work has begun to freshen things up and get settled. Here are some before pics.

The dining room:


The far end of the living room with the massive wardrobe:


The other end of the living room with the alcove:


My bedroom:

[NoNo]

And here are some after shots. Mind you, I've been there less than two weeks, so I think I'm making good progress. But upstairs is going to take a LONG time to paint. There's just too much dark blue trim to paint over.

The dining room. Just a fresh coat of paint was needed:


The near end of the living room. Fresh paint and a new comfy couch and chair!


The bedroom, partially painted. Going with grey and white. Look at all those slats that have to be painted! ACK!


The far end of the living room, with the wardrobe removed and put in the basement:


The alcove. Put on a coat of kilz and stained the edges. Still not sure how I feel about it.


Other improvements include a new lantern outside, new sconces in the bedrooms, a new faucet in the kitchen, lots of hedges clipped, and my friend cracked the code to the safe in the basement! Oh, and I set up my new soaping room for the business! So awesome to not have to share that space now. Eventually I have to paint the guest room and there's still more unpacking to do, but it's moving along. Some day I'll remodel the kitchen, and some footings need to be added to the deck, but that's all the house really needs. I don't know how to pace myself, though, I just want to do it all now. That's not going to work.

[rebeccaC]

nice...congrats!!!! don't know about kilz but I do like a whitewash look on the alcove. you photos show some nice floors and some nice details upstairs. looks like a lot of painting, when do you work on it and do you enjoy a remolding focus?

[ny biker]

Very nice!!

[missjean]

I like your dining room, it's so nice and sunny!

[ny biker]

So I'm working on "the last big project" in my condo. It's time to rip out the ugly dirty old wall to wall carpeting and get new floors. This will be for the living room/dining area, the bedroom and the hallway in between -- the entire apartment except for the kitchen and bathroom. I had been looking into new hardwood, but then decided that cork would be a good choice because it provides better sound insulation and also is a bit warmer underfoot. It took some effort but I found several local floor places that do a fair amount of cork installations -- most places either don't carry it at all or they carry one brand and make it pretty clear when you talk to them that they really just want to deal with wood floors or carpet. Three of the places I found are in the Maryland suburbs north of DC which is not convenient to my home or office, so I can only go there on Saturdays. Fortunately there is also one installer located a few miles from my house.

So I drove up to Maryland several times, looking at samples, borrowing them to look at at home, returning the samples, having long talks with the people who worked there to try to understand the features of cork. I'm looking at getting a click-lock floating floor. The hard part is finding the right color. I would like a medium brown, not light but not too dark either. I've seen some dark brown samples that are really nice and rich looking but I've heard that dark floors show dirt and I am too lazy when it comes to housekeeping -- I prefer to spend my time riding my bike. Also I think dark brown would look okay with the green walls in the LR/DR but would seem heavy in the bedroom with the light blue walls. So, medium brown. But here's the hard part -- many shades of medium brown have strong red, yellow or orange undertones which I don't like -- they don't look right with the cool paint colors that I've chosen.

After much perusal I thought I'd found a near-perfect shade -- Dark Oak from Duro-Design. But then I found out that it comes unfinished and has to be finished on-site, which will cost more to install and will mean I'll have to wait 10 days for it to cure before I can put the area rugs in, which adds the expense of hiring someone to help me move the furniture around to put down the rugs. More important, Duro-Design says it needs to be refinished every 5-7 years and I don't have the time or money to pack up my house and refinish the entire floor that often. I mean really, that's just impractical.

So back to square one. My choices are: go with a darker brown and accept that fact that it shows dirt and is too dark for the bedroom; go with something lighter than I really wanted which won't really look right with my dark brown and black furniture (and also tends to show dirt, from what I've heard); or give up on cork and get hardwood.

Right now all I know for sure is that I have to drive back up to Maryland on Saturday to look the samples again.

[emily_in_nc]

Tough dilemma, NY!

We are hoping to install a floating cork floor in our motorhome in a year or so (budget is too tight this year with all the more essential things we've had to purchase for it). From posts I've read in RV forums, it appears that for our small space, this is a pretty easy DIY project, so with my handy DH, we will order the materials and DIY. I looked at a bunch of them online from Duro Design (http://www.duro-design.com/index.cfm...cork-flooring/), and I am sure we will have a hard time with color choice too. They have 54!!!!

DH and I both have light-colored hair, so I will probably go with a light color as dark floors really show the hairs. Our dog is black and white, so both dark and light floors are going to show her hairs, so that's a wash. Dark floors do show dust, and light floors show dirt more. The light oak floor we had in our house in NC was VERY forgiving compared to floors we've had since (dark and white), so I think I'll stick with that tone -- not super pale but a bit on the blonde side. That's also the color of our motorhome's oak cabinets.

I can't help you with your decision since these kinds of decisions are super tough for me too (and I haven't seen your furniture, etc.), just wanted to empathize. I bet whatever you pick is going to end up looking nice! Please post back with your decision, and hopefully some photos afterwards!

[Pax]

We agonized over our new tile, trying several samples, moving them all over the place at different times of day to see how they'd look in different light. Finally picked one and had it installed, I didn't like it! It seemed darker than I was expecting when you could see so much of it... but after a short time I stopped caring, then stopped noticing.

Good luck with your pick, NY!!

[Helene2013]

We have darker wood floors in some part of our home and never again for us. EVERYTHING shows, even after just washing the floors. Also the fact that it is darker, it seems the rooms are smaller.

So if you are not a Mr.Net person, you may regret the choice. Worst case scenario, can you get the lighter brown you were looking for and just repaint at some point the walls to something else. It is much easier/faster than having to re-work on floors.

[emily_in_nc]

So if you are not a Mr.Net person, you may regret the choice.

What is a Mr.Net person?

[Helene2013]

Mr. Net is Mr. Clean in English.

[ny biker]

The thing is that I really love the wall colors. I spent a lot of time choosing them. So I don't want to change them to match new floors. Also I don't want a floor with a warm undertone because I really don't like warm colors for decorating. I think I am in a minority in that respect.

I am definitely not Mr. Net/Mr. Clean, so I am working on freeing my mind of all the flooring decisions I made in the past year or so. I need to be open to lighter colors, as long as they're not too light. And I need to stop telling myself how rich and beautiful the dark chocolate/mocha samples are.

The people at Duro-Design are very helpful, Emily. When the time comes, you can request samples directly from them. If you're doing a click-lock floating floor, they can tell you which colors are available pre-finished. If you want the glue-down tiles then I think they're always finished on-site after installation. Glue-down tiles are better in places that are exposed to water/flooding, such as kitchens and bathrooms -- I'm not sure if that's a concern for an RV. I would imagine that installing any floor in an RV is relatively simple, in the sense that you're not dealing with the types of leveling problems that my condo and many other old homes have.

[emily_in_nc]

The people at Duro-Design are very helpful, Emily. When the time comes, you can request samples directly from them. If you're doing a click-lock floating floor, they can tell you which colors are available pre-finished. If you want the glue-down tiles then I think they're always finished on-site after installation. Glue-down tiles are better in places that are exposed to water/flooding, such as kitchens and bathrooms -- I'm not sure if that's a concern for an RV. I would imagine that installing any floor in an RV is relatively simple, in the sense that you're not dealing with the types of leveling problems that my condo and many other old homes have.

Oh good to know, thanks! I didn't realize that was the company you were dealing with too. They had been recommended on an RV site.

We will definitely go with the floating, click-lock floor. For one thing, it's much easier for DIY, and for another, with a moving "house", like an RV, you don't want things that are rigid since there is a lot of flex and motion when you're on the road. So floating floors are much preferred. Our current floor (the part that isn't carpet) is, I'm pretty sure, a floating laminate floor, but it's much shinier than we prefer (the reflections on it from the windows show every paw print, every dried drop of water, foot smudge, etc) and too dark as well, and it's cold in the winter. And pre-finished is the only thing I'd consider. It will be in the kitchen area, but I'll probably leave the existing vinyl in the tiny bathroom, as it's okay and in good shape. We always use a rug in front of the sink area, so I don't worry too much about water in the kitchen. Sure, flooding could happen, but that would hurt just about any floor, so we won't plan for that much bad luck!

[ny biker]

So, update. Apologies for the long rambling post here but since I'm making this decision all by myself, this helps me to think it through.

I've gone back to several of the flooring stores and spent a fair amount of time reconsidering samples that I had previously rejected. I ended up bringing home several samples that are cork but with an HD image printed on them, so they look like wood grain. I also brought home one sample that has a real cork look, in a tan color called "coffee" (which is more coffee ice cream than black coffee). A couple of the wood-look samples I brought home are a light grayish-brown. This is a trendy color right now but I ruled it out because it doesn't look good with my furniture. The coffee-colored cork was in the running for about a day but then I decided I don't like the way it looks in lamp light. And really it's too light.

So I've narrowed it down to two of the wood-look cork samples -- "Oak Fumed" from Ecotimber and "Kilmartin Pine" from US Floors. The color of the Ecotimber sample is definitely good. I think the US Floors color also works but I haven't seen it in sunlight yet -- it may have too much yellow in it.

But I had two concerns about the wood-look cork. First, is the wood image durable or is it easily scratched or marred? So I did a test with the Ecotimber sample. I put it on a hard surface (tile bathroom floor) and then I dropped a hammer on it from shoulder height (roughly 5' off the floor). Then I dropped it 5 more times. There was not a single mark from the hammer. I also tried scratching it with my fingernail -- really digging in -- and then I put on a high-heeled shoe and dug the edge of the heel into the cork. These two tests did leave marks but the cork has rebounded a bit and the marks have become less noticeable over time. BTW I also dropped the hammer onto a sample of engineered hardwood (oak) that I have at home and it left two dents. So the cork sample won that test -- it resists damage well. (I haven't tried the same test yet with the sample from US Floors -- if I decide I like the color I will try dropping things on it.)

My other concern is that the wood-look cork looks too fake. This is the main reason that I am still undecided. I think the main issue is the finish. I walked around one of the flooring stores looking at hardwood as well as LVT and laminate that look like wood. Almost all of hardwoods have a high-gloss finish. The fake wood-look products, including the two cork samples I'm considering, are all completely matte, no gloss at all. I think this is what makes it possible to tell that that they're not real wood.

On the other hand -- there was one hardwood sample with a very matte, totally unglossy finish. And it was from a brand that is considered high quality. So maybe a matte finish is not so bad? And when I first saw the Ecotimber wood-look cork at the store I ignored it because I thought it was hardwood. So it did fool me. The only reason I brought the sample home was because the guy in the store told me it was cork. And in general I'm not completely opposed to something that is fake wood. As long as it doesn't scream "cheap and fake" I think I'd be okay with it.

There is one more cork sample that I want to see in my home but haven't been able to get my hands on yet. I think the color is okay. The possible problem is the texture -- it's pretty busy and in photos that I've seen online it kind of looks like it's peeling. I'm still hoping to be able to bring a sample home so I can decide one way or the other.

So in summary my decision is:

- cork that is a good color but is imprinted with a wood-grain image that may look fake
- cork that is a good color and is a real cork texture but may look like a bad skin rash
- give up on cork and get hardwood

I'm leaning toward rolling the dice on the cork with the wood image that might look fake.

Here are some photos from the internet. The first two are the "Kilmartin Pine" from US Floors; both photos are from the manufacturer's site. The third and fourth are the cork with the good color but with the texture that concerns me. I think this actually doesn't look so bad in the third photo, which someone took in their house and posted on a decorating/remodeling forum. It does look bad in the fourth photo which is from the manufacturer.