Picking a Floor

Our adventures in real estate continue.


One week ago we met with our highly recommended flooring guy, Frank, for our first visit at the place since our initial viewing. We were excited to get his opinion, but also to see the place. What if it wasn't as we remembered? What if we overlooked some glaring problem(s)? Well, it turns out that our memories of the place were more or less spot-on. We still love it! It did need a floor job, but not being experts we missed some of the more obvious signs. We discovered that the floor couldn't be refinished because of existing patchwork and its overall condition. Apparently all those nails we could see that added 'character' to the finish were a huge problem for sanders. Makes sense. No simple refinish job in that case, so we asked for a quote on new flooring.

In the meantime, we had to find out more about the structure of the building so that our flooring guy could tell us what installation method was best. We found out from the president of the building's board that no one had done floors in recent memory; meaning that most of the floors are probably 80 years old. They're in pretty good shape, considering. We also found out that the building structure would be ideal for a floating floor with an acoustic padding (a sub-floor over concrete).

Our next stop was The Floor Shop (a clever name, I know) that our flooring guy, Frank, uses as his supplier. Everywhere we looked were different floors. Talk about overwhelming. The store's owner was busy with other clients, but when he finished with them we'd finished our own tour of the entire store. He pointed out where we would find the floors that were best suited for floating installation. We spent a few more minutes trying to narrow down the choices. Board width, stain, material, thickness, price, hardness were just a few of the considerations that crossed our minds.

My wife had done some fairly extensive research before we got there and had some ideas of what we should pick. We like that bamboo is more renewable than most woods, but discovered that the time required for shipping an order exceeded the time we have available before we move in. So, we gravitated to the Mercier line. I thought the Santos Mahogany was stunning, perhaps because it was a large and prominent display. We decided that, while we thought formal would suit the building's innate character, the rich Mahogany was probably a little too ostentatious. If we ever have a super fancy house, I've been given permission to finish a den floor in the Mahogany; the loopholes are numerous, so I doubt it's ever going to happen.

With the Mahogany never really in contention we decided we wanted something in a mid-to-dark range of colour. The current floor is a mid-light range stain, which is a bit more informal, but also nicely bright. Our choices were Hard Maple and Red Oak, the stain options were more varied. We settled on Hard Maple, because it is harder than the Red Oak and we figured that would probably lead to more durability. We decided we liked the shine of the semi-gloss finish and that we wanted to see Chocolate Brown and Arabica. The Arabica was not at all what we thought from the picture, so we immediately asked to see the Java instead. We both preferred the Chocolate, but we took both samples to ponder overnight. We liked the Chocolate most of that day and the next, with the a brief self-doubting moment based on all the feedback we received about how fast darker woods look dirty.

Chocolate on the left; Java on the right.

We let our flooring guy Frank know our choice and he gave us some immediate feedback. Regarding the dirty factor, the problem wasn't actually the stain of the wood, but the glossy finish. He recommended the satin finish instead. And for those inevitable scratches from cat claws, dragged furniture, high heels, broken dishes and life, he told us that Hard Maple was going to show the wear worse than other woods, in spite of its hardness - maple has very little graining, so damage is highly evident. He also told us that the hardness of maple was actually a detriment in the long run, because it makes it harder (more expensive) to refinish in the future.

So, back to the store I went the next day to exchange the Java Maple sample for a Chocolate Brown Red Oak sample. The flooring associate looked at me funny for bringing the sample back, but what can I say? I was just going to throw it in the garbage if I had kept it; they can at least give it to their next customer.

Oak on the left; Maple on the right.

So now our choice, our final decision, is Red Oak in the Chocolate Brown stain, with a satin finish. Wood is being ordered, and it will be installed before we move in. Is this like poured concrete? Should I find a corner to carve my initials?

We also took the opportunity of the visit to take pictures of (nearly) everything and also take our own floorspace measurements. For some reason real estate agents like to find the biggest room dimensions and use those as the official room sizes. In order to figure out what furniture would and would not fit, we needed actual measurements. In a continuation of my pack rat purging, I wanted to get rid of all non-essential furniture before we move, because I don't want to move them - I'm lazy when it comes to moving pounds of furniture, or asking friends to do it. I drew up a floor plan and penciled in our furniture. After looking at the results we're both even more excited to move in!

We've been selling the excess furniture on Kijiji, and we're transporting smaller knickknacks to my sister's place for a spring garbage sale. Even just freeing up space in this apartment is making us both happier, and one of the two cats loves it as well. Instead of spending 23 hours and 45 minutes napping, she's actually prowling around and exploring the place several times throughout the day and night (she also seems to think that I need to be woken up at 5am to come and explore with her, or rather to check out the space while she enjoys the warm spot on the bed); the other cat keeps forgetting where we moved the food. I'd like to say it's her advanced age, but she's been forgetful for over 10 years.

With flooring taken care of we still have a long list of projects we want to tackle over the next few years.

1. In order to protect the hardwood, we need to get area rugs. Now that we have room sizes, we can actually grab some rugs before moving day. We've prioritized the order, and we have to figure out what catches our design sensibilities.
1. Entrance foyer.
2. Den under the rolling office chairs and cat litter.
3. Dining room, since it's where all the foot traffic will be from the foyer to the den and kitchen.
4. Bedroom.
5. Living room.
2. Once we've sorted out area rugs, we'll probably look for paint colours.
3. I have no real objections about the light fixtures, but I might once I get used to their functionality. My wife despises all of them in terms of design. They're all gone sooner or later.
4. We also have a lot of furniture that we want to replace. The only room with any sort of coherence is the dining room set and we don't love that inherited set. Everything else we own is mishmash mayhem.
1. Bedroom.
2. Living room.
3. Den/office - where we want to downsize some of our pieces and upsize their multi-functionality.
4. Dining set - at the very least we'll replace the chairs, if not the whole set.
5. The kitchen is very ummm pink, and the appliances are very energy inefficient (except the potentially non-functioning oven, which is just a waste of space).
1. We may keep the cabinets and refinish them, but everything else will go.
6. The bathroom is retro chic, but the hot water tap smacks against the soap-holder on the wall, and the bathtub needs reglazing. Ensuite laundry would not be a terrible idea, and a slightly expanded bathroom is about the only place this would fit.

Our adventures in real estate continue.