Happy Memorial Day!! The pools open…I dare you to jump in! #canyousaypolarplunge? Brrrrrrr….

We are full steam ahead on the new house. Hoping to have it wrapped up and ready to close July 1st. There are lots of things to complete….but next up is the flooring. Putting a house together is a little like baking a cake….lots of pieces mixed together that hopefully in end look delicious! Sometimes putting all those pieces together seem a bit overwhelming….but like with any other task that seems to large to handle…you just break it down and tackle things one at a time.

Flooring can be a variety of materials. Tile, wood, laminate, carpet, vinyl… a major consideration is budget…this will often times dictate what floor you will be able to use. In our new home, the builder planned on using tile in all the bathrooms along with the laundry room. I had to decide on this floor first because we needed to have the measurements and get it all on order. Working within the allowance that Mark gave me…I was able to find tile that would work great in each of the spaces.

For the master bath….we went with this large plank style tile for the floor (12 by 24 Zena Annex Silver) and shower walls. The floor will be the color shown above (which is actually a pale gray with lines of cream, white and charcoal…picture it looks blue but it isn’t blue). For the shower walls we went with the same tile but in the dark gray color (12 x 24 Zena Annex Carbon) with some glass tile accents in 2 shades of blue. Since it is a room that is a bit more “dressed up”…we thought the charcoals with chrome fixtures would be very dashing and a bit regal:) (even though we are so not dashing…or regal ) The shower wall color is the 3rd choice pictured below…

For our son’s bathroom, we went with this weather plank wood tile shown above on the far right. The texture and colors mimic wood…and hides dirt nicely;) Our daughter’s bathroom will have the same tile on the floor as the master…and her shower wall will be the 2nd tile in the picture above (12 x 24 Zena annex white). It is a white and gray that you really cannot tell from in this picture….but you get the idea:)

The laundry room will get the dark charcoal version of this tile. So yes, I used the same tile in most of the bathrooms…but in different colors. I really loved this tile…and I like the cohesion. All the rooms will look different…but yet they all flow nicely.

For the rest of the house….the kitchen, family room, hallways upstairs and downstairs will all be hardwood. Our builder typically uses a white oak solid floor. I wasn’t a big fan of that look so I started to see what else I may be able to use…that was similar price point. We really wanted the look of “reclaimed” wood…but not the expense. Our initial thought was that we really wanted a 5 inch wide plank floor. Our builder cautioned us from using all wide planks….they tend to warp and bow over time…making them a bit of a nightmare to upkeep. So then I started to think…what if we use random widths of wood? Our builder loved that idea…so we settled on a random width (5, 3, and 2 inch wide) solid hickory floor. It will be a “rustic” grade floor—which will show all the character of an older floor. Knots, marbling and all the natural things that occur in wood will be very visible. Perfect! Very similar to this picture below….Our floors will be stained Minwax Jacobean stain….a rich and dark color.

The only areas that will be carpet are the upstairs bedrooms, master closet and basement. For those areas we worked with  our hardwood flooring guy who was able to offer us a discount for the bulk order. We went with a nylon carpet in a charcoal color…go figure right?!?

I should have some floor pictures to show you next week:) Lots more to show you….this last month is a race for the finish!!

Hope that isn’t too confusing! :) Let me know if you have any questions…:)