I must say, we are pleased as punch at the way the new floor looks. The picture above was taken in the master bedroom. In case you missed it a few posts back, we decided to switch from hardwood to reclaimed heart pine engineered flooring, as it is better suited to radiant heat. And this weekend we put down half of it. Yes, only half. I know it may seem like we should have been able to put it all down this weekend, I mean after all the house is only 1400 sq. ft. But you have no idea. We had to lay the floor around this:
The radiant pex tubing. The tubing that will soon hold water, and therefore should not have any holes accidentally poked into it with a floor stapler. Because if it did get a hole in it, we would not know until it was filled up, and then we would have to pull the floor up to find and fix the leak. The brand new floor that we just spent all of our money on, that looks so pretty, that I love. So it was a slow, methodical, nerve-wrecking process. One that we will hopefully only have to endure one more time to get the living room/kitchen finished, and then never again. Ever, ever, ever.
The shear pace of work both at the house and at the other job that pays for the house has led me forego posting over the last couple of weeks. But, a lot has been happening and therefore there is much to catch up on!! First, we made notable product shifts and are very happy with both. We first planned on using wide plank heart pine flooring throughout the house. It was one of the first things we located, back when we were in the early planning stages (which seems so very long ago). Then we committed ourselves to the radiant heat, knowing that wide plank wood floors + radiant heat = lots of shrinking, swelling and other floor movement generally not recommended. But, we didn’t care. Rustic houses are not by nature perfect. We would embrace the imperfections. But then, our distributor didn’t have wide plank, only 4 inch, and we had estimates on finishing the floor, and we were not looking forward to the time the floor needed to acclimate nor the price of finishing. So in less than fifteen minutes of internet research, we found a company in Charlotte that makes reclaimed heart pine engineered flooring (engineered flooring being the recommended type for radiant heat) in a 7 ½ inch width. We had samples sent over Fed – Ex and the next day ordered the entire floor off auction and Matt drove down and picked it up. Not bad, and we figure it has saved us a couple hundred dollars overall not to mention the month of acclimatization and finish time. 
The other product shift was paint. We were going with Benjamin Moore, always reliable, lots of colors, etc. But when I went in for some paint chips I found Devine Paint. And is it ever divine!! I asked the guys at the paint shop about it and it is what they are all using in their own homes now. I picked up a couple of samples, and after testing them out I was sold! This paint is gorgeous and sooooo forgiving. It truly only requires one coat, it doesn’t show brush or roller marks and the depth is incredible. I love it! You should check it out here http://www.devinecolor.com/.
Other than that, Matt has been padding up the floor around the radiant floor tubes so that we can install the new floor and putting on our snazzy new door hardware; I have finished siding the front of the house; we have painted all of the drywall ceilings and we have painted the kitchen. Next up is installing the tongue and groove pine ceiling this weekend and more painting!
My brother Daniel just left after being in town for a few nights to help out on the house. He maybe didn’t pick the best few days in terms of fun jobs, as he spent all day yesterday pulling pex for the new radiant floor, but he was taking advantage of the last few days of his winter break. Next year he will be in college, and he will hopefully (keep your fingers crossed!) be at the same college as our other brother and that puts our house smack in the middle between college and their home, perfect for overnight visits on their drives to and from school! And now Daniel will know that he is the reason we have toasty warm floors that make you want to walk around barefoot and lay on the floor.
Besides the radiant floor, we have primed 70% of the house and are trying to figure out paint colors. I’m stuck on this idea of having a citrusy green kitchen, but am having a hard time finding the right green, and a hard time deciding what color to paint the living room as their will be no real divide between the kitchen and living room. Matt doesn’t want a green that is too bright, I don’t want one that is too sage or blue, and so far I can’t find what I’m looking for. So, if anyone out there has any suggestion, PLEASE let me know!!!
The next big project is padding up between the pex pipes on the floor so that we can lay the floor. We opted not to pour concrete over the radiant primarily because of weight issues. We are still using the original bridge structure as part of the support structure of the house, and since we are not engineers, we decided less weight = better idea and left it at that. Once the floor is padded up we will pick up the heart pine and let it acclimate for awhile in the house while we wrap up the siding. In the meantime, I’m going to order the kitchen cabinets so they will be ready once the floor is in place.
I must say, we are pleased as punch at the way the new floor looks. The picture above was taken in the master bedroom. In case you missed it a few posts back, we decided to switch from hardwood to reclaimed heart pine engineered flooring, as it is better suited to radiant heat. And this weekend we put down half of it. Yes, only half. I know it may seem like we should have been able to put it all down this weekend, I mean after all the house is only 1400 sq. ft. But you have no idea. We had to lay the floor around this:
