Remodeling Update.

I wrote the last of the big knee-buckling checks this week, this time for flooring. Materials and installation, $7,000, to cover 1400 square feet. That includes removal of the existing tile in the kitchen and foyer, and removal and disposal of the hideous, hated, very, very bad carpet and pad, and installation of this in the foyer and kitchen, and this everywhere else. Well, almost everywhere else - the hall bath is not being touched in this round, but the flooring throughout the rest of the house will be Autumn Oak. With the darker wood cabinets and the Giallo Quarry countertops, it's going to be awesome, warm and striking and the opposite of plain-vanilla-blah. The Autumn Oak also looks great against the Corsica - the pieces really came together nicely. Hugs to the manager at Home Depot, who clued me in about the flooring option.

I went with a different flooring in the kitchen and foyer because it was obvious that there was no way to run a straight line of plank flooring from the front door to the back door - angles, remember? And I didn't want to get cute with some sort of weird effect as the planks come in the front door and then suddenly made a 40 degree right turn. This will create a contrast and some definition for the entry, and it looks like slate. The two surfaces will join at an angle, and then the oak flooring will run straight through to the big sliding door to the balcony.

So I've basically spent all the big money - I still need appliances, of course, and some lighting, but after the knee-buckling checks I've written in the last 30 days, that feels like nothing.

Cabinet delivery: August 23rd. Then it will be like living on a construction site for at least three weeks, but when it's done? Oh, it's going to be SO fabulous! I'm so excited!