flooring

't is the season of houseproject it appears. We went along with the typical stereotype. You know how it goes: you buy a house, you move in, do the necessary painting, arranging, decorating and then plan to do a lot more....which you don't get to till much, much later. We're at the much later stage.

Now 2 years into the new house, we're just at the point where some things just needed to get done...like the floor in the living room. When we bought the house, it had a wall-to-wall carpeting. The other downstairs rooms (kitchen, library & dining room) fortunately all had hardwood floors. I don't like carpets particularly. They're not hygienic, don't look very nice or modern and are impossible to keep clean. I still don't get the prevalence of carpets in so many houses here and in the UK. Don't understand what the attraction is. Still, it wasn't a big priority to get it changed immediately (nor worth the extra investment).

But having a having a toddler living in a house for 2 years and using the carpet as his main playing area will change those priorities, so it was time to get the nasty carpet replaced. Several estimates and trips to the DIY store later, we now have a new floor. Hardwood, not carpet. We couldn't get a match with the hardwoods of the kitchen area, so decided to go for total contrast: modern, beech wood with almost no grain in the living room vs. the caramel colored, grainy, oaky hardwood in the kitchen. I think it came out well, albeit a little ecclectic. I'm sure many locals would have a heart attack if they saw the non-traditional combo, especially against our terra-cotta walls...oh well, too bad. welcome to the 21st century.