I'm a fan of the lighter colored flooring without much added color, especially with your cabinet selection. I've seen some that turned out really well when the flooring matched one of the lighter hues of the cabinets.

Also, are you oiling or having them stained and then finished?

If you're looking for oils, I've used Rubio Monocoat on my last few projects and have been pleased with the results.

Not sure about oils... I know next to nothing about flooring aside from putting it in. Wouldn't oil make it darker though?

We like the top one best as long as it's the color off to the sides, away from where the sun is on it. The original gameplan was to do light colored stone in the kitchen but the peninsula got in the way of that.

Just using something like tung oil would likely darken the wood a bit while bringing out the grain, but products like the Rubio Monocoat are tinted oils that are applied with a buffer, wiped off and then left to cure/dry. Definitely leave a more natural appearance to the floor, even if you use a tinted oil and they have a range of colors available.

Might be worth checking into if you guys haven't made up your mind on finish yet.

Fife, will you tell me the details about the unfinished flooring please? brand, cost, features etc

I'll have to ask whoever does the finishing about using oil. Is this something done after sanding/before finishing?

I'm actually not sure of the brand - it just comes from a regional lumber mill as a lot of unfinished flooring does. I ordered from http://www.flooring.org and the specs are:
White oak, rift and quarter sawn
4" wide plank
Clear grade
Long length (about 4-12')
With shipping it came out to about $8/sq ft

Fife, the oil is the finish. It's just an alternative (oils were around a long time before varnish) to staining and then putting some sort of clear/satin top coat on. They would sand just the same, fill any gaps with a bit of glue and some of the saw dust and then apply the oil with a buffing pad on a floor buffer.

thank you very much

Getting closer... Sorry about the camera fingerprints photo filter. If I wasn't at work today and had plans this evening I would be able to finish. I think I'll probably wrap up this area today, then go back and finish the two rows at the ends of the pantry + entry closet tomorrow afternoon. Also gotta remember to throw a few scraps down where the dishwasher will go but that won't take long.

I like the quality of this wood. I can count the number of cull pieces on one hand and there are only two spots where I need to get under the house and screw it tight to stop a squeak. I think both are due to slight thickness variation at the end of the piece. Not bad for 1,000 sq ft.

Outstanding!

*sigh*

My google-fu is weak. I was trying to find a screen shot of the old man talking to the should-be QB from "Dazed and Confused" saying "...looking good, looking good!"

Rather than the canned "hey looks good" response.

~egon

Thanks

It's not *quite* done because it takes a whole lot longer to do the last few rows by hand. Even moreso when you run out of nails. When I get home from work I'm calling up the two wood finishers to get that going because it's on the critical path to cabinets and appliances. Other than that I plan on just going to sleep because I've been running on 5-6 hours for a long time now.

So now I'm evaluating two flooring proposals.

#1
- About $650 more than the other proposal and didn't ask many details.
- Can start about 5 days sooner
- Used the dreaded "pickled" word once. Pickled oak is scary - do NOT want pickled oak. Light in color, yes.

#2
- About $650 less.
- Would like to come by in a week b/c he is going out of town today. Asked more details about finishing and layout
- Did not mention "pickled"

I'm leaning towards waiting on company #2 even if it means waiting 5 days. Any thoughts?

What are you having done to the floors?

Because if you are quoting the scraping, sanding, and finishing, you need to wait anyway. Hardwoods need about two to three weeks to get acclimated to your home's environment. Sand, scrape, and stain too soon and you will have wood that cracks and/or chips away. Actually, the longer you wait the better.

Many builders put it in and wait at least a month. I waited over one month in my house, and I can even notice the difference between mine and a friend who used the same company that did it two weeks on the dot.

The flooring has been inside our place for at least 6 weeks so it could acclimate, but I just finished installing it yesterday. Temperature and humidity are controlled.

It's unfinished white oak so in the area where I installed the new flooring it'll be sanding and finishing. The flooring in the formal living room has been there since 1959 so that'll just be refinishing.

Which finisher had better references and examples of recent work? Are they both using the same products and techniques? Sealing off the surrounding areas and ductwork? Cleanup?

Both had impeccable references, mostly higher end custom work and remodels. Company 1 uses a water based finish that when I saw it at the builder's house across the street honestly, I wasn't that impressed. To me it looks like it wore to quickly. Company 2 uses something that I thought was called Tech but I can't find it online and must have misunderstood. Not sure about sealing ductwork and adjacent rooms - I planned on doing that on my own with plastic sheeting. Cleanup... no clue. I plan on leaving all areas to be worked in completely empty. There is no trim installed, almost no doors, kitchen cabinets and no door frames. On their end it should be .about as easy as it gets.

I hate to have to shut the a/c systems down for any length of time because I'm paranoid about humidity levels. The inside and crawlspace are humidity controlled at 50% and the dew point has already been getting into the low 70s over here (90% humidity currently).

[This message has been edited by The Fife (edited 4/29/2014 7:47p).]

Care to explain what pickling is?

I'm not sure exactly how it was done but it puts a pink tone to the oak. It's a 1980s-very early 1990s thing. DO NOT WANT.

I think I would get the product and color selections down before I made a choice of contractor.

yeah, don't let someone else MAKE the decision...you decide the look you want, get them to explain how it is achieved(watch how confident they are in explaining it to you)then you decide who does the work

The thing I remember about a friend's home(done in the 90s)pickling involved white paint and water, wipe on wipe off then seal with clean varnish. To get the antiqued look you wipe or accent recessed areas with a stain before sealing. The thinned paint allows the grain to show through but isn't a solid paint look. Do you really want any PAINT involved?

No. Paint will not be involved, and pickling will not be involved.

I should have been more clear. Co. #2's samples show they've already done the finish that we like so basically I'm just waiting for next Monday/Tuesday when they're back in town. They'll have a look around and hopefully everything will be good and I can get on their schedule. We've exchanged emails a couple of other times and they get the idea.

Sooo... lots of stuff going on now.

- Flooring samples are coming by tomorrow and if everything checks out ok the work may start next week sometime.

- The wall and combi-steam oven models are changing soon and the existing ones have gotten very hard to find. It's a major change and we're fine with waiting just a little while longer since after a month of our order sitting at "Pending" I think there was a 50/50 shot what we ordered was no longer available anyway. The new wall oven uses a water line so it's a good thing I added one while the walls were open. Black/stainless are options and they will also be available in brown.

- I've been working on the front door and sidelight since that's keeping us from finishing the formal living room. What's making this much more difficult is that I want to have a full length side light (the one in there now stops 18" from the floor). It looks like I'm going to have to buy a front door jamb + sidelight assembly and change it all out in one piece. I doubt it will be cost effective to order it with the door design that I have in mind included but if it's available with a veneered slab door at a reasonable price I'll go ahead and get that too and save the trouble of buying one from Home Depot and hanging it on my own.

- I'm starting to work on the pantry design. I'm thinking about having a larger space at the bottom of one side for dog and cat food bags and a shelf running all the way across at countertop height. Not sure about spacing for the other shelves. Any advice about what works / doesn't work? I liked the pantry at our old place but never thought to measure it.

Use Elfa for the pantry and adjust it as you go, unless you can't stand the look of wire shelving. We kept all of our shelving high to avoid bending over for stuff and to allow for the recycling bins, few bags of dog food and the 5 gallon water jug we keep on hand for emergencies.

Wire shelving would be difficult to have LED strip lighting, which is what we planned on illuminating the pantry with. I should have thought about the lighting before even considering adjustable shelving so I guess that one's out. At this point I'm thinking...

Open to ceiling
15" and 10"
10" and 15"
18" -> microwave, small appliances, drop zone for purse and phones
15" -> cereal, bags
floor to 20" -> dog food and larger stuff

The pantry is 9' wide so it is easily a possibility to have shelves that are different heights.

Samples for the flooring are available tomorrow but, Loba is something they use a lot of and reviews seem favorable and is an oil product. Mixing colors is also a possibility since what we're looking for in the family room is a bit specific. Id' like the formal living room to be more typical, but less orange than it is now.

Today is off to a fun start.

The cabinet place is going out of business. We found out after I emailed the guy and asked if it was ok if I stopped by this afternoon with the flooring samples so I could see which goes with the cabinets better. So, instead there will be a drawer/door waiting at home for me after work.

The cabinets are already made but the pantry doors are not. The doors will be a huge problem because now I have to shop that out again, and the price will probably be much higher since it would not be part of a larger order for cabinets that match the same veneer. I may try doing it in opaque glass.

[This message has been edited by the fife (edited 5/9/2014 8:15a).]

Welcome to the wonderful world of GC'ing.

I had a millworker go under on me about 30% of the way into a $2.5MM contract.

When you say the cabinets are done, does that include the cabinet doors? Just a little confusing how you worded it for my dumb self.

edit:

quote:

---

When you say the cabinets are done, does that include the cabinet doors? Just a little confusing how you worded it for my dumb self.

---

The cabinets and everything associated with that end are done. I'm assuming what he's bringing by today is a door off one of the uppers since the lowers all have drawers except for underneath the sink. In addition to the cabinets there were going to be three pantry doors. These are similar to passage doors, intended to slide on a track like something Hafele makes, and come out to about 8' altogether.

About going out of business... the strange thing is, they've been really slow in asking for a draw. In fact I've been expecting them to ask for about a week now since cabinets are done (4th is due at installation). I thought it was the other way around when they're in trouble.

It sucks though, the owner is a great guy and I was hoping this summer to turn in a drawing I have for the entertainment center and have that made. Maybe another place can build it; the design is way too modern for there to be a regular production piece that can be bought somewhere.

Pics of the flooring samples + cabinet door this afternoon though. The one good part is, I can see it with our own light instead of in the shop.

[This message has been edited by the fife (edited 5/9/2014 9:41a).]

Here's rev 1 of the pantry layout. The overall width is 8.5." I did find a place to buy wood for the shelves that I can stain, but I'm not sure what depth the shelves should be. I was thinking maybe 18" for the bottom two, then 12" for each above that? I'm also not sure what kind of support would be needed. I planned on running wood on the left/right sides, and along the back of each shelf. Is anything more necessary?

I just got done with our pantry and did pretty well what you described. My bottom few shelves are 15" deep & the top three are 12". Mine were only 60" wide though. The shelves were MDF and I used the same 1x2s that I used on the walls to attach the the front of the MDF to give it more depth and prevent it from sagging across the middle




[This message has been edited by Txag2008 (edited 5/11/2014 10:29a).]

Ok that's a good idea, and it would be a great place to hide the LED strips too!

I may ditch the different shelf heights on those two levels since it would be a lot harder to make. The thought was to put cookbooks on there but the wife doesn't seem to care much so, down on the shelf with the microwave and mixer they go.

[This message has been edited by the fife (edited 5/11/2014 10:42a).]

More goodies came in today. I also have a firm quote for the hardwood work that I'm going with, but still have to work out final color and timeline but I'm hoping for ASAP.

Cooktop


LED lighting was also delivered today. I can't put any of it in until the flooring is done, and most of it also requires cabinets. The cooktop crate is huge. Not sure how I'll move that thing... I'm also trying to wrap up pantry shelves. The Harbor Freight biscuit joiner is totally worth it, BTW.

3 of the 4 shelves are finished. Not enough clamps to do the last piece yet. They were pretty easy to put together. The piece on the end is to make it more rigid since the pantry is over 8.5' wide. Hopefully it'll work.

After the glue dries I'm going to stain and finish everything. I've been experimenting on one of the pieces that will run along the wall and think I have all the details figured out.

Get a furniture dolly from Harbor Freight.

[This message has been edited by dubi (edited 5/16/2014 8:30p).]