Sunday, January 27, 2013

Floored

Aside from painting, one of the other "whole house" projects we've tackled on the beach house is flooring. The house previously had sheet linoleum throughout....about 4 different patterns. While super easy to clean, it's a much more "industrial" feel than I wanted....especially in the bedrooms.

Originally I wanted ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms (my husband has done tiling for many years and I have coveted some of his client's floors from afar). Imagine my surprise when he said no. After he explained his reasoning, I agreed.

You see, our house sways. It's on stilts in a hurricane-prone area. Last year we stayed in another house on Ocracoke (right on the Pamlico Sound). A wicked storm kicked up during the night and the house was a-ROCKIN'! And not in the fun way. In the lay-motionless-in-bed-clutching-your-spouse's-arm-envisioning-who-shows-up-at-your-funeral way.

While I was busy hyperventilating, Contractor Husband was attempting to explain to me how the house's architecture is such that swaying is not only OK, but necessary. If the house doesn't flex, it will break.

So, while flexing and swaying are good for the house's longevity, they're not great matches for ceramic tile--which tolerates zero flexing. Cracked tiles, loose grout, and the sound of walking on crunchy eggshells are likely results when you combine movement and ceramic tile.

Sigh. So....no tile for us.

For the bathrooms, we are going with sheet linoleum again. The color choices in this were not great but, again, Contractor Husband nixed the square sheets for being too prone to water damage at all the seams. I'll share the bathroom flooring in a later "Bathrooms Post."

The bedrooms will get a nice gray Stainmaster carpet. That I will also share that at a later date since we're still working on getting installers to the island after the Hatteras/Ocracoke ferry shut down due to shoaling.

So enough about what isn't....don't you want to see what is?

For the main part of the house--the living room, kitchen, dining room, and game room--we went with a Pergo laminate. Initially I was worried that it would have that hollow sound, but it seems they've eliminated that issue.

Pergo "Driftwood" Beach House

The color is (fittingly) called, "Driftwood." Look how much cuter than the old linoleum:

Pergo "Driftwood" Beach House

It's pretty easy to install, provided you throw out food for your crew at regular intervals:

Pergo "Driftwood" Beach House

The overall effect....with the aqua paint, the high gloss trim, and the white washed ceilings...is pure beachy perfection in my opinion! What do you think?

Beach House Pergo "Driftwood" Behr "Aqua Pura"

Cute, right? (I mean, minus all the stuff laying around.)

Bonus: It hides tracked-in sand beautifully and shines right up with a little wet Swiffer action.

Like Contractor Husband said, "I couldn't imagine this floor in any other house, but it's perfect here."

What can I say? When he's right....he's right.

(Just don't tell him I said that!)

~Betsy xoxo

P.S. We are almost fully booked for the summer months....only 1 week left in June and 1 week left in August. Grab 'em quick if you want to come have a fantastic summer beach vacation!


3 comments:

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