Walnut Love

I just spent a good two minutes trying to decide if that title was inappropriate or not, but since I’ve also been spending an inordinate amount of time making doe-eyes and my new wood floor I’m just chalking it up as par for the course around here.

Before I start going on and on about hardwood, I’ve been doing a little behind-the-scenes action around here that I wanted to catch you up on. Back when I spent two weeks covered in drywall plaster I promised an update to my post on texturing walls (including a few more tips from the pros), which you should totally check out if you have any plain boring walls in your house. Or if you just want to know what the hell I’m talking about when I say “texturing walls.” Also, the Projects, Plans, &  How To page has been sporting a more visual look for a while, if you’re looking for some specific info.

Okay, on to the swooning portion of today’s program, because not only did I finish the shower tile and a bathroom cabinet this past weekend, but I also managed to take half a day to drive up to Mason, Michigan to the home of Launstien Hardwood floors. Our plumbers– who have never given us anything but good advice– recommended we check them out for hardwood that is manufactured right here in Michigan, and there’s nothing the Man of Mystery and I love more than spending hours in the car together. Probably because it’s harder to throw tools at each other when we’re in such close proximity.

Let me say this, it was worth the hour and a half drive:

This wasn’t the place of 40,000 different types of flooring. They had your basic plain-sawn unfinished hardwood in 6 species and 3 grades, quarter-sawn wide-plank flooring, which meant enough choices so that we could find what we wanted, but not enough to make our heads spin.

After much debate between a country grade hickory and walnut we decided on on the walnut, which is gorgeous with just a clear poly on it.

We were planning just to look, but since we had enough room in the pickup to bring back the floor for the master bedroom, we couldn’t help ourselves.

And frankly, it beats the hell out of “Plan B” which was to pull all the nails out of this mess and try to plane it down…

DSC_0886Yeah.

I still haven’t totally given up on it yet, but that’s a project for another year.

I was planning to take some vacation time from the day job next week to get the bedroom floor installed, but it seems like the entire universe is conspiring to keep me living in a garage as long as possible. Because really, who doesn’t like sleeping with mice in their bed?

The kitchen/greatroom floor is going to be a much later project, but we’ve got our eye on this wide plank walnut for when that happy day arrives.

If you’re in the Great Lakes area I would strongly recommend checking out Launstien for your flooring. (I’m totally going to try an wrangle a tour of the mill out of them the next time I’m up there.)

2 Responses

  1. Love the look of that walnut! Is the hickory you were considering on the right in that first photo? We’re thinking of hickory because we want a lighter colored floor and like the hardness. Really haven’t researched it beyond that though.

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