Da Floors

Oh how to explain my many, many, many thoughts on these kitchen floors?  Guess I'll just dive right in?

Here's what I like.

I really love when there is a cohesive look throughout the house.  My dream would be to have our beautiful, old hardwoods running throughout our entire floor.  I've really grown to love these hardwoods--I love the lighter-medium color and that each plank has so much variation.  But here's the deal:  these floors can not be sanded down and refinished again.  Although they still look beautiful, there are on their last leg.  There are cracks here and there in the joints.  So it's not like we could put down hardwood in the kitchen/entry and then have it all refinished to flow together.  Bummer.

That option is out.

Our other idea was to put in newer hardwoods, that maybe wouldn't be an exact match, but that would still flow and perhaps lay the opposite way so that they ran perpendicular to our other hardwoods.  But, we worried  that doing this would then make our old hardwoods LOOK like old hardwoods.

So, after nixing that idea, we moved on to tile.

Our kitchen and entry sit central in the house--with the living/dining off to one side and then the bedrooms off to the other side.  I don't know why, but I would like the idea of tile better if our kitchen was off in a corner or something.  BUT, it's not.  And this isn't our dream kitchen, and we plan on redoing it in 5-10 years--and at that point, we'll have to address our hardwoods too.  It just never ends, does it? 

So, Tile it is. 

I left work early the other day (but before I had to pick the boys up from daycare) and scoured the valley for tile samples.  Trying to keep in mind that I wanted something to flow as best as possible with the hardwoods + be reasonably priced.

Which one is the winner?

In the end, we are going with the lighter travertine.  I really do love it.  The tone really goes well with the neighboring hardwoods.  I love the natural variations, and how no two tiles will be the same.  Of the ceramic and porcelain tiles none really stood up to the travertine.  The tones were off, and honestly just looked fake.

Lighter travertine first 2 tiles on left

But, I know, I know.  Travertine is high maintenance.  It cracks, and is pourous.  No, I don't want to spend money and a year later regret my choice.  Yet, I have hated these linoleum floors for so long that I really don't want to settle for something I don't love.  So we're doing travertine and hoping for the best!

Of the samples I picked, most run around $3 sq/ft.  But, I was at Home Depot today, and wouldn't you know it, they have a special right now for $1.66 sq/ft if you buy a whole pallet/crate/whatever.  It's a little more square footage than we need, but even so, the total cost comes to a couple hundred less than the other travertine samples.  Pretty stoked on that!

Travertine is large tile bottom right

We are having the tile installed by a contractor/handyman and we are scheduled to start Wednesday.  EEK!  He is a family friend, and it's awesome because A) my dad has agreed to help him and B) we completely trust him in our house while we are not there--so that means demo can begin while we are at work, and I can take the kids out to play the other days instead of just having to sequester them outside or something.  THIS IS HUGE and well worth paying someone vs. DIYing it ourselves. 

So, here we go!  What are your thoughts?  Have your heard nightmare stories about travertine?  I sorta want to hear if you have, but then again, I sorta don't... ;)