Went over to feed the ducks tonight. Thought they might be getting cold and hungry. We are supposed to get some snow and cold weather next Monday and Tuesday so I am not sure if this winter weather will truly ever be over! We also have picked out some flooring for the dining room, dining area and living room. We were in a dilemma with the concrete slab. We could not get the solid 3/4 inch hardwood that we love so much. We were stuck with getting laminate, bamboo, engineered or solid wood that was only 5/16 of an inch thick. We really did not like any of the laminates that we had seen because they looked so fake until we saw some Armstrong Grand Illusions. It has the look of real wood with the stability and durability of laminate. We really were considering bamboo because of it being a greener material but some articles we read said that bamboo was put together with formaldehyde which emitted fumes that bothered people with asthma. So we were back to square one.
Then we found some solid wood we liked but it was at lumber liquidators and we were not sure about the product and the service we might get there. I had an underlying feeling that it was not going to be the best product out there even though the price was pretty good. The wood was most likely seconds and there was a variance to the wood (each board a different shade)that we were afraid would make the room look almost striped. The wood was so thin and hardly had a finish to it. We did not like any of the laminates they had or any of the engineered. Lowes and Home Depot were not much better and the price there was double to quadruple the lumber liquidator price.
Then it was full circle back to the Armstrong Grand Illusions Cherry Bronze. It does have a high gloss finish so I hope we won't be disappointed in that. I know it will show footprints like crazy but they did give us a special cleaner and dust mop to use. We went with a more local "Mom and Pop" type place right up the street from us which makes me feel pretty good about supporting the local economy. They were able to match the price a place in Richmond had on the product and the labor price was competitive. The best thing about this floor is that it is a floating floor and no glue will have to be used. The other wood products would have had to be glued down and we could not have walked on it for several days after putting the boards down. We also worried about the fumes.
So, bottom line is we ended up going with a laminate which we always said we wouldn't. Hopefully, we made the best choice we could have. These big financial decisions in times like these are tough. We have needed flooring so badly and the carpet is shot! I will post pictures as we go through the process. Now I have to start packing things up in preparation for moving everything out of the downstairs. Fun!
