blue water bamboo floor

It took the contractor a week or so to get back to us with the bid after the walk-thru and assessment of the work I was hoping to have done.  New windows, new fixtures and tile in the bathrooms, and removal of the acoustic ceilings.  All these things were probably never replaced since they were new, back when the house was built in the 60's.  This house needs some serious TLC.  He was able to break it down and itemize the work into a comprehensive list which simplified the perusal which in turn keeps the reader (me) in a calm and content state of mind which in turn allowed me to be more accepting of the string of numbers that represented the total cost at the end of it.  He actually gave us an awesome deal on all the work which he estimated would take him about three weeks to complete if no unexpected mishaps occur.  

After meeting with the contractor last Sunday morning at the bar down the street to sign the contract, I learned that they were going to begin demolition by the end of the week which meant that I needed to choose and purchase the fixtures and tile ASAP.  And we were off to home depot.  I had come across bamboo flooring in bathrooms on HGTV which was a nice eco-friendly solution and thought that placing them in the bathrooms would be a nice test run before replacing the rest of the flooring in the house with them.  It was difficult, however, to get any consistent research information on bamboo flooring from the interwebs.  Many sites said that bamboo flooring, since it is a grass, not wood, is extra susceptible to shrinkage and expansion just from variations of humidity.  Other sites would argue that solid bamboo floors with a top coat of urethane stand more resistant to problems caused by moisture and humidity than some hardwood floors.  Of course, there are different qualities and types of bamboo flooring (ie. naturalized vs. carbonized, horizontal vs. vertical construction, solid vs. engineered) and of course many sites many sites had contrary opinions on these types.  I was leaning toward a solid, horizontal-constructed, bamboo flooring with the special titebond adhesive.  Still, this was the internet talking so we took matters into our own hands and spoke with a flooring salesperson over at a local flooring store.  He disclosed that bamboo flooring is NOT a good idea for highly humid areas such as bathrooms and that we would see "cupping" and swelling of the surface very soon.  Still, this was salesperson who would probably prefer to sell tile flooring since bamboo is fairly inexpensive.  But I was tired of doing research on it  (almost to the point where I seriously considered laying down concrete with a layer of epoxy in the bathrooms) and didn't want to take the risk and I needed to get materials soon so that made the decision easier to go toward tile except now there are many different types of tile and colors to choose from.  Fortunately, E and D were there to lend a helping hand in offering fantastic suggestions and two hours later, we had the majority of the materials chosen.  

If anyone has more information or experience with bamboo flooring, I'm interested in hearing about it.

The Front Door

The front door was very weathered and had finish peeling off all over it.  We definitely either needed a new one or do something about this one.  We opted for the most economical route of course - sanding, staining, and finishing.  Luckily, the part of the door that faces the inside was still in decent shape so we only needed to work on one side.  And D had most of the tools we needed for sanding already.  After spending a much needed 2 hour tour at Home Depot getting supplies and browsing paints, bathroom sinks, tile, windows, sliders, door knobs, and your mom, we took on the front door.

Sand, sand, sand... all day long.  Sand, sand, sand... while i sing this song.

4 hours of sanding using 120 grit sand paper, a sanding belt tool, and a detail sander.  We generated a boat load of dust that day.

When the sanding was all done, we applied the stain which was a stain, finish, sealer all in one.  The stain we chose was called Dark Walnut which actually turned out a bit darker than expected, but in the end aesthetically was a bonus.  That took a couple hours to dry and it gave me a chance to install the door knobs for the other doors leading outside in addition to scream and run from a couple spiders that tried to attack me.  Yes, they attacked me and I'm pretty sure they wanted to seize me and bring me back to their web fortress for dinner.  But unfortunately for them, they were unable to catch me with my ninja-like reflexes and fast-twitch muscles that allow me to run like the wind.

6 hours later of hard work and live DMB playing in the background, we were able to put up the door.  We'll have to go back and add the polyurethane weather sealant though which could potentially take a good chunk of the day to apply a couple coats and dry.

We decided on the darker brass door knobs.