Sleepless in Richmond

Does making decorating decisions keep you up at night? Let's just say my new best friend is Simply Sleep - a little blue over the counter pill that helps me stop the swirling thoughts in my head concerning the house. The latest obsessive thought stream has to do with the kitchen floors. When the decision was made to give up on the original floors (seen above) we had to quickly decide what material to put down in its place. Since these old houses have no sub-floor under the hard wood (hello basement) (they didn't have plywood back then, poor souls) any thoughts of having limestone floors went out the window. I didn't want a change in elevation as the rooms are fairly open to one another. So, knowing that there was no way to match the existing heart pine, we opted to lay down a wood floor and make the finish completely different than anything else in the house. Below is a shot of the floor right after the raw goods were installed. After hours "googling" painted floors I have decided that I can no longer live without a checkerboard floor. I love the checkerboard in this photo from the myhomeideas.com
I hope that our kitchen can feel like this one does - light and airy and happy. A friend and talented artist from Northern Virginia is coming down in a few weeks to lay it out and paint. Here are a few more checkerboard floors that I also adore:

The above image is from myhomeideas.com



This image is from Canadian House and Home.

Also keeping me wide eyed and bushy tailed at 3:00 a.m. is what counter top material to select. Being married to a perfectionist engineer has its upside and its downside. Many years ago we split kitchen duties - I cook and he cleans up. He is obsessive about the counters and I am a messy cook. Not a great match in the kitchen. Add to that the fact that I LOVE honed marble. Sort of a recipe for divorce court. So, I threw caution to the wind and selected two slabs of honed Carrera marble at Marva stone yesterday. I wonder if anyone has ever gotten divorced over counter tops.

Photos from the last week of renovation:

I painted the laundry room floors with Benjamin Moore Floor and Patio latex paint - Cape Hatteras Sand. Here is the before: As soon as the base and window trim go in its off to the appliance store.
Above is one last shot of the kitchen floor - my poodle has already made himself at home.