Floored.

Well, almost.  We officially found a floor we love.We close in five days (FIVE DAYS) and the floor will go in on Thursday and Friday next week.

So after much hunting around we found a floor we liked.  Then after discussing with Craig's interior designer sister and her awesome boyfriend we took some advice and headed out to a random little flooring company in our new city.  And my friends, we didn't just find a floor.  We found true love.

We've been having a tough time finding something that strikes the right balance between light and dark, cool and warm, casual and formal.  And of the utmost importance - not orange.

Without further ado, le floor:

The top sample is what we were planning on going for.  We liked it.  A lot.  But we were concerned about the dark uniform shade showing dust.  You see, we're kind of lazy.  If I can avoid sweeping every single day, I'm all about it.  Add the fact that we expect there to be some dents and scratches with a dog and a little girl running around and the top sample could have spelled trouble.  Don't get me wrong - it's beautiful, but not quite ideal for us at this point in time.  I've shown it to a ton of friends who are now considering installing it in their homes, so if you're interested in the top sample you can find it here at Home Depot.  We were quoted $3.49/square foot, but apparently it also goes on sale fairly often.  Installation from Home Depot is approximately $3.00/square foot, but we've been assured by many friends that this is a job we can do ourselves.

The bottom sample is what we'll be installing instead.  We found it at Paramount Floors in Mississauga.  It's solid red oak and instead of the 3 1/4 width that's pretty standard at a lot of big box stores it's 4 1/4.  (3/14 is also available at Paramount, but we love the wider pieces).  This floor has extra scratch protection and is priced at $4.70/square foot, though we were lucky in that this particular floor was in stock because someone had placed a huge order, they'd created it, and then the people changed their mind and went with a different colour.  Because of this we were able to bargain down to a happier price for us, although this particular floor is a steal at list price.  They do their finishing on site and their prices started at $2.60/square foot.  They do custom colour in addition to what they keep in stock.  Check them out!

Hats off to Steph and Justin for this awesome reccomendation!  The floor's getting delivered on Monday and my mom's wonderful significant other will be helping us out in a big way later that week with the installation.  Lots of reviews and pics coming up at that point.