I stopped to see a Merbau 5" wide floor 3 miles from my home in a store installed in a showroom which has the mosaic look in colors and I was surprised it was 5" wide since when all the boards were installed nicely, it was beautiful and did not look wide. I am happy now. This floor was the same as my neighbors that is floated. I took my shoes off and it made me realize that I would be happy with a floated or glued down floor after all. The install price will be about $1000 more for the Merbau than the great price I got for the BR-111 Brazilian Cherry so I will try to stop obsessing about what the floor will look like and anticipate soon this always dirty beige carpet will be gone and I will have a pretty hardwood floor.

ok just a few things. I love walnut. even though its soft compared to other woods, I just love it. What ever size widths you go with is up to you. if youre trying to maximize the amount of wood you get, do whatever the guy milling tell you. Other thing is with whole logs, youre gonna get a lot of color variation, so doing random width might give you more options come install time to pick and choose which boards you want. the other thing is You can stain walnut. you are limited to what you can stain it (colorwise) but it can take stain. lastly, natural finish walnut gets lighter as it ages. especially in sunlight. its weird, and doesn't sound right, but as the finish ages (even with water bourne finishes) it makes the wood appear lighter...once you sand the old finish off it goes back to its original color, just something to keep in mind.

Some favorite things abour our laundry room: Love the acrylic sink with built in "scrub-board" and "pop-up" drain. If you're soaking things in bleach, etc., you can open the drain with a button up top instead of reaching down to the bottom of the sink. This sink can come with a whirlpool motor for washing delicate items, but I didn't want that feature. Love my storage closet. There's room for laundry baskets, hooks for drip drying, and shelves. I didn't have the shelving come all the way forward to the doors, so I have standing room for broom and mop handles. The Silestone counter tops and ceramic tile floors are very easy to maintain and very pretty. Counter tops can actually be used as cutting boards. I do some "home-canning/freezing" so this area is a great work space for that type of thing. Cabinets are beautiful and arranged very handily for storing cleaning products and supplies. Cabinets are Kraftmaid (maple with a chesnut stain). We have split pocket doors at the entry so we can close off the room if needed. (Usually we just use a hook to keep the doors open only about 3 inches. That way the cat can get to her food dish in the laundry room and dog can't!) We left a handy space under the counter top (beside the under-sink cabinet) for hiding a large trashcan and the kitty-litter box. I love my stacked Whirlpool Duet 9400 washer and (gas) dryer. However, we are in the middle of "board" replacement for the washer. It's only about 4 years old, but needs repairs. When it's working -- it's absolutely a wonderful machine! (The washer/dryer and sink are all "biscuit" in color.) We love our basic "all refrig" unit in the laundry room. It's great for canned sodas/beer and all those mixers, pickels, condiments, etc., that would over-fill my pretty side-by-side frig in the kitchen. Works like a "beverage box" and the pretty counter top across from it serves as a "wet bar" area when needed. The original laundry room was a little larger. But we took space from the original room and added it to the kitchen -- so that we now have a kitchen door (instead of having to go through the playroom room or dining room to get outside). It's all worked out very well! Here is a link that might be useful: Laundry Room

There aren't too many basements out here because the ground is full of huge boulders, but this is our powder room on the main floor. The cabinet was built for the space by our cabinetmaker, but it's just the average cab. I'm planning on getting some pull-out basket shelves to make the space more efficient, though. I like the layout, small as it is. I enjoy using unexpected things in powder rooms, so I had this punched time mirror and light fixture made for it. Being that this is New Mexico, I was going for local color, so the sink and tiles are Talavera. Art is all from local artists and nothing was expensive. BTW, we New Mexicans are very proud of the tri-cultural heritage of our state (Spanish, Native American and Cowboy/ Settler). Most Indians around here are Christian and have santo statues and paintings in their pueblo churches, so putting them together in the same room is very normal out here. Lynn On the wall opposite, I have a shelf unit: