We have chosen the wood flooring for the main level of our house -- or perhaps it's more accurate to say that it chose us. We were visiting a local flooring place that was having a good sale on flooring. We were interested in the hickory -- it was a very good price -- but the salesperson said that it had sold out. After talking to us some, he said he had some really nice tropical hard wood for a good price. We took a look at it and that was IT. It's a variety called Ipe (or Brazilian Mahogany). It's not prefinished, but the milling is so good that we should be able to do just minimal sanding to get it ready to seal. The photo below shows the stuff, wetted down a bit to show the approximate color (and color range) it will have. This wood is used for outdoor decks and is about as hard as bamboo, so it should be waterproof and wear very well. So this choice forced some other choices regarding the woodwork downstairs -- in particular, the kitchen cabinets....so we may have a wash as far as cost goes -- a good deal on flooring and then more-expensive cabinets to match it...
A possible "match" for that Ipe' floor -- cherry with a 'toffee' stain. We like the simple lines of the Shaker style. And it all seems to go with wool rugs, as well!
There wasn't enough of the Ipe' to do the upstairs so we will go with something else there. Since we're not going to use it as much, we're actually thinking about putting in a fir floor. Fir is a softer wood so it won't stand up to a lot of traffic like oak/maple/bamboo would, but it sure looks nice. Like the Ipe', we have found a good source for inexpensive T&G fir -- both 3" and 6" planks, for a lot less than $2 per square foot. 'Course, we will spend some money getting it finished, but fir would be a great way to instantly add about a century's worth of apparent age to the house. Our deliberate choice of extra-deep eaves and rakes helps make the house appear more timeless as well.
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