While it is still 90 degrees outside, we start to see signs of Fall. The backyard maple tree starts changing color, and our garden tomatoes are going stronger than ever. The nights are in the 50s which is such a blessing – I love sleeping with windows open and fresh breeze.
We have entered a busy September full of business meetings, work trips, Fall planting, and before-the-winter outdoor projects. Most excitingly, we started shopping for basement finishes. Paint, flooring, trim, baseboard, and even furniture. Yesterday I brought home 12 gallons of paint and primer. With 750 square feet of the walls and 500 square feet of ceilings, I will be surely spending some quality time with my paint sprayer.
On top of the paint we’ve decided on the basement flooring. Although we prefer wood flooring to any other type, being in the basement we decided to use something truly waterproof. Tiles have gone down in the bathroom and will be in the utility room where our washer and dryer are. For the rest of the area? Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) flooring there will be.
We did look into luxury vinyl tiles, which will making leveling the floors of living space with the tiled floor in the bathroom a breeze. But we also want something softer and warmer than tile. After some debates between wood look (Slav) v.s. marble look (me), dark tone (Slav) v.s. light tone (me), we settled on the Nucore Driftwood Oak, a medium-tone, wood-looking LVP. It has the most natural-looking wood grains and a rich color that is neither too yellow, too red, nor too grey.
The picture above shows the Driftwood Oak LVP on top, our dark bathroom floor tile in the middle, the shower pebbles at the bottom, and the white subway bathroom wall tiles to the right. I like how well the Driftwood Oak pairs with all the tiles. It appears rich and dark next to white tiles, but somehow lighter and airy next to dark color. The latter also applies to the black bed we have:
Nucore is a fairly new product and does not have many reviews on its durability. But on paper it does have one of the thickest wear layer (22 mil) compared to other LVPs (6~12 mil). With two dogs who like to race up and down the stairs we will be putting this LVP to test especially at the landing area.
Oh, from the picture you can probably tell that Slav has already ripped off the paneling. Instead of this:
We now have this:
Slav will be putting up the drywall this weekend before I start painting. After a long summer of not being able to do anything in the basement, I have such an urge to get it finished. I started feeling my DIY blood boiling – so stay tuned for more updates!
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