The floor. Now that is a special problem unto itself. Originally the room we call my office was an outdoor patio. It was probably enclosed in the 60’s and done fairly well, except for the wiring, I mentioned in Part 1. The skylights were a wonderful addition as well as a beautiful large window, looking out onto a small private patio. The problem was the fountain that had been installed in the floor under the large window; a questionable addition at best. UGH. Wiring, again, and plumbing, not to mention the recess in the tile floor.
When we had tenants, the fountain had to be covered for safety reasons. When we moved in, I wanted the raised tile covered curb knocked down, so the floor would be somewhat flat, giving me more useable floor space. I put a large area rug over the floor and moved in. All fine, until we were ready to deal with that room, and all of its various elements.
Well, as the Walrus said, The Time Had Come, to talk of many things: not shoes and ships and sealing wax—- primarily, that floor. Having been in the flooring business for many years, I knew what would work and what wouldn’t and, what I wanted verses what would work. I had thought of several options, but many of my brilliant ideas were more money and work than I wanted to deal with.
First things first, that fountain had to be filled in. It took several hundred pounds of gravel, brick, cement and finished off with a smooth concrete surface. Having been an outside room, and sitting on a cement slab, it would be unwise to continue the solid hardwood floors that exist in the rest of the house. An engineered floor would be ideal, except that today’s engineered floors are all much wider and more “modern” than what we currently have. I wanted to continue the look of the narrow strip flooring, but did not want to use solid flooring (unwise on a slab foundation) and have to stain and finish it to match. Laminate floors, don’t offer the more narrow boards either. Luxury Vinyl Tiles, nope, what it boils down to is I am out of fashion! Too traditional. Nothing new here, move on.
In the final analysis I chose to cover the now flat tiled floor with two 8X11 area rugs. I decided on indoor/outdoor rugs made of polypropylene, certainly not my first fiber choice, but under certain conditions, it is best. I had a beautiful wool rug that faded terribly from skylight exposure and somehow a moth infestation. I’m guessing it was moths, but fortunately they stayed with this one rug, and none of the other wool rugs. Polypropylene is a manmade fiber that does not fade and insects are not interested in it; although our cat might enjoy it for sharpening her claws! The rugs all but cover the entire floor and add a bright and interesting pattern. While the rugs are not necessarily a permanent solution, they are a happy solution for now, and much less expensive than flooring I did not love. But I do love the room now. Problem solved.
