Today we took a road trip out to The Timeless Materials Co. in Waterloo and after 1.5 hours of touring the grounds for an upcoming store watch, and gabbing the ever-pleasant and helpful Ken, Gerry and Kory’s heads off, we ended up buying our flooring!

We first discovered the Timeless Materials Co. at the Green Living Show, where we were immediately drawn to the flooring above. Upon seeing it again, this time in person and not on a computer screen, we decided that maybe we should invest for longevity.

Originally we were going to sand and paint the linoleum floors with white epoxy in the living room/bedrooms and lay slate tiles in the kitchen and bath but upon further investigation we learned that the only material that won’t crack during the winter was ceramic/porcelain and we just didn’t want to go that route. Earlier research on wood flooring came up with prohibitive prices, even for laminate. However, at The Timeless Materials Co. they have a wide selection of reclaimed wood, starting at $3.50 sq.ft for jack pine (unfinished).

We chose the wood above for obvious reasons – it’s unique. Reclaimed from Kaufmann Furniture in Collingwood, we love the white wash with the random pattern and defects as well as the varied widths of the floor boards. We got it for $5 sq.ft. and since installation would run about $5-6 sq.ft. we’ve decided to install it ourselves. Our mantra is quickly becoming DIY to the fullest extent. But really, why assume we can’t do it, if we haven’t even tried?

On Monday we went up north to do some more demo. John removed all of the cabinetry and ceramic kitchen tiles! Progress is being made!

Of course, this new flooring completely changes the finishes we were originally considering for the kitchen cabinetry aswell as furnishings…

But we have some new ideas up our sleeves.

- Juli -

Photos by Juli Daoust