Deja Vue , It's A Move Again

Well, it's a temporary move.   We had some water damage to some floors, walls and cabinets because of plumbing issues.  Without going into all the awful details, let's just say we're basically having to redo this house ALL over again, like last summer.  Deja vu.
All our boxes went into mobile storage units again and they're in our driveway , again.
We spent last summer putting down the wood floors in the kitchen/breakfast area and then they came last week and ripped them out.  Then they went into the Living area and had to rip out antique Longleaf pine floors.  (they can't save them completely when they do the tear out....but they tried their best and we'll remill the "pieces" into other uses later, but not flooring)

 Bad news is that any new flooring and new kitchen cabinets will take a minimum of  6 weeks.  Austin is having such a real estate boom and the subcontractors are swamped with work.  So, we'll move out to another place until the dust , literally, settles once again.

But onto the silver lining or positive side: we still have a home, it could be alot worse, so we are grateful.   We'll get new floors and cabinets again, plus new countertops because we had Soapstone.  Soapstone is not a hard stone and therefore they had to break it when doing the tear out.  Not sure what we will choose for the new kitchen counters....but right now we're thinking about honed granite, honed Carrera or a solid Quartz counter.
For the floors, we've thought about a limestone, but we're really loving this brick floor recently spotted at the Southern Living Showcase Home built by Silverton Homes:

 Silverton was very kind to send me the resource information.  Don' you love it when another trade is helpful and shares their resources? 
Anyways, guess what , it's NOT a true brick.  It's a cement material, and each brick is 3/8' thick and indestructible.

For the Living Room/Dining Room/Study  areas, we're looking at different hardwoods with a grey rustic finish:

  We've lived in so many homes now and we've lived/learned so much with each one.  What did I learn throughout this AWFUL nightmare?
1) We won't ever do wood in the kitchen again because it's not worth the pain if anything leaks (whether its your plumbing, a refrigerator or dishwasher).
2) not using Soapstone for the kitchen again.  I loved the look, but it's very soft and you have to baby it with maintenance to maintain the pretty look.
     I think it's great for a Laundry Room though.
3) not using pine floors again.  we have two large Lab dogs...pine scratches and shows marks easily


Because of our "moving" situation, I'm not taking on any new clients or working much this summer.   I'm still doing EDesign though and feel free to shoot me your questions!

Will keep you posted on the changes around here.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!