"It's Beautiful"

That's what my friend said, when I opened the door of the newly remodeled queen's room.  And I couldn't agree more.  It is the among the most beautiful small rooms I have ever seen.  It reminds me of rooms in various Mansions I've seen from before the 1950's.  They might have similar visual impact, but often combined with warped creakiness and draftiness.  But like them, this room has an understated charm.  Formal but not stiff.  Playful but not experimental, though in fact it is quite the leading edge room, and getting it right required experimentation.  How many people do you know with Armstrong's best underlayment, the Quiet Comfort Premium S-1836, and their Luxe Vinyl Plank flooring in the Best collection with lifetime warranty?  It has their strongest vinyl surface known as Urethane Plus.  The underlayment is polyethylene foam with polypropylene sheet. Those are two of the most stable polymers in existence, used in the best electronic wire and capacitors.  Few vinyl plank floors are even laid with underlayment.  Few existing vinyl floors are even vinyl plank floors.  This is leading edge for someone who wants a waterproof, durable, beautiful, comfortable floor.

And of course the incredibly beautiful Exotic Fruitwood Honey Spice which will match pink trim and many other things.  It can handle light and medium colors extremely well.  It might not be the best for the darkest colors, but those are probably not going to be used much in this room.

Rob has now completed the second of two phases of work he did on the room, and the results are the highest quality.  But the results had as much to do with my project management, my vision, my choice of materials and my insistence that he do things correctly, as his fine workmanship.  If I do say so myself.  I think I handled this small project much better than Lyndhurst.  It helped that Rob is the best builder I've ever had in San Antonio.  Not perfect, but better than all of the others, and malleable toward perfection.  That's important.

I still plan a 3rd phase of remodeling in which a ceiling fan with light is added.  Rob couldn't figure out how to do that given the limited crawlspace above the room.  I'm hoping my favorite electrician will be more imaginative and flexible and figure out some way to do it.  I also plan to make all outlets in the room GFCI for shock protection.  And at the same time do about 7 other electrical projects around the house.

This is the way I do things, less focus on the flashy, and more focus on the practical things you really need, the must-haves, that actually make life better and safer.

But I got the flashy right on this too, pretty much, thanks to the cool flooring and floor molding I picked out.  I spent far more on molding than most people do, I believe it was $150 for the room.  Hardwood molding in colonial style.  I think it was the molding that gives this room magic now as much as anything.  So that $150 spent on molding, which would seem outrageous to many, was worth every penny and far more IMO.  I might also add that I spent more than a half hour picking out the straightest and best looking pieces at Lowes.

Rob's first attempt at doing the floor resulted in a floor with lots of too large gaps.  His chief arguments were either that underlayment should not be used at all (He called me from a Lowe's store and told me that was what the salesman said.  I told him the salesman was uninformed.), and later, that I had received the wrong underlayment.  We argued about the underlayment and correction strategy over 3 phone calls on Wednesday night.  He eventually said he would do whatever it took to make it right.

It turned out, of course, that Armstrong approves S-1836 underlayment for their Luxe Plank flooring, and that I had ordered and received the correct kind.  Once that was established on Thursday morning, thanks to my eagle eyes, he worked with great enthusiasm to rebuild the entire floor from the farthest corner, never walking on previous work.  That had never been necessary before with all the vinyl plank flooring he had laid since he had never previously used underlayment.