Heat! And what we chose for our floor (again).

First things first---after a long evening reading about cork and staring at the samples until my eyeballs were about to fall out, we decided we just couldn't do it. Would it fade? Maybe. Would we scratch it and gouge it? Definitely. Would we need to refinish it every 1-5 years? Likely.Would we actually complete the refinishing? Probably not. Would we spill things on said scratches and gouges, and not clean them up immediately, and cause damage to the floor? Um, unfortunately, very probably, yeah.

So we chose the Ocean tile! As it has so much movement and color,. we selected a very simple running bond pattern (like brick) but with the 12" square tiles. We have high hopes it will look awesome. Thanks to everyone who cast a vote here, on FB, and also on Gardenweb. The Ocean tile was a clear winner, with the Pearl cork (#3) coming in second.

Still working on the bones and guts of the kitchen. Yesterday the ceiling was completed, and it now looks quite sturdy. Gordon, our team leader, calculated that the second floor over the kitchen addition sagged
about 1.75" over the last 40+ years. There's no getting rid of the sag now, but at least it won't go any lower.

The other thing that happened yesterday was the leveling of the floor! It's amazing how much slope there was; just look at the new supports along the old beams:

Look how the new supports grow from 1.5 cm on the right to 5 cm as they head to the left of the picture! Just to make the floor level...

Today the heating team came out to start laying the hydronic tubing under the floor. Since they can't get to the old porch floor from underneath, the tubing had to be laid now before the plywood subfloor goes back on top. They will return later in the week to do the rest of the kitchen from below, stapling up from the basement. Here is their progress so far:

Also of note: the walls are now insulated! I honestly can't wait for winter, just to experience our cozy warm kitchen!