Bamboo Flooring

So we've decided on the flooring... well at least the 'floor boards' part (tile choices will come later).

We are going to use bamboo: engineered strand woven bamboo in walnut to be precise. Bamboo has heaps of advantages: it's termite resistant; it's sustainably grown and rapidly renewable; it's harder than hardwood; it can withstand direct sunlight (which is important with our house design); it has low VOCs and you don't have to varnish/treat the surface; it's relatively inexpensive ... and the list goes on. We got some really good help from Otto at Kaizan Premium Floors - he's really passionate about his bamboo!

In terms of the colour, I loved the walnut straight away, but then we got worried it might be too dark...(I can't staaaaand dark and dingy homes!!!) but we've had another look at an installed example in the store and we think it will be ok in our place, especially considering the design of our house will let heaps of natural light in. So I am back to loving the colour.

So! Bamboo it is for the bedrooms, the hall/breezeway and the south facing living area!


p.s. I think their website is in need of a bit of work. Their picture of a floor in walnut doesn't look at all like the showroom version.

Closer...

We're now working on a few final details before we go out to tender... it seems like we have been saying that for a while... but it seems really close now!!! A couple of weekends ago we looked at sliding glass doors at a place on the Sunshine Coast ... the guy there tried to talk us into tinted glass - we're not fans, and besides it works against our passive solar design... so we're not going with tinted and we've also chosen door type/style, so that's one less decision to make down the track...

At the moment Benj is working out finer details with plumbing and stuff like that and i have been putting some detail to the wardrobes and hallway shelving and things like that...

This is the sort of thing we want to have in one of the shelf panels of the hallway:

... And these are Benji's concerns (from an email he sent to Michael). Hopefully the hydraulic engineer can sort it out:

1) Not having the cold shower when someone turns a tap on somewhere else in the house problem

2) The grey water plumbing that ties in with the black water and kitchen water in such a way that the grey water can be diverted to the garden. For grey water I am including showers, bathroom sinks and the laundry

3) Piping the pool water under the house, I think we need to choose a turnover rate for the pool, if we go too low then we run the risk of it turning green, if we go too high we need a pump that chews up heaps of power.

4) Plumbing the pool/firewater tank up so that there is an accessible pipe with fire connection at the western edge of the house rather than putting in another tank (I think our bushfire management plan had 20,000l needed to fire fighting)

Hopefully by next week some of these things will be on their way to being sorted!