The more things change....

Ryan working on the trusses.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Basement framing for stairway.

Trusses from basement looking up to main floor.

Openings in trusses near Ryan are for bathroom plumbing.

Some of the materials for the framing.

It has been a see-saw week for us as far as decisions about flooring, paint and water heaters and, in some instances, we have come full circle.

Paint. Let's discuss paint first. The brand of paint we had decided on because it was green, was very, very expensive. Bonnie stopped at Menard's last Saturday and found that they carry a green paint by Dutch Boy that is currently on sale. It has Arm and Hammer Baking Soda in it. Menard's can match any color we want. We will most likely purchase the Dutch Boy paint this weekend before the sale is over at a considerable savings over the other brand.

Last weekend we purchased our one-piece shower unit. It is a one-seater with a seat big enough to allow for any future expansion of our derrieres! I (Kathy) am sure there will be times when we will wish we had a bathtub, and perhaps one can be put in the addition. The shower unit was to be delivered to the site on Monday as it will have to be set in place before the framing is done on the main floor since it won't fit through any opening afterward.

Water heater. This has been a tough decision which has yet to be resolved. Bonnie wants to go tankless. One of Kathy's managers at the Georgetown Library, Stephanie, copied several articles from Consumer Reports on the subject of tankless water heaters yesterday and we are now armed with enough information to make an informed decision.

There are many things to consider with tankless: if it can be mounted outside the home (this is mostly climate-dependent) as well as inside; the gallons per minute of hot water it can produce and at what temperature; is it large enough to be used for two applications at one time; what the life expectancy is compared to a conventional tank; the cost of the system and it's installation vs. a tank. Tankless is more green than conventional; however, there are high-effeciency tanks like one manufactured by A.O. Smith that are almost as efficient with similar initial cost, annual operating cost, energy savings and number of years to payback. After reading the articles, Kathy would be just as happy with the high efficiency tank but will let Bonnie make the final decision.

Flooring. Flooring has had us on the see-saw more than any other single decision concerning the cottage other than Bonnie's designing of the cottage itself, which continues to evolve with minor changes still being made.

Because we wanted to go green, we settled on flooring made from two renewable resources: bamboo and cork. After much research we finally settled on a beautiful cork floor as described previously. Additional research about installation brought up the facts that cork can fade and that permanent indentations can be left in the cork from heavy objects. This is really hard to believe since the samples we have are extremely hard. Because the cottage will be loaded with windows, fading would be something that would need to be addressed. In addition, it was mentioned in an article that area rugs, when removed from cork flooring, could leave the floor uneven shades.

We decided to forget cork and concentrated on bamboo, hardwood and some laminate flooring. Bonnie looked at some samples at Menard's and took Kathy to see them last Sunday. Tile was, once again, discussed as an option. Bonnie came up with a plan to use a combination of tile, bamboo and cork in the cottage with the cork in the loft where the least amount of direct sunlight would reach it. Then she dropped the cork again in favor of more tile (a wonderful but very expensive locking tile), and bamboo. Kathy doesn't care for the lighter shade of bamboo...still.

Kathy's attitude toward the building project is that whatever goes into the home should last most of their remaining lives and that the decisions made should only have to be made once. Bonnie's attitude is that we may upgrade or replace almost every item in the home (custom cabinetry excluded) at least once. Because of this attitude, Bonnie awoke this morning once again favoring the cork which we both really love...Kathy for it's color and pattern and the fact that it is a renewable resource, and Bonnie for some of the same reasons as well as its ease of installation.

So, to date, we still have made no final decision on water heaters or flooring.