The Living Room is Coming

living area flooring done

The installation of the parquet (natural oak) is done for the piano terra (ground floor). Angelo handled it all by himself, day by day. Last night he sent me the picture with sofas without legs.

I just replied that the wooden flooring looks fantastic. Sofas look a bit bulky for our small living area ;-) and not too bad without legs. But legs can be found in the white Santa Fe tool box in the yellow guest room. It is coming along!

flooring progress at primo piano and other plans

primo piano corridorio

with entrance to the red bathroom (front left), further kids room and tiny bathroom (far end)

sunshine from the piazza comes in via a small balcony

barrier-free flooring thanks to perfect pavement

the stair rail painted white with refurbished wooden hand grip

stairs are leading down to main entrance (with apricot coloured walls)

Before Angelo left Pizzo to meet us for a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps he sent me these pics that I just found after our return. He is driving down to Pizzo these days to continue the flooring and painting.

We, husband, son and I, have scheduled our next visit to the South of Italy for April in order to decide on kitchens and other items. Maybe we even have to include a trip to Sicily for the nearest and newest Ikea outlet, opening March 9 in Catania. It's a 3 hours drive "only". (So far the next Ikea is located in Bari, a 4 1/2 hours drive). However, we probably could find everything we need in the region between Vibo Valentia, Filadelfia, Maida and Lamezia. But still, Ikea is known for fair quality and good prices and if they deliver to our door step, we consider buying mattresses, kitchen parts and other items there.

Parquet installation and shift in direction

I found these pics via Swedish emmas designblog and all what I can do is looking at the parquet installation. Here I am impressed how good a shift in direction looks. It underlines the change of a room funtion: living room / bedroom and dining / corridor.

At the moment, if I look at pictures of design blogs, enter a home or a restaurant, all I see is parquet installations.

I like all your comments and emails and votes. Thank you very much. The voting on the right side, on the blogroll, shows right now, that all the proposed versions A, B and C are equally accepted.

But I have to tell you something, the longer I think, the more I like Version C.

This is the 'mixed' version first our friendly architect came up with.

Now, I am checking with Angelo, our best and only worker (on the parquet side) if he thinks a smooth transition is feasible as we do not have these long, long 'one-piece-wall-to-wall' panels. Our panels are around 190 cm long, they will be offset and I would like to have the transition without a door sill.

Your comments and votes are still welcome !

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Photo source: Fantastic Frank, a real estate agent selling above apartment in Stockholm, Sweden

How to lay the parquet ? - Please advise & vote !

In our primo piano we are going to lay parquet into two rooms and the corridor.
Angelo already has ordered the amount of parquet, natural oak (rovere naturalizzato). The planks we will use are quiete large and long: 18,9 cm wide and 186 and 190 cm long.

second last: rovere naturalizzato

The only thing we are not yet sure about is the laying direction.

Angelo has send me the following drawings of version A and B:

There are two bedrooms and one corridor in an 'L'-shape. One part of the 'L' is very narrow (about 100cm). There are three balcony doors  from where the light comes in. Before asking my dear readers for advise and comments, I researched a bit the www and found the following about how to lay parquet in a home:

• usually the direction of the wooden panels follow (parallel) the direction of the light incidence. That means it starts in an 45 degree angle from the window (is this clearly described?) - in our case this would be Version A
• some say simply: from the door to the light, which is not often fisable as the window is not always opposite the door.
• others say, if you lay it across the light incidence (parallel to the window) you could make appear the room wider - in our case Version B could do that to the upper bedroom 
• another specialist was saying that you cannot always follow the 'light incidence direction method'. You should consider the dynamic of the room, walking directions and shape of the room.

I understand the last answer. But what is the dynamic of my rooms ? I am thousands of miles away to feel the dynamic. We never lived inside and we have not yet dicided where to put the beds.

And then we became another interesting advise from our archtiect, a Version C, which would be a mix of A and B - and does not make the decision finding easier:

• parquet layout in rooms Version A
• parquet layout in corridor Version B

For a better understanding of the premises, here some pictures:

this is one of the rooms and its balcony door

this is the balcony door in the corridor

When you come up the stairs - and turn left to furhter go up -  it would look better to have the panels parallel to the window, across the light incidence, in the same direction as you walk, I think.

one more part of the corridor in the primo piano

Dear Readers, come along with your suggestions !

Here is a visual summary for you:

Version A - classic - direction follows the incoming light

Version B - parallel to the windows, this layout underlines that both rooms are connected via the corridor

(I think, this is the better solution for the corridor and the upper bedroom as it could look a bit wider in its slimmer part where we cut away space for a bathroom)

Version C - a mixture

So please vote on the blogroll, or leave a comment !! GRAZIE !!!

At the end I found another hint, I am sure, my experienced worker on site, Angelo, knows it already:

When the parquet is delivered, wait 48 hours to let the wood acclimatise. The ideal condition would be a temperature above 17 degree (which we have for sure) and below 70% humidity (which I do not know). Not sure from which latitude this hint came from, but waiting 48 hours seeems to make sense.

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UPDATE May 2012:

This post got a mention in the NYTimes.com and International Herald Tribune!

Unfortunately, I never saved the voting chart, but the winner was Version C !
It got a few more votes, and we were finally convinced to use Version C, the mixture of A and B. - Thanks for all your valuable comments!

And here are some pics of the result, taken in 2011:

A change of laying direction is perfectly fine!