Our carpet was approaching 8 years old so and after two kids it was beginning to show. We opted to replace the floor with hardwood during our kitchen remodel.

Solid wood was out, since we’d have to build up a subfloor. That would have required ripping up all of the baseboard molding and would have put the entry at the front door a few inches lower than the rest of the first floor. Yuck.

We ultimately decided to do the “green” thing and picked bamboo for our floor. There’s some debate about just how green bamboo really is and, as it turns out, there’s good stuff and cheap/bad stuff.

We opted for the good stuff, naturally. After a little research we settled on Teragren’s Craftsman 6″ wide planks with the bamboo oriented vertically instead of horizontally. Teragren has a fair forestry stewardship-like program in place and beats even the strictest European standards for outgassing.

ANYWAY, in just a few short days the floor was down and I was able to start moving some furniture in. I tell you, there’s nothing quite like eating breakfast at the table after a week of eating in the garage, surrounded by all of your furniture.

During the installation we had a little visitor join us on the patio for supper. This little rattlesnake had curled up under a spare plank and the floor installers found him while cleaning up. They were going to whack him with a board but he bit the board instead.

Just like in the cartoons he his fangs were stuck in the plank so they dropped him in a bucket rather than risking it again. After a few days stuck in the adhesive used to put the floor down I felt sorry for the little guy. Then again, it was a rattlesnake in my backyard.

We’re so close to being done I can taste it! Actually, I literally can taste it since Marla’s started cooking again on her new stove. But more on that in a another post…