The Floor Dilemma

So last week I called the floor place, and we set a date of November 13 to begin work on the floors. The one outstanding thing was that I needed to go to the showroom to choose the finish. I thought I *had* chosen the finish - the guy who came to do the quote seemed to know exactly what he would do (one of the bedrooms had already been refinished, so I told him to match it). I think I figured they'd have that in their notes, I'd go, see a sample that looks exactly like the room in my house and we'd be good to go. Uh, no.

Instead, I was presented with 4 samples, none of which looked like what I was picturing in my mind as a match to the room. I had even taken a photo of the floors:



But it didn't really help.

So I decided to go with what I thought would look best. A clear water-based finish.

But then I fretted all the way back to the office ... what if the transition between the existing room and the hallway looked weird? What if the one I chose was too light? What if what if what if? I'm already overwhelmed by having to make so many decisions and the sky's the limit. I work so much better with constraints.

I didn't take a pic of the exact sample, but in my mind's eye, it looks something like this:



After talking to several people, everyone agrees that the lighter color will look nice with the color scheme I've been noodling on (chocolate brown, a greenish bluish color, cream, and beige) and that if all else fails, I can always get the office re-done when the carpet upstairs goes (the dog hair clumps in the off white carpet are already driving me nuts).

So I guess the dilemma has been solved. But I think I'm going to run back out there just to look at the sample one more time! It's gonna be a long process ...