Here's a wood flooring product I learned about last night. It's a local company and it's owner lives up the street. A friend who knows him has seen the flooring in his hoiuse and says it's beautiful. The deal is that they somehow pressure treat sustainably farmed soft woods (like pine) in a way that converts them to hard wood, and the color/stain is infused all the way through so nicks don't show the way they do on many engineered woods. Might be an excellent cabinetry wood source, too. Strangely, since this is a local product, I haven't seen this product in any of the interiors stores around town. When I said so to my friend, he said that though it actually is available here they sell most of their product to Europe whose appetite for green products predates American interest in same.
Anyway, my friend has arranged this morning for me to meet the president of the company and see their product up close.
http://www.alowood.com/
And to Christina: I finally found some cork in this town and brought home two samples that I just loved to consider. I asked the owner of the shop why I've seen so little of it, and he responded that they only sell "about five cork jobs a year". I forgot to follow up on his question to me, after I expressed interest in the cork, if I was going to have radiant heat--but that may be one reason why it doesn't sell well, it's not campatible with same.
Our cabinetry choice right now is still open, btw. I've found a cabinet guy who builds everything from the wood planks, and he's as reasonable as the guys who build them out of prefab boxes, so that's how I'm going to go. What I'm looking for is a silvery finish on a warm colored base wood, like maple, that will have the look of polished weathered cedar. I've never seen it done, but contrasted with a warm wood tone (the flooring on the Alowood home page would work very well for me), I like what I see in my head.
