Heaven is a crisp white ceiling...and possibly a dark, dark floor

At the finish of painters' day 2 the ceilings throughout are finished, and we're happy to report that the sad, beige gloom has been exorcised from every upper nook.

In the kitchen, the good
(the ceiling and the undercoated timber),
the bad (the intercom and the the air conditioner)
and the ugly (do I need to mention the vinyl tiles?).

The house is actually starting to look fantastic (the paint smell, however, is a little tricky to stomach).  I don't know how Mum's doing it - staying there during the process.  But she's like a little Trojan, standing guard at our new castle, protecting it from foes and invaders.

Today, while the white out continued, Mum and I welcomed a trio of tradespeople into our realm to receive our vision for the future.  

There was: 

• the blind man, Hans, from David Rice Interiors, to discuss blinds and shutters
• the kitchen man, Rob, recommended when we bought our appliances, to discuss the new kitchen and possibly some of the other building - although I'm not sold on him.  He was nice enough, but had an awful mullet
• Kim Hands from Kitchen Squared, to talk more about the kitchen.  I liked her and she was really knowledgeable about all sorts of things I hadn't considered like potential problems with the fridge and the dishwasher.  Oh, and the floors.  

Yes, the floors.  We've been told that since the kitchen sits on top of the tiles, if we want to do anything with them, we need to do it first - before the new kitchen is built.  

As discussed in entry Underfoot (15/01/11) there is an issue with the expanse that is the kitchen/dining/family rooms floor.  It's not because it's shabby, or in bad nick, because it's actually in frighteningly good condition - it's just the colour - so very mustard.  So once again I timidly mentioned painting the tiles to Mum.  

Mum is no great adventurer or trail-blazer.  She isn't cutting edge and she doesn't like to take risks.  So the thought of painting a tiled floor is something that's really challenging for her to come at.  She has a friend who had an industrial sort of rubberised finish put over tiles and it's ended up in a world of misery (she's always on her 70+ year old knees rubbing off scuff marks).  But I don't want to do that.  I don't want a light or white floor - because I don't want to be a slave to it.  

I want to pick a dark colour from the slate tiles in the hallway to marry the floor to the raven Caesarstone of the benches in the new kitchen.  With the crisp white everywhere else and the blue of the back splash it will look just amazing.

The most encouraging thing was that Mum asked me to go and ask the painters, Roy, Ator and Ash, if they know how and if they would be willing to do it. We discussed the process and the stinkiness (from the oil based primer) and they said "Yes of course".

I think I'm going to be able to bring Mum round, especially if I don't push too hard.      

And I've also demonstrated my own ability to compromise by walking away from my dream of the big laboratory sink.  The kitchen lady pointed out that if someone were to drop something heavy - like a cast iron pot - onto the sink, it would crack and then you'd have a whole shit cart of problems.  None of which exist with stainless steel.  It's a risk I can't afford to take without buckets of bucks.

So today I said goodbye. But I can't promise I won't still yearn just a little.