It's all in the details.......floors, marble slabs and iron stair rails

Good Morning......
I am going to start with a daily quote since I find them  inspiring, so today's quote is:

He is happiest who finds peace in his home

-Goethe


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There is so much truth to that..... no matter how much I enjoy whatever I might be doing outside of my home ( a great party, a Broadway show, a terrific trip, a girls luncheon,etc...) nothing beats coming home to the comfort and tranquility of "ones nest". So onto the subject on homes, the stage we are  just now getting to is definitely  the start of the really fun and exciting stage...the long awaited finishing stage for the new house. Kind of like the frosting on the cake, the finish line at the end of a marathon, the last stroke of a brush on a beautiful painting.  We have however, so many decisions to make that many nights I toss and turn all night long dreaming (and sometimes having nightmares)  agonizing over decisions needing to be made. Right now we are deciding on railings for both of our main staircases, our main staircase is a  very long elongated oval that goes three stories so its quite dramatic. The back stair is again a three story stair but more traditional and not as dramatic. I have kept a bunch in a file I that I have  liked ...so here are some of the ones I love and now the decision time is nearing....any thoughts? (The one above is attractive and the flooring is exactly what we are doing in the foyer, as well as the stone cladding on the wall)

Then we move on to flooring...oh the flooring. This could cause me to easily age 20 years...and God knows I have the extra "love handles" to prove the stress that floors can create, I love something to blame those binges on ice cream or other forbidden goodies on!  For the living and dining we have decided on one of my favorites, Versailles Parquet, but as when you choose a "white paint" there are thousands of white paints! So is the case with the floors....again I have enclosed a few contenders, let me know if you like one over the others.

  we move on 






 So I started slab shopping.....oh boy, another headache! I would never buy slabs anywhere but in person, and for that I love ABC's selection, they are expensive no doubt but they really have a superb bar none selection of stones that you can't always find and they are always the premium ones. There website, which is a great source, if not just to take a look at all the various marbles that most people don't even know exist is  http://abcworldwidestone.com/...... today I went looking  and was overwhelmed with how many Calacuttas there are!  I am nearly positive I am going with a Calacutta for the ktichen and butler pantry.

I went to several places locally and looked online just to "reeducate myself" and I needed it!  Its been 8 years since I have done this and the selections and choices have increased dramatically along with the prices! These are some of what I have seen..... there is Calacutta Gold and Calacutta Gold "extra" which seems to have a little more gold running through it, though I like the gray/black veining because A. it looks old and very European and B. it will highlight the black accents in my kitchen (the range and the island) welcome to your thoughts! They also showed me Imperial Danby, below is a picture of what it looks like. It is less money but I still like the Calcutta better. And then of course there is the 2 inch which is really decadent for a counter top and the inch and a quarter which is more standard to decide between. So here are a few of the various shadings of the newer lots of Calacuttas....I am going out again today so will continue to keep you posted. Decisions, decisions....