Now We're REALLY Building a House

When I started this blog a year ago, I thought we'd be done by now.

SURPRISE!

Well, there have been a few hurdles on the way, most of which can be chalked up to the phenomenon we might call OII (Only in Israel).

We endured a great deal of frustration in having to wait, but our patience seems to have paid off. Various things that need to be dealt with by the authorities here in terms of actually making sure our lot does not turn into a swimming pool appear to be in the process of being deal with.

And so we are back on track. A few minor changes to the plans, and a great many interviews with contractors, and it seems we have indeed found the right person to build our house. 

Which is exciting. And anxiety-inducing.

We sign the contract next week. You know...the one with all the big scaaaary numbers. 

I'll tell you all about our contractor soon.

Wish us well and send calming thoughts so we don't panic at the last moment.

Thanks for asking about our progress! We look forward to reporting as we move ahead. 

(this post not really written on shabbat, I just have the time zone set wrong!)

My Chin Hit the Floor

I went out for an introductory look around at flooring for ideas, budget, etc.

Our plan is to outfit the "public" areas - salon, eating area, kitchen, hallway - nicer than the private areas - upstairs, guest room, protected room. So the idea is to go mid-range for half the house and all out cheap on the other half. (Have you ever gone to a flooring store and asked them, okay, what's your cheapest flooring? Watch the shock. Priceless)

Houses in Israel are commonly built out of concrete, hence the title of this blog. In North America we are more used to wood in our homes. And some people in Israel do build out of wood, although it is far from the norm.

We decided not to build our house out of wood for several reasons. Budget is the big one. More on that another time.


I didn't know it before, but I realize now that I need some wood in the house for it to feel like home. Yesterday I learned pretty quickly that unless I want to be in debt for the rest of my life, I wasn't looking at wood, but fake wood. Woodish. Sad but true. 

Laminates are great these days, and some of these were well-priced (like, 1/4 of the cost of real wood. Really). But laminates do not go well into kitchen areas and blog rumour has it should not go on ground floor at all because of moisture and mould. I understand there are commonly installation problems too.


But they showed me the neatest thing - ceramic/porcelain tiles that look like wood! They really look like wood. Brilliant. Sounds like they would be perfect even in wet areas (i.e. kitchen). More expensive than laminate, more user-friendly than either laminate or real wood. Prices range from low-end (apparently from Turkey) to as-expensive-as-real-wood (apparently from Italy).

I'm leaning toward these "woodish" tiles for the nicer bits of the house, but there's lots of homework to do in the meantime. The one obvious drawback is they are cold cold cold like regular tiles. I wonder if psychology will kick in and they will "feel" warm to the brain expecting wood.