week 14: Choosing parquet, fireplace and some of the kitchen appliances

We have been changing our mind on what kind of floor we wnat in the living room/ kitchen. Initially we were thinking that tiles go better with underfloor heating but in the end we still like better the feel of wooden floor. So we now decided to use parquet (or so called engineered wooden floor).

We checked various floor options from Parador, Upofloor, Karelia and Kährs. We wanted a floor that is sort of whitish but not look too "made" white. Ash tree (saarni/ frasin) has quite white wood but we did not like much the options found for ash parquet. We found and interesting parquet for oak from Kärhs, model Oak/ Tammi Dew (Harmony collection).

Kährs Oak Dew (promo picture from their website)

photo taken with my phone-  it's surface fees relatively rough as it's been brushed deeply and oiled. It also feels solid compared to other parquets and Kährs gives 30 year guarantee. But it does come at a price, about 40 euro/ sqm.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Also we have decided on the fireplace, it will be from Vuoleri. We have some criterias based on which we have chosen the fireplace:
- we like the classical looking fireplaces with tiles
- we would like to have also baking oven
- price was also a contraint - our initial budget was 6000 euro including chimney
- it should not be very wide and very deep (max 90cm X 70 cm)
- it should less than 2000 kg and chimney less than 1500 kg (foundation constraints)
Vuoleri fireplaces are made with real stone inside compared to the fireplaces Kermasavi from Tulikivi thus with a smaller fireplace one can get more heat as stone retains the heat better (at least in theory :)). Also Vuoleri were flexible to make us a customized version of the fireplace. We wanted to have a small fireplace with baking oven model like Aino below but then higher by 30 cm and looking tiled like Päivänsäde below. Päivänsäde would have been too heavy for us.

Aino and Päivänsäde next to each other

The baking oven in Aino is closed, not connected to the fireplace underneath thus it keeps clean (no smoke inside). The temparture in the baking oven can get up to 250 C.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


The appliances story to follow...