Over the weekend, I decided my new place needed a name. I'm never sure what to call it. It's a condo, technically... but the term condo conjures up an image of a quadplex with grass and little lawn mower service flags sticking out from under the hedges. In other moments, I'll refer to it as an apartment, but I don't really feel that is accurate either.
So, I started thinking about what to call it. Some of the residents at my current place refer to the house as Keystone, or 'The Stone', but neither Lake nor Wells seems specific enough. Frankly, this is because I'm not actually very near to either streets.
Next I thought about famous houses. There's Mount Vernon, Monticello, 10 Downing Street, and even The White House. I toyed around with the idea of a Mount or Mont in the name, but let's be honest: no mountains around, and just because you use an elevator to get to your place doesn't give you the right to call it a mountain.
After sifting through some more ideas, I finally settled on one on Sunday. I was driving to a place that sells Murphy Beds and I started thinking about the character of my place. It's small, elevated, shrouded by nearby buildings... and I've likened the passing El trains to rolling thunder. THUNDER, great idea... but it needed a modifier, and so I thought of some and have settled on Thunder Keep. It's a fine name, if I do say so myself.
In other news, I've been doing some shopping/browsing and am getting increasingly excited about the remodeling work to be done. After the Murphy Bed store (which was closed), I spent a few hours at the Home Despot and picked out a new laminate floor. It's called Cinnamon Cabreuva and is really awesome! Anyhow, I tried to find a sample online, but The Google can only find the first few sentences of a lame self-published book. I'm a little concerned it might be discontinued.
Hey Byron, congratulations on the new home! I like the name - Thunder Keep. Reminds me of Lord of the Rings, LOL.
I'm thinking of buying the same flooring that you bought: Cinnamon Cabreuva @ Home Depot. Do you recommend it?
Sharon,
I love my floor. It's beautiful. So, yes, I do recommend it.
Not sure if you're planning to install it, but my only complaint was that the instructions pretend it's easy to install but in fact you will need one person for every two panels of width in the room you are installing (or close to it.)
In other words, if each panel is 5 ft long and your room is 40 ft wide, then you would need 8 panels across the room and 4 people to install it. I tried doing my studio apartment myself and it's simply impossible to do without the extra hands. (To see the problem, go to the store and try to fit together three rows of flooring. Do it on level ground and stagger the pieces like you would when installing in your place. You'll see how it's very difficult to get everything lined up. This is good when the floor is together as it doesn't come apart, but a pain to install.)
Also, you'll probably want to buy some mineral spirits. Many of my boxes had glue specks across the front of the wood surface. I talked to the HD guys and they recommended mineral spirits. It cleans the floor like a charm.
Last tip: order more flooring than you think you'll need. It's easy to make a mistake and create an unusable piece or ten.
Best of luck with the floor. I really love mine and have had no issues.
Peace,
Byron Clarke