It gets worse before it gets better..

Whenever I've been on the verge of a thorough cleaning I make an absolute mess first. It isn't on purpose, it is part of the cleaning. Piles of stuff everywhere -- which are not to be associated with my normal piles of stuff everywhere, these piles are "cleaning out" piles .. there is a difference! Right now, I'm a mess, the house is a mess, and I'm debating with samples of tile, wood, and grout. I've gone mad, I'm just not as attractive and eccentrically cool as the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp).

Wood - I think it was Shakespeare who first pondered "Is it better to maple or pine?" Obviously anyone who has read Shakespeare would know he would prefer pine (look at all those sappy romance plays!), but he's dead and I'm not sure. The wood in question will be for the cabinets in the back hallway. Lots of traffic, not much elbow room. And, of course, once we decide on WOOD, then we're back to stain, which is actually where we started at before leaping to wood. (yes, ha ha ha, I said "wood").

Grout - Harmon (what I am calling my contractor from here on out till I think of something better ~ aka David Harmon) dropped by grout samples along with above mentioned wood (yes, you can giggle again) this morning. I had an idea of what I wanted and then he presented me with approximately 50 friggin' samples. Doesn't he know how you just simply do NOT give people that many options?!?!?
So .. I've now pretty much narrowed it down to two grouts, one for the floor and a different shade for the counters. The floor would be "Speckled Red Black" & the counters would be "Speckled Buff Wine" (sounds like a breed of chicken!). But then there is "Hemp" and that is just hard to resist. Though I REALLY like the speckled ones. These grouts are all from http://www.starquartzgrout.com.

Tile - Well, those have already been decided upon. They only got thrown in the mess here today because I have samples of tile sitting on the floor (so that you know it is the floor) and on the counter (so that you know it's the counter) and on the wine barrel (because I can't figure out where else to put them). All grout samples have to be first viewed in between two samples of tile. Just like wood colors for the ceiling (which is decided upon) had to be viewed both up close to the tile and far away. The tile is now becoming like some 1/2 broken old video game: moving colored squares on the floor that I feel I need to quickly step on or jump over.

On top of all this (quite literally) are books and papers. Papers for this being done, estimates for that being done, mail. Books for ideas for this being done, new cookbooks, magazines. Rounding out the mess is an empty box to place cut potatoes in (the potatoes are currently still in a large bag on the floor ... the bag is, like the tile, starting to wander around the kitchen), grout samples, the new blender, beer growlers and bottles, and so on.

I had wanted to perhaps post a video of the Mad Hatter, but the good one I found wouldn't let me embed it. Bastards. So, here is a link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBmLViALjhk
Now, back to my debating.