Cool floor!

To be perfectly frank, I have lots of house-envy. Whether it's the garden, the unpenned walls, the clean carpets, the cool drapes in the bathroom...I can usually find SOMETHING I envy.

The one I want to share with you today was in the basement of a friend's house. They are working on turning the unfinished basement into a playspace for the kids. It's not big, it's not fancy...lots of shelves for bins, a clothes pole for costumes. The thing that was so awesomely cool was the floor.

I thought it was a hardwood floor (no, that's not their basement...their basement was a swamp of toys and kids gear!), which set off the house-envy because OUR basement takes a little water every time it rains (old fieldstone foundations DO that). Can't put a nice floor down when it gets wet all the time! When I stepped on their floor, though, it was spongy!

Apparently, they get the occasional water, too. The solution: the floor was covered in foam mats that looked like wood. It was really fantastic! On top of it, they are closed cell and do not absorb water so these mats are completely waterproof. These mats are fleshed with herringbone grip on one side to promote "anti-slip" and these are reversible. Score!

I don't know if/when we can afford to redo OUR basement, despite Beloved's making measurements and talking about doing it. But, when we do get around to it, this is definitely one of the ideas I'm going to file in the back of my head!