Thanks for the input! It is somewhat of a subfloor, but there is one more layer beneath this wood and the joists under the house. We can't put another wood on top, because it is already sitting higher than the oak in the dining room, so there would still be a threshold needed. And we really don't want any type of linoleum back in the kitchen. We went ahead and stained the wood this weekend, and it already looks fantastic. If we didn't have the oak right against it, we would have kept it natural with just a gloss coat to bring out the red and the old plank character. But we thought two natural woods might clash, so we went with a dark Jacobean stain. Will post a pic soon, once we get the threshold done, and everything looking clean. Thanks again! It's always nice to have second opinions

Starfish 24 - we live with different wood floor in adjacent rooms everyday. Our home is 137 years old and was built in stages. The bedroom, which is adjacent to the butler's pantry has 3" heart pine boards stained walnut. The butler' pantry, which is part of the redo, just acquired hickory 2 1/4 " flooring, along with the kitchen and it is stained a nice shade of medium brown. The living room, which is adjacent to the butler's pantry on the third side, has heart pine, stained an oak color. The foyer, which is adjacent to the living room has 4" Teak. I love ALL of my floors (except the living room maybe!!!) and we are used to it. Will probably restain the living room after the kitchen remodel to be a little darker. I think that if you only have one room with different wood floor it will be fine.

" is the breakfast room REALLY too small to eat in? " On the eating area ... check out the picture and the description for Rule #8 ... http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm Basically, Here are dining table clearance rules ... Allow 24" for a seated diner with no obstruction (wall, furniture, counter, etc) behind. Allow 32" from table edge to wall or obstruction for a seated diner with NO TRAFFIC passing behind diner. Allow minimum 36" to allow someone to slide behind / edge past a seated diner when traffic passes behind a seated diner between the table and an obstruction, Or, a minimum 42-44" to allow traffic to walk behind a seated diner. Allow 60" from table edge for a wheelchair to pass behind. To allow for a dining table right next to an island or peninsula with barstools, add approx 18", assuming a fairly modest sized barstool. So ... you would need minimum 42 + 18 = 60" between the edge of the dining table and the counter edge of the island or peninsula to allow traffic to walk in between (not "slide past"). Understand, these are minimums and depend on the size of the furniture, a couple more inches could feel more spacious. We have about 36" (maybe an inch or so more than that, no more than 38" for sure) between the table edge and the wall for a 13 foot long dining table that seats 14 (6 on each side and 1 on each end) and it is fairly comfortable even sliding past to get to the seats in the middle. Our chairs are normal size, not overly large and you don't have to "hug the wall" to get by. Also, be sure to use the measurements from the counter overhang edge (the cabinets may be 24", but have a 1-2" overhang) and know your table measurements. Our table is 40" wide, but tables can vary GREATLY from about 32" wide to about 48" wide. If you are unsure, try to plan for a wider width. These dimensions above are for regular chairs. Banquet seat dimensions would be a little different. On a round table, you can fudge the above numbers a little because the table curves away from you almost immediately. Not so much on an oval table. The curve on an oval is only on the corners, where there will already be plenty of space anyway. One thing that does help you is the doorway opening on 2 sides of the table which makes the traffic passing area feel more generous. There is no wall or obstruction behind the table there. WIDTH NEEDED for dining ... Ideally, you need 24-28" of width for each seated person at a dinner table or for bar seating. 30" would be Very graciously spacious. At a bare minimum, you need about 21" width for bar seating. KNEE SPACE: If putting stools or chairs on perpendicular sides of a table/island/peninsula, be sure the knee space is not shared by 2 seats. For 30" high tables (table height) you need 18" table overhang / knee space For 36" high counters (counter height) you need 15" counter overhang / knee space For 42" high counters (bar height) you need 12" counter overhang / knee space Some people do get by with less overhang at their bar or island. I actually have 18.5" wide for each of my 4 barstools, which are just round so not very large stools (Acme Furniture 07258). I would not do a dining table with personal space this narrow at 18-21", but you can get away with it a little more easily at a bar. We have 15" overhang on the long side of our counter height (36" tall) peninsula. When we are sitting at our peninsula, we normally pull one of the stools around to the end which has an 8" overhang. The 8" counter overhang is not ideal by any means, but it is workable for occasional use. This gives each of the 3 stools on the long side 24.5" wide per person . When it's kids sitting there, the decreased space works ok for them and they all 4 stay side by side with 18.5" each

Oh dear. I know you won't want to hear this, but you will need to look at removing/replacing the Acacia at sometime in the future. I would start saving to have everything changed to a new hardwood throughout the space in the next 10 years or so. To get that to happen (without killing the budget) I am going to suggest laminate for now. Save your money on hardwood, and go for a temporary fix (temporary = 7-10 years) so that you can save up to have all the floors done in one single material. And by the time you have the funds to do that, you will want to change the kitchen. Again, this will work perfectly because once you change the kitchen, you will change EVERYTHING in the kitchen which means you will have a new FOOT PRINT for the cabinets, etc. Meaning you will need to change out the flooring anyway. See where I'm going here? Basically I would get flooring that will make it to the "kitchen renovation" in the next 7-10 years and then have EVERYTHING removed and replaced all at once. The kitchen renovation will include whole home flooring renovation as well. If you must have new hardwood RIGHT NOW, DARN IT! Then I suggest you look at a standard 3" White Oak Solid hardwood that can be site finished. That means you can ADD MORE of this very basic material at a LATER DATE. Anything engineered will never be able to be "added to" without creating the identical dilemma (two different wood floors in the home) that you are facing right now.