"Something I read made me worry about using new wood from a lumber yard instead of finding old salvage wood. They said that newer wood had too much moisture and would cause a bunch of shifting of the floorboards when it got hot or cold." Order kiln dried wood, or let the wood sit in the house a few weeks to equilibrate. Even ancient wood will expand and contract a bit as humidity changes. V-Groove or Buttline? Clarify with the lumber yard, but around here, that's the shape of the place the boards join. V-groove has a beveled edge on each board, so you see a v-shaped groove between boards. Buttline has squared edges so the boards meet (butt together) with no space or groove. TIP: check the new flooring against the old before you start. If the tongues match, but the new stuff is too high, get a plane and plane the TOP of the board to match the heights. It makes sanding easier.

If you really loved the walnut door that you saw, why not get it. It is YOUR house, not the architects, so what if he thought the door would be to formal, you are the one that will be living in the house, not him. Do what you like and want.

Sherwin Williams Ultra deep tint base(A100), but do not add any color. It is paint that dries clear(as long as no color is added). It is milky white when applied, then dries transparent. The following picture is a close up of a walnut cross I built and has been installed over a year now, full sun/wind/rain/snow. I applied two coats of the A100 in August, 2014(was stored inside) and installed the cross in place in March, 2015.

SB - No, not using tropical wood flooring for sure! Our posts are under generous overhangs but will certainly be exposed to UV and wind blown rain and snow - no getting away from that. We had original Doug fir sills on our old house (built in 1936) that were rock solid when we sold 2 years ago. They were painted but even so, the wood will last when taken care of which is one of the reasons we opted to use it here. The other reason being there weren't a lot of choices for 8 x 8 posts :-/ am_e here are a couple of quick pics I just grabbed. Our posts arrived pretty rough sawn. Before they were set in place I used a belt sander to smooth them out a bit - they're not baby butt smooth by any stretch but I wanted a little less texture and splinters! This is a post cut off that I sanded and put clear Penofin on the left. when they're first sanded the wood is very light as you can see but it begins to darken really fast. Here are the front porch posts in place. They were all sanded and looked like the sample above 5 or 6 weeks ago and they've already darkened. Getting color samples of the Penofin is proving to be difficult - none of the places here that sell it have the sample color tubes so I called CA. The website says they will ship but when I told them I'm in NC they directed me to a place in IL. Called them (they have no website) and if I email a list of what I want and my phone # they'll call me for a cc# to charge me for the shipping - oy. I'd like to get this done, like soon, ya know! Could be a week + till I even see a sample then test, then decide then order the color I want..... The clear is beginning to look ok to me.