The real question is the pros/cons of getting it changed and what is a reasonable settlement if we keep it. Pros - The floor is done and you get to move on African tali is a harder wood The builder is happy Cons - It is not the floor you wanted Delay completion - If lucky, the delay is only while your GC orders and waits for the flooring to be delivered and then while the floor acclimates in the house as well as waiting for the other subs (cabinets maker, countertop maker, painters and plumber) to put everything back in place. If you are not so lucky, there will be further delays due to damage to the cabinets, countertops and appliances. The builder is not happy and you end up with other issues where he may not see things your way. Only you can determine if the pros outweigh the cons. There are always compromises to be made during a build. And, we are all human, mistakes happen.

Change in temperature = change in dimensions in the planks. Bamboo is NOT hardwood, therefore it has it's own issues outside of the normal issues with hardwood. And morning star has SERIOUS issues over time (go ahead and google LL and lawsuits....you will find DOZENS of class actions just waiting to go). I'm thinking this has TWO reasons for happening: Indoor living conditions. Something has changed and that needs to be looked at. 2. Improper install with not enough expansion left at the walls. As a floating floor, most of them will NEED transition strips at ALL doorways. Your FIRST priority will be to look at all your doorways (and pinch points such as hallways) to see if T-mouldings or thresholds were used. The SECOND priority is to REMOVE the baseboard in the area where this is occurring and MEASURE the gap between the floor and the drywall/vertical surface. Is it the REQUIRED gap? Go ahead and do this in an area that is UNAFFECTED and COMPARE the gaps. My spidy senses are telling me that a "too narrow" gap at install + change in household living conditions are to blame. The two put together have manifested itself into an issue. The fact that you have squeaks and the floor bounces tells me the subfloor condition was probably not dealt with to the degree needed to get rid of the noise. What is your subfloor? Plywood/OSB or concrete?

wow, thanks for all the help! I can see that the different adjacent woods look good in your posted pictures only because they are quite differentn from each other, not sure that I want to go too light on the new wood because it would be to "blendy" with the white cabinets. A border is an interesting idea but my kitchen might be too small to be able to pull that off, I have an approx 10 x 13 U shaped kitchen with an adjacent 10 x 8 breakfast area. I appreciate the comments to consider that the lighting in the kitchen might be quite different from the hallway. That is true but I did not think of the hallway as being dark until we had the flooring changed and it surprised me how much darker it was after the flooring change. I'm going to find some dark brown tarps to put on the kitchen floor and see what that feels like. thank you!

This is the most common profile for crown. It will be available, just get the right height. I suggest a millwork lumber yard rather than a box store if you want to get primed real wood for a decent price.