sc Kathyc - We originally were leaning toward going dark with the floors until they were installed. They are just so beautiful unfinished aren't they? When we went with darker stains we lost the color variations and gained more grain activity. We had a lot of different stain colors and combos, but ended up going with 2 parts natural and 1 part chestnut stain (I think). You can still tell it's hickory, yet the color variations aren't too demanding in the room. One of the toughest decisions on our build, but I'm very happy with how they turned out.

You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.

First some of my experience (as a new hardwood floor owner), and then your questions. Pleasant surprises - much easier to keep clean that I expected. After almost half a year, I still love to look at my floor every single day. I still look to find "favorite boards" and see how they look in different light. And I still love the feel of the floor on my feet. However - some of the downsides I discovered. If I don't wear a padded or soled slipper, I get toe cramps. Weird, huh? We also live in a place where people tend to sand their icy walkways rather than chemical/melt. That's fine, except it requires some caution to keep from sand papering your floor simply by walking in the house. Rugs do the trick for the most part, but there's always those few loose grains. We're looking at installing a whole house humidifier. We need it anyway, but if we didn't we'd still be looking at it for the floors. We have very humid summers, and very cold/dry winters. Our floors have developed expansion/contraction gaps in some places that are nearly 1/8" wide. I haven't run into this yet, but my aunt had hardwood floors put in and sold her house 4 years later. She typically vacuumed rather than shook/beat her rugs. When she pulled them up after their house sold, the hardwood under he rugs was noticeably darker than around, due to surrounding areas having faded. I don't know how prone hardwood normally is to fading, but something to think about. For you rpictures - I think hardwood would look good in there. Is the entry at your front door already hardwood? You have a lot of warm colors & I think you would enjoy the aesthetics (you have a lot of stained wood accessories, and I think I see a fair bit of oak, so I'm assuming you enjoy the look of wood grain). How much distance is there between your couches? You generally want to place the rug so that at least the front feet of the furniture can rest on at least the border of the rug. Are you thinking prefinished, or finished onsite? Mine were finished onsite, so I could see the actual stain on the actual wood - an in larger areas than your average sample board. That helped. Go to a flooring store (or look through pictures here, or both) and get samples and set them on your floor. Move them throughout the day and notice how they look in different light. Usually the floor is more permanent than the furniture, so consider how you rwood looks with your furnishings to the degree you think is right. If the store has multiple samples, see if they'll let you check them all out and you can "pretend" to have one large sample. (I do that with like 10 paint chips at a time!)

When it comes to hardwood, trends are something to ignore! Why? Because hardwood is pretty much a lifetime purchase, and unless yours is damaged in some way, you're probably not going to replace it. So, light wood vs. dark wood, wide planks vs. narrow planks -- that stuff's all going to come and go. With that in mind -- as well as the very real concerns about cleaning dark wood -- I'll vote for a nice, neutral midtone every time. Not too much contrast, not too red, and (unless it's a beach house) not too pale. I think this is the wood that's most likely to give you good service and stand the test of time.