I have had Lauzon engineered flooring (red oak natural - select & better) for about 5 years. If my memory serves me well, about $6.50 may be the ballpark figure. Depends on the type of wood you choose, width, etc. The online company we ordered from wasn't the greatest, but everything turned out well in the end. In hind sight, I wished we had ordered from Hosking Hardwood which would not have been that much more in cost. In our case it was penny wise pound foolish. Dh & I installed ourselves (glued down). Lauzon boards are milled so perfectly and we hardly had any waste (no "bad" boards). Good luck with your search and best wishes in your new home!

Yeah you can do that. By which method were you thinking you wanted to secure it to the floor? Glue? Float? Nail? Having parquet is nice because with any prefinished floor you want a level surface and with the parquet you can sand out any humps.

laminate flooring is a floating floor meaning its not adhered to the subfloor. You can't install parquet over a floating floor, but laminate should be very easy to pull up as it won't be glued down and should come up pretty easy. kitchen floor needs to be leveled either by using a leveling compound or new subfloor. Sounds like you could use an 'expert' installer. to give you some input.

If you have a nail down/staple/cleat or floating wood floor, you are welcome to harvest the hardwood you need from hidden places - like closest in bedrooms, etc. A glue down wood floor probably won't be salvageable for such a job. Removing glue down hardwood is a nightmare to begin with...and then hoping to salvage something later on is almost impossible. In such a prominent area like a kitchen, I would hate to see a bad patch job. In the worst case scenario (I've seen this done with floating laminate and cork) you can remove an entire room (like a small bedroom/den) to get the planks that you need (plus the 1 carton of "extra" for 25 years worth of repairs) and then install a new floor in that small room. It is more expensive that 10 planks, but it is FAR more desirable to have a public space (others can see it) in the right flooring. The small den can always get carpet for the next decade while you work towards your next floor. Good luck.