I too am in the same boat. My house has a territorial style exterior but the interior is transitional. My ongoing kitchen remodel will result in things leaning towards the contemporary side. Part of the project is to replace the tile flooring in the kitchen and main hallway off of it and the carpet in the family room (which is off of the kitchen), dining room, and living room all with wood. I am debating whether to put in a handscraped as well. My designer thinks it may be a bit on the fad side and is recommending more of a traditional wood flooring since he feels it will be "timeless". My home is in an upscale neighborhood so I definitely want to put in something that is applicable and will keep the value in line.

Everlast Floors in Whippany, NJ did a terrible job with my installation and they damaged my file cabinets and scratched my floors and I can go on and on with the problems that I have had with the store. I wish I installed the 5.25" wide long boards Amendoim instead or the Brazilian Cherry long boards that were wide with a different store that takes pride in doing a good job and stands by their work. They were also supposed to do the installation in August 2014 but knew the wood was backordered so waited a few days so I could not cancel the contract to tell me and then told me that the wood would be there by the end of August but to wait until Gary would come back from vacation to cull the wood and be there. Gary the Salesman came back and then the wood still was not here and when it arrived I was trying to finish up my 10-15-2014 deadline and had to put off doing the floors. I can't believe how many damaged file cabinets I have and scratches on my floors and boards lining up with seams in a pattern that the installer admitted and the poor quality shoe molding used that looks terrible. Please do not use this store. When I have time, I will be doing a poor review on Yelp about the store. The salesman is a Bully and signs off if I pay, "we will pay for the file cabinet damage to the broken drawer that the installers did to a cabinet and replace the T-Molding (they stole the one I bought in a prior year that I had in the garage as they bought wood of another species stained that was too short) and other promises that they broke. They waited so long to say they will be here so I could not stop payment on the credit card. The installers that hardly spoke English did a good job but the one that headed the team that was an employee that they paid as an independent contractor, left green tape (I bought as they ran out) underneath the shoe molding and I can't get it all out and did the pattern and admitted it and had no idea we had enough wood and did not listen to me and used boards I told him not to use on my floor. I am so unhappy. The worst part is they never sent me the insurance claim form that I requested so many times to file a claim and they lied about the pad being so warm that anything in addition would be overkill and they keep telling me the owner of the store would call me back but he ignores the situation and I had to stop calling as it was my tax season. Just warning others.

ajsmama, I think like you, I would have loved a wood like Bloodwood since the red color is what I wanted. If BR-111 sold Kempas, I may have went with it but I was afraid to go with Kempas after reading problems Hartco's milling had with it despite feeling it would be more red. In all since I like most of the pictures of Brazilian Cherry, I feel I will be happy once the floor is installed and the floor oxidizes to get the rich reddish colors. My allergies were bad all night and today which I feel is a combination of the wood outgassing through the boxes and the muggy weather outside which most likely is causing my mold and weed allergies to act up. I have not had allergies in awhile except for bad allergies so I stopped going for allergy shots. I may have to call a new local allergist (my other allergist is too far so I just keep putting off going) to continue my allergy shots since they had helped me so much and in August and September are my worst months. Hence, the wood in the family room, is probably to me like someone just painted the walls with a low VOC paint and I will be patient and wait for the outgassing to lessen. I am still excited about my floors but I have to finish some work before I can get back to emptying these rooms, paint the walls in the two room home office (the wood is being stored in the third room on the first floor which is open to the other rooms)and having my floors installed so I can post pictures of the beauty of the wood.

As above. Bellawood is from Lumber Liquidators. They typically use Aluminum Oxide in their finishes because it reduces complaints about scratches in the finish. Aluminum Oxide is SUPER TOUGH to cut through. It can take 2-3 TIMES the effort (and materials) for the professional to cut through the finish. If you can find someone who will 'try' (most will say "Thanks but no thanks" because they have lost SOOOO much money to aluminum oxide finishes in the past), then you will be paying an up-charge of $2-$3 per square foot. Brazilian Cherry is Jatoba. It is an exotic hardwood. These exotics are SUPER DENSE. They are very, very, very hard. That means your professional will burn through pads and will take 2-3 times the amount of time to deal with these floors. Again, you will be looking at an upcharge of $2-$3 per square foot. And at the end of the day, after spending AAAAAALL that money, you still have Brazilian Cherry that turns DARK ORANGE/FLAME RED in sunlight/daylight/overhead lighting. The colour (if anything) you put down today will be different in 6 months. A traditional refinish = $5/sf. With all of the above, I would think you are looking at $9/sf which may not include stain (bleaching out Jatoba is like trying to turn jet black hair to a lovely golden blonde...without ruining the hair). Bellawood is cheap. It is MUCH cheaper to pay someone $2/sf to rip this out and then pay them $3/sf to install a different Bellawood product (which you can purchase for as little as $2.99/sf).