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.

Redroze, I'm just getting back online and seeing your questions, so I'll try to answer what I can. My new floor in the LR/DR was not pre-finished, it was all site-finished. I did put a pre-finished floor down in my office (no pics, sorry) because I work from home and didn't have time to be without my office for the week it would have taken to have floor sanded etc. The pre-finished does have a different feel to it than the site-finished. I wouldn't say it's grooved, just a more defined difference in between the individual planks. The office doesn't adjoin any other room, except the tiled hallway, so I didn't worry so much about the wood being different there. I see from your pictures what you mean about running the planks the same way and wanting to be sure things don't look odd. One idea might be to take up some of your FR planks, like the first 12 or so, and then put them back down interwoven with the new planks. That way there's not a clear line in between the 2 rooms, but rather a more gradual blending. Here's another couple of pictures, this time of my family room. The first one is a before shot of the hardwood floor + a rug-like carpet. The floor created a frame around the carpet. I had the carpet taken up and new hardwood put in where the carpet originally was, then everything sanded and refinished. You absolutely can't tell where the old wood was vs where the new started. In this case, the new is random width because it opens directly to the kitchen (as opposed to the LR/DR which is all the same width). So, one house, all new site-finished floors in the LR & DR, all new pre-finished floor in the office, original/refinished in the kitchen, and half&half refinished + original in the family room. Boy did we have dust! Hope this helps! New:

I had the same situation in my house that we just sold. I found it an opportunity to put a floor cloth (I painted) to bring some decor into the room. That is a red oak 3/4" hardwood floor we installed. Those are Pecan stained Alder cabinets that came with the house when we bought it. Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog with pic of Kitchen

HI everyone, thank you all so much for your thoughtful input! The overall theme I'm seeing is to not refinish the hardwood just for the sake of doing it - and definitely not for the sake of matching the LVP. For some reason, I didn't realize this was an option (lol) - I have been getting so bogged down in needing to take action (a la my husband with the kitchen floor), that I didn't even think to take a breather and let it be for a while so we can re-gather our thoughts :) And since the hardwood will be getting done in the next year or two anyway, it feels almost like a weight is lifted off my shoulders with not having to add one more thing to our current To Do list! @kempek01 your suggestion is spot on and made me laugh out loud! Truthfully, the mismatch didn't bother me as much until I thought of what my in-laws would say at our housewarming - and really, all of them are homeowners, so I'm sure they understand the concept of a work in progress ... AND if anyone does comment, I will say "Thanks for noticing" and chug my wine (while mentally throwing it on them)! @Patricia Colwell I like your idea of having the same wood species laid down in the kitchen and all of it matching! Or the idea of vinyl tile ... honestly, I was thinking of anything besides the LVP my hubs came home with! Lol! but having the same species of wood all the way through the house would be a very charming look! @dan1888 thank you for your words of wisdom! you're right, no need to sacrifice the rest of the house's hardwood to coordinate with a not-thought-out temporary fix :) @SJ McCarthy you make so many good points ... we're also in the middle of a total bathroom renovation and a light second floor renovation (which will then be further renovated down the line anyway), so the last thing we need to be thinking about now is moving our furniture from room to room, or to a storage pod, so the floors can be refinished. And, while we know we want to refinish them, we haven't nailed down a specific stain yet, so it would be more rushing, potentially leading to more regret! Your suggestion of sitting down and storyboarding each room is soooo incredibly wise ... we will definitely be doing that, starting over dinner tonight! @Fori thank you so much :) we think it's super cute too! It really is charming, and in keeping with the style of our house. It's so funny you say that, because my husband (he is a darling) EVENTUALLY wants to gut the whole kitchen, knock out the back wall, and expand the whole kitchen/dining room area!!! However, that's a big expense and still quite a few years down the road - plus, I think the house is kinda sweet the way it is - but the lack of dishwasher does plague us when we have guests for dinner! Ha! Anyway, I guess there's no point in paying twice for a temporary kitchen floor (and staining the rest of the house to match ...). Phew! I feel like I've been talked off several ledges today!!!