amck, There are all different sorts of pine. Here in the Southeast, Southern Yellow Pine is the preferred species for floors (when you're talking pine, that is) because it is pretty hard for a "softwood". I think heart wood can and species and the desirability of heart pine is because the heart wood is harder. Problem is, most trees harvested today are too young to have much heart wood, so it is priced at a premium. I found my locally grown and milled pine flooring by calling local lumber mills. Many only sell wholesale (the one I bought from before now does only wholesale) but some will sell to individuals, especially if you can arrange for transport and if you are willing to take full bundles. When I bought before, a full bundle was 1400-1600 board feet = to about 1100-1300 square feet. We have a flatbed trailer and truck that we use on the farm so transport was simple. The problem with buying this way is that the flooring may not be graded to any real standard. Be sure to check into the local mill by calling lumberyards and other places that might have sold or used their products. If you go through a reputable flooring dealer/installer, you are more assured of the quality, but you will pay more for the product. It just depends on how you want to deal with the quality issue. We ordered more than we really needed, but were lucky that the quality of the entire load was excellent. We ended up putting pine in an entire extra room AND had enough left over to make upper shelves for our kitchen. I hope the wood we get for our "forever" house will be as good - we're planning extra shelves in the kitchen and library. ;-)

That is their standard response to all floors. Maybe the rare floor finisher uses waterborne poly. The answer depends on what kind of finish appearance you want, what expectations for wear you have, and how "historical" you may be willing to be. The list of potential finishes, least-durable (requiring frequent maintenance, but giving a unique and more historically-authentic appearance, to hard, bulletproof plastic-y and inauthentic): Bare floor: ages naturally, but will water spot and stain most easily. wood worn away by foot traffic, especially with a very soft wood like white pine. No color will be brought out except by passage of time and whatever dirt/patina builds up and as the wood oxidizes. Wax finish: low protection from water and wear, must be renewed yearly or more, potential to bring out some color in the wood; colored waxes are now readily available. Will be a very authentic soft finish showing much of the natural wood color and texture. Wax does not form a film. Oil finish: Lots of oils out there, most oil finishes do not form a film, so the wood still looks bare/natural. Colored oil finishes are possible, but may blotch a bit at first, this usually will fade when 100% dry. Water spotting still possible, and wood can still wear down. The wood's surface is still taking the wear, but it has been fortified because the oil has penetrated it. Some harder-drying oils, like 100% tung oil, Australian Timber Oil, and I think Landark, are fairly good at hardening the wood surface and are the most durable oils. Wear spots can usually be masked by the application of more oil as needed. Shellac is called a "spirit varnish" because it forms it's protective beautifying film by the evaporation of the alcohol solvent that liquefies it. As the alcohol evaporates very quickly, shellac is a fast-drying finish. Some shellacs contain wax as an impurity. It is added as an extender, and it does help somewhat to achieve a smooth rubbed-out finish when buffed with steel wool. The wax/impurity also shortens the shelf life and lengthens the drying time, while making the finish less water-resistant. In my experience, it's the wax that makes shellac get white water spots. I only use de-waxed shellac, which can be purchased ready-mixed (Zinsser Sealcoat) or made by dissolving flakes in alcohol. I use a lot of shellac for various things, including some floors in my house (and fine furniture finishes). The formula I use for floors is to sand to at least 120, with the grain, by hand, then apply two coats of de-waxed garnet shellac (the darkest colored shellac that really brings out the beauty and gives a base color that's very pleasing on old wood/old house context) and put on 4 coats of the Sealcoat for the wear layer. Six coats of garnet to reach the same film thickness would be awfully dark IMO. Scratches in the shellac floor can be easily touched up without the need to sand the whole floor. Shellac will always bond to shellac, so there is never any problems with blistering or peeling. Because shellac has no odor after the alcohol evaporates, and you can put on 4 coats in a day, it's really great for bedrooms or people with chemical sensitivity. Old-fashion oil varnishes are sometimes used, but the reasons poly is preferred is because it has more benefits for floors because it is harder, so people don't mess with non-poly oil varnish much at all. The only benefit would be that it could theoretically be removed by a chemical stripper so future refinishing would be possible without further sanding. Oil varnish gives a deep amber color to wood, especially your old white pine. Problems include long drying time, softness, difficulty to touch up without sanding. Easier to re-coat than poly, though, because it will stick to itself with lower risk of peeling. Film-forming oil finishes, like Waterlox, are sometimes the most appropriate non-poly floor finish for historic floors. The huge selling point (what sold me) is the need for no future sanding. As historic flooring fabric is a finite resource, and can only take so much sanding until it is worn beyond use, eventually one must consider replacement vs. conservation. Waterlox makes the case that since it can be scuffed and recoated there is never any need to fully sand the wood, so a stable condition on the old floor can be maintained for a long time. Waterlox is a thinner oil=based varnish made with tung oil (I can smell it!) along with other resins and solvents. It has a _very_ strong odor when being applied, as you are getting the effect of the solvent and the material all at once. You need an activated charcoal respirator made for VOC's, or you will suffer the effects. It stinks, OK? The curing time, during which the odor can be detected, will be about a month. The bad, toxic aroma is gone in a day or two. I chose Waterlox for my old kitchen floor. It has held up pretty well; it's now been almost 5 years and there are some scuffed-looking areas where the chairs sit. It's been great for spills, water, general traffic, etc. So I recommend it unless you have chemical sensitivities for aromatic organic compounds, or nut allergies (!) Tung oil is from a nut, BTW. We then come to Polys and other hard commercial-grade floor finishes, some of which are technically difficult to apply and have severe health threats if the proper measures aren't observed while applying. I have such limited experience with any of these that I cannot comment as to any particulars, except to state that they do not have it within themselves to be touched up, and any damage to an area however small usually calls for the whole floor to be re-sanded for a total refinish, or the spot would still be visible. These finishes last an amazingly long time, requiring only cleaning maintenance, and if the floor in question were a new hard wood, it would make the most sense to use the most long-lived finish you could obtain. But in your circumstance it's probably obvious by now that I would not recommend such a finish for your historic wood floor. Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to weigh all the characteristics within your specific context. Casey

I looked into this in many ways myself, and I think if you asked 10 people, you could easily have 5 in each camp of floors vs cabinets first. What will your floor be? Floating floors are not supposed to go under cabinets. (Ie, lots of laminates and woods). I also cannot think of any reason to have vinyl, amtico, or any other sheet product run under cabinets. I have heard the argument that it makes sense to do tile first for two reasons: 1) Depending on layout, the money saved NOT putting tile under the cabinets can sometimes be offset by the extra cutting/layout, etc needed if you install the tile around cabinets, and 2) if it is a high quality tile floor, you may want to save it if the room is remodeled in the future, so wall to wall tile makes more sense. I think a lot of cabinet installers want to put the cabinets in first, so they dont have to worry about protecting your new floor, and floor guys may want to do the floor first, as it is easier to cover the whole floor than to work around the cabinet layout! Personally, my cabinets went in first and then I installed the floating laminate floor myself.

I think depending on the style of the rest of your house and your decorating, you could make these cabinets work without painting them. I understand your worry that they look dated. I think by refreshing the cabinets, and changing the formica and backsplash, you could have a very beautiful, charming space. I have 1960's cherry cabinets that I debated whether or not to paint b/c they were very dingy and I just hated the look of the kitchen. We did not have the money for new cabinet installation, and our remodel was 100% DIY. After posting on the kitchens and old house forum, I decided against painting them. I 'refreshed' them and am soooo happy I didn't paint. Granted, knotty pine is not cherry, but it still has a certain charm to it that painting would take away. If you decide not to paint, my advice would be to test what finish you have on them. Then, remove the hardware and give them a good washing with some fine steel wool and TSP and rinse them completely. Then re-coat them with a compatible finish (i.e. poly, tung oil, varnish). Make sure you do a test with your new finish in an inconspicuous spot to make sure it doesn't gum up, etc. Before: Mid-remodel: (Needs more trim work, painting, new window, etc.) You get the idea with the cabinets. Excuse the clutter and the flaws that the flash picks up, this was snapped hastily!