A colored wax would be cool, but slippery. This floor was stained (2 different stain colors: Puritan pine, allowed to dry, then special walnut 3 parts and red mahogany 1 part) and waxed with two different colors of wax from Kingdom Restorations, a coat of dark oak wax, then black wax. It was then buffed with a power buffer. The floor was reclaimed heart pine, 190 years old. Casey Here is a link that might be useful: Kingdom Restorations waxes

Would sanding the wood floors irritate your childrens' asthma? The fine dust you don't see is actually worse for your lungs than the bigger particles you do. We paid over $8/sf for reclaimed barn wood (pine) about 5 years ago in upstate NY. I'm not an expert on removing flooring, but what do you have to lose? Remove a few. The first few will be the hardest, then if you're careful, you might be able to get the rest up cleanly. My guess is that you'll have a % of damaged boards, but you might be able to save most. You can then salvage some of the damaged boards by cutting out the bad parts. We removed a T & G wood ceiling once and my husband did his usual UNcareful job. We still managed to salvage a lot of it. And on the floor you'd have more control. As for health concerns with old wood, I don't know. There might be lead paint traces on it. There was on our old barn wood. Maybe finishing the floor will seal everything in... I don't know. good luck!

White Pine is a beautiful flooring. The only downside to this is the hardness rating (only 420 Janka Rating). This means that if there is high traffic it will most likely get many scratches. Its good that is a light colored wood because scratches are less visible on light colors. If your looking to spend up to $4 per sqft I would suggest going with something harder. The options available in light colors are Hickory (1820 Janka) and Maple (1450 Janka), two of the hardest domestic species available. These are both very similar to what your looking for and they both come in rustic or natural grade. Often times in the wood business you get what you paid for, but once in a while you can find a great lot deal. Since your buying roughly 1000 sqft, remember, most stores will offer a bulk price.

Pictured here is my previous old country farm home that had the wide spaces of sub floor only in the kitchen. It gives you an idea of what we like. Each room had slightly different wood because the rooms were added as the family grew but they were all close to the same shade. We put 3 coats of poly on all the floors. Easy to clean and what collected in the spaces even in the kitchen came up with normal vacuuming. It also had stains but only around the perimeter & uniform so it still looked great in our opinion. Thank you for your ideas! A more modest family built our current country farm home. It is better for just the 2 of us now yet room for visiting family/grandchildren. This is a very strong sub floor and there are signs they had some kind of the original linoleum over it until it was removed & used as a kid's hangout in the 60's. A pro historic floor refinisher said they are too cupped to use a drum sander...it would take too much wood off to take the cupping out & make the floor too weak. He suggested painting it. Ugh. Even as a sub floor we love the look of the natural wood and it was plenty warm even with our 28-34 degree winter. The pictures of the stained floor in question might not be the 1800s original floor since this was a back porch that had been enclosed when more children were born, as was the dogtrot. The pro said only the original 2 rooms off the dogtrot are heart pine and this is antique pine. I'll post pictures of the stains & poly experiment in what will be the linen closet when it is dry. I'd love to hear your opinion of it.