Tinker-my wood is from Mohawk. I think the color was Autumn something. There were only 3 or 4 choices in color in this particular line. I chose the darkest in the line. I'll try to remember the exact color. Or maybe I can find it on their site for you. You're going to make me show my ignorance, but I don't believe they put a moisture barrier down. But we live in the SW and I can count on 1/2 a hand how many inches of rain we've gotten, so I don't think many people are concerned about moisture here! $3600 seems mighty high for a thin little barrier. How many sq. feet are we talking?? I bet you'll be fine if you have a barrier under the slab, as long as your concrete has been down for a while. I can't see why you'd need both!

suzatwork: i have to say your floors have very much the same grain and variation in tone as my highly-coveted black walnut. they're stunning! i'm wondering how they take stain, since i'd like darker floors? my plan is to go with the walnut but i'll have to get some samples and check the amendoim out. i'll have to look it up, but also assuming this species would be harder than walnut... hmmm... GREAT! more for me to think about! thanks for posting your gorgeous floors.

lovestocook... I remember the pics of your kitchen because the cabinets are so unique and beautiful. Contemporary, clean, yet warm and inviting. Your hood suits your purposes perfectly! We went down to the house we're going to renovate and I took a look at the area again. Now I"m thinking of completely changing up the layout yet again so the hood won't be smack dab in the middle of the living area. Rather then try to explain... I"m going to take some pics of the exisitng mess (construction site and all) and post them for ideas. I'm still a work in progress when it comes to drawing layouts so I think some real time pics will help to start the process rolling a little better. If I do change it around, the hood would be infront of a huge 9' long window that has about 18" of space above it before the ceiling and the same amount of space below it before the floor. I guess that would make the window 5' high (DUH!... took me a minute to figure that out!) When I took a tape measure to a spot 30" above a standard height base cabinet I was surprised at how low that actually is. Since the area is going to be all open, I'm not yet sure if I want it in the siteline from family room straight through to the backyard. The backyard is what makes this house so glorious. Thank goodness this is a long term project and we are just beginning to begin. Thanks for taking the time to post pics.

I thought I recognized "Expressive Plum" (name). The front door on our last house was the prettiest eggplant color--very close to Expressive Plum, but we thought it'd be too dark for the DR. We sampled SW "Socialite", too, but it leaned towards the mauve side while I thought "Soulmate" stayed the shade I wanted. I knew I couldn't go any lighter without it becoming lavender, and we didn't want that. I was talking to the head painter when we were standing in the foyer looking into the DR. The painter said one of his guys said to him after they'd finished it, "I know it's purple....but it's pretty." Sounds like a guy who didn't expect to ever like purple. We thought of this color for our bath, too (we "re-used" several of our colors in other rooms), but it's too dark in there with only 1 NE-facing, frosted window, so we put a light sage green in the bath, and I have eggplant towels from the last house to use, so there's my purple fix in there.