chaispice - I'm confused,,, there is no green shown in any of my above photos. Could you be more specific about where you are seeing the green? Also, the white was a pure white from Dulux Paints and it was an indoor/outdoor trim paint that my painters insisted we use. Had a wonderful and durable sheen. Here is a link that might be useful: Trim gloss

All of the old Victorian houses around here have wooden porches: floor, ceiling and posts/railings. And the porches are still in good shape after 100 years-- at least, on the houses that have been cared for and maintained. The only thing I wonder is, if you are going to put wood over cement, will moisture be a problem (wicking through the cement and no air circulation under the wood)?

Thanks! i have gone over the doors with an oak stain now. It's not perfect, but better--I hope! im sanding down the door jam on the 1/2 bath since that door will be used a lot. The other is a closet, low priority for me too late for pre conditioner!! It's a very rustic building so I'm ok with not perfect.Although, seeing this pic-- it's too dark. Sh/:;())t!! Heres the doors I do like.......

First, it all looks like Red Oak to me so I think White Oak is a misdirection. The cross strip looks lighter on the right because of the light exposure on the left and narrower graining while the wider grain on the right picks up more stain and looks darker. A seemingly obvious solution (aka silver bullet) would be to lightly abrade the surface finish on the cross pieces and apply a coat or two of tinted poly, then a clear coat. We often add up to 8 ounces of Duraseal stain to a gallon of oil poly. It doesn't change the color a lot but it does mix well and we have no adhesion problems. When it dries It can be darker than when wet and it's easy to get it too dark so the best approach is to use multiple thin coats to sort of sneak up on the correct color. DO NOT try to apply any stain over the poly without sanding to raw wood. It won't adhere and your problem will be worse. FYI, even if/when all the floors are refinished the cross pieces would likely look lighter. They're newer wood, run perpendicular to the rest and catch the light differently. Look at some room scene pictures of parquet floors and you'll see.