We are having this dilemma in real time. they just stained the 1st floor of our 2013 built home. I wanted to refresh because the kids beat them up with scooters, etc when we first moved in and also the color ambered a lot over the years and was looking VERY orange... so we said let's just do the first floor since the 2nd is in relatively good shape but does have that more warm/amber tone. So now we have a custom blend downstairs going up the front stairs and the existing Early American on White Oak on the 2nd floor. See pics... I thought I could live with it, but now I'm 2nd guessing and wondering if we need to do the 2nd floor too... thoughts, photos welcome!

I agree i could make my life easier if i find a wood similar to the tile (pic1) for upstairs but it doesn't feel right for the bedroom... i kind of regret picking it but it's too late. just wondering if there's a way to make the light coloured wood work upstairs without too much disconnect between the stairs... I'll most likely shop for the same wood as seen in the tiles to make the flow smoother if what i want to do is too disjointed. is black treads still the best option now the kitchen panel is clearer? appreciate your advice! I'm kind of stressing about my dumb decisions thus far. Thanks in advance. my only concern is changing the treads to the same look as the tiles will be too challenging or expensive- that's why i considered painting. A few weeks ago i was trying to get the stairs company to use different wood that we select but they only use theirs and charge 3k more which i found excessive and their product range was awful. Have to use that stairs company because of the building contract:/

@party_music50 In your case being this on the 1st floor and if you have access form bellow, you can fix that from bellow without damaging the surface with the screws. Have someone slightly stand on top of that spot, you will see the plywood movement from bellow, all you have to do is to take a few shims to apply glue on them and slip them between the plywood and the joist, tap them slightly in until they snug and after the dries up there will be no more squeaking. Something like this.

As a $1m house, you might want to honour the value the house already has. I agree the carpets need to come out, but be aware of the NOISE issues with solid surface flooring...like LVP, laminate and engineered hardwood. Noise isn't just about foot steps (which carpet is VERY GOOD at getting rid of). It is about vocal noises, TV noise, phone conversations, music, etc. The stuff that 'floats' in the air. The carpet is eating 90% of all that 'floating' noise. As soon as you move to a solid surface that number drops to about 5%. The rest of the noise ricochets off walls, ceilings, windows, down hallways (echo chambers) and then into the downstairs area. And the downstairs noises will end up in the UPSTAIRS area...and then ricochet themselves. For allergies, I like to go with cork floating flooring. It offers about 50% of the FOOTSTEP reduction as carpet (compare that to 5% of the LVP). It also offers 70-80% reduction of the 'floating' noise in the space. Again, compare that to 5% of LVP. The other thing to consider is LVP does NOT allow for acoustic underpad. It is NOT laminate. Laminate can handle up to 1" of cork underpad without any fuss. The same goes for engineered hardwood. The cork underlay does LOTS of blocking of the up/down noise transfer. You cannot get LVP to do any of that for you. Just a little FYI.