I think oak and maple hold up reasonably well, although I'm no flooring expert. I think douglas fir may be a softer wood than oak or maple.

I got the same bad news this year as well. I'm so sad about it but we've decided to replace our original white oak floors with new white oak floors. I know they won't look the same but I'm hoping to make up for it by installing a mahogany band and finishing with Waterlox (tung oil) instead of polyurethane. Many old homes had white or red oak floors so you probably can't go wrong with either of those choices. Good luck.

Last month we found maple floors in our 1923 kitchen under two layers of vinyl. The rest of the house is oak. Around the Chicago area maple floors were very common in kitchens.

We have the same situation (oversanded floors) with our 1916 home. It has standard oak floors so we don't have your issue. We're also doing a small addition--half of which is kitchen--and we need to specify our floors (in the new part) next week. (We'll do the old part later, so we have a place to move our stuff into!)

A question: Is Tung Oil usable/advisable in a kitchen? Or should we stick with poly? (We have little kids and really use our kitchen!) And does Tung Oil always yield a dark floor? We'd like it fairly light.

What we don't want to end up with is one of those really shiny finishes -- but can good floor guys yield a more traditional finish with poly? Any other ideas? Thoughts please!

I know that some people say that pre-finished floors are the best for a kitchen, but we really don't like that beveled-edge look.

Donka,
We have a 1700 farmhouse with a early 1900's kitchen and dining room addition that we're gutting completely. We wanted the addition to hold the charm of the farmhouse and we've found rustic white oak wide plank boards. They are tongue and groove, random widths between 8-12 inches, and come unfinished. They are costing us $4/sq. ft. We saw some pictures of them stained (a light brown) and polyed and the knots and graining make the boards look almost like heart pine in some places! Maybe this is something you could look into? I'd recommend calling lumber mills!!!

We have an old school house and put in 12 - 20 inch pine plank floors with face nails through out and 12 in the kitchen. We used Land Ark oil and they have been very easy to keep clean. I usually just vac but have washed with Murphy oil soap and water (shouldn't do this with poly floors) or white vinegar and water. I am hoping for a real patina in the future. In CT pine was the common flooring years back. Oh if I get a big scratch thru the oil and dip a cloth around my finger in the oil and re oil a spot and rub it in. You can't do that with finishes with resins.

Have you looked at "reclaimed" wood places? They can be from old barn floors/siding/etc. I have been to Longleaf Lumber (in Cambridge, MA) and their wood is beautiful. I am certain that there are places in Canada who deal in reclaimed lumber. I googled "reclaimed lumber" + Canada and had lots of hits, but as I don't know where in Canada you live, I thought I would pass on this information. I am posting the "specials" page of Longleaf Lumber to show you what I love (and think would look beautiful in an antique home.) I like too many to say which is my favorite,though the Fore River Bridge Hemlock is beautiful with the blue from the clay.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reclaimed Flooring Longleaf Lumber Specials

Thanks for the advice everyone! Looks like oak or maple will fit the bill - I still need to do research regarding the difference between quarter-sawn etc. Good thing I like doing research, because there's always something new to learn about with this reno!

hestia_flames, thanks for the link! That is some seriously gorgeous wood, and priced extremely reasonably. I found a couple websites with reclaimed wood before my original posting but they were just ridiculous. That gives me hope to keep searching!