Jubilee, I guess I'll revise my remarks a bit by saying that I'm only going by what my designer taught me about the flow thing... Our house is not huge, it's a medium 2600 sf 2-story, so in essence the downstairs really is not that big. I wanted to mix like that, and she said in a small area (or at least not a LARGE area!) not to have so many different floorings. To avoid patchiness. To give flow, so it, well, flows. And seems larger and more cohesive. I have to say lately looking at model homes, her advice has been borne out as I've seen the same wood flowing throughout houses, with small amounts of carpet and stone here and there. Your carpenter is probably right, but he's probably also talking about very large houses, so that is a different story (than my house). I don't know if yours is a big house or normal house. Also, my own experience has been that the very best and most talented carpenters and cabinetmakers I've had, have not been especially genius at interior design, so I've learned to turn to my designer for design advice, and pretty much take their design advice with a grain of salt. Maybe yours is different than mine have been... Yes I have lived to regret two different floorings in abutting rooms. We had existing yellowish oak in kitchen/family room/hall/powder room (most of downstairs), and added pinkish-yellowish oak to an adjoining study. Actually it was the same wood, just ten years younger. I thought it would blend. It didn't. Since the ten year old floor was pretty grunged, we had someone distress the whole thing, including the brand new... and this included re-staining them to a really warm and mellow toasty color. Now they all match, and I absolutely love it, and have to say my designer was right about flow. I wonder if a solution like that might work for you, then you could have exactly the color you want, and flow as well. It cost me just over $2K to have the whole thing done, and I live in expensive Southern California. Now that I have seen it done, I think I could do it myself if I wanted to work hard.

We put red oak in our last home with a clear finish. It had pink undertones. We have 1919 white oak in this house and it has a clear oil finish. It has beautiful golden undertones that blend very nicely with the chestnut stained trim which has amber shellac finish. We also like the lighter floors contrasted against the darker trim. our flooring guy recently patched a 1x2" area in one room. He was able to find historic scrap oak which was feathered in, again with the oil finish. Can't tell where the patch is. Don't know if you will have to deal with feathering in against any existing floor.

Two part wood bleach is still made (search for Wood Kote Lite-N-Up Bleach). I also found instructions on making your own if you're adventurous. One part is a solution of hydrogen peroxide, the other is sodium hydroxide. Once mixed and used it is supposed to self neutralize. After bleaching, a stain is needed. We use Bona DriFast White, followed by a coat of ClassicSeal and either Mega HD or Traffic HD. There's not much point in using more than two coats. Bleaching supposedly breaks down the wood fibers. I suppose that it might contribute to it being less durable but IMO a white floor is never going to look decent as long as a more practical color will. Bleaching is the best way to remove the pink when pickling Red Oak. We have refinished bleached floors to other colors.

Beth H. : - thanks so much for sharing those last two images. I'm working on a staircase in an addition to our old house and I've been using Houzz images to help the staircase maker understand what I'm seeking and hadn't seen those. And I agree, Houzz has chronic "control issues" when it comes to sharing images easily from other sites. I really think the owners have ambitions to take over from Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, let alone all the also-rans, ugh. It's a sharing world, Houzz - get with the program! Anyway, about those images you've shared; are they from Houzz? I tried clicking on them to see if they'd open a post, to no avail. Thanks!