Redroze, I'm just getting back online and seeing your questions, so I'll try to answer what I can. My new floor in the LR/DR was not pre-finished, it was all site-finished. I did put a pre-finished floor down in my office (no pics, sorry) because I work from home and didn't have time to be without my office for the week it would have taken to have floor sanded etc. The pre-finished does have a different feel to it than the site-finished. I wouldn't say it's grooved, just a more defined difference in between the individual planks. The office doesn't adjoin any other room, except the tiled hallway, so I didn't worry so much about the wood being different there. I see from your pictures what you mean about running the planks the same way and wanting to be sure things don't look odd. One idea might be to take up some of your FR planks, like the first 12 or so, and then put them back down interwoven with the new planks. That way there's not a clear line in between the 2 rooms, but rather a more gradual blending. Here's another couple of pictures, this time of my family room. The first one is a before shot of the hardwood floor + a rug-like carpet. The floor created a frame around the carpet. I had the carpet taken up and new hardwood put in where the carpet originally was, then everything sanded and refinished. You absolutely can't tell where the old wood was vs where the new started. In this case, the new is random width because it opens directly to the kitchen (as opposed to the LR/DR which is all the same width). So, one house, all new site-finished floors in the LR & DR, all new pre-finished floor in the office, original/refinished in the kitchen, and half&half refinished + original in the family room. Boy did we have dust! Hope this helps! New:

You should have your banisters stained at the same time. On the sheen we did satin. I can't remember the brand name because the wood floor person brought it, but I think it started with a "D."

SJ we were pretty clear we didn’t want yellow but I’ll ask him exactly what finish he used on that small section. We’re doing water based poly, that much I know. G & S I don’t think he has experience with additives. So maybe my best bet is to sand and restain. I really hate to do that because it will be an extra 1000 and also set our timeline back for the rest of the remodel. But trying to tint it at this point sounds a little risky if it’s not something he’s done. So if we do that sounds like we should try walnut, provincial, antique brown, and Jacobean for a green tint to counteract the red? For the record this is the sample we chose (top one) which is the 50/50 medium brown and gray. To me it looks nothing like how the floors come out.

Why Minwax? Most reputable pro floor finishers steer in a very different direction then home owner grade stains and floor finish products.