I will try to get a picture taken here in a couple days. We've got the countertops off right now so we could cut out the sink holes on the router table. Another beautiful thing about wood. They are light enough that I can move the perimeters by myself, and two of us can move the island top. I think it weighs around 90 lbs. We've had them out a few times now for construction projects so they wouldn't get dented and scratched with tools and such. We used a marine varnish (can't remember the name off hand) just right around the edges of the sink where we thought water might be an issue on top, bottom, and edge, no problems when we took the drop in sink out, but will be doing undermount with the new sinks. If it looks like we might start having problems, we'll do something other than oil over the entire top, but I don't see it ever being a problem. I'm pretty religious about oiling in the most used area. Less often on the seating side. I think there are 3 different logs in our kitchen, and the darkest was kept for the tops, but walnut fades unlike most wood, so my floors are already lighter than when they went in a little over a year ago. I haven't noticed a significant change in the tops yet. I do believe oil makes for a deeper darker finish than the polyurethane which brings out the oranges and reds more. The knotholes in the floor are by far the darkest and prettiest areas. I took a picture of the most used area of the kitchen floor, where we had the table and chairs. We moved them to the kitchen when we ripped out the dining room floors and just now moved the table back to the dining room (procrastination is what we do best). Now that the table and chairs are out, I will probably lightly sand and recoat that area of the floor. All scratches seem to be in the finish (oil based polyurethane) and not into the wood itself. I can't feel any of them when I rub my fingers over them anyways. Not to bad for 5 chairs being scooted around every day. I'm sure there are thousands of tiny scratches that aren't noticeable to the naked eye, but if I can't see them with the sunlight beaming in, they don't exist lol. The countertop scratches aren't as noticeable, most likely do to the fact that the oil actually soaks into the surface, whereas the poly sits on top of the wood. I'm sure there are probably knife marks where I've neglected to reach for the cutting board or where I've slid a heavy cast iron pan, but I certainly don't go looking for them and none are big or deep enough to draw attention. I'm pretty sure at one point I found a child's drawing somewhat imprinted into the top, but I've either forgotten about it, or it's gotten enough abuse that it blends. I circled the biggest scratches in the picture, because I'm not sure how big it will be when it posts. They are where the two chairs that were unknowingly missing a pad on a leg sat. There are other smaller scratches that don't pick up in the picture, but again, not noticeable unless you get down on your hands and knees and look for them.

I don't know the answer to your question about humidity in Florida, but I believe that if you sealed the wood with polyurethane it would be fine in a garage. You could also strip it and sand it out and oil it well, but you might have to re-oil it occasionally if it is really humid. I have 2 inch butcher-block countertops in my kitchen, and I left the one next to the stove where I chop unfinished. I scrub it with soap and water, cut wet veggies on it, etc. and still looks good after ten years. I use plain old baby oil on it (block oil is too expensive!). I don't see why you couldn't stain butcher block just like any other wood, unless it has too much oil in the wood already. Each "piece" would pick up the stain differently, I suppose. You could try a little stain on the underside to see. I cut up the extra butcher-block from my counter project and made cutting boards. They are heavy and thick, but they are nice. You need to use an old saw blade because there are metal staple thingies holding the glued pieces together sometimes, and they will ruin a good saw blade. Or you could give abnorm a holler. Renee

There is no reason to apply pure tung oil over top of varnish. (In addition to little reason to apply pure tung oil all by itself, IMHO. It is more expensive, more time consuming, more difficult to apply successfully, and if you don't do it right, you have to strip and start over. Nor does it look any different than cheaper, more available, easier to use boiled linseed oil.) (Curing) Oil finishes are generally always soft, offer little moisture protection, and need renewal. You already have a hard film finish with the wipe-on varnish. This is great for an eating area finish. Nearly all finishes are toxic in liquid state and non-toxic in cured state. Just do not use the Formbied surface for cutting (if that's one of the etcs). Cutting will create cuts in the film finish, looking unsightly and allowing moisture to penetrate and will accelerate its demise by flaking. For anyone finding this thread, if you want a good, working butcher block finish, the finish of choice is either no finish or mineral oil. Mineral oil is inert so it will not go rancid like non-curing vegetable oils. If you want, you can shave in 1 part paraffin to 6 parts mineral oil, heat in a double boiler until the paraffin melts, slather it on, let it cool, and scrape off the excess with a plastic scraper. Repeat either treatment as needed, maybe a couple of times a year or less. You can buy "butcher block oil," but this is usually just high priced mineral oil. You can find mineral oil at a drug store or drug department of grocery or discount store, where it's sold as a laxative / stool softener. (Thus it's "non-toxic") Paraffin is also easily found in the canning supply section of stores. Here is a link that might be useful: food safe finishes

Thanks everyone for the nice compliments. I got so many good tips from this forum. The biggest tip I got here was to use mostly drawers in the bottom. I was worried at first but my gosh, it is fantastic! I can't believe everyone that does a new kitchen doesn't do this. Everything is so accessible and you actually have more storage. In fact, I have so much storage I still have drawers that don't have anything in them yet. And this isn't a huge kitchen, I think it is 11' x 12' or so. Lynn, I answered you question about the hard wood on the post in the decorating forum where I posted pics of the rest of my house. The floors are by Shaw, 5" plank engineered, satin finish. The color change hasn't been dramatic, just gives them a richer color. Easy to care for so far. Thanks for the thought on sealing after oiling. I was planning to sand them down first but I will definitely check and see if it will work.