We have Street Shoe on natural maple floors and since that's such a different wood than cherry I'm unsure if it will provide the richness you're after. I can't say I'm thrilled with the way it wears, definitely not as tough as the petroleum products however it also hasn't yellowed like the prior finish. I grew up with waxed oak parquet and have never seen anything that duplicates that depth and glow. My parents had a small buffer and kept up with maintenance between the hired out, full on clean and rewax. For my next house, I'd go back to that in a heartbeat, but maybe I'm being a bit starry eyed about the real work involved!

You might check out monocoat. I don't have first hand experience with it but it is intriguing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Monocoat

snookums2. I think Monocoat is very intriguing. Would love to hear from anyone that has used it.

I have a hardwax oil finish on my floors which I think is comparable to what was linked above. There's a bit of maintenance, but I should never have to refinish my floors.

I would definitely call it a more old fashioned, somewhat rustic finish. There is no coating on your wood, it soaks right in.

Here is a link that might be useful: Finish that I have

Since you like the Glitsa, can't you have the Glitsa Semi Gloss shipped via UPS from the closest distributor?

Thanks to all for your responses. I wish this hadn't been a last-minute issue, but these surprises are part of the process.

The decision was made by my husband and contractor (I was out of town, but was partially in the loop) and Streetshoe was the choice. Their decision was based mostly on practicalities rather than aesthetics, but so far I think they made the right choice.

Yes, we could have had the Glitsa shipped, but it would have cost us a week, due to the shipping time and the difference in application. Streetshoe can be applied in two or more coats per day; Glitsa must dry a day between coats. You can walk on the Streetshoe within an hour or two of application (although we aren't!), but Glitsa takes much longer. And you have to vacate the house for several days with the Glitsa, but can get right back in with the Streetshoe.

Our floor refinisher was on a very tight schedule -- things are apparently going well in the building/remodeling industry here. So, while I'd like to say the saving the environment was the real reason they chose Streetshoe (it was a consideration), in the end it was really the scheduling and being out of the house that were critical.

All of them commented on the fact that the Streetshoe will not yellow like Glitsa. I didn't really consider it yellowing, more mellowing, at least on the cherry. I haven't seen the floors in good light yet (just got back home), so don't know if the Streetshoe gives the floors the same "liveliness" as the Glitsa.

I wish oiled and waxed floors were a possibility, but moving all the furniture out of the majority of the rooms once a year or so is out of the question.

So, end result: We have the Streetshoe and I am reasonably confident it was the right decision, given all the considerations. The cats can come home tomorrow, rather than next week -- that's important, too!

We used waterlox - old fashioned, wearing just fin