Sunni Forum is the place to ask questions. It is not wrong to ask forum related question even if similar question has been asked before and there is no wrong question. Forum is for the novice as well as for the experts. Most of the time you will get detail responses from some and short responses from others who have been active in the forum for a longer time and if they know that the subject has been answered in a number of different threads from different perspectives then they may ask you to do a search of the forum using the "Search" capability for the forum to get additional info. Sometimes you can resurrect and old related thread (even from archives) to ask question with a different twist to the same issue. It is OK to be forgiving if a sentence does not sound sweet. You may get much better informed answer from the same person next time. Yes, sometimes I get friendly reminders from my friends in GW and I start thinking 'what did I do again!'. What I mean is that one means well in one's own way but it it may look different from another angle.

Nice feature Joe. In another month or so, we'll be watching for frost.

Hi all. First, thanks for the invaluable advice. Next, my apologies if these questions have been answered repeatedly. I did a search and didn't find the answers. Sorry if this is a bit long. What started out as a simple kitchen re-model has, not surprisingly, grown. Three small rooms have now become one, so what I thought was an easy kitchen flooring decision is now more complicated and more expensive. The flor will be a medium tone solid hardwood. The only things that are set are (1) a "cinnamon," a reddish brown stain on the various cabinets in the room and (2) rainforest green marble on the counters and island. Question 1 - will narrower planks make the area look smaller or choppy? The new room will be maybe 20 by 30, but not a rectangle. Call it a funky polygon. Any optimal width? I think I like the look of wider planks but have heard some warnings about 5" in certain climates. I am in NY by West Point. The sty-le of the room will be a sort of eclectic contemporary. Advice on width would be greatly appreciated. Next question: can I put a new flor over the old hardwood one? Throughout most of the space, the existing flor is fine. No warping, buckling, etc. I think it is glued down but it may just be nailed. It has been there since the 50s. There are minimal places (a threshold for example, or a short strip where a wall was removed) where it is not perfect, with the major exception being what was a small kitchen area, maybe 15' by 8' max. Seems to me it would be much easier (and significantly less expensive) to make the kitchen flor level match the rest of the area than rip up 80% of the flooring to bring it down to where the kitchen floore is. (And before you ask, the existing floore is narrow, yellowish 1950s planking, running in every different direction in each of the former rooms, and patched in a level but unattractive way. The former owner fancied himself a do-it-yourselfer, but those and others are stories for a post in a different forum.) Last question/request for opinions: For this room, I am not a fan of rustic or bland. I don't want too many knots, or something as monochromatic as, for example, a maple or cherry. I've considered red oak, since it would compliment the grain of the cabinets, and the light(er) background would make the space seem larger (correct?) But I find myself drawn to the warmth and visual interest of, say, the tigerwood/koa, but am not a fan of the "blotchy" look. While I would like hickory in some applications, this is not one of them. Is there something that is not as common as red oak, as mellow as maple or cherry, or as blotchy (ok, variable) as koa? The koa (or similar palette, not endorsing the koa, just as an example) has the advantage of being able to pick up various colors, perhaps helping to bring together my odds and ends. I need to make a decision. I would love your input. (and as an aside, how come only some uses of the dreaded "linking" words creates a link? Odd. Are there accepted variants for fl**r and k*tchen?) Thanks for reading. Lisa

I think he's kidding us. He can id the leaves as maple and oak, so he can't be a total newbie. He know the term "chimera" as well. And watch the background, there are more oak leaves there. If he snapped a pic from a different angel I think it would be very obvious that there are two different trees.