I have hardwoods in the kitchen and also in my master bath. When I was researching about putting them in the bath (worried about water issues), I was convinced by people on some forums here, that regardless of the flooring, if you have a serious leak or flooding, it's going to ruin whatever floor you have. Or at least it's going to have to be pulled out in order to avoid mold and underlayment issues. So, I wouldn't have any worries about using wood in your kitchen, esp site finished oak. It will stand up to anything, barring a serious leak or flood. I understand your desire for a dark floor "However, the kitchen look that I love is a marble type quartz countertop, with a dark brown floor" but since you are expecting to sell soon, I would think a cohesive, coordinated floor throughout the house, will appeal to more people than the look you want (when it's so different from the rest of the house). Maybe you can make your preferred look, the look you want for this kitchen, your goal for the house you'll be buying to replace this one?

If you like your current colour then go ahead and put down a new version of it. If you want something different then I would go lighter. I love the look of red oak in the 'buff'. It is a pretty wheat/sand coloured wood. So long as you work with a high-end water based polyurethane that does NOT yellow, you will have a very pretty 'pale wood' floor without much effort. Your existing finish appears to be oil based (or oil modified) which makes the floor yellow. The strong gold tones in your wood right now = the finish. Did your refinisher apply a coat of FINISH over your colour samples? If they did NOT....then you are picking BLIND. And I mean screaming and crying and tearing your hair because your beautiful gray floors turned to a muddy orange mess. Not good. Do you see the pale colour of the raw wood? You can keep that colour (very close to it) with 3 coats of water based polyurethane like Bona Traffic HD. Keep the gloss level a snick on the low side (satin is a nice low-gloss option) and you keep that pretty 'swedish blonde' look.

@Haley Bradshaw I did the Pastoral white. I love it so far. About to move in this weekend. The product handled construction very well. I myself accidentally scratched the floor with the refrigerator and the scratch even blends with the wood. I lose track of where it is from time to time. We used three colors for the house. Benjamin Moore - Revere Pewter (Living Area/Kitchen), Sage Mountain (master accent), grey owl (kids rooms). All 3 colors go very well with the floor and we have black trimmed windows.

We have done larger tiles on shower floors. You MUST make sure the tile is meant for a shower floor - not just wet application. The you will have to have a trench drain. This way the floor of the shower can be pitched all in one direction to the drain. Something like this: Although the drain should be just about as wide ( or long ) as the shower is depending on the direction of the joists. Good luck!