The carpet sample is our carpet, and the white board represented white baseboards. I LOVE Special Walnut, but it was a smidge more golden than it appears here, and I had to consider that it would yellow more with time. 50/50 Dark Walnut/Weathered Oak is our choice (the bottom one), and I love it too! I'm nervous and have been second-guessing myself all day, but I haven't called them to change the order so I think it's sticking! They stain tomorrow! It was a hard call and it didn't help that one was my favorite at night but I liked a different one in the morning light. Trying to remember that however it's stained, it's a beautiful, neutral background for the thing I already love - furnishings, fabrics, etc. I'll post a picture next week when it's all done. White cabinets are on my wish list, but that won't happen for a long time.

I have looked at another store that also had Coretec and several other brands and did find one other that I might consider but somehow the red river hickory is still sitting well with me. At this point, DH really likes it and I am inclined to go with it. I am getting close to ordering. I am going to have them come out and give me an idea of how much product and what the install will actually cost. We will need some removal and I want a finished product ( quarter round, etc) and I don't really have a good idea of what it's going to cost. I usually really shop around but I am really hesitant to have someone install the flooring and then have the manufacturer say it was faulty. We shall see. The Arbor is very nice, but colors like that just look dead in my space.

@jjam Your floors look beautiful. @Angela Wacker I hope your floors turn out beautiful. @mdln these are such a good ideas/solutions next time I am doing a renovation I will make sure to get this kit. I went by the house in the morning and took a closeup photo (prior to getting confirmation from the contractor and subcontractor) It does look like white oak. @SJ McCarthy thank you for all the information, it gave me ideas on what to ask the contractor and how to have a conversation about the floors. I even came up with a few more stains to try in case the original choices did not work out. The contractor e-mailed me early this afternoon agreeing to test a few more colors. We asked him, again, regarding the type of floors we have and the new ones they installed, initially he said the floors were red oak, but then he texted us an hour later letting us know that the sub had informed him that it was white oak!?! What!! @Beth Thank you!!!! @SashaDog Thank you!!!! @G & S Floor Service @Timothy Winzell it appears you guys were right - it is white oak -probably. Quality/grade? who knows! I cant believe the contractor did not know this! It appears my worries about the floors looking red after a light stain were unnecessary. We stopped by the home to see the samples on our "white oak" and the white stain looked nice with the top coat on it, not pink. The birch was nice, but we decided to go with the white as it looks more like the natural color of the wood we love. I am still anxious about the overall outcome, but crossing fingers that it turns out nice. I am going by the house tomorrow and working from my car so I can take a look and stop the workers in their tracks if it looks bad lol. I am just kidding...but maybe I am not :) Here are the two samples we tried Bona Birch and Duraseal White with bona HD on our "white oak" floors (this is not 100% for sure lol). Leaving the picture here in case someone is looking for a picture of these two stains. You are all such a wonderful group of people! Thank you for helping me through my anxiety. This morning I felt so stupid to have been worrying about a floor stain when so much more important things are going on in the world. Anyways, thank you and much love to you all. Stay healthy!! -Mari

Just wanted to follow up with some feedback for anyone who ends up in a similar situation since the old threads helped me a lot. Tips for anyone looking for classic medium brown without any trendy gray tone: 1. The stain samples from the store are meaningless, make sure they sample all coats and the top coat finish on-site so you can see the final outcome with your lighting. (Also keep in mind Low-e windows throw colors.) The color we ended up going with didn’t match any of the four samples we had that were technically the same. 2. Online photos are meaningless. I’ll paste one below bc I scoured them too, but I have multiple photos at different angles and the color and undertones can look massively different. There is no substitute for in person samples. 3. Also take into account different wood cuts and species can affect colors. I thought we’d use probably use Provincial, but on our white oak it looked very one note/flat, and not at all like I have seen it in other settings. I’d definitely consider it again, especially on red oak, but in this house it didn’t give the look we expected. 4. Verify they use Duraseal or Bona if you want to use those brands before you get far down the road. There was a Bona combo I saw on a blog (nutmeg + Provincial) that looked great, but we couldn’t access that combo with our stainers and we were too far down the pipeline to consider finding someone who could/would. In the end, what worked best with our lighting and design plan was white oak in Early American (photo below even though the photo doesn’t really match the in person reality). Hope to move back in soon! Thanks again to everyone for your help and feedback.