It's weird. I have trouble picturing them painted. A friend suggested I paint them years ago when I first started talking about trying to lighten up the room. I can't seem to wrap my mind around it. We'll probably keep them, just because I tend to side with tradition and character. Even tho I love the look of painted woodwork, it almost makes me cry to contemplate it (but would if it was damaged). Thanks roarah, I appreciate that a lot. I am slowly getting over the heartbreaking part and heading into, "oh my gosh, we're going to get everything fixed" - even stuff that was broken before the fire. And while I know it is going to be a ton of work, it will all get done at once with someone else doing the actual labour. We had no money for labour when we bought the house and have spent 15 years with me doing most of the painting, patching, sanding floors, etc. little bits at a time. I do my best, but things are always a bit wonky at the end. It will be kind of nice to have smooth drywall instead of crazily patched plaster. Also, we had an idiot do our bathroom and kitchen remodel. He hired his cousin to do the tile and he screwed it up badly. Now we can get that all fixed. I was never sure they properly reinforced the bathroom floor for our extremely heavy cast iron tub and was always waiting for it to come crashing through the kitchen ceiling. Now all that will be taken care of. Definitely lots of silver linings.

You received bad information about the prefinish less likely to move. now they could have been referring to the engineered. but Solid prefinish is just as likely to move with a site finish floor. of course the movement will come from the environmental conditions in the home. Do prefinish floors has a tougher finish? yes, but it comes down to lifestyle. if you have a bunch of kids, large dogs, and throw partys every weekend, no finish will hold up for very long. But it sounds like you dont have the problem, so the toughness of the finish shouldnt be a huge factor for you. There are plenty of decent finishes on the market used by pros that for your situation should suit you just fine. I think the thing you should be looking at is price. Does the install of prefinish along with the price of the material work for your budget? or does the site finished work better? Site finish means the project will take a bit longer, because of the added time needed to sand and finish the floors. but those are minor. Have you found a pre finish product you like? In either case you should focus on sourcing a good professional and he will be able to answer the more detailed questions that are particular to your new home.

Thanks cpartist. I've been thinking the same. Can you recommend any quality brands for engineered hardwoods? What are the must haves?

Ok...first things first. Janka hardness ratings only apply to solid hardwood. Engineered planks do not work with Janka because the plied layers underneath are often 'soft woods'. Considering Janka measures how much force it takes to imbed a metal ball into the wood, it isn't possible to offer Janka scores for engineered. They just don't compute. The next thing I'm going to point out is the oddity of trying to match the ENTIRE HOUSE to a single room of existing hardwood. You have a small amount of hardwood that is dictating the rest of the house. It's not impossible but it is HIGHLY unusual. In other words, you are trying to put down more than a thousand square feet of flooring by trying to match 150 - 250sf of dining room (I don't know the size of your dining room so I'm only guessing here). That's a little like putting the cart before the horse. Usually we see this the other way around. Usually we have a house full of hardwood (big amount) but the bedrooms have carpet (small amount). The homeowners then agonize over getting a match for the smaller area. That is normal. As for your price range that you are looking at, they are too low and a little thin. The gold standard is 3/4" thickness (solid or engineered). An engineered product with 3mm or more of wear layer is the base level. The thicker the wear layer the more times a floor can be refinished. The Gold standard is 6mm wear layer (usually in the $10/sf range). If you are having a hard time finding floors that you like, you might want to think about replacing the dining room at the same time. This takes away all the pressure to work with low-grade hardwoods just to get a match to a small amount of hardwood. Solid or engineered should be more than what you are looking at for price. Prefinished wood flooring should be in the $7/sf just to start and they go up from there.