Wow, thanks! Moonshadow, the pictures of your floors and stairs have convinced DH that he likes Golden Pecan (yes, we are easily swayed!). We have decided that we want the grain evened out a bit and the Puritan Pine does have a nice color, but the grain stands out more than we like. I agree about getting lighter floors, although I love the look of that English Chestnut. We have two pugs (shedders--- one black and one fawn) and two teenagers. Teenagers seem to be harder on things than little ones ;) Honestly, I think I'd be happy with anything that didn't look TOO brown or gray. I lean towards warmer colors. This is SO tough. Thanks, PennyLaney

SJ McCarthythank you for your very long process description and NWFA suggestion. With all the risks that proper preparation requires I think I just have to dodge the bullet and pay someone to do it. It really isn't just applying the stain with a brush kinda thing. I emailed seven companies. Four from NWFA and three from neighbors' recommendations. Just few moments ago I had one of them here to look at the stairs. He is certified has all the proper training and certifications. He seemed knowledgeable and explained all the steps. He will have to re-sand. It will be a 3-4 day job depending on how many stain coats are needed. He uses DuraSeal stains and Bona Traffic HD water based seal and has training to work with those. Each coat needs 24-48h to dry. Then he will have to do another 2-3 coats of the seal. His professional opinion was also that the stairs did not turn yellow because of the covering, but they turned yellow because the previous company used an oil based poly. They might have also applied the seal when stain wasn't dry enough. He is almost certain that the amber coloring from the photos is oil based. He never heard of floors turning yellow because they were covered. That being said, he told me I have a good chance winning a small claims court. That the photos should be sufficient. The stairs were first finished in March, we covered the newly stained steps with protective brown contractor's paper, since there was still construction and painting happening. In July we discovered that there is yellowing present. Since July I've been contacting the company to fix it. They refused because they claim that it is not a warranty issue since it is our fault that we covered them, and that is what caused the yellowing. However, the best changes in court would be with two expert opinions. What I should have done was getting an inspector's report and document the yellowing properly. My mistake was sanding the stairs down before finding a new company. Now I cannot get an inspector to examine it. The reason I had my trusted carpenters to sand down the entire yellowed staircase was because our remodel has finished, and I didn’t want a yellow staircase in the house. I was also worried someone else wouldn't be as careful, and do more damage on brand new painted baseboards and stair skirts. Most importantly I knew sanding it down completely will be a huge mess and didn’t want all the dust on our stuff. I wanted to move into a clean house. Now, there will still be sanding just not as much as the heavy sanding. Even the walls were covered in sand. It was awful...

That's a foot print in the stain not just in the finish. Yes the 'fix' is to to a patch repair. They would sand down the area to raw wood, restain that area and then apply 2 coats of finish (with all the appropriate cure times to be observed). Then the entire floor gets a final coat of finish. It is the FINAL coat that offers the continuous finish/gloss level. To reduce your fears, Satin is a VERY forgiving finish. It has a lovely glow. This glow DULLS DOWN as it ages. It might start off as a HIGHER GLOSS Satin (be prepared) but it will ALWAYS settle down. This takes 1-3 months. So don't panic if you see a nice glowy floor on day 1. That will change. Once the 3 months has passed, the floor will sit happily at the satin level it was destined to be. Then, like all floors, it slowly dulls down withe wear. Higher traffic areas dull a little faster. So your foot print area (being in a high traffic spot) will mostly likely dull down nicely. The question becomes: Which bugs you more? A foot print such as the one you found (noticeable once you know it's there) or a *possible* sheen difference that will disappear with age? There is only one person who can answer that question - and that's you. Permanent foot print vs. 'disappearing' gloss difference? I'm not worried about the gloss level. I would worry about the stain variation.

Thanks Uptown I ddi not think about the bevel. In that case do what you like in the bedrooms but remeber to plan a head so when the time comes you can replace the stuff you do not like with new that matches the bedrooms or at least unfinished to be done to match the bedrooms. The same wood for sure and IMO white oak. I woud never do hickory floor so I would suggest you get a whole box and lay it out to see if you love and staop trying to make something work with something you do not like . It is okay for bedrooms to be different