My question is: do you want DARK floors or do you want "light" floors? Red Oak has red/cinnamon undertones. Those undertones have been 'out of fashion' for a few decades. A SUPER PALE Red Oak (ie. the 'raw' look) is a very pretty floor so long as the grade is high enough. Red Oak is relatively abundant so sourcing it is less costly. The narrower width is also a more common width to find and therefore easier to source if anything goes wrong in the future. The dark floor will look very dark once it is in the home. It will suck the light out of the rooms because it is so dark...thereby making it look and feel DARKER in the home. White Oak is slightly harder to source AND it is the "upgrade" material everybody wants so the price doubles simply by the concept of 'supply and demand'. The wider planks of the White Oak could mean a more costly form of install. As soon as you hit 5" width, you need a full spread glue or a glue-assist install. That INCREASES the cost of the LABOUR. So now you have a double hit to the budget. Personally I would prefer a white oak in a natural finish in a narrower plank (4" is fine). These trendy colours can be just that...trendy. I do not like dark floors - and I know the darker one will turn DARK inside a home. Only a SUPER WELL LIT HOME (ie. 3 walls of windows) will lighten up a floor like that. The lighter plank is a pretty product, but we've seen horror stories of these floors showing 'cooking oil stains' that seep through to the wood = disturb the stain = super ugly = super upsetting for the homeowner.

I'm working on my floor color right now too! You want a cool tone, I know that, so no yellowish stains. Contemporary looks are either very light or dark. The dark stain is more modern when you don't see all the grain lines in the wood. Something more solid looking. My stair guy said that a 50/50 mix of Ebony and Classic Gray is very pretty!

Also is this a custom home on your lot OR a semi-custom home with a production builder who gave you limited choices and probably has an "or similar" clause in the contract. I did a custom built and used a local flooring company to source my engineered wood floors. When I narrowed down my choices to 2 floors they ordered a full box of each and had the manufacturer hold the 4000 sq.ft we needed. I made my decision based on the sample box and we put a deposit on the 4000 sq.ft of that exact same lot number. Yes, there can be quite wide variations between engineered wood lots and a good floor company/installer will make sure you get a sample box before making a final decision/order. Even more important these days with material shortages that can cause manufacturers to source raw materials from different vendors/sources than those they had normally used, so you end up with end products with wider variations than normal.

You will not get it to a natural finish then as the stain is in the bevels. You would need to sand the floor enough to remove the bevels to stain it natural or a lighter color.