Yeah one finished room. (Of course still full of dust) They finished our bedroom yesterday. Still have to enventually come back and do the closet, but for now have moved on to the great room. camlan..Their doing the same thing here. Running the wood with no seams from room to room. I hope ours eventually "glow" right now they just glow of dust, but it still is looking nice. judydel. I like to buy rugs at TJ Max HomeGoods. Patty Cakes.. Oh no. The stairs is what inspired us to do this hardwood job. We just finished painting the stairs yesterday. The carpet that was on the stairs was old, dirty and ugly. It had to come up. My kids are teenagers, so hopefully safety wont be an issue. We'll see if they become too loud, etc., we can always eventually add a runner to them. beth..Your floors, rugs and house are beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos and experience. work.. Thanks for the advice. I'll remember this for the near future. Id love a sweeper I could run on the floor and not have to worry about damage.

I think GreenDesigns summed things up very well. I'll just add my own experience. We have had engineered hardwood in our basement for almost nine years, and it sees a lot of use. Overall, they have worn very well; and they can be refinished if desired. However, we did have someone in the basement for several years who regulary wore stiletto heels and there are indentations in the wood as a result. A friend recently built a new home and had pre-finished, hand-scraped floors put in. They love them. I am not particularly fond of either the handscraped floors or the beveled edges. They've only been in their home a few months, but they are very happy with the floors. Incidentallly, the handscraped floors can be refinished, it's just that when you sand them down you will lose the handscraping---but you will still have lovely wood floors. We recently had hardwood (white oak) put in our house and finished on site. We seriously considered putting in pre-finished hardwood. (We found some that did NOT have the beveled edge and installed exactly like the unfinished hardwood.) What made us change our mind about the pre-finished was that we already had hardwood installed that needed to be sanded and refinished anyway, so why not have the old and new all done at the same time? An added benefit, since they are adjoining rooms, was that the installers were able to weave the new hardwood into the old and, once it was all finished, you cannot tell which are the old and which are the new. I feel we had more options that way, plus I didn't have to worry about being able to match exactly the old floor that we had refinished onsite to the new pre-finished floors. Having said that, I have severe asthma, and the first month after the floors were finished was a bit difficult. We had it done in the summer and put exhaust fans in the windows, as well as additional fans all over the house to move the air through constantly. Although it was difficult, I would do it again, because I love the results. If you have another floor that needs refinishing, then you will have to deal with the dust and other issues anyway, right? So I wouldn't base the decision on that factor alone. We went back and forth for several months before we decided what to do about flooring on our first floor, so I understand what a difficult decision it can be---it involves a lot of time, effort, and money, and it's something you'll live with for years. If you're like us, you'll go through several different ideas before you make your final decision. Hope everything goes smoothly after that!

When it comes to hardwood, trends are something to ignore! Why? Because hardwood is pretty much a lifetime purchase, and unless yours is damaged in some way, you're probably not going to replace it. So, light wood vs. dark wood, wide planks vs. narrow planks -- that stuff's all going to come and go. With that in mind -- as well as the very real concerns about cleaning dark wood -- I'll vote for a nice, neutral midtone every time. Not too much contrast, not too red, and (unless it's a beach house) not too pale. I think this is the wood that's most likely to give you good service and stand the test of time.

That is a pretty rug! I’m thinking of changing out most of my previous furniture since I had a lot of old world looking things that don’t look well with the rustic...maybe a more transitional, restoration hardware look. The floor is by Villa Blanca and is Andalucia color. It has a 6mm top layer and is fumed white French oak. Every batch they get is different tho due to the fuming. Mine turned out a bit darker and more brown that most other batches...and unfortunately in my view, more knots, but I like it in general.