The only difference I can see with older wood flooring is that a lot of it seems to be clear or high grade and thus it was likely cut from the outer portion of a tree as opposed to the center. Wood from the center of a tree is called juvenile wood and is formed during the first 5-25 years of growth. It tends to have less dimensional stability and lower density (contrary to Lowe's "center cut is better" lumber ads). So it quite possible with some of today's flooring (especially strip) that you are seeing softer juvenile wood from the center of the tree. That said, many hardwood sawmills do not cut the center of a tree for any grade lumber and instead utilize it for pallet cants or railroad ties. Softwood sawmills cut studs right down to the pith, much to the dismay of today's framing carpenter. Commercial sawmills sell the higher grades of lumber (FAS, #1 Common) to cabinet plants and distribution yards while the lower grades (#2, #3) go to the large commercial flooring plants. Through optimization, the flooring plants can make select or #1 Common grades of 2" wide flooring from low grade lumber. What I posted earlier about density is true if one is comparing apples to apples. A tight growth-ring piece of oak lumber from the non-juvenile portion of a 150 year old tree has LOWER density than a second growth piece of similar lumber from a 70 year old oak tree. The explanation is simple. Slower growth results in a higher proportion of lower density earlywood cells (the annual rings you see). With faster growth, you get more thick walled latewood cells and the same amount of earlywood cells which remains constant. For anyone interested in learning about wood and wood properties, there are plenty of good resources available. My source is "Forest Products and Wood Science" by John Haygreen and Jim Bowyer.

Can you lay about 1' of wood around the edge of the new room in a left/right pattern, with the "field" area being the back and forth? This might make it look like there was a border around it...

I briefly owned a Bosch FLer that caused vibration problems. My laundry room is on the first floor, over a basement. The placement is such that the two rear legs are directly above the main support beam in the house. As it turns out, my floor is too flexible for a Fler. As I was unwilling to spend the kind of money that would be needed to fix this and still look good, I returned it and got the Whirlpool Cabrio HE. So far I love it, I have not had any problems with the laundry, and there are no vibrations even on high speed spin. I was afraid to get this at first because of stories I have read, but I am so glad I tried it. My salesman wanted me to try the Duet FLer to see what would happen, and said he would change it out again if that caused vibrations, but I was getting really tired of waiting for deliveries and pick-ups (my first front loader had a problem and had to be replaced). Good luck, let us know what you decide and how it works out for you. Just make sure that the store you purchase at is willing to exchange if there is a vibration problem, and that they will not charge you for restocking or delivery of another machine.

I always ask: How old is the laminate that you already have? Is it 3 years old or is it 13 years old? If it is still quite young, go ahead and put in a colour you want in the bedrooms and wait until BOTH laminates give up the ghost to get all the floors the same in the upstairs. If the laminate is a few years away from being replaced, then I suggest you hold off finding another laminate just yet. If your laminate will only give you another 5 years (or so) then you will want to do one of two things: 1. Replace carpet with carpet and wait a few more years before you swap out ALL the floors for a single product. 2. Purchase ENOUGH new laminate to replace ALL the flooring upstairs in the new laminate. You can wait to pull the old laminate for another day...because you purchased all of the floor at the same time. Be aware that man-made products suck as laminate (vinyl, factory finished hardwoods, tiles, etc) have a 'shelf-life' of 18 - 24 months. After that they are gonezo alonzo. Never to be found again. That's why you purchase everything all at once. Plan ahead. Look into your '7 year renovation time line'. Look to see what else will need to be done in that time frame. If the old laminate is going to be swapped out, then PLAN for that. You never want to find yourself in the IDENTICAL situation 3 years from now...only to realize a little bit of thought could have saved you THOUSANDS of dollars.