Thank you very much for your input. lzerac -- your beam sounds beautiful, as do the bamboo sills. Really nice details! virgilcarter -- our house probably is best described as transitional. We have tried to stay true to the original Concept (is that the Parti?) but there's always been a bit of tension between the architect (who leans modern) and the family (which leans traditional). We like the lines of primitive/Shaker but not peeling paint, and "utilitarian" is a good word to describe the "style" (or lack thereof). dadereni -- thanks, we might go this direction with natural/stained windows and painted trim. It might look odd where we have transoms, so we will work with the architect to try to be coherent and consistent. The manufacturer for most of the windows is Loewen, we have a few Marvin in-swings. I wanted to say again how much I appreciate the opinions. We are on the hourly part with the architect so it's really wonderful for us to be able to have a sense of whether or not we're way off base before we go back to the architect for more. It's been a great collaboration thus far, just not inexpensive. So . . . THANK YOU!!!!

My previous home (1930's) had oak floors (the old kind, yellowish orange) through out (including bathrooms) apart from the kitchen that had douglas fur. We thought the flow from oak to pine was fine. My new home, also wood trough out has 4 different kids of wood. Kitchen is yellow hard wood pine, pantries are douglas fur, dinning room and all the rest of first floor is oak. Upstairs hallway is oak, half bedrooms are birch and half bedrooms are douglas fur. The only one that I am not thrilled with is the the birch which I think it looks weird. Anyway, my point is that although so many different woods are used somehow everything looks nice. People always comment on the richness of my floors. I think nothing can go wrong with using 2 different kids of wood as long as the color hue is not completely off. I would not get something too white or something that looks too exotic unless of course you want to create a complete different feel. The only thing I would worry is the contrast between the old and the new. One of my closets of my new home was completely rotten (from roof leaking...) and we put there a brand new floor. While we matched the wood and color still anytime I look in there it looks so new that is an eyesore. Thankfully it is just a closet. I think our mistake was to buy the kind that wad the poly already applied so it is not the same poly that the rest of the room has. If I had to do it over I would get the unfinished wood. And ask my kids to distress it a lit bit...:)

We had a related problem trying to match gumwood to pine window casings. Because different woods absorb stain differently and have different color undertones you may need to have different stains for the two kinds of woods to make them seen the same. One might be cooler or warmer than the other. You will probably have to do some custom mixing from among the ready-made stains, and try them out on scraps of the wood you're planning to use. Remember also that whatever you put on at the end to seal or finish the wood may make it warmer or more amber in color.

I have virtical grain fir trim which has rubbed on oil finish through out the house. (this is not varnish or shellac. This is wet sanded with oil finish. You need 3 to 5 coats of finish on the wood. This is expensive if you are paying someone to do it. It is quite easy to do yourself. My trim has been placed over 10+ year period. (expensive remodel that got done in stages....) Main floor:2001 Basement: 2005 Top floor:2010 Surprisingly, after a few months, you don't notice the difference in the age that much. I have some cherry furniture with rubbed on (wet sanded) oil finish and VG Fir veneer cabinets with factory conversion varnish. The cherry was not, stained only finished with oil. Fir darkens significantly. It starts immediately and continues over the first few years, much like cherry. The color you see immediately is not what you will see after a short while, as shown above. If you are staining to match fir, this is nearly impossible because you don't know where fir will end up in a few years. Since you are taking off old paint from the wood, my guess is that the fir under neath will not have darkened. But old wood may have been darkened then painted. I think it is better to pick woods that darkens over time and let those wood darken together over time. This is why cherry works well with fir. My floors are red oak that has Osmo on it. I had Swedish finish before. Osmo brings out more red from the oak than the Swedish finish did. I like my wood unstained. This is my preference.