Redroze, I'm just getting back online and seeing your questions, so I'll try to answer what I can. My new floor in the LR/DR was not pre-finished, it was all site-finished. I did put a pre-finished floor down in my office (no pics, sorry) because I work from home and didn't have time to be without my office for the week it would have taken to have floor sanded etc. The pre-finished does have a different feel to it than the site-finished. I wouldn't say it's grooved, just a more defined difference in between the individual planks. The office doesn't adjoin any other room, except the tiled hallway, so I didn't worry so much about the wood being different there. I see from your pictures what you mean about running the planks the same way and wanting to be sure things don't look odd. One idea might be to take up some of your FR planks, like the first 12 or so, and then put them back down interwoven with the new planks. That way there's not a clear line in between the 2 rooms, but rather a more gradual blending. Here's another couple of pictures, this time of my family room. The first one is a before shot of the hardwood floor + a rug-like carpet. The floor created a frame around the carpet. I had the carpet taken up and new hardwood put in where the carpet originally was, then everything sanded and refinished. You absolutely can't tell where the old wood was vs where the new started. In this case, the new is random width because it opens directly to the kitchen (as opposed to the LR/DR which is all the same width). So, one house, all new site-finished floors in the LR & DR, all new pre-finished floor in the office, original/refinished in the kitchen, and half&half refinished + original in the family room. Boy did we have dust! Hope this helps! New:

Lynn, my floors are Hartco Westin Plank oak in Cinnamon, and I've linked below to a site selling them so you can see all the details. I was trying to match existing Hartco flooring that had been down for 20 years(!). That particular line isn't being made anymore, and it turned out that my guesstimate wasn't exactly a perfect match. But I like it a lot and am finishing out my hallway and bedrooms with it this summer. Aside from the color, the 'permion' finish is aluminum oxide and I've found it to be extraordinarily strong. Nothing scratches my floors! And the edges are square, which eliminates that mysterious bevel that so many people complain about w/engineered wood. Actually my original engineered floors didn't have the beveling either so I've never been too sure why that is such a problem for so many folks but that's another topic... Hope this helps. Picking flooring can be challenging; there are so many varieties from which to choose. Ann Here is a link that might be useful: Hartco Westin Plank Oak-Cinnamon

Floors! Always floors. The baseboards, if left in place during the refinish, are most likely going to get dinged up a little (that's why some of the best flooring jobs include removing/updating baseboards at the same time). That's fine as long as you plan to replace them in the future. In the mean time, a little bit of touch up paint will hide most of the damage (which should be minor to begin with).

It is possible you have a low-gloss finish (probably matte) which is a tough finish to live with and make look "good". If you felt that a polish would add a 'pick-me-up' then the gloss of the floor is probably what is making you feel unhappy. The polish you applied is a low-gloss polish. It makes dull floors look, well, dull. Now you need to remove the polish. Bona should have a floor stripper in their line-up...I suggest you purchase it and begin the work that needs to be done. Windex Original Formula can also work. I'm not sure which one is faster, but it is worth a try to start with the Windex (most people have this one in their cleaning arsenal). If it removes things easily then keep going. It can be a 'hands and knees' type of cleaning but it is worth it. And I've just looked up the Dura Luster Plus....it is used on Bruce's LOW GLOSS floors. It is a matte. The dullness of your floors is directly linked to the factory finish. There is no way to make then look 'shinier' without remove the flooring and starting with a floor that has a shinier finish. The Dura Luster Plus is an Aluminum Oxide (AO) Urethane finish which makes them pretty difficult to refinish. It is *possible (check the thickness of the top layer of wood on the floors) but it can be expensive/difficult to remove AO. And because it is difficult, most of the 'regular guys' won't touch a floor with AO on it. Only the most experienced, most expensive refinishers will give this a try.