It depends on who is refinishing the floor. A good refinisher will do a good job. If the floor boards are perpendicular to the opening between the rooms, have a threshold installed across the opening. If the kitchen floor boards are parallel to the opening, a good refinisher will do a good job of blending the finish so that the difference is not noticeable.

@Nikkiee Cruz What an adorable pup! We're glad to hear you are happy with your floors! :) We run a contest every month called "Project of the Month" we would love to have you submit your photos! All you have to do is send us 4 or more sharp photos to photos@calibamboo.com. 1st Place wins a $250 Amazon gift card, 2nd Place wins a $100 gift card, and 3rd Place wins a $50 gift card. It's fun on our Facebook Page, feel free to check out our current contest going on right now :) https://www.facebook.com/CaliBamboo/posts/10158529467952326

Yeah, ferrets are pretty good, but it's so hard to keep those little hard hats on! Thanks for the tip, kudzu6. I had been looking at a suspiciously cheap battery floor lamp and after reading the reviews that said the light was poor, I checked further. There's one for about $100 with much better light output, takes 4 D batteries. If I get that one I'll start with regular batteries and if quality or light and battery life are okay, I'll look into rechargeable batteries. What tips the scales to battery lamp over the recessed floor outlet, is the fact that I do not use this a great deal. Maybe 15 minutes a day, tops. Cost/benefit leans towards battery. Also, I was embarrassed to admit this, but I had not factored in rug placement. I've moved out the area rug I was using anticipating the floor refinishing which was when I started thinking of a floor outlet. That rug is not likely to be used there again, but chances are that there will be some kind of replacement. A portable floor lamp would be much more practical. Also, the room is fairly small.

If you like your current colour then go ahead and put down a new version of it. If you want something different then I would go lighter. I love the look of red oak in the 'buff'. It is a pretty wheat/sand coloured wood. So long as you work with a high-end water based polyurethane that does NOT yellow, you will have a very pretty 'pale wood' floor without much effort. Your existing finish appears to be oil based (or oil modified) which makes the floor yellow. The strong gold tones in your wood right now = the finish. Did your refinisher apply a coat of FINISH over your colour samples? If they did NOT....then you are picking BLIND. And I mean screaming and crying and tearing your hair because your beautiful gray floors turned to a muddy orange mess. Not good. Do you see the pale colour of the raw wood? You can keep that colour (very close to it) with 3 coats of water based polyurethane like Bona Traffic HD. Keep the gloss level a snick on the low side (satin is a nice low-gloss option) and you keep that pretty 'swedish blonde' look.