Sherry: You inspired me to hunt for acorns today. I went to a place where there are condos and lots of trees. In less than an hour, I collected several ziploc bags of acorns and a bag of hickory nuts. I took a camera so I could do what you did (take photos of the oaks) but this place hires people to blow leaves (and acorns) off the roads so you don't really know which acorns came from which tree. I've gone through my tree ID books but still have questions. Alabama: Thanks for the advice about soaking acorns. I need to figure out which are red oaks v. white oaks so I can get the white oaks planted ASAP. One group look like the acorns Sherry posted above. * Longleaf Pines Alabama: Our county forester is coming to do a site visit on Wednesday re: longleaf pines. (yeah!!!) Although the VA state nursery didn't offer longleaf seedlings this year as planned, he said he can get seedlings - I need to decide how many I need. After I learn more, I may post on the Conifers forum - this is such an important issue in the Southeast. Last month, Virginia had a two day conference about re-establishing longleaf pines. I'll bet the same thing is going on all over this region. I'll always be grateful to you for telling me (and showing me) longleaf pines. I'm hooked. Take care, Pam

laurie: Thanks so, so much! Got me back to Image Searching and I feel a lot better : ) roseabbey: WOW, how beautiful is that! You're talented! You are right about me having a lot of windows so after seeing your floors being darker I am not going to fret about that now, and I can see how accessorizing or complimenting dark w/lighter aspects can also pull everything together, so, thank you so much for your input. RE: Board direction, I sounds like it basically boils down to two choices... 1. Run the boards from front door to sliding doors (seems like the general concensus)=hall with boards side to side. or 2. Run the boards side to side (left to right) from front door to sliding doors=hall with boards running longways, like roseabbeys, who is right, it does not seem bowlingalleyish at all to me. I suppose an option is to have a seam where the hallway starts out from the foyer, but, I can't imagine that. Found this not-so-great picture that's shadowed bad but you can sort of see the hall that turns right past that temporary cabinet on the right. My possible plan would be after laying a new floor to maybe have a rug runner in foyer and maybe a matching one for under the dining table? Opinions welcome!

Michele - Here is a wood kitchens idea book with different floorings in some pics. https://www.houzz.com/plans/wood-kitchens-pp~543268?stepId=saved In my own kitchen I went with old fashion 2 1/4" solid wood flooring throughout the main level (except tiled front entry and powder room). While not trendy, my house and cabinetry are older and it seemed to blend well with the older elements since it is the floor seen in older homes - some over a 100 years old. I went with natural oak as it worked best with my cabinets and doors.

Thank you! I was choosing between Cool Classic and First Crush. I have seen photos of Road Trip online and that color looks good. I chose CC because they were lighter and I really wanted a bright, light space. But First crush is really good looking. It’s so hard! I bought a box of each first crush and cool classic and moved them all over the house to see how they would look at different times of the day. And cool classic won but it was a close call. They are similar.