Here is my take... Since the existing is flat, it tells me that the existing was installed at the regions average MC, or gaps were left in it during the installation if it took place in the low humidity season. Acclimating a floor in a low humidity season, and installing it tight, is just as bad as no acclimation at all. There is a documented average regional moisture content for wood. Each species of wood has what is called a shrink & swell coefficient. It is a number so you can do the calculations to see exactly what the wood is going to do given a rise or loss of moisture content. If the wood is acclimated to the heating season or season of low humidity, gaps need to left in the field of the installation, so when the humidity does rise, the wood doesn't compress the edges, in a cupped appearance and eventually buckle if it is excessive pressure. Proper acclimation isn't just sitting the wood in a room. Actually far from it. I'd say improper acclimation issues, brought on the condition your seeing. Cupping from a wet humid basement or crawl space, will show up faster then 5 months. Take all that with a grain of salt... I'm sitting here, and not there with my moisture meters.

Hi Ginny, I'll be following your remodeling project! Lovely lake home. I read that the flooring gives when walking on it. Please make sure that you have a structurally sound subfloor before installing any new flooring. I agree that the tile needs to go. even though I really like tile in an entry way. But one recommendation I do have for that grand entry is installing a herringbone inlay. What type of hardwood were you thinking of? It would make more sense to keep the same hardwood throughout. It will make your home appear even larger.

Raye, I love the music events at my parents' facility. It's amazing to see people who seem totally unresponsive start to sing when prompted by a touch on the hand. Recently my mother, at 94, started to sing along to Proud Mary! Who knew?! Pretty sure she didn't sing along with it back when it was on the radio all the time. Visiting depends on the person. When I see my dad, even when he was in the hospital and now in rehab and skilled nursing, we talk about the finances, historic events that occurred on that day, family stories (I've learned so much family gossip!). My brother comes and talks about his golf swing and old tournaments. My husband brings a beer, a glass, and peanuts on Bears game days. Visiting my mom is different. I like to take her for a walk, I wheel her around the facility or the courtyard, or go outside on the grounds. We stop in the lobby for a coffee, or maybe I bring a high-calorie coffee drink or shake from some place along the way for her. They both love it when we bring a little coffee cake to have with coffee, like at home. I help mom with some beauty regimen. I tell her what I made for dinner last night, or I join in with whatever activity is going on. (Which is also a nice way to get to know the other residents. I notice that, now that I can say "Hello, Ernie" or whoever, I get a smile from them just by walking in the room.) When I was in the hospital years ago, my mom would come and take me for walks around the halls. We'd go gaze at the babies in the nursery (can't do that anymore for security reasons) and a couple of times she brought some table accessories and we brought our meal to a garden area. That was so nice. I haven't had to visit a friend in the hospital for a long time, thank goodness. That can be a little harder, but I tend to keep visits under 30 minutes. When we were in high school we visited a friend at lunch time and brought hamburgers from the hospital cafeteria (they were really good) and we'd have lunch together, maybe help her with makeup or shave her legs (weird the first time!) or rearrange her room to her liking. She was there for over a month after our car accident, so she got bored fast.

If a simple cleanup does not spiff it up enough, demount the faucets temporarily and polish it yourself with a granite cleaner and a buffing pad on a power tool, like an angle grinder. If there is serious scratching you need to remove, you may want to first use the grinder with a series of progressively finer grit sanding pads; do this sanding wet (water on the surface), and always wear respiratory protection. There are many videos on YouTube showing such types of operations, but many of them are for specific brands of polishing materials, or companies hawking their services, so I'm not going to push one over another. However, this is not rocket science, and, if you use fine enough grits, it's hard to mess this up.