Thanks! The wood was not prefinished, it is a 6 inch walnut plank, we have handscraped walnut on most of the first floor. The wood is not stained, just urethaned. The way the wood was cut was called a certain pattern, I don't remember what it was~will try and find out, or take a better picture so you can see. We had one company do all our hard surfaces, wood floors and tile in the baths. I think they had 2 different guys do the floor. They first layed the wood, and sanded and finished that, and much later they layed the tile. They also had to do an extra underlayment to match the thickness of the wood. I don't remember if there is grout or not.(we haven't moved in yet) but I will check next time I'm' there.

Thanks, Mysterymachine. I think that after living with the gray light kitchen the black on the counters just hit me hard. I agree about the cherry. It would have to be very simple...like cat mom's. Please continue to follow me with this. The support from the people on this forum, and the support of the people on the pool forum as I built my pool has helped so much to get me through the tough stuff during both projects. DH tries, but truly doesn't care as much as I do! I'm glad your seams are nice. When mine was lighter is was the first thing that caught my eye when I walked into the room. As I said, my back seam is perfect. I wish that I could have switched them! Minac, did you see? I do have apples up above my counters in a silver bowl. They were on sale at Target! My things on top are not my final choice, just stuff I picked up and put up there to make my kitchen look more finished for Christmas company. LOL. And yes, I guess I was leaning towards the colors in my dining room set. The chairs are cherry with a black leather seat. The table is cherry, the painted glass, and brushed silver. I thought that using that color glass would look great and bring my counter into the year 2008. If I got new door and drawers, I would go with the longer hardware too. I've included a link to my set (I got a much better deal than that!) but mine is cherry and black. It's the coolest table ever! It pulls out to a very big table for large gatherings, but pushes in to smaller for a more intimate dinner. I waited 20 years to get what I wanted! Glasskote contacted me today, and asked for my measurements for a bid. I'll let you know how it goes. I also ordered a sample from 3M. Can anyone recommend a company that would make replacement doors similiar to Cat Mom's for my cabinet guy to buy? The closest he had was a slab door in pear. Here is a link that might be useful: Dining Set

I don't know what the "rules" are, so I have no trouble following/breaking them.... When I moved into my house, most of the first floor (with the exception of the family room) had pre-finished oak floors in a medium tone which I didn't love. By and by, I replaced the breakfast area flooring with tile, and the kitchen with cork. When it came time to re-do the family room carpet, I wanted a darker, wider-plank wood floor (better suited the decor, shown below), so I put in new maple flooring. Replacing the oak flooring in the rest of the house was a non-starter, so we just made sure there were nice transitions between the flooring, width and direction notwithstanding. (A photo of 3 different flooring materials abutting is below.) I like to think my flooring works -- it does for me. But, at least in my home, one factor is that it's most definitely not open plan. Each room has a distinct doorway and -- given my passion for color -- a different color. I'm not trying for a unified flow because it's not consistent with the design of the house or my delight in the different colors of the rainbow.

@kandrewspa here are my cabinets. This color is called “Dove,” which is an off white (but reads white), but brighter white cabinets are also a possibility. It’s between those two tones. I welcome any suggestions for flooring color etc. My contractor will be installing the floors first, so that why I’m scrambling to select floors now. Regardless of what countertop I end up with, I feel like I’m limited (for the reasons discussed above) to a neutral tone anyway. I’ll post pics of the countertops I’m considering.