If you're doing floor installation yourself and you're laying unfinished wood or tiles, there's a lot less cutting and piecing and it's faster if you can just lay and lay and lay without interference. And you can topfinish the room cleanly all the way to the walls, again without touchy little areas that need awkward kneeling and close vision and special attention. Also, you can more easily reconfigure the kitchen later--remove a portion of cabs and there's still an intact floor there. Hint from the sadder but wiser: If you're doing red oak and if you're sorting pieces beforehand so that you can isolate or omit the odd colored and wild grain ones and feature the calm ones in the major areas [I yanked out what I termed "clown" pieces to use up in the closet and under the cabs] be sure you have measured off the projected cab positions ten times over before you start. DH made a measuring error--didn't read the cab layout properly and figure how it related to the blueprint. I have three courses of clowns right in a prominent place and, naturally, some of the nicest boards are under the peninsula. It wasn't until the cabs were installed that I realized how my strategy had backfired. New Gel Mat covers it.

Wow! Thanks for all the fabulous pictures so far. mommycooks, I'm so glad that you found the thread and could post. I'm liking that praline color a lot! alexamd, those cabinets are beautiful...and since my floors are oak too, you've got me thinking. What's that stain color? And those pendants are really amazing too. I just keep going back and forth on the white or stained. My kitchen doesn't get a lot of natural light and it's only 13x17'. I'm worried that it's too small to have the wood on wood look, but I want something that's warm and cozy. Do you think that in my small space that it's too much wood?

The pre-stain conditioner is very thin varnish (shellac, whatever, just really dilute_ - the more absorbent parts of the boards soak up more of it, then you (typically) sand lightly and stain. The absorbent stuff stays slightly sealed and you get even results. " I saw on another post where a person suggested coating wood with solvent before applying stain, which made me wonder if that's all the wood conditioner is.??" That may have been me, because I do it a lot ... by letting the parts of the board that are more absorbent soak up some solvent, you minimize grabbing. BUT it has the drawback of needing to be done immediately before you apply the stain, and is not as predictable as the conditioner. It works best if you also use the "wipe on thinly" stain application method and not the "slosh it on like paint and wipe it off" method. I do it on rustic furniture because, like rustic furniture, it's fast and cheap. If I am working on something "fine", I'll use a conditioner.

Uh, I get that some folks don't like red oak, but it can be quite beautiful. If you don't want to commit to a stain color, just have them top-coated ("natural" finish). I had mine natural in two different houses and they were super-easy to live with -- just kind of a soft yellow-y color that's like a pair of old jeans, goes with everything. This is a terrible picture of my hallway before re-painting, but will give you an idea. Lighting in this hallway is 3000K can lights. (click the pic to get a better view) I had the red oak refinished to Provencial, here's what that looks like in north-facing foyer with the 3000K lights on (again -- before repainting, my house is a work in progress...) Look what a difference in how the Provencial looks in the same foyer with the lights off, natural light only -- so yes you need to get the windows in because just like paint, stain looks different in different lights. FWIW, I don't like 4000K bulbs -- I like the warmth that 3000K gives, I have a home with lots of wood and richer colors, and 3000K just looks better IMO. If your home is predominantly grey/white/cool colors, then 4000K might be an option. But the problem is you're picking a stain color with artificial light, and you may not like 4000K -- lightbulbs are easy to play around with and switch out, flooring is not. So yea -- pick the stain after the windows.