Wood is hygroscopic...it will take up moisture and give it up repeatedly. As a result of this characteristic, some gapping will happen and some cupping on occasion unless the indoor temperature and humidity levels remain constant...not many homes maintain these levels. Do NOT acclimate your wood to the ambient temperature and humidity conditions of the outside air, especially if that is what you perceive as hot and humid...that will guarantee that you will have more gapping than is normal to expect. Get yourself a combination temperature and humidity instrument (about $25 at Radio Shack) and monitor temperature and humidity levels in the room where the wood will be installed. Professionals have moisture meters that read the level of both the wood and the subfloor that the wood is to be installed over and then they install when moisture readings are within 2% to 4% of each other. You don't have that instrument, so common sense will dictate. You want to acclimate the wood to the indoor environment that it will live in most of the time. If that is let's say 68 F and 50% humidity, then that is the conditions you what the wood to acclimate in. Turn on the HVAC system and adjust temperature and humidity levels to what you consider to be the 'typical' levels in your home. Acclimate for the time required...I acclimate wood for at least a week. Since you are DIYing, pay attention to how you 'rack' the floor...avoid obvious 'step' patterns and keep end seams at least 8" from each other to avoid that visual insult. Search the internet for some other professional opinions. Here is a link to NOFMA that can get you started. Here is a link that might be useful: NOFMA

I am not sure if it rectified tile or not. Here is the info on the Florida tile we chose. http://www.floridatile.com/products/berkshire We chose a cocoa colored grout or maybe it was called coffee, I can't remember for sure. Go with a darker shade of grout to make it look more like wood. The lighter u go with the grout color the less realistic it will look.

I'm tall too. Our installers actually put a 2" framework under all of our cabinets, and even with the foor installed they are MUCH more comfortable to me. I was going to say to put the toe kick down, then do quarter-round, but I guess that's out. Sorry I can't think of anything to tell you. How about you talk to the installer for suggestion? I'm posting a few pics (during construction and completed) to show you what we had done, in hopes that in some way, it might help one of my fellow tall girls :) "> "> ">

If you think the local dealer has a better relationship with the vendor and would follow-up on any problems better, that's a huge advantage. Contractors can usually schedule in sub-contracted work as long as everyone follows through with the set schedule. The issue might be if the contractor was willing to let you do this since some contractors insist on a total-job control so they can make enough margin to make it financially worth their time to take on the remodel, understandably so. Be careful that he doesn't increase the price of his other work in exchange for letting you hire your own floor person.