I am getting close to pulling the trigger on the copper hood... It is just so expensive! :0) But I really want a "statement piece" in the kitchen, and I think it will look great with that 42" copper sink! The granite though, that granite is soooooo expensive. :0(

I had med-dark floors and what made them look dirty was the sheen! I believe chinchette. They were engineered wood and they were so smooth you could see footprints in sunlight with CLEAN feet right out of the bath not even wet. Drove me nuts. I've been wanting to go with real wood (handscraped with a little tonal variation to hide dings/scratches). I may consider engineered if I can get it in a matte finish, because the engineered held up beautifully in my previous kitchen, and I'm worried about a true hardwood in that area. It will be one or the other, I love wood floors. My friend had a darker almost espresso floor, now those you had to dust all the time to keep looking clean.

Well due to a final deadline and lack of a better alternative free of other issues, we decided to go ahead and order Mirage's Knotty Walnut Savanna. We had to submit it today so here we go, hoping for the best and fingers crossed we'll be happy with it! It won't be installed for a month so I'll try to come back and post pics and follow up on things. Our decision was largely influenced by Mirage's reputation for their high quality wood and preparation, although another poster with Mirage Walnut Natural did mention after a year she had some fading by a window, but minimal and nothing objectionable. Also taking into consideration most with fading issues seem to have Natural rather than stained Walnut, so I'm wondering if stain might be protective in some way? Mirage also has UV protectant in their finish and that's supposed to delay/reduce any color changes. All our new Milgard Tuscany windows also have the latest 'code required' Low E glass so that might help too or we can consider additional UV window film if needed. Honestly, we hope to be enjoying rather than worrying about all this so much, the fading issue has already made me forget my early concerns about denting or wild color variations lol! So all the above factors plus mainly Eastern and not Southern daylight exposure we're really hoping we'll be OK. We do have one small room that will get lots of SE sunlight so it will be interesting what happens there. ALSO does anyone know about the 'rug' rule? I think I've heard one shouldn't cover new hardwood at all for at least something like six months, anyone know about this? Isabel - Thank you for posting photos, your floor is beautiful! If the fading is mostly by your French doors have you considered covering over that area with a runner type rug or even even removing the faded wood and doing a beautiful tile inset in its place? I've also been told that although pre-finished flooring is harder to sand and refinish, it's not impossible and is doable for usually about $1 extra per sq ft than if re-doing a site-finished floor. They just need to use stronger 'sandpaper' type stuff. Hard finishes are so common these days I'm sure it can be done these days. If handscraped maybe not but your doesn't look handscraped. If you have the fading under control with UV shades it might be worth considering! Btw, whereabouts are you in Northern CA? We lived there for sixteen years both in Sacramento and Sonoma County so you're making me nostalgic! If your Walnut has ever been exposed the the sizzling sun of Sacramento valley then your fading issues wouldn't surprise me! We're in a lovely area of the Pacific NW now. mdln- thanks for the pics of your beautiful floor and cute little dog! Romy718- thanks for your feedback and the UV film idea :) Sorry my post is so long, probably putting you all to sleep! I'll try to do Walnut flooring updates as things progress here!

I have experience with this product. I absolutely love it. Put it in my downstairs (tile in bathrooms) in 2014. I have just had my first plumbing leak fiasco. Under the slab, and with home warranty diagnoses and approvals of estimates before they would fix, it sat with the leak under this glued to the slab installation for at least a week and a half before water stopped pouring over the flooring. The pantry would have standing water in 30 minutes that we had to wet vac out, or lay towels down and change out if longer. This was for a week and a half till we could stop the flow. The wood slats got some saturation nearest the leak, but as for buckling, there wasn't much. The edges between boards swelled slightly. The wood felt very spongy to walk on, so I could tell where the glue was wet and where it was dry (felt like walking on concrete). I'm now drying it out with a water restoration company, and it could just seal back down and be fine. That marine grade plywood seems to really do the trick. Still waiting to see after dryout but it is amazing compared to other friends who had a much shorter flooding of their floors and the buckling photos I've seen from them. P.S. that's a cat toy on the top photo bottom left - not damage to the wood. Here is original install - this is Impressionist style, Cezanne color (natural). I pulled the darker wood for the bedroom and the lighter ones for the living areas.