Comments:

1. wow - huge job.
   
   We are going to put hardwoods into our dining room and want the same look that you have - what kind of flooring is in your kitchen? Do you remember what the stain is called (that is the color we are looking for)?      by Deana
   
2. Its a Pergo maple something. I can't remember the name exactly and I think its out of production. However, its super durable. It looks better than say it feels on the feet, but I don't really care that much. For the house we are in now real hardwood would be not be appropriate in terms of Return on Investment.
   
   Also the purchase was "kinda green" because we bought from a friend of a friend who has a warehouse around the corner loaded to gills of this stuff. They also happened to be the best price we found "installed." However, this stuff might off gas, because it has a really smelly underlayment attached to the board, but you only smell it if you get it on your hands.      by Jester
   
3. Forgot this:
   
   This was the color we were going for, but not the grain. We like that Brazilian cherry or KOA or even this color on a bamboo grain. We ended up settling because of what was available at the warehouse, but we ended up liking it a lot.
   
   Maple grain is typically more traditional, and we favor a more contemporary style, but its so dark you can't tell what grain it is really. The color in this case is the most important item.
   
   We also upgraded our baseboards to the higher ones. Baseboards make a huge difference. Almost more important than the floor.      by Jester
   
4. thanks Jester. We will probably go with wood, just because dh hates the way pergo sounds when you walk on it (he also has the whole ROI thing in mind). I could care less, I just want it to look good. We too lean toward contemporary vs traditional - dh wants to see if we can do birch-type grain for the floors since we have birch cabinets throughout our house.
   Good point about the baseboard.
   
   Sorry to highjack your demo thread!      by Deana
   
5. No worries its all part of the same thread. Another thing about the floor was that we had a "hookup" so the cost just made it an easier decision. I think it was around 4k for the entire downstairs, plus the stairs, and upstairs loft with supply.
   
   Doing the stairs requires a ton of Miter cuts, so our total install cost plus flooring was about the cost of just the flooring everywhere else. The installation was almost free and again with stairs, installers usually jack up the installation price a lot.
   
   Now though with the housing market and recession, its never been a better time to be redoing flooring as thats where the best deals are right now.
   
   Lumber Liquidators for instance is having a ridiculous sale on real wood floors.      by Jester
   
6. Your doing a great job on your kitchen. I really like that slate gray look. Are you doing the whole kitchen in that color? I agree if you want to redo flooring now is the time to do it. We just received our flooring guides from Lumber Liquidators and a couple of other places around here. So far we are undecided. Since we are doing a whole house we are thinking of getting the unfinished flooring and staining and sealing it ourselves. It creates a better seal when you seal it after laying it.      by shan