Hi Doug,

Fir is very soft -- are you sure you want it on floors? Do you have dogs, and if so what size? They're awfully hard on wood with their toenails. You can also google to find out which woods are hardest (roughly translates to will look good the longest).

I wouldn't recommend any wood floor in the kitchen because of the day your dishwasher overflows and ruins the whole thing. Same with laminate. I don't think you can beat vinyl for kitchens and bathrooms, laundry rooms and anywhere else there could be water on the floor. If you want it to look like wood, you might want to look into some of the vinyl plank floors.

Do you have anything that's the equivalent of Craigslist up there? I've been surprised at how many people around here are selling flooring products under "Materials." Often they are left over boxes from a job, and sometimes they're enough to do a large area because someone changed their mind after purchase. It might be worth looking there if you have that, and in your local papers for building materials -- carpet, tile, flooring, etc.

Thanks for the info. Hadn't thought about the water issue. Fir is soft. But we don't have pets and want the same wood in the kitchen as the LR and DR. Oak would be safer. Hadn't thought of Craigslist in this connection. Good idea. We do have it up here.

I have wood flooring (maple) in my kitchen and had it in my previous kitchen - it's not near as susceptible to water damage as imagined. In the unlikely (and unlucky) event that you do have a dishwasher malfunction, you'd be surprised to see how a true wood floor (not veneered/engineered) will swell, then retract back to flat from exposure to water.

As for wood species, that's such a personal preference. Oak is practically indestructable and because of the graining, is very forgiving in showing the inevitable nicks that come from dropping that sharp steak knife! Maple is very hard but shows dings more because the grain is much more subtle. There are so many beautiful woods used for floors now it's tough to choose but one issue that might influence you is the sustainability of the particular species. Or perhaps consider recycled flooring. The good news with a true wood floor is that the life is longer than most anything else you could choose with simply sanding and refinishing.

We've got *white oak* (tougher than red oak) flooring and Ikea Hallarum cabs, with reclaimed VG fir accent shelves interspersed...so we're pretty close to your hypothetical. I do love fir floors, but they really do get ripped up easily. Heck, even fir cab. doors get ripped up easily.

Our Ikea cabs (we got an extra coat of conversion varnish put on them, since they're veneer) are fabulous. Even more fabulous that I'm buying the blumotion hinges and glides to retrofit them with now. Seriously wonderful. Does your SIL have those? We did our kitchen in 2004 and they weren't available then, so I'm snatching up what I can in AsIs to get the new glides bit by bit.

You're not limited to veneer, btw--There are solid doors, too, including Adel which I have *heard* is going to come in an even darker stain than the medium brown or is it Tidaholm? I'm foggy on it), but that could be a ways out.

Another thing to consider: Ikea boxes with custom doors, say out of walnut? ooh la la...with white oak floors...that would be really stunning...(because you wouldn't have to worry about scratches/upkeep with a natural wood tone, I'm inclined to go with the natural wood now, even though I got the Hallarum--if I ever redo the doors/panels I will go with a natural wood because I'm just that lazy :)) from Scherr's or a local cabinet shop. The kitchen forum people are great with ideas and they're all doing kitchens right now so they're in the very throes of TKOness (total kitchen obsession).

Side note re fir: if you do use it, please really look for *reclaimed* fir, since good quality old-growth fir is rarer and rarer...you can get just as good fir from reclaimed wood as you can from new wood, even better sometimes, and you won't have had to cut down any of the old-growth trees for it.

We remodeled last year and chose oak cabinets made by Omega Dynasty in a shaker style. I think the stain is Autumn. It's a lighter color that looks great. I'm really pleased with how they look with uba tuba granite and a light tan tile floor.

Initially, I thought I wanted maple or another wood. Some woods had too much color variation in the stain for me. The more I looked at the oak option, the more I liked it.

I'd describe our finished kitchen as being somewhat Asian and Mission/Crafts style in a 1970s house which doesn't have a lot of character. I like to think of the house as a blank canvas to display art and quilts.

You won't find a lot of people on the Garden Web forums purposefully choosing oak now because of the stain/design of oak cabinet 10-20 years ago. I think many of the current oak offerings have come a long ways from that older look.

So, I bucked the trend in picking oak cabinets when I could have had other choices.

I'd strongly recommend to others to give oak serious consideration.