Back story: 1870s stone farmhouse, 6" pine plank 5/8" thick subfloor in dining room (actually, throughout the entire house except the kitchen), with prefinished 3" wide 3/4" thick high gloss oak laid on top, perpendicular to the pine, approx 15yo, in good condition.

We aren't happy with the oak for various reasons: (a) not huge fans of oak floors, (b) don't like high gloss, (c) we don't like pre-finished (plus, it's not appropriate for the house).

Local wood flooring guy - experienced in his field and has a good reputation (but had never heard of Rubio Monocoat* or any hard-wax oil finishes - he was all about urethane - so "old school") came and looked at it, and we talked about various options:

(1) retaining the oak; threading in matching oak where we've had a large 1930s fireplace removed, and then sanding it down so the little "v" grooves disappear and the boards appear flush - basically, take them back to unfinished - and then I'd paint it (I happen to like painted wooden floors, and it's appropriate for the age and style of the house).

(2) pulling up the oak, and replacing it with 6" pine boards running the length of the room. We could then either paint or Rubio Monocoat it.

(3) we could fix up the pine, but it's a sub-floor, you can see through to the basement, and it runs the wrong way (across the room). I'm pretty sure it's pine, but it's virtually knot-free, no doubt because of its age.

Flooring contractor says (2) is the cheapest option, but the pine, being new, will be plenty knotty. And from everything I'm reading here, fairly yellow; again, not a fan of yellow knotty pine.

So - what pitfalls should I be aware of if I choose to have him sand down and patch the prefinished oak, and then it can have a Rubio Monocoat (maybe bleach first, and I'd seek guidance here on GW for that, too), or a paint finish?

*Browsing GW earlier, it seems people have had issues with RM being applied correctly. In our previous house our very careful contractors, who'd never used the stuff before (no-one had in our area), applied it with ease and great success to an engineered oak unfinished floor. We all read the instructions and watched the many youtube videos beforehand. I don't think that's an option for the current flooring guy! Obviously as the home-owner we call the $hots, but there's no point in aggravating him beyond his area of expertise, is there.

Thanks - sorry for the lengthy post!