We are planning a remodel of our main living area/kitchen. My current flooring is not working. Here are my main issues:

1) There are deep grooves between planks because each board has a beveled edge

2)Food crumbs and dirt and everything else collects in the cracks.

3) The finish is too dark and "80's" for the house. We have a nice tongue and groove wood ceiling with huge wood beams in a more medium tone, which will not ever be painted, or restrained in any way.

Initially I wanted to rip it all out and put in new wood floors to my taste, but the environmentalist in me cannot waste this solid wood flooring, that has nothing wrong with it except superficial scratching, light water stains and some discoloring.

So can I do anything about the deep grooves? My husband thinks you could sand down far enough that the grooves would disappear, but I'm REALLY skeptical about that. The groove is at least an 1/8" deep and that seems impractical and potentially could look terrible, since the flooring was obviously meant to have the bevel/groove.

If we sand and use a lighter stain, or no stain, will the grooves be highlighted even more, (i.e. stand out because they look so dark)? Does anyone else have flooring like this?? I have not been able to find any pictures of similar floors.

Suggestions?