Why are you replacing the tile? I think it looks TERRIFIC! If you’re set on wood, you can get unfinished engineered. And I have seen mixed woods in a house. It was fairly common practice in the old days to use, say, a wide-plank heart pine, which is a soft wood, in the casual areas (kitchen, family room, etc.) and oak strip in the public or formal areas (dining room, hallways, powder room, etc.)

Sammy-the tile was installed poorly when the house was built, the grout is chipping out and the tiles are cracking, becoming loose. So it needs to be replaced. I've held off doing this for a couple years...

Well I'm laying tile back down in the kitchen that is almost the same color (not running the hardwood into the kitchen), putting that tile in the laundry and bathroom that are located down the hallway. Would like to put hardwood in the rest.

Steph Doyle , what about finishing the wood on site? Then you can pick any color you like.

Im almost at that point! I was hoping to have it done in the week timeframe when we are all out of the house on vacation, which meant going with a prefinished...

Since you are finishing the other floors to match why not just get unfinished flooring in the same species of wood and then stain them all the same.

Well it was a timing constraint honestly. in the hopes to have it all done in the week my family will be out of the house, I was hoping to go with prefinished for this new section...there are a lot of nice prefinished floors out now. The other flooring won't be done until the next time I can get the kids/animals out if the house for a chunk of time. It's a lot of flooring to refinish. One project at a time!

The first thing I would say is that the floor under the tile looks in REAL bad condition, like it is tenting and dipping all over, which is probably one reason why the tile is breaking up. Either the floor has too much deflection, or it is also possible the subfloor was not laid with enough expansion room between sheets so they are buckling up.

Don't create more problems trying to solve previous ones.

1.) Emotionally come to terms with the fact that this is NOT a one week project. It isn't, you are in for it.

2.) I would get unfinished hardwood oak the same size as what you have and refinish it all to match. That is the only thing that will really look good. Everything else will look like a band-aide, and imagine all this work and money and having it still look sloppy and patched together?

3.) Prepare for some BAD surprises under that tile. You may have to get a contractor involved to level that floor if you aren't experienced with it.

super luman i have hired a contractor i trust and have used for years to do this job. He has prepped me for what could be going on under the floor but like you said, i don't just want to put a bandaid on this. I'm fixing it. So I'm prepared to suck that part up. I was hoping that the easy part of this whole job would be picking/installing the floor... but even that has been challenging!