My living room has the hardwoods currently.

Our hardwood has been in our kitchen, and the rest of the first floor for 38 years. It has been wonderful.

Any issue with water or spills? Staining?

Most of my kitchens have been hardwood both mine and clients.

No, I keep a runner in front of the sink area which makes it less likely to have water in the floors. Spills are cleaned up immediately.

I have hardwood in my current kitchen now because our last house already had them in the kitchen. In our last house we actually did have several issues with leaks that started buckling the oak. However, once the floor dried out well the swelling went down almost completely! (There was still a little squeaking in front of the dishwasher but we decided to not replace that section of flooring.) Anyways. What we learned was that it was a good idea to have water sensor alarms so you could catch any leaks right away. Under sinks, dishwashers, and fridges are the typical potential issues for leaks that will buckle a wood floor because it can puddle in the wrong direction and you probably won’t see it until you feel the buckle or see the water damage in the basement ceiling. Area rugs can help with wear and tear in the high traffic area where you do most of the work in the kitchen.

Another vote to run the hardwood into the kitchen.

We considered running the current wood in the rest of the house into the kitchen when we redid about 7 yrs ago, BUT - our kitchen is a wide galley with the back door and door into the garage coming in. That foot path is so traveled that it would have required refinishing in no time, and a long runner down the middle to protect the “path” would have looked stupid. We went with a gray 12 x 24 tile instead. So do consider traffic patterns before you go with wood…

Good point!

I’m another vote for continuing the hardwoods. I’ve had no issues in my various kitchens I’ve owned. However, chloe00s has a good point about traffic patterns. Still, a good quality wood, well-prepped and stained, should hold up a long time.

A quality poly finish like Bona Traffic or Ciranova Ecofix Plus with hardener is important.

I was hesitant about wood in the kitchen as well. We continued it from the rest of the house and I'm so glad we did. It makes the room so warm and inviting. No issues at all with water.