Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - starting area suggestion

I'm attaching a drawing of the area I want to put hardwood(maple, cherry, or oak) flooring. Areas are living room, family room with fireplace, dining room and hallway. In the layout of my house, where is the best area I should start?

1st floor layout: http://restricted.dyndns.org/floorlayout.gif

And am I correct that I can do this without using a transition? My installation would be nailed down by the way.

Look at what I mean with no transitions or t-mouldings: http://restricted.dyndns.org/floorlayout.jpg


Thanks,

Neil

You can start an installation where ever you wish. Your going to need slip tongue splines to reverse directions.


Big rooms, I start in the middle of the room and work one way then insert the pline and work back the other way. The fasteners effect the direction of movement during seasonal swell and shrink.

So since it's a big room, I should start on the hallway since it joins the living room, dining room and family room. Am I correct?

This is where I'm so confused. Assuming I have created the border for the fireplace using the 3 sides strips I've cut in 45 degrees angled and all the tongue of this 3 strips are outside just as you mentioned in the other post I wrote. Now, if I start in the middle which is hallway, and slowly reaching the fireplace, how would I connect the other end of strips to the border I have created?

Apology for my confusion. Please help. :)

Do your border around the FP hearth, first Tongue out.

Once I have cut the border in 45 degrees, tongue out, how do I connect the three together? Or do I nail them to the subfloor?

Once these border is installed, what should I do next?

EDITED:

I have modified the layout of my floor in my 1st floor.

http://restricted.dyndns.org/hardwoodplan.gif

As you can see in the drawing, I have created the 3 strips as borders to the fireplace. All 3 strips have the tongue facing away the fireplace. That's the first thing I will do.

In my 2nd step, I will add a chalk line to the center of my house. This chalkline will be my point of origin. I read somewhere that I can connect 2 strips where both tongue is facing each other away. I can connect them both using spline. Once I have connected both, I will nail it to the middle of my house(w/c is perpendicular to the joist) where I put the chalk line. In the drawing, that's the long orange line in the middle.

Am I doing the right procedure?

Thanks for helping me out. :)

Neil