Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - I LAID RED OAK NEXT TO WHITE OAK! Please help!

This is an update of this post http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=242079


I finished my kitchen a while ago and finally got a professional floor guy down here to give me a price on refinishing the whole floor to get a better match. He told me I LAID RED OAK NEXT TO WHITE OAK! I have no idea what to do now.I put all this money into my floor only to have it not match .. Please someone tell me what I should do.

Based on your earliest photos, there was a consensus that the floor was red oak. The close up photo looked like white oak. As one poster said, "Take a piece to a good flooring distributer and they should be able to tell if it's white oak or red oak."

While most tend to prefer having the same wood throughout for continuity, there is no rule etched in granite the rooms can not have different kinds of wood floors. While the two floors will take stain differently, staining floor before finishing may minimize differences. I would not tear the floor out.

Here are pictures of the two floors together. I know there is quite a difference but I thought that it was a combination of being worn and the oil-base poly vs the water-base.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3255/56020196or9.jpg

http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/9421/img3681kv9.jpg

Is this a common mistake ? If I do stain it, will people still be able to see a huge variation?? The floor was supposed to be a seamless flow from the living room to the kitchen.I am so bummed about this!

Once finished, the differences become less, and as suggested above, there are no rules about flooring being a perfect match. Wood often does not match, even in the same species, or from the same tree. You can tear it out and redo with the right wood or just finish it. Someone may say, wow, how did you get that floor to look like that.

Thanks for your input guys

I was thinking about maybe adding a completely different color or maybe just use the white oak going along the walls and across the arch from the kitchen to the Living room to trim the room out.Something like the pictures below.

http://www.maxcarecleaning.com/wood_floors/floor5.jpg

or

http://www.historicbuildingco.com/images/img_port_flooring_main.jpg

One thing I've learned is if something doesn't match your almost better off making it look like you did it on purpose instead of trying to get it to "almost match"

Well I'm starting to feel a little better about this..I'd still like to here some other opinions or suggestions.

White and red oak are mixed in some flooring mills and sent out in bundles. Once finished it is hard to tell. To tell the difference in red and white oak, look at the cut end. The spring wood in red oak will have bigger capliaries, compared to white oak.

OK, I was thinking about putting in a Medallion or Borders to break up were the two floors come together. Now I'm confused. I expect some slight variation. I just don't want it to stand out. If that is the case then Could I go with a water base or would it then stand out even more due to the lack of oil tinge??

PS
I did a google image search for red oak and white oak and most of the pics from both look almost identical to my old floors.

Some more opinions/suggestions pleaaaase.......:(

If you toss in some blue spruce you will have an all American floor.