I go with the natural wood unless there is already uneven discoloration in which case I stain darker to hide the issue.As for finding reliable wood flooring guy, ask around to other investors.

I agree with you on having the floors flowing, I have done this with my last few houses and love the look.The thought is to find a nice looking engineered Oak flooring with a darker stain, install there, and then match the rest of the original oak flooring color and sheen to it.

Parcel is 0% stones, level, north-facing and totally shaded, soil class is Rains and Grifton but we'd most likely engineer a raised bed if that is appropriate for the plants and parcel. 

So I went with a darker color.

A 3-4% solution will not kill mature trees, but it will definitely knock out the poison ivy crawling up their trunks and hiding in their shade.

The shade porch window didn't have a shade; so I woke up with the sun."...the title of the listing was literally, "Sun-Porch room, wake up with the sun".  

I use the grey shades also as they sell very well.

https://www.menards.com/main/window-treatments/blinds-shades/vinyl-blinds/intercrown-trade-1-light-filtering-filtering-corded-vinyl-blind-42-length/mb2342-wh/p-1444436054020-c-9236.htm?

Overall looks amazing maybe on the next one try a brighter kitchen instead of darker, maybe that’s just a personal preference.

Again, you can always get silver, and sometimes you can get darker ones to match the shingles.I've had a roofer offer to paint the exposed part of the vent pipes to match the new shingles.