My husband and I are trying to choose a solid red oak prefinished hardwood for our kitchen, hall and living room. We want the floor to have some raised graining that helps hide puppy prints. Our current prefinished floor in the living room (preverco) has a smooth-as-glass finish that shows everything! Some people have even thought it's not "real wood" because the finish is so smooth. (Otherwise, the floor is great and we feel we just chose the wrong finish.) We want our new floor to look more like real wood, but we don't want hand scraped. We want some color variation, but not knots, checks or dark marks. Our local store carries Lauzon and some of the samples have the texture we like. We are looking at Northern Classics red oak pacific grade, but are concerned because most of the pieces seem so "swirly" and maybe too busy. We're worried that select and better wouldn't have enough color variation, but we're not sure. Can anyone comment on either or post some pictures? Since we are ripping out the living room (not that old) to match the new installation in the kitchen, we want to get it right this time!