It kinda of depends on the way you want your house to look. Meaning are you trying to stay true to the 1920s feel. Oak strip will keep a more consistant look. Engineered will work too but as far as stronger? People will debate that. In the end will it ding and scratch and get beat up like any other wood? Yep.

Oak strips will allow you to refinish more times. Finishes today are good and basically it comes down to you and how you treat the floor. Eitherway in a few years no matter what flooring you decide will show wear n tear.

I would recommend solid oak over engineered. No contest. And, especially no contest in the kitchen. I would do solid and unfinished, then sand & refinish on site.

The solid will last way longer. The kitchen is heavy traffic area and the engineered will not hold up as well and you won't be able to refinish (and/or can't refinish as often). Also, engineered hardwood is prefinished which means that you will have microbeveled edges which mean that the edges will not be sealed with polyurethane...so water can seap through and cause issues.

Further, even if you don't have scratches, you could also have a water issue from an appliance, and the solid hardwood would give you an insurance plan as it will enable you to replace a few damaged pieces of wood and refinish the whole floor without having to replace the whole floor.

Below is a link about hardwood flooring for kitchens. personally, I love hardwood floors for kitchens...but solid and refinishing it on site is the best way to go (w/ oil based poly and 3 coats).

Here is a link that might be useful: hardwood for kitchens - does it make sense

Thanks FlooringGirl for your positive comments about strip hardwood. in my heart that is what I want to do. I am fearful that it won't stand up as well because there are less layers of urethane on it. How would you suggest keeping them clean without using a lot of water?

Anyone who tries to convince you that all those layers of urethane on engineered is going to make for a 'better' floor than unfinished solid finished on site just wants to sell you something they can make quick money on and/or because it is something they can do.

Nothing beats solid unfinished, except for maybe acrylic impregnated engineered or solid wood flooring.

An unfinished solid wood floor finished with a state-of-the-art material can outperform most engineered.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. What do you recommend as the best "state of the art" material? And how many applications?

The two-part waterbourne polyurethane finishes, such as Traffic by Bona or Street Shoe by Basic Coatings (there are others) are rapidly replacing most all oil based film-forming finishes. Also, the natural oil finishes, such as Rubio Monocoat are being used today. They are not considered film-forming finishes.

The finish system you choose will have a recommendation of sealer/stain and finish application schedule. With Bona Traffic, for example, it is a single coat of sealer or stain and then two coats of the Traffic product. Traffic is also now available in a HD (high durability) formulation, except that Traffic original is very durable all by itself.

With any of the waterbourne film-forming products, you have to know how to get that oilbase look from them, if that's what you're after. A finish contractor who has extensive experience with these products can give you almost any final result you want.

Commercial quality waterbourne wood floor finishes are not inexpensive.