Choices and disappointments

When you have champange tastes at a Two-Buck-Chuck budget (Trader Joe's reference), it gets hard to choose countertops, flooring, backsplash...

But I think we have found the winners:  take a gander at the finalists.

We ran into a hiccup on the flooring, had to pick something different.  Which one do you like?




Hickory or hand scraped maple?


We ended up going with the handscraped maple.  Now when we got it, I was very disappointed.  It looked much different then the store sample and was not what I was expecting.  Since I had convinced hubby this was "THE FLOOR" I felt super bad.  We laid it out at home next two the cabinets.  It will do and it looks nice, but it just wasn't exactly right.

I think it looks like laminate, but it is real wood.  Maybe when we get the rest of it in I will like it better.
What do you think?