Not so Wordless Wednesday

So I like the idea of Wordless Wednesday; you know letting the pictures do the talking. But by golly I've finished my floor and I really want to say a few words about it. First off, I love it!
The pictures here are of the stairs down from the Master Suite, (at least that's what the builder calls it.) and then down into the foyer and front room. It shows the staircase that absolutely kicked my butt, but which came out looking spectacular if I do say so myself.
After a lot of of deliberating and homework looking into the various finishes that were available, and what costs would be for those, we decided to go with Olympic Brand water based semi-gloss polyurethane (poly).I ran a couple of test using the Tried and True product that was the one that we were leaning towards primarily because it was based on natural oils and waxes. The other products may have been as effective as the poly, but just weren't cost effective for our budget.
As I was saying, I did a couple of tests with the Tried and True, and while I will say that it left a very warm and soft finish that I loved, it didn't provide the type of protection that we need with three boys and a dog. We had a section of wood flooring that was in front of our back door from the original flooring install; I sanded it, and applied a coating of the T-n-T over the whole area. Part of this I also covered with two coats of a flooring wax. I left an ice cube out over night on both sections (a common occurrence and annoyance in our kitchen.) and checked on it the next day. The unwaxed area had basically absorbed the water, swollen/warped, and was stained; very unsatisfactory. The waxed area did do better, and seemed to be repelling some of the water, but did stain, and have some warping. I tested clean up of the two areas, and although it was possible, and were it only my wife and I, we may have gone with it. As it is, we found that the Olympic product was very low in VOC's, dried quickly and provided a good seal. Add to this the fact that we could buy two gallons of it for the price of one of the other and the decision was made. We put four coats on the main floor areas, and three coats on the upstairs bedroom areas.

The whole process to this point has taken about a month and a half, we've spent the whole time in a semi state of chaos, and the last 5 days with no furniture in the house and every bit of it was worth it. I know there were a couple of you that mentioned that you were preparing to do some hardwood floor work; if there's any questions that you have for me on this, I'll do my best to try and help you with it.
P~