Thanks to all of you pros for answering our questions! This is a great forum.

I have 2 questions:
1. What sealer and finish would you recommend for heart pine?
2. We hope to be able to stay in the house while this is being done and don't want to be overcome by fumes. What combination of sealer and finish would you recommend for a matte finish that would keep the smell down? Or is this not a possibility?

thank you!

Well, the LOWEST VOC finish would be BONA EON 70. A good finish. Waterbased and very low VOC's. But IMO, not the BEST looking finish for pine. Pine looks best with a stain or a solvent based finish. And those do have some odor. So take your pick; no smell or odor but maybe not the most attractive. OR better looking but much more odorous.

Thanks Gary - what sealer/finish combo would you recommend for heart pine? What about Bona Dri Fast sealer and then 2 coats of Traffic? Would the Dri-Fast bring out the amber coloring in the wood? I'm all ears

Yes, better than just a straight waterbased sealer. And you can mix DriFast stains as well. They have a natural the can be used to cut some of the other colors. THe DriFast sealer is just fast drying polyurethane pretty much and does have a strong odor. The DriFast stains are still solvent based but don't seem as strong odor-wise as the sealer. Either one will work fine with Traffic. Traffic does have some odor but it isn't extremely bad. Eon 70 is way less. Personally, I'm a big fan of most of Bona's products. A little pricey but top-notch quality.