Yes, that would look nice.

Hello everyone...its been awhile since my floors have been installed, almost 1 year now. To remind you all, I live in NW Indiana and give the location, the weather is pretty extreme at times. Right now, we are near zero windchill and lots of lake effect snow. The air is dry!

My floors are holding up pretty well. But now that they have been thru all the seasons at least once, I have noticed some changes. Perhaps normal, perhaps not, this is why I am bringing up here...for you to tell me!

On to my concerns:

Near my floor registers, I am notices gaps between the strips. The lenght of these gaps run about 12", so I am just assuming that the warmth from the register is further drying out the wood and causing some pretty severe shrinking.
The other concern I have is that there are some spots that when stepped on will flex a tad and creak. Ok, its wood, its gonna flex and make some noise but I notice these only at the butt ends on certain spots. Why is that? Is it because I might not have stapled close enough to the ends? Or is it that the tongue/groove fitting may not have been so tight??

Other than that, I am enjoying my floors and still have a lot of you to thank for feedback.

Oh, and there are the dogs nail scratches.... I try to call them "character"!

Your floors, which I assume are solid wood, are simply responding to the current dryer conditions inside your home. They will slightly shrink, which can cause them to be a little noisier (snap, crackle, pop). If you introduced a small amount of humidity into the environment, your floors (and your sinuses) will thank you.

Gary, thanks as always for your responses. And my sinuses have been problematic lately. I think I need to look into a whole house humidifier solution. Its so dry, lately, that sometimes I get a shock just coming into contact with water from the faucet. Oh this winter has been a long one!