Hi Everyone,

So the wife and I are in the process of planning out the hardwood install (we are still weeks away from that as the bamboo is acclimating). However, I wanted to run our plan by you guys and make sure we are on the right track. We'd like the floor to run continuously if possible.

Here is an image of our floorplan. It's not to scale, but should give you a good idea. Also, it's important to know that our floor joists run left to right when looking at the picture.

http://i.imgur.com/FNLt70P.jpg

So the plan was to do the guest bedroom first, the master bedroom, and then the office and hallway. Then move on to the living room/kitchen.

The biggest questions we have at this point is where do we start?

The Bedrooms and Office

My first thought was to start along the exterior wall (since it is most likely the straightest) of the guest bedroom and work towards the hallway. Then go over to the exterior wall of the master bedroom and work towards the hallway.

However, If I do that, isn't there a chance that things won't be straight when I get to the hallway?

If so, then shouldn't I start at the hallway wall so that the hallway is straight and work towards the exterior walls of each bedroom?

Kitchen and Living Room

Here, it would seem the best place to start would be the exterior kitchen wall. My thought process is since we have a sliding glass door to the deck, as well as the staircase to the basement (the door to the stairway is closest to the exterior wall), it should be the "straightest" part of the room.

That being said, I wouldn't want the front door entrance in the living room to not be straight either.

Thoughts? Advice? I feel like I'm overcomplicating this but I want to get this right the first time.

I'd run a (centered) line down the hallway....perpendicular to direction of floor joists. Lay the boards in 2 directions off this baseline. Center this line by centering it off the outer walls.

You usually find the longest straight wall and then go from there. Gluing two planks back to back down the hall will halve any discrepancy in dimensions. A splice can keep the starter planks in alignment, but you may need to make your own spline. Sometimes one-eighth plywood will make acceptable spline ripped to the right width.