The installer came today and laid out the boards for the installation. There's an asphalt-coated felt that goes down under the hardwood. The material I picked is called "character" and is a white oak flooring that comes in 3-inch and 5-inch widths. I'm having the installer alternate rows of the two widths, which looks great (at least it looked great in the showroom).

I did notice that my flooring is NOFMA certified no. 1. That's a couple grades below top of the line: NOFMA select and NOFMA clear are better. better in the sense that there's less variation and natural knots and burls. Part of the look of this flooring is the knots and burls. But they really aren't excessive.