Good Craft vs. Bad Craft

sigh.
I was greeted this morning at 7:30am by Thomas. Poor Thomas who took over Henry's job because Henry couldn't do it - also couldn't move the fridge which Henry said he COULD do. Frustrating.

I left to go to an all day workshop and came home to find this: (ah... beautiful)

and this:  (big frown)

Do you see that? THAT is wood that has been replace (which, okay,  it probably needed), but with totally un-matching wood. !  Right in the middle of the kitchen!    Look!

OK.
Now.
Listen up People. Here are words to live by:

Having good craft is like having good grammar. When it's good no one notices - 

but when it's bad... it's really obvious. 

So, okay, Thomas "fixed" flooring that wasn't very stable. Fine. I actually wonder if he just took what was there and turned it over. ? OR - he took brand new pine (or whatever) and just slapped it in. While it's nice that the floor is now non-spongy there - a giant blond patch in the middle of the floor is unacceptable. Options for fixing? hmmm let me think! 

1. pry up wood from a closet or cupboard where no one can see, use the same wood to fix the problem that is in the middle of the room where everyone can see it. Put the new board back in the cupboard - where no one can see! 

2. Get some stain and match the color of the existing floor. 

Is this really so hard? 

Good grief! 

Well, since it's not really that hard - I went ahead and did it - the staining option that is. 

So - we had the bright blond patch in the middle of the floor here:

 little walnut stain and voila! Blond gone.

 As it turned out - there was some more "fixing" done by the stairs ...

 so I took care of that too:

Now. Wouldn't it just really take the cake if the stain I used aged into a different color than the existing floor anyway? WELL! we will just have to wait and find out.