I'm posting a couple of pics of my floor after it was installed. Neither one shows the true color. One is darker and one looks lighter. FYI the stain was Duraseal Colonial Maple. The finish is satin Polyurethane. I thought of doing mine (stupid idea) and am glad I sprung for the money to have it installed, sanded, sealed, stained, and finished. I had no idea what I would have gotten into. I talked to several installers until I first had an idea of the range of costs and second found an installer I wanted. My advise is that I wouldn't waste time on buying a sander and DIYing it. My sub sanded, sealed, stained, and finished it for $2.75/sf just to give you an idea to compare with doing yours (mine was a little less than 2K sf). First you have to consider the cost of the sander, sealer, stain and polyurethane. Then, if you haven't done it before, there are a lot of tricks and things you don't know. For instance when applying the finish (polyurethane) by spreading it with a squeegee, you have to develope the finesse to prevent showing the places where you put the squeegee down and picked it up. If you can't do that, you will have to have it redone by someone who has that skill. If it were me, and I DIY a lot of things, I would talk to a BUNCH of flooring contactors and choose one to do it. By the way, my flooring looks similar to yours. It's inch & a half by three quarters t&g.
