a quick ear stain about floor stain

Picking out a floor stain can be quite the tedious process. You don't want to go too dark, you don't want to go too light, you don't want it to be too red, blah blah blah. I have had stain on the brain for quite some time now. I am kind of at that trippy place in life where if you say a word a few times too many that it gets to the point where it sounds so weird it can't possibly be a real word. Stain. stain. stain. Tell me that doesn't sound crazy to you too. I promise I have not been huffing polyurethane. Moving on. That was weird. 

I am having a dilemma picking out a stain. Here is a quick reminder of what the floors used to look like:

And a quick update on the sanding progress:

It's hard to believe after just a day of sanding, what once looked like this...

Now looks like this...

And another before:

And another after:

Initially I was really worried about this part ever getting back to normal...

Now the boards that had to be replaced don't look as out of place as they did earlier...

And I was really sad to think about losing my white floor, that I HAND painted all by myself, but the maintenance is killer. I did it almost 4 years ago, and it was probably time to do it again. The scuffs and scratches were getting a little OOC. 

White floor no more:

You probably think I am a lunatic for ever painting the floor in the first place, but I assure you I am not. Some of you (more like none) might remember from here the floor was covered in a lovely puke green colored carpet, and underneath there was yet another charming shade of blue paint on the floors (and walls). OMG I am not kidding. I just found an old picture and I have to just share it. AHHH. Point proven. I was not crazy for painting the floors white.

And now to my actual dilemma. Floor stain decisions...

I am a lover of dark floors. Realllly dark floors. And our floors prior to sanding were already really dark. I know there is more upkeep involved with dark floors. And yes, we have dogs. I know the downsides, but you know I like to be hardheaded. I always thought I would end up staining the floors really dark again. Here are some stain options:

Clockwise from top: Early American, Mahogany, Clear

Top: Clear, Bottom: Mahogany 

Can you believe that is just a clear stain? Crazy, right? Knowing how much I love to pine and toil in agony over decisions like this, you would think I would have put down about 15 more colors. Thank God I didn't have access to more colors because clearly I would have. And I would have mixed and diluted and given myself about a million too many options to chose from. 

While the crazy person in me really wants to lean towards the darkest stain, there is some bit of sanity sneaking in that is telling me to let the natural beauty of the floors speak for themselves. I don't have to do the speaking for everyone. 

Here is another picture of particularly low quality, but I was trying to capture a bit of what the old stain looked like (in the far left corner) next to what the floors will look like with just the clear stain. I think the clear stain might be the clear winner. Yes, I get cheesier by the day. 

It is such a drastic change from what the floors were like before, but I think it is the right decision. Au naturale is always in style, right?  Anyone have any opinions they are brave enough to share?