hardwood floor installation project, with pics! Options

[presure2]

so as some of you may know, i install and refinish hardwood floors for a living, and since i had some left over wood from previous jobs, i decided to install some in my living room.
i have done many "straight" install jobs, where the boards are just layed side by side, across the room, and figured it'd be a good chance to try somthing a little more difficult.
so, i decided to try a "border-laid" configuration, where you create a border around the center of the room.
here are the results:
first, a couple pics of the pre-exsiting floor:



this floor is OLD southern yellow pine, very typical in this area, and mostly used as a subfloor. the gaps between the boards are quite large (some over 1/4") and that would let cold air thru from the basement (i live in a 1st floor apartment) not good in the winter, at ALL. lol
i had some red oak left over from previous jobs, so i decided to use that as the border, and "mill-run" maple as the center.
so, i layed down some 30lb roofers felt, to cover the gaps, and to help stop squeeking ect later on down the road, and started laying the first board:


then continued on with the border from there:

a close up of the border:

once the border was laid, i started filling the center with the maple:

[popstar]

Nice mate

just a question, and not a bitch or nothing......

why a staggered joint in the corners and not a loose tunged mitered joint ?? plus what finish did you use on it, you got a great finish