I have an older home, built in the 30's, that has hardwood flooring in
the living room. The floor was previously stained quite dark, and had
big scratches. Additionally, I removed a floor furnace and it left a
large hole in the floor along the wall by the entrance to the kitchen.


I hired a refinisher to come in and do the following: repair/fill the
hole then sand and coat the entire living room floor with polyeurethane
to natural color (that was his suggestion).

He did a great job except for one thing. The wood he used to repair
the hole where the furnace used to be is quite a bit lighter than the
existing wood. As in, the original wood is almost an orangish-red and
the new wood is nearly white.

He indicates that the new wood will yellow with age (or darken), but I
have my doubts. It seems to me that the new wood should more closely
match the existing wood RIGHT FROM DAY ONE. Am I off base here?
Should I pay him the balance for his work, or should I demand that he
replace the new lighter wood with something closer in color? Thanks!