You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of stone and tile than me, but I have tile directly on slab in my current home, and it is cold, cold, cold. About like standing barefoot in the snow [which I do quite often]. Goes to the very low ground temp here in Montana. The new house will have tile in the bath because nothing looks as good with such low maintenence requirements. It'll keep the guests from lingering there when others are waiting. It may be less of a problem in your area, and if you envision these rooms being mostly used in summer, that would figure in as well. Maybe you could have a couple big rugs for winter time... If you aren't built yet, be sure you get some sort of thermal barrier under the slab. I didn't, and it's my biggest regret [so far]. On a similar thread of my own, someone reccomended Dricore, a subfloor thermal break for basements. Using that, the tile may work fine. I'd use Shlutter Ditra over that. It's a great water barrier and crack suppressant. Choose a tile that matches your beach to better hide the sand, and a nice dark grout. Also, get some samples, compare them for sliping when wet. A low gloss glaze is better than high gloss, and an unglazed, textured porcelain is better yet. Costs a bit more. Cleft face slate might be the best choice of all. Here is a link that might be useful: Dricore

I think it depends on what you want. There is a difference in wood softness/hardness, so that might matter to you for the area you will use it, high heels, children, walkers/wheelchairs etc. About the dark stain........get what you like! Remember when ppl started to lift up carpets on older homes to reveal "outdated" hardwood LOL. Go with what you like and stain it what you want to. If you are worried about re-sale, mostlikely what ever you choose the potential buyers will likely change it anyway! To me it sounds like you want dark walnut : ) I personally really like the look. My cousin did his entry, kitchen and stairs with slate and it is absolutely gorgeous!!! He trimmed it with wood and sunk the tile and it is so beautiful. Here is a pic that is very similar to my cousins. I think it's unique too. His tiles are large ones though, and all trimmed with wood including around the edges in the kitchen and foyer. Here is a link to a wood hardness site if you want some extra to consider. Let us know what you decide: ) Here is a link that might be useful: wood hardness

You would need to provide pictures of your cabinets I think for any real help. And even then, the monitors are a different color/hue/tone than what is real. Reason I'm mentioning this is because your question is Very IMPORTANT. I have the biggest disappointment in my kitchen (that is in progress now) because I didn't consider enough importance regarding floor design/color. I took some of my cabinet pieces when I picked out my tile BUT... still there is a clash I don't like. The real issue for me is that I wanted herringbone tile floor which I got. It was a beautiful job. But I didn't realize the impact of the striations in the tile that was a porcelain plank. Since my kitchen is modern/Ikea, and there are pronounced striations in my lower cabinets, the whole impression ends up looking too busy. Wish I would have gone for a much more subtle and uniform color for the floor. Oh well, not the end of the world but if I had option to do it over, I definitely would. So be very picky about your floor color. Err on the side of being very simple if you can't decide between multiple options.

I've had both tile and hardwood in my kitchens. The tile was very easy to take care of, indestructible, and impervious to spills. However if you dropped a glass, or someone knocked a jelly jar off out of the fridge, smash! into a million pieces. It was hard on my feet and back, and cold in winter -- radiant heat would've fixed that, of course. Hardwood is more comfortable to walk on, warmer even without radiant heat, and more forgiving when you drop something on it. It isn't waterproof if you have a major flood, but a good finish will keep everyday drips from harming it. Sand and grit are the biggest enemies because they become like sandpaper ground in with every step. We have some scratches from the dog skidding around the corners but it's a distressed type of flooring so I don't mind so much. If you are doing radiant heat, what type of wood floor would you put down? Some floors move (expand and shrink) more than others, and radiant heat can make it worse. An engineered floor will move the least. Antique lumber moves some. New wood planks will move the most, QS less so than flat sawn. (These are generalities of course -- dryness of the wood and subfloor, species of wood, and board widths are huge factors as well.)