Carpet, for warmth and comfort. Hallways, and the gameroom/den, wood or laminate.

Generic strip oak (red or white) would impress me more than any carpet you could put in and if I were to buy a house with any carpet ripping it out and putting in wood is the first thing I would do. I do not mean to dis any carpet lovers I just like wood floors. For any potential buyer it would be easier to carpet over wood than tear out and install wood if their preference was the opposite.

I agree with eandhl.

Yep, we did the carpet-ripping-out thing. Wood is much prettier, and it's easy to bring in a rug if having textiles on the bedroom floor is important to you. Generic oak should be fine.

Sounds like 3:1 for hardwood.

Actually, it's more like 4:2. I'm thinking hardwood would be most people's preference in an expensive home, but DH thinks carpet is fine for the bedrooms.

And I guess it is 'fine' -- but at this point, we have only subfloor, and I'm thinking the price differential between a 'generic' hardwood and a nice carpet (builder's basic wouldn't fly) would be minimal. Anyone know if that's true?

Don't know much about carpet prices but I do know the cost of buying wood is only part of the price. Instillation and finishing adds up. Isn't your DH a DIY?

He's a total DIY - and GOOD at it! But he's trying to wean himself and pay good money for less-good work just to have things completed a little more quickly. (We're on year 8 of our reno...)

If you are not getting builder's grade carpet, hardwoods are actually about the same if not cheaper!

"If you are not getting builder's grade carpet, hardwoods are actually about the same if not cheaper!"

Interesting - But that has been our experience as well. Who'd have thought it?

Sweeby: I missed this post the first time around, so I'll chime in now. My personal preference is carpet in the bedrooms (softness + noise reduction), but we're going to put handscraped wood in the bonus room. Stairs will be wood, haven't yet decided on the hall.

Nice carpet doesn't have to be pricey. I shopped around a ton and scored some plush soft frieze at Lowe's for $2.50/sq ft. It was nicer than any other frieze I found. I'll find out the name next time I'm there if you're interested. Plus our Lowe's now offers $199 whole house install.

Cork: no dust mites, scrubable, softer and better noise reduction than woods. You can also make a case that it's more environmentally sound.

Thanks Weedy - But we're currently sitting on 1,200 SF of prefinished white oak hardwoods, so the decision's been made.

I'd say that a bird in the hand trumps all. :-) Good luck!

Chiming in late--

Hardwood. We all have allergies...and hardwood is easier to keep dust mite/pollen free than carpet. Though, if you weren't sitting on all that hardwood...I'd say I find cork or Marmoleum (brand name for true linoloeum) intriguing.

melanie

Sweeby,

We put builder's grade prefinished oak upstairs also. I love it and we put it down ourselves, so it was cheaper than carpet. Plus, it won't have to be replaced.

My only issue is that our son's bedroom is directly above ours and you can hear every footstep. So, I would strongly advise putting the underlayment that they make now that reduces noise.

Also, OT, I asked you before about the leaves on your bar tile. I am in the process of ordering from that company and was wondering how you cut the tiles around the leaves? Are they precut or did you do that? Looks difficult. The picture of your tile should be on their site, it is a more artistic job than the ones they show, IMO.

Hi Danie - Sorry if I didn't reply about the leaves. Most of my GW email automatically goes to SPAM, and if I'm busy or there's too much SPAM, I may not see it...

The tile around the leaves is mesh-mounted travertine 1" x 2" mini-bricks. The leaves were pre-cut, but the travertine wasn't. Since I was only doing a small area (bar backsplash), I laid them all out on a large work table, then arranged the tile leaves into what I thought was an attractive 'falling leaves' pattern. I tweaked the position of each leaf to not leave impossible cuts, then traced the outline of the leaves with pencil. I then removed the individual travertine bricks and cut them with a hand-held grinder and metal rasps. It was obvious pretty quickly that some of the mini-bricks were much easier to cut than others, so I pulled apart a spare tile sheet to get some of the 'soft' tiles for my really tricky cuts. Then, I'd reset the leaf and cut bricks into the pattern and fine-tune as needed. Setting the tile was pretty tedious! I'd use the occasional full-sheet, then my little leaf designs where they looked best on the wall.

If I had a do-over, I'd definitely stick with the travertine mini-bricks. The small tile sizes means there's always an edge nearby for cutting ease, and the travertine was very forgiving and easy to cut. I'd buy a Dremel with a diamond blade attachment to do the cutting as the grinder was too heavy for little ole' me (and therefore dangerous) and the metal files were tedious! And I'd also only set out the tile sections for each leaf -- not for the entire splash. My work area could have been one-tenth the size it was and I ended up designing as I went anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion on the noise barrier. We'll definitely do it since the area in question is right above our kitchen and I seem to have given birth to baby elephants!