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.)

jess_sterr, We lived I our current home during a whole house renovation that included an addition and the removal and rebuild of the entire roof I painted the sub floors and loved with them for over a year. I did not paint a fancy pattern, but did use a quality basement floor paint that was easy to mop. In the main living areas I used indoor outdoor patio rugs bought on sale at Lowe’s. It is easy to stress about getting it all perfect, but the time will pass and you will look back at photos and remember the adventure of completing your home your way. If the painted floors are temporary and you want them to look nicer I would maybe just do a boarder. This will be an amazing home when done enjoy it.

OK...cork glue down tiles over a slab in Texas (I'm assuming you are on slab) is STUPID TRICKY. That's probably why you are looking at the floating. That's not a bad thing....it just means you will NOT get a flush transition. You MUST use a T-molding that creates a small hump between the two floors. Why do you have to do this? Because the cork MUST FLOAT. It must be able to move. A level transition is ONLY POSSIBLE between TWO PERMANENT FLOORS (ie glue down/nail down hardwood and porcelain tiles). If EITHER ONE of the floors is floating, a t-molding MUST be used. The T-mold maintains the expansion gap (as much as 1/2" at all walls and doorways, etc). The other thing I always point out, is a cork floor in a kitchen needs some special precautions. Either the floating floor must be FINISHED (you add MORE polyurethane to the existing factory finish) or you use a SEAM SEALER on the edge of each plank (prevents water from hitting the HDF board in the middle = prevents early failure due to water intrusion). Do you know the name of the product you are looking at? I'm well versed in cork flooring and their finishes/possibilities of being refinished/refreshed. Maybe I can help with that angle.

Time to choose stain samples. The upstairs has four different types of wood, so that’s fun. We’re thinking Early American for the downstairs office to try to match the current pine floors (photo 1). Anyone prefer Special Walnut, Provincial or 50 Provincial / 50 Neutral? Upstairs, 3 of the bedrooms have a very red (cherry?) wood so early American didn’t look very good (photo 4). The other bedroom has a mix of woods (photo 3) and the stairs are red oak (no pic). We’ve been advised that a darker stain might work better given everything going on so we’ve been looking at either Provincial, 50 Provincial / 50 Neutral, or 33 Jacobean / 33 Provincial / 33 Neutral. Anyone have a preference between those three? Using water based poly in Satin finish.