Those two floors are the exact same floor, just one under the Bruce name and the other under Armstrong (Armstrong owns Bruce). The only difference is the woods being emulated and the stain colors. They are very easy to take care of, but they are a semi-gloss floor (I've seen shinier) so foot and paw prints will show. I don't mind it because the shine makes the floor extremely realistic. I've mandated socks in my house now!

It would be helpful if you would draw out your room layout and then provide a link to it. It would be easier for all of us to envision. Keep in mind that every laminate flooring has a maximum run length, around 25' or so. You cannot exceed that w/o putting in a transition which is unsightly. I put in 1300 sq feet of flooring last year and had to figure this out so I'd love to help if I could get some visual assistance.

At one time I was thinking of using the vinyl planks in my living room, which has a stairway connected. I am pretty sure I read where someone tried to use the vinyl on stairs and it did not hold. I ended up using hardwood for my living room, but I didn't want to spend $100 per stair to put wood on my stairs, which will have a runner on them anyway. I have seen quite a few stories on the Net where people painted their stairs, so I tried it. I am amazed at how well the paint is holding up. I'd procrastinating with putting down a runner, because I love how easy it is to clean the wooden stairs. The Benjamin Moore floor paint was $65-$75 a gallon. BUT, it dried to the touch in about an hour,it is especially made for floors, and a gallon goes a long way because it is very thin. Unfortunately I had to paint my stairs during a week when there were extra people and a lot of activity in my house. So I would put a coat on at night and first thing in the morning people were walking on it. It was still tacky so it picked up all of the dirt off people's shoes, but the shoes did not pick up the paint. The paint is thin and you need to do at least three coats. Each coat stays tacky for a few days. I need to put a fourth coat on mine just because of the dirt that got into the third coat while it was still tacky. But so far I am astonished that the paint seems indestructible. An extra benefit of painting is that you can fill all the edges with calk and paint over it, so that you don't have a bunch of quarter round trim all over the steps. I highly recommend painting the stairs rather than trying to do them in vinyl or laminate.

Check out Eclipse Cabinetry by Shiloh. We just installed a new display showing frameless bases and inset uppers. I'm impressed with the Eclipse series. The photos below are the "Laurel" TFL (thermally fused laminate) and they have a lot of different ones to choose from. They also offer matte HPL (high pressure laminate). These cabinets are medium priced.