We are renovating our downstairs, turning usable space into a laundry/mud room, and master suite. The laundry room will serve as the back door, back entrance to the house, I envision people aka kids and hubby tracking in dirt from the garden... so the flooring in there has to be durable. Stairs will lead up to the kitchen, the stairs will be in a dark stained hardwood.

The downstairs space is on cement.

So for the laundry room I have thought about cork... I am worried about the dirt settling in the cork, and also I am not sold on the look of it. AND hubby wants stone, I love the look of limestone or travertine, but I can't fathom how cold and hard the stone will be on cement, I don't want it to feel blech underfoot. However, we live in northern CA and the weather never gets super cold or hot... so why am I so worried?

I have thought about high quality vinyl like Mannington or Amtico, but I worry about it looking like vinyl.

Then the laundry room has a hallway that opens onto the master suite, bedroom/bath/closet. I have chosen a polished cream marble for the floor in the bath.

I originally thought carpet (cream or off white, I know!)for the hall/bath/closet, but hubby pointed out that the same people who track dirt into the laundry room will probably track it into the hallway to get to the closest bath.;)

And finally, if I do something like vinyl in the laundry room and carpet in the hall/bed/closet and marble in the bathroom how do I transition all that? Do I put something under the vinyl to make it thicker so that it can transition to the height of the carpet? It is almost easier for me to do just the cork everywhere so I don't have to worry about the transition. But cork is not the look I want for the bedroom. Argghhhhh!

Then I thought maybe vinyl for the laundry/hall/bed/closet, but hubby does NOT want vinyl in his bedroom. He is convinced it will look cheap and crappy.

ANY and all thoughts would be appreciated... please help my poor spinning head.

Thanks!