I hate carpet!!! It's like any fabric-like material in the house - it harbours allergens!! My home currently has laminate throughout, and it is easy to keep with 2 cats. The previous owners had a dog, but I am not sure of the time-line with the flooring/dog. Where I have plants and the water has spilled over the saucers, I can see 'bumps' where the boards meets. Again, I am not sure the quality level. I like the look, but my favourite flooring has to be porcelain or ceramic tile. As Annette says, get dirt-coloured grout. Grout can also be sealed, not that I've ever gotten around to that. lol. Magic erasers are good to clean the grout in heavy traffic areas, especially kitchens. The downside to tile is that it can be cold to the foot. In my old home, in the bathroom, I put a product called Sunmat under the marble (OK, it was on sale) which helped with this. If you watch, you can get great sales on tile, which makes it more economical. Watch the durability level - I think it should be '5' or more on the underside. Porcelain is more durable than ceramic, and the colour is usually uniform through the tile, just in case you get a boo-boo. If you are handy you can even lay it yourself. I do, though the whole getting on my knees thing has been a challenge in the last couple of years!! Nancy.

We used Bruce Park Avenue series because it was 12mm. We are very happy with it. I dont get the hollow sound at all from it. It is a glossy surface which I love but it does show more smudges, etc. but that was the tradeoff for a very realistic floor.

I would go with the wood look tile. Go to several tile distributors and look. Some look fake and terrible and others look beautiful. I had my heart set on http://www.mediterranea-usa.com/havana.html The local distributor had it for $3.89 per sq foot on sale (half the usual price) They can lay it with a very minimal grout line since its high quality tile and that also makes it look like a wood floor. However - when we ripped up the carpet to explore why our tile was cracking in the foyer - we found a big crack right down the middle of the floor. There were ways to fix the crack - but since the house is only 5 years old we worried that its still settling in the soft Florida sand... so we are going with a floating laminate floor. Wilsonart is the best quality I could find. Its going down on Monday. Don't worry too much about pee, poop, puke in the grout lines. My old house was all tile, and while I hate grout lines with a passion - they never held any odors. Go with a dark grout - cause no matter how many times you seal it - it will still get dirty - believe me - I've done it. Best cleaner I've found for grout lines is the magic eraser but basically I've given up and live with dark grout lines. Oh yea - and the dogs will always have accidents on your carpets and throw rugs - they seem to avoid the tile for messes :)

Those are some of the toughest cabinets made.