Here was my experience in my old cottage at MoccasinLanding. I got a sheet vinyl and laid it over the existing asphalt 9" squares original to the house. Around the rim, I had the quarter round put down. It worked VERY well, even with 2 dogs 2 cats and 16 parrots. Parrots make a lot of messes, and it was very easy to clean the vinyl sheet. When I sold the house about 2 years later, the same sheet vinyl was down, and the new owners took out everything afterward, but it still looked shiny, even with all the constant cleaning. The product was cheap, easy to put down, cleaned like a dream, and lasted as long as I needed it to. Now in this house we are doing the same sort of thing you are doing. We had the worst looking worn out damaged sheet vinyl you ever saw on the kitchen floor. The back porch also needed to have some flooring installed since we were planning to use it as it existed for a couple of years until we could unify the two spaces with a remodel. So I made a choice of 16" square sticky back vinyl tiles from Lowes (a mottled terra cotta color) and it is NOT a shinyy surface. DH installed it all himself, and it is quite nice and wears well. We now have only two dogs and two parrots, no cats, and the wear and tear is not as significant. But the product has been down about a year and looks as new as when we installed it. When the time comes we will remove all the layers of asphalt tile and vinyl tile down to the subfloor and lay new wood foundation for the porcelain tile we have already picked out. BTW, the sticky back tile has not come loose, and it is easy to clean. No shine on this product. And this picture shows how he repaired the rotted floor after we removed the old gas waterheater, and then finished laying the sticky back vinyl on the back porch.

How kind of you to circle back and let us know what you did! I'm so glad to hear it solved your problem. After I posted, I thought, "Hmm, maybe that was kind of a dumb idea," so it's really nice to know that at least once I had a suggestion that wasn't completely stupid! Good luck with the rest of your project!

A couple days ago I posted this picture of my old sink, hooked up to a hose outside. I fill a basin with hot water to wash stuff once a day. It's been a great thing. We believe in paper and plastic right now. There is a sharpie on the table, the rule is get a cup, label with date and name, you get one cup a day. And then put it in the paper bag for recyclables. Also, I have an old cypress cabinet that I use to hold my old quilts (a weakness from before parenthood). I moved quilts to my daughter's closet, and that became our pantry. Much handier than boxes. Also, I cleaned and rearranged closets and was able to temporarily relocate Kitchen items I might need during the demo, rather than putting in boxes. That's been really helpful when I've needed to get stuff. No need to dig thru boxes, it's on a shelf -- I just remember which closet, which bedroom! And an added bonus -- when we get done with the kitchen, I'll have spare room (to fill up with more crap). Don't pack you sharp knives, cheese cutter, peeler, can opener, or spatulas. Or tongs. You need those for the grill. Or non-stick spray. Coat a paper bowl with it and you can cook an egg in the MW. During the demo, everything was unplugged and then sheets of plastic went over the temp kitchen area, the computers, the couches and chairs. I read here about the fine drywall dust, but it is reallllllly fine, and gets everywhere. The plastic sheets really helped. If you are trying to protect floors, go to a furniture store and get large cardboard pieces to put over it to protect it. Vacuum it everynight to keep the drywall dust from getting tracked everywhere. Oh, and luckily, I didn't throw out my old vacuum. I've been using it after the contractor gets out the big stuff with his shop vac. That shop vac smells, so I prefer that he use it minimally and I do the finish work. There's lots more, but I can't remember. Here is a link that might be useful: outdoor sink thread

No input on your current dilemma but I have a comment about pallet flooring. I receive shipments on pallets and often find that they are infested with termites or powder post beetles. Once you gather and process your pallet wood, I suggest you contact an exterminator and have the wood treated. A local company has a space where people can bring furniture and such to be treated periodically. I've seen a few wood floors that became infested with termites from a piece of furniture.