For our kitchen I finally decided to go with travertine instead of hardwood. Our lifestyle - husband's messy boots, dogs, DH who splashes a lot and never cleans up - seemed like hardwood would show the wear a lot more over the years. I wanted this to be the last floor we ever put in.

I am in envy of your heated floor. I had to cut ours from the budget.

Our floor is not in yet. Hopefully in a couple of weeks. The tile are on order.

Hi Lucretzia
My two cents: Tile floors are beautiful and great for radiant heat. BUT if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking (ie standing) I would recomend the wood floor. Much easier on the feet and legs and you will notice the difference in your fatigue level. Wood will also be much kinder to any breakables you may drop.

Wood is also excellent for radiant floors, I understand. BTW, we are also installing radiant floors, but the wood flooring for the most part was sacrificed for budget (so we could afford the heat! lol), we will have linoleum in the kitchen.

Tough decision which beautiful floor to install.

I considered slate vs, hardwood as well and decided on wood due to the huge price difference. The multiple quotes that we had to install natural stone floor were very high and I did not want to spend the extra money when I knew I would be just as happy, if not happier with the wood floors. If price is no concern then the decision would have been harder.
I also think that it is too matchy to do both the floor and back splash in the same stone but just the back splash is very pretty.

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.)

I'm wondering about the slip factor of wet slate/quartzite. We had slate throughout the foyer, hallways and family room in our old house, and it was marvelously easy to clean. We had a tile floor in the new house (we've replaced it) and it was slippery as can be when wet and very hard on breakables and my legs and back. Don't recall the old slate being slippery, but it wasn't in the kitchen. I love my new hardwood floor. We are messy, have grandchildren, spill a lot, etc., but after 2 years, I think the hardwood looks beautiful. Sure it's a little scratched, but I look at it as the patina you would get from using sterling silver. If it ever gets bad, we could have it screened and refinished, but I'm far from considering that at this point.

I would do the wood. For open floor plans I prefer the same flooring. Also tile, in general, is more trendy and is more likely to look dated than wood unless you use real stone. In that case, it requires regular maintenance and is considerably more expensive.

You've all made good points. Comfort, cleaning, and enduring style all make sense. Also, the expanse of one floor. However, I'm creating a bit of a separation between the two rooms with a 6 foot opening defined by an arch (decided after much input from GW).

Sudivpav, the quartzite is rough, so I don't think slipping should be a problem. But I think it could create a cleaning problem, chewing up sponge, etc.

In terms of matchy, matchy, there's not that much backsplash, because there's so many doorways. I think that might be one of the reasons the tile lady is emphasizing it (along with a much bigger sale!) I think it would ground the space better, if that makes sense.

OK, well my opinion is that if you use the same material on the floor as on the back splash then the back splash will not stand out as much and therefore will be too grounded.
What look are you going for? Rustic, traditional, transitional? Quartzite is definitely going to be rustic and in my opinion transitional. A monotone gray slate laid in a running bond is traditional as is wood. Using the slate or quartzite as a back splash and having wood floors can maintain an overall traditional look.
Of course you may also want to take into consideration what is popular now and that is wood floors and whitish cabinets. Do you want to make your kitchen a little different than most of the others? Then go for the quartzite. It is all really about what you like and the look that you are trying to achieve.

I have a multicolor slate floor and love it (put it in in 2006).

You're right that it's not a floor you can sponge mop. That said, it doe _not_ show dirt so you don't have to clean it as often. I used an older Hoover floormate wet/dry vac. Put cleaner/hot water on the floor and scrub a little with a stiff push broom, then use the Hoover to suck up the dirty water. Sometimes I do another pass with just water.

My mother has wood floors in her kitchen. They're not solid, they're wood over a substrate, and they have a slight groove where they meet. They were good quality (ie not cheap) but they mark easily and getting those grooves clean is a nightmare. And forget about the floor if there's a water leak or dishwasher overflow or leak around a door.

I am very biased, so forgive me, I love wood floors.
I vote Wood.
~boxer