Small children? Think of milk spilled on carpet, bubbles, throw up (i have a particularly vivid picture of this on my friends red shag carpet) etc. Consider dropped pizza, roller blades and a ball point pen smashed by the rocking chair. I would buy wood floors in the color closest to "scratches" lol, and a few inexpensive and replaceable area rugs for rolling around on. I was so happy to get rid of my stained, smelly carpet, and love my dark wood floors but they are the worst for collecting dust and dog hairs. I kind of knew that, but did it anyway! Everyone will be much happier if you aren't constantly stressed about spills and shampooing. Practical advice for a mother of three. Now let someone else give you more fashionable advice.

Are you in WI, by chance? I recently moved away from "Madtown" and I'm thinking it's probably the same area. :)

As much as I love, love, LOVE wood floors, I'm not so sure I'd put that in the bedrooms of young kids. I've had three different kinds of wood flooring in the common areas of three different homes and in each case, small kids and pets (not even my own!) managed to create some pretty nasty scratches with toys - like those darn plastic princess shoes that come with dress-up sets. Plus, my DD would sometimes run from her room and into the hallway toward the living room and it took her a few times before she remembered that running from carpet onto wood floors was an accident waiting to happen. ;)

If it were me, I'd probably go with wood floors in the master bedroom and maybe one other but put carpet in the two kids' rooms. The hallway could go either way. Really, I'd imagine that in 10-15 years the carpet would be ready to replace anyway so you could decide at that time whether to add wood floors to those remaining rooms.

As for the white trim... Another style I absolutely adore. My feelings were the opposite though, that I'd see white trim in every design mag and web site but almost all the homes I looked at in my area of the midwest had stained wood trim. In the house we just bought we have medium stained trim and someday I'd like to replace it with taller white baseboards and white trim but I may keep the doors stained since they're such a nice color... like walnut. It's hard knowing what to suggest in your case without seeing the actual space. Do you have any photos you can share?

You both bring up good points on both sides of carpet/wood, thanks. It had never occured to me to do carpet in the boys' rooms and wood in the master and guest room (and hallway). Is that "acceptable"? It's okay to have some carpet, some wood? I think my Type A self thinks everything needs to be the SAME! I have the same issue with decorating.

Photos are a good idea, let me see what I have....

You can't go wrong with wood. I'm on my third house with all wood floors, with kids from 1 year old to teens and it is the only way to go. Scratches can be refinished and they are never so obvious as a large stain on carpet. Area rugs warm things up and they can be cleaned from above and below!

I have never heard anyone walk into a house and say "Yuck, this house has wood floors in every room"!!

Here are a few pics...these are from the listing and walk-through, so this is not our furniture/decor. Here is the LR so you can sort of see the existing floors. This is the one room where we don't mind the wood trim.

Another view for floor/door color...looking a bit red here but you get the idea.

Guest Room

One of the kids rooms

Hopefully these help a bit.

And...yes, wifisker, I am from the land of beer and cheese! :-)

Those pegged wood floors have great character and that LR has so much potential. I can't wait to see the transformation so I hope you share pics of the progress.

The bedrooms look a little small so I could see how wood flooring could help to make them feel more interesting and spacious. That last photo in particular really shows that dark trim you were talking about and, if it were me, I'd have a really hard time not ripping that out and replacing it with something nicer in white. It might look fine just left in place and painted but someone would have to do a Photoshop mock-up for me to visualize it.

All floors should be dark....helps ground the room...except for my bedrooms with light carpet. LOL!
Seriously I like dark floors...
Your wood doors and trim are nothing special....go ahead and paint the trim....but carry those floors throughout...if you can.
Linda C

You could get wood floors in the halls and carpet in a similar tone in the bedrooms to help them be more continuous. Paint the trim one room at a time and it won't we overwhelming.

Dark floors show lots of lint and dust...just saying.

Yes, they show lint and dust, but with little ones, my strategy was to lower my standards a little. I would always rather dust a wood floor than vacuum a rug and not know what else lurks in there.

My little children always put everything in their mouths anyway. And if they couldn't pick it up, they put their mouths right on it. And they grew up anyway!

Besides, little sock feet are excellent dusters. Sliding and falling down are very entertaining, and rarely permanently damaging.

Vote for wood throughout, using area rugs. However, I am not at all a fan of carpeting. Never thought it was really ever clean despite vacuuming, shampooing, etc. Just seemed that anything that was ever spilled, or any other type of accident became a forever part of the carpet.

Not sure, but I can't imagine carpeting in kids' bedrooms lasting for 15 yrs? I could be wrong, but judging by my experience with carpet in my DD's BR, I don't think so.

Thank you all for the input. So for those that think I should go ahead with the wood, would you also suggest paitning the trim? What about the painted trim/stained windows combo? Any thoughts on that?

Go ahead, paint the trim white. There is nothing that a young mother with young kids needs than wiping down the door frames every other minute! And we won't even talk about the nice ring around the doorknobs. Add an animal (like a cat) that loves to slink around hitting the door frames, nothing like another streak there. Area rugs, IMHO, are the way to go.
Vacuum, swiffer the HW floors and you're done. Good luck.

I hear you, Jaysmom! We are a no pet family, though, and the Majic Eraser was MADE for those pesky hand prints on the edges of doors! (We had white trim in our last house.)

I think I might tackle the trim and doors but leave the window trim for last. Thanks for your input, everyone.