If you have wood everywhere else, I would keep going with the wood in the kitchen, etc.

wood throughout! Well except bathrooms. One thing that really stuck out at me, when I was looking at houses, was how 'choppy' everything looks with different floors in each room. When it was one floor, the house felt so much bigger!

Definitely keep the wood going into the kitchen. Tile can be very hard on your back and joints. We had it in our kitchen at a previous home and it was not comfortable to stand on for any length of time. I am building a house now and using wood throughout the first floor (except bathrooms and laundry).

I vote for wood.

I would do wood on that plan to give it more consistency. I may be biased as I am also doing wood in my kitchen/dining/living. My kitchen/dining have a better breakpoint than yours for a flooring change. Currently, I have carpet in my living room and wood in kitchen/dining. I have seen a lot of homes the way I currently have it.

Wood for sure, it can always be sanded and refinished. We had wood and a backyard swim pool. Kids came in constantly with wet, dripping feet swim suits etc. no issue. And yes, they were told to dry off before coming in, but hey they were kids and did what they did, lol.

Well...if you immediately mop and dry spills on wood floors there is seldom a problem unless the spill is many gallons of water. If the idea of water on wood floors bothers you, have you considered luxury vinyl planks...the better grades are often indistinguishable from actual wood (depending on pattern and color of finish of course).

I'd also vote for wood. If you're a real cook (v. someone who heats up frozen food and takeout), tile floors in the kitchen are killer on the feet, joints, and back. Our house originally had tile in the kitchen and we hated it - I inevitably ached after spending a few hours baking.

In my part of the country wood floors are the default in the kitchen, and I don't know anyone who has had them ruined by water from kitchen spills or appliances. If you're worried about the refrigerator, perhaps consider getting one without water/ice in the door, as these are the most common sites of leaks.

I've had engineered hardwood in all my public rooms including kitchen for 4+ years, and I love it. (Entryway is porcelain tile just so I can be completely cavalier about muddy shoes and grit.) I chose a medium brown wood with a fair amount of knots etc., so even though there have been gouges (like from a sharp granite pebble stuck in the boot tread of a 280 lb man), I fill them with a melted Crayola and they look fine. The wood looks great, the semi-open plan really benefits from a single flooring as others have noted, and wood is very easy on the feet, back, and legs. Amazingly, glass jars and ceramic dishes dropped from 3 to 4 feet height bounce harmlessly.......unlike on tile floors which cause immediate breakage.

It's true that lengthy soaking of water would cause warpage in some cases. I've not had that yet. Obviously have a plumber check all your pipes and fittings and make sure they're good for the long haul. If you are absent from home for extended periods, it may make sense to install a water sensor & alarm under fridge and/or dishwasher. You can also buy some extra flooring and stockpile.

Here's some info about flood remediation: https://www.puritanflood.com/blog/3-news/newsflash/159-water-damaged-engineered-wood-floors.html

If you ever do have a water episode and you're concerned, call the flood remediators ASAP! (Your insurance company should help with this.) They have amazing vacuum devices, fans, heaters, adsorbents etc. and can do wonders to minimize the headaches. In that 1% case where you have a serious water episode. To me, that's unlikely. I'm 54 and have never experienced a water episode anywhere I've lived....except once the clothes washer in the garage broke a hose. It was a cheapo rubber model that had obviously been wanting to fail for years. Anyhow. Do the wood. :-)

I've had just about every floor you can imagine in kitchens over the years. Don't like either wood or ceramic tile. My current kitchen has a rather industrial rubber floor which has it's advantages however what I'm putting in the new kitchen is the newer high end vinyl planking. If you haven't looked at this stuff, do (I'm using the Mannington Ardura line). It can be completely flooded. It's soft and it looks good. I'm also putting it in some of the bathrooms and the exercise room;

I have 2 two houses and still, one with tile, one with hardwood. Liking both, but for extreme winter season, hardwood would be best.

I have solid wood throughout my main floor except baths and laundries. It is beautiful & has held up very well. Ironically, we had a major water event in our kitchen that had nothing to do with appliances (my ds overfilled his tub, oy vey.) A LOT of water came down through the ceiling (think waterfall.) I was certain our floors were goners. But the restoration company brought in all of their dehumidifiers and this thing that sucks the moisture out of the wood. They said solid, site-finished HW typically does very well...and believe it or not...it did! It is perfectly flat. Anyway...I guess the moral of that is that crazy things can happen to any finish in any house. I would never pick something that I didn’t like aesthetically in fear of some possible future calamity.

As far as major water incidents - you have to worry about the subfloor too, and tile isn’t actually waterproof so the subfloor could get soaked even with a tile floor - at which point you hope it dries out and everything plays nice, or you’re looking at a big mess no matter what flooring you have on top, because it’ll need to come up so the subfloor can be replaced anyway.

Do things to minimize the risk - there trays that can be installed under certain high-risk appliances in some situations, you can have moisture detection added near said high risk appliances (washer, dishwasher, fridge plumbed in to water, etc.) so if there is a leak you catch it fast before anything gets too wet, make sure shut off valves are in sensible places, etc. Then just get the flooring you prefer otherwise and hope you never have a big problem.

Just curious, what did you decide?

Thank you Dianne, in my opinion, great decision, enjoy (:

Shut off valves in good places are such a help. And make sure you can operate them easily - when there is a leak is not when you want to be looking for a wrench because the thing won’t budge. People have a tendency to let shut off valves get hidden by stuff (like in the cabinet under the sink) and then they are hard to get to. So make sure you plan how to maintain good access to the valves.

Faced the same question in one home. We solved it by consistently using polished slate from kitchen to dining area to family room. I've seen so many damaged wood floors in kitchens--including those of customers who insisted on it--that it would never be our choice.

Wood throughout! I have had in it our kitchen for the last 12 years and am putting in it the home we are currently building. As for wear and tear, the area that will take the most "abuse" (nicks from dropped knives, bowls, etc.) is right behind your island and no one will see that area unless they are standing on top of it. If you are a "don't wear your shoes in the house" family, it will look good for many, many years.

Use White Oak hardwood throughout. It is a nice looking wood, with filled pores. It spent a few centuries as the preferred wood for boats because of its resistance to water damage.

Just my 2 cents...

I've only had kitchen hardwood floor damage once and it was minimal. I was out of town - had a pet sitter staying in the house. Apparently, the valve that shuts off the water to the ice maker broke sometime during the night, and when petsitter opened the freezer door (side-by-side), a tsunami of water came out - it had also been leaking under the refrig. We left it alone and the weight of the refrigerator took care of it going back into place, as well as the heat from the furnace. If I had had to do a repair, it would only have been a very few planks. I did have to do this in the LR when a Christmas tree was overwatered and the floor was soaked for a couple of weeks. I now have a Water Hog round mat for under the tree! It was a very minor repair. Hardwood floors can take a LOT. The key is to have solid, site-finished hardwood - not pre-finished. The site-finished is far more durable.