I've decided to spend the $$ getting the hardwood extended into the kitchen. A company specializing in hardwood restoration should have no problem matching the wood. In our case they are "interlacing" so that new planks overlap with old planks to reduce the transition line. Although hardwood is not my first choice practicality-wise, I am going to live with it because I want that seamless look that brings our kitchen/dining/living into a unified space. If I was doing something other than hardwood, I would get a natural stone in compatible colours with my wood (maybe slate?) - or porcelain, done in some modern-looking way (maybe rectangular tiles, not 12"x12"). Cork would look good but too delicate as far as I'm concerned.

Tile or polished concrete will be about the only option to handle that temperature swing. And I would very leery about doing this over plywood.

Cheri: our friend who installed our tile floors says that, aside from a water leak (such as from a refrigerator ice maker), the only explanation he can come up with is hydrostatic pressure. Basically, the water table under my house rose so high that, through tiny cracks in the concrete under flooring, water was forced upward into the biscuit (underside) of the tile. When the biscuit got wet, it turned blue. The blue tiles in the kitchen have since returned to original color (dried out?), but other sections later turned blue - some in another room that has different tile than in the rest of the house. We live in SWFL (lots of heavy summer rains), and elevation is very low.

I highly recommend figuring out the ENTIRE look of the kitchen before you touch this functional floor. I know you are feeling fidgety about changing 'something' in the kitchen but haven't decided on what or where or how...so the flooring seems the easiest thing to 'change. Remember: floors are done LAST. Which means your kitchen refresh *should go FIRST. You haven't decided on the 'type' of white cabinets. Which means you do NOT want to change the floors...because it could lead you into a 'colour trap'. If you switch them out today...what happens tomorrow when you find the PERFECT colour for the cabinets (because it goes PERFECTLY with your favourite counters and the backsplash you want) CLASHES with the tones in your floor? Oh dear. Now you have to continue searching OR remove the floors and do them again. Sigh...what a waste of time. Please take 2 weeks to plan your kitchen colour scheme. The COLOURS are what binds a space together. The materials are of little consequence (don't bash me...it's true) but the COLOURS are SUPER important. I would suggest you do some research into the cabinet finishes available in your area. Get a colour swatch from the painters (or purchase a finished drawer face, etc). Now take that shopping to find options for counter tops AND flooring. Pick out 2-3 counters that would work for you (and your cabinets). Purchase slices of the stones for future reference. Now go tile shopping. You will have all three samples with you in a basket or a bag. You will pick up 2-3 FLOOR tile samples that will work with your choices. Purchase the samples if you have to. Then purchase 2-3 backsplash samples as well. Excellent. Take them home and look at ALL of them in your lighting. Move them around during the day. You want to see all samples in all 5 lighting situations. Each time the light changes, one of your samples will show it's ugly side (maybe too pink...maybe too yellow, or too blue, or too green). Excellent! Put it in a drawer and keep looking at the samples. Keep kicking samples to the curb. Eventually you will be down to 2 floor options and two counter top options and maybe 1 backsplash option. Exactly where you want to be! Now you go ahead and figure out WHICH floor you can purchase RIGHT NOW rather than waiting. The one you purchase is what drives the counters and the backsplash. Whew! Good work. In two weeks you have FINALIZED your kitchen refresh without doing a darn thing. Remember: floors go in LAST.