Have you considered wood look tile for the entire space? There is several tiles that have the hand scraped wood texture. We just did this in entire main floor and it looks fantastic. Did the smallest gout line we could and sealed with water proof epoxy grout. If you are in a very cold area you can even do in floor heating under the tile. Runs about $2.50 a sq foot where I live. Unless you run around in high heals all the time sound should not be an issue.

Thank you both, what kinds of expenses and projects should I be considering for prep? My dad has done a bunch of remodels so I don't expect to have to pay for labor. The condo assoc. doesn't have any requirements for sound, we don't have neighbors above or below - just on one side.

From what I read,and from the advice I received here on houzz, your subfloor needs to be level, and you need cork underpayment if you don't want to feel hollow spots. Cork is around $0.75/ sqft so that adds to your installation cost.

And cork is NOT allowed UNDER VINYL. Vinyl only allows hard/flat/smooth underlayment (there are minor exceptions...but they are WAY outside your budget). A decent vinyl starts where your budget ENDS. Yes vinyl can be loud. Yes it can bounce and move. That's why you spend +++++ time (you won't spend money....so it is your dear ol' dad who will spend the time) getting this space ready for vinyl. Vinyl is VERY picky.

And carpet hide THE WORST subfloors in THE WORLD! Which means the effort to get the hiden subfloor up to snuff for vinyl is going to be extensive (and if you paid for it...expensive).

I would have a strong healthy look at the kitchen and decide WHEN you are going to remodel that 70's homage. The INSTANT you touch the kitchen, the flooring IN THE KITCHEN is going to have to come out or be changed out because of changes to the foot print. If you change the foot print then the LIVING room flooring may have to be dealt with (again) as well.

Sigh. I know you want the "same floor" throughout, but it isn't necessary at this point. I would suggest you work with a "nice" laminate (and yes a 12mm laminate for $3/sf is BETTER than LOW GRADE vinyl for $3/sf) in the living spaces and leave the kitchen/entrance areas in a water proof floor - like tile.

That way you can do the entrance/kitchen at a later date....when you are READY to deal with the kitchen. Because we can all see the kitchen is ready for an update. In fact, it has been ready for it's update for 20 years.

Start at the start....the kitchen and foot print. Then move to the flooring from there. And your flooring budget is low. Please be aware of that. And low grade vinyl is NOT fun to live with. Especially in front of old windows that allow the floor to HEAT UP on sunny days. Vinyl will wrinkle and pucker when hot. And hot for vinyl is anything above 85F.

When it comes to old windows (no UV protection, etc) a pool of sunlight can hit 100+ F inside of 1 hour!!! Now imagine how much vinyl that is going to destroy.

Laminate doesn't care. For your budget, and situation, I highly recommend working with laminate in the living areas and tile in the wet areas.

IMo before doing the floors tackle that kitchen and remove those shelves from that side of the fireplace .As for floor there are tones on nice vinyl tiles with underlayment attached that do not look like wood and might ba much nicer idea. Check out Mannington Adura for instance.

Thank you! I am a first time home buyer and obviously am willing to put in some work on this 70's gem :) Budget can go up some, or will be modified by carpeting the upstairs bedroom rather than vinyl or laminate.

SJ McCarthy - do you consider NuCore with cork backing or Lifeproof vinyl low-end?

This feedback is super helpful; I wasn't thinking too much into the subfloor when I was researching LVP. Once I get the carpet removed we'll see how it looks and go from there! Most likely will go with your suggestion of tile in kitchen/entry and 12mm laminate elsewhere. Do you have any recommendations for laminate & quiet underlayment? From what I've seen cork underlayment is best.

As for kitchen - footprint won't be changing but I will be removing two of those hanging cabinets and staining the cabinets/changing hardware & eventually new appliances and countertop.

Some things to check out for your planning. If you are on a wooden subfloor you will need an underlayment for tile added to the thickness of the tile. Check how that will fit with the threshold for your sliding door in the kitchen. Also if you do tile on your front entry landing area. You may not have the clearance with the entry door to be able to do tile there. You will have to redo all of your baseboards, perhaps reusable, perhaps not. $$. Also check out water-resistant laminates. They are thicker, click-together, floating floors easy for DIY. Some are called WPC laminates, (WaterProof Core). I would get the most noise-supressing underlayment I could afford. The good ones run 80 cents to a buck a square foot.

You should be able to look around more and find an LVT that has the look you are describing of a laminate. There are so many out there! I would NOT go with a laminate, even with the water resistant treatments they are still no where near the waterproof capabilities of a luxury vinyl flooring. Coretec, Shaw Floorte, etc. are good brands to start with.
Go to a floor store rather than a big box store who may not have good quality options on hand. If you plan to be in the home longer than 5 years and purchase a low quality LVT or laminate, you won't be happy.

We are looking at doing our floors with Supercore purchased at We Ship Floors. It fits in your budget.