I have travertine in my master bath, one guest bath, and fireplace surround. I have porcelain in three other baths, a salon, and laundry room. Carpet is in all bedrooms and LR. Wood floors are in an 8'x 25' entry, front and back halls, dining room, and eat in kitchen. I love wood floors. However, knowing what I now know, I would have preferred travertine in all baths and where all wood is now, and wood where all carpet is now. I have walnut travertine and it's installed so beautifully and feels like silk under foot. I have mine filled, so nothing's going to get into any crevices. It gives such character and visual warmth to a home. In the bath room,it has helped me 'relax'. How so? Well, I have always had white tile in bathrooms because it's clean looking and you can really tell if there's any cleaning or maintenance necessary. With travertine, I have to stare at the floor or just vacuum to see any of my husband's leg hair. I use to work myself silly in other homes. This one, I just vacuum and mop twice a week. I don't have to vac every single day because I see his hair. (He's a dark haired man that just 'sheds'. I hate it. He's always been this way.) TRAVERTINE has given me some sanity. I'm just anal about cleanliness. Here is a link that might be useful: Click on thumbnail photos to enlarge

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July! We would like to seek for advice on the following: 1. What are your thoughts on the flooring for kitchen and family room? Originally we were thinking to do all engineered wood (chocolate color) since both kitchen and family room are in an open area in one big room so for a better flow, this would look better. However, I am now considering doing tile in the Kitchen area for maintenance purpose (easier to clean spills, scratches from the chairs and bar stools.. ) Below are some pictures from an inventory home. We are doing woods everywhere except for bedrooms and game room on the second floor. 2. The builder recommended us a 8 ft door, maybe its the trend now? but we will lose the transom at the top. With our floor plan and hallway, do you think 6.8 feet or 8 feet door would look better and more natural light? (Our entry is 10 ft ceiling and then the hallway is 19 ft) 3. For the exterior, I plan on getting white stones in the front porch area and the study room portion. Others would be brick..any suggestions on the color of brick? I am thinking a very dark color, maybe brown but not red bricks.. Any suggestions on the brick color, trims, and garage door color? We are adding a third bay to it, so there will be three garage doors instead of the one showing in the inventory home pic. Appreciate any suggestions! :) Kitchen Flooring 6.8 ft or 8 ft Front Door Pics: Look with 6.8 ft door and transom at the top: Exterior stone and brick color, garage door and trim suggestions

The hardwoods are extremely valuable. I would work in a medium brown that eliminates all yellow/orange/red. To do that, the stain will have to have a green undertone. That means a specialized mix for your situation. A HIGH END hardwood flooring professional can do this for you. It will take a couple of weeks to find the right colour/mix. The professional will come in and strip a section of flooring (like 20ft x 20ft). S/he will then apply different stain mixes to this area for you to view. You will then choose the colour that is the best fit for your situation. At a mutually agreeable time, the professional will come in and refinish the entire house - including the stairs (quite expensive but well worth it). The banister can then be stained/painted to match the hardwoods. The only time I would look at moving away from hardwood is in the DEEP south or in very hot climates. And it would be VERY helpful if the entire house was built on concrete and not wood joists. Tile is very heavy. It often requires wooden subfloors to be beefed up (decrease the deflection rating = no movement that would damage the tile). The wood is worth saving - unless you absolutely hate it (disregard the colour). If you love tile and wish to have it everywhere, then go for it. But realize that hot climates are some of the few places where this is considered normal. Everywhere else (any place with "winter") would find this a nuisance should you wish to sell the home. Besides, you mentioned budget. Ripping out the hardwood and replacing with tile would be double the cost of refinishing the hardwoods.

I have the strangest shaped kitchen layout, literally looks like a tetris piece. Full kitchen reno is still a few years away and will totally change the layout. But, we are redoing the floors (hardwood) in the rest of the house. Currently the whole first floor is awful tile over the hardwood (UGH), except this area. This is tile over subfloor. We are doing the demo just once, so this area will just be subfloor. We were thinking that we would put laminate or LVP in this area that looks like tile. Looking for suggestions. It's probably less than 100 sq ft. Full kitchen reno is years away, so want something that's not just a cheap short term fix. Laying new tile is not an option - it's really hard on my feet. Can you share pictures of either laminate or LVP that looks like tile? Thanks