We had similar decision with our loft area & chosed to go hardwood...but carpet in the secondary upstairs bedrooms. Reasons being: 1) Secondary bedrooms get rarely used so carpet wont get worn so quickly. Loft is an open common area so it needs some tough flooring. 2) With kid(s) on the way, makes the bedrooms warmer & safer than wood 3) Ended up using wood ordered for 2 secondary bedrooms in loft area & still got carpet for the bedrooms without addl expense. Summary - carpet is good for us because of warmth & safety in non common areas. Hope that helps some in your decision making.

Thanks for all your responses! I'm really torn both ways. I'm tired of the upkeep of wood, along with having to be so many precautions to prevent scratching. I recall having to put cushions under all the sofas to ensure no gouges, along with making sure the felt tips were on all my chairs. Then there is the thing about asking that everyone remove their shoes, lest another scratch shows up. That said, their is an undeniable beauty of wood flooring. It's mostly just my DH and I (son finishing college) and a very small dog, so the daily wear and tear isn't much. We do have a lot of family get togethers though. Another issue for the hardwood is the hardness in the living room. In the house with the hardwood in the family, no one hardly ever sat on the floor (even with the padded area rug). The previous house to that and now this house which had/have carpet, I am often on the floor/carpet. I think if I were to go hardwood in the main areas, I would omit the living room for this reason alone. I LOVE getting down on the floor with the grandkids. Plus with the hardwood, I had to lay a protector under the rug, to protect the hardwood, still had problems though with fading. With tile though, I'm not sure I could use enough padding to make it as comfortable as I like (though I wouldn't have to worry about protecting the darn wood floors). The case against tile, is the cold factor. I saw where it costs about $10/sq foot for heated floors. Too pricey for me. I love some of the light color marble looking porcelain tiles. Bright, pretty and elegant. Tile goes so far away from what is mainstream in this area though scares me. Perhaps, I should get a box of tiles and spread them out and see it that way. I need new flooring so bad (crappy carpeting is pulling away at the seams even), so I shouldn't put this decision off too long.

If it were me I would go to the stone yard and find an amazing stone or other "stone like" remenant and "make a deal" OR do wood. I wish I had stuck to my guns and done a nice walnut on my desk but everyone looked at me like I had two heads so it matches my counters. Funny part is that you can't even see it with my laptop and other stuff on it :) If yours is going to be used, don't sweat it too much. If you go the wood route & you have natural or stained cabs, you can always paint the wood, which could be fun - black or whatever floats your boat.

I just did LVP on my second floor, changing out both old laminate and carpet. The main reason being my little shih tzu loves to ‘stealth pee’ upstairs and I rarely find it until the next day or so, especially when she sneaks in a room that we don’t use daily. I priced out both engineered wood and LVP and they were actually similar in price. I also LOVE that the vinyl is soundproof. My teenagers are quite noisy and I really wanted not to hear them like I did with my old laminate. As for carpet, we have no place for it anymore since we can’t trust my doggy. Lol We did a medium grayish-brown that has texture. I really love it.