Haha well I used the peel & stick stuff and had a concrete slab foundation. It stuck very well and there wasn’t any noise at all, unlike a floating floor. I don’t really have any experience with those. If you’re on a slab, make sure it’s clean and scrape up any drywall mud or paint - you’ll see the lumps through the vinyl. If you use peel & stick, consider using Henry vinyl primer - it will help them stick better. I also filled in the holes from the carpet tack boards that I pulled up and there were a few chips in the slab that I filled in. The hardest part for me was cutting around closet door frames but if you’re careful and good with a utility knife it’s not too difficult. You have to pay attention and make sure all of your cut edges are hidden under your baseboards. Make sure to get the first one straight and make sure to align the edges of each plank so that there aren’t any gaps. Pay attention to the pattern so that you have some randomness in the lengths of each plank, so that it looks more like properly-laid hardwood flooring. Good kuck!

We have gone back and forth on this as well- we are doing a major dining, living, kitchen remodel. We have decided to go with a beautiful wide plank engineered hardwood (French oak) from Bella cera called “Monza” bivio. It’s just light and natural and I think will look beautiful with our white cabinets. It’s a wire brushed engineered hardwood which I like more than the rustic hand scraped ones. It was very affordable at less than $4/SF. We have had a few people try to discourage real wood in the kitchen but my parents have had knotty pine floors for 30 year and they’ve held up fairly well and have been refinished twice. The only thing with engineered wood is the top layer is fairly thin with plywood underneath, so you can’t really refinish them but most wont need to be since they have a 25-50 yr residential warranty. I chose one that had some knots and grains and looked like it’d be forgiving. Some of the new lvt is more expensive but really pretty, I can just tell it’s not real wood and it feels a little plasticky and I just like natural materials. My friend has it in her yoga studio and for that application I think it’s great. The only thing I am nervous about is not being able to steam mop my kitchen and having to use wood cleaner with a microfiber mop. But I like rustic and genuine surfaces- we went with granite and are refinishing Saltillo. It’s not perfect but I’m just a natural materials person. You really can’t go wrong! But I think wood floors are always better for resale personally. The new vinyl is great though, and I would def do it in a bathroom, playroom, mud room, but don’t love it throughout the main house. Laminate is ok, but I don’t like the clickety clack sound when you walk on it, and I can almost always immediately tell something is laminate vs wood.

At $2/sf you are looking at 'middle of the road' laminate. A vinyl in the same 'middle of the road' category = $3-$4/sf. And remember: vinyl is more EXPENSIVE to install. Yep. More money for the labour because it is a PITA to install with its teeny-tiny-eensy-weensy click edge. If you only have $2/sf for materials, then you are better off looking at remove/replace the existing laminate. An entry level home (with entry level flooring) means it will not have the 'up scale' look of continuous flooring. It is the nature of the beast. Flooring that can do MULTIPLE jobs is more expensive than flooring that can only do one thing. Laminate, in your price range, can only do 'dry areas'. It will do it very well - as you have already experienced with your existing laminate - but it will not go into kitchens and it should never go into bathrooms. So....the question becomes: Which is it going to be - the budget or the 'look' you want? Because in your price range, you will be hard pressed to get both working in harmony. And vinyl is NOT allowed underpad. It will sit right on top of the substrate. Which means it can transmit noise MUCH BETTER than your existing laminate. Especially in your price range. It will be thin (4mm vinyl is about all you can expect) and it will be flexible (it will bow like a rainbow) and it will have more movement than you ever thought possible in a 'stable' product. Your price range offers $1.99/sf laminate from a big box store. That's about all you have right now. If your laminate and your kitchen tiles are in good shape, I suggest saving up for a vinyl floor that will cost $4/sf. Now you are in the right ball park for 'middle of the road' vinyl. And it will still be more expensive to install....but at least you will have purchased a mid-quality product.

"He made the argument that coastal homes never use aluminum windows, but aren't high-rise windows typically aluminum framed?" First I have heard of this and absolutely hi-rise windows are aluminum 90% of the time. Here on Long Island aluminum is used right on the water all the time. I would be very surprised of that was not the case most everywhere.