Hi first its depends how you going to dived the are even that its open area the question is if you going to have a island in the kitchen that will separate between the living room to the kitchen or every thing will be open kind of big loft, I saw houses with three deferent kind of floor some times is good some times is so so, depends how you do the connection between them You donÂt have to go with a high price wood for the kitchen; there is many kind of wood that will be chipper then tile for the kitchen, oak, pine or Bamboo in good quality (not the 99c or $1.30). Hope its help, and like you say its hard to say with out the floor plan. Jacob

Chinchette - Your flooring looks lovely. Thanks for the picture. Why am I getting cold feet someone asked? A couple of reasons. We do have pets (both cats and dogs). Dogs wouldn't typically be in the kitchen but the cats would. The wood I like is wide blank, medium to dark in color and distressed. I am concerned cat hair would really show up on it not to mention possibility of scratching. I know even with engineered wood we could always refinish but that will take away at least some of the distressed look. Then there are aesthetics. We plan to have cherry cabinets in a medium to dark finish. I find that when I look at pics of kitchens with darker cabinets and darker wood floors that I tend to not like it. We haven't picked a counter but probably a lighter granite. I've looked at a number of pics of kitchen with wood flooring and I like them when the cabs are painted or the cabinets have a light stain or when the wood floors have a light stain. But I don't want any of that. FWIW at our last house we had tile in the kitchen and slate tile in the family room/master bedroom/master bath and did not find it uncomfortable. We are probably going to have wood in our master bedroom in this house and perhaps in my study. The only eating areas we will have are the breakfast room (which is why we are making it 12 x 12) and the counter height bar seating. We rarely entertain so that is fine for us. Cangelmd - Good point that I've thought of. If we do decide to do something different in the kitchen than the family room I have to make sure that the designer designs it so that the transition works. I've just gone round and round on the flooring. I really want the open kitchen and like the idea of wood in the whole area a lot. On the other hand, I don't want the floor to look constantly dirty due to the cat hair. Year ago I had a very dark tile floor in my kitchen that always looked dirty. I did like the tile before (didn't find it too hard) but sort of wanted a warmer look for this house. So I could do tile in the whole area but then I give up wood (except perhaps in our bedroom). Just really uncertain what to do. I am almost paralyzed by this decision (one of many that I just can't seem to resolve).

I think you have a most definite dividing point so it should work. The dotted line that goes across the island would be a perfect dividing point. Though it would be okay to keep the family room side of the island trimmed to match the kitchen.

I totally feel your pain! Remodels aren't cheap and it's not easy for everyone to picture what something will look like before its done. I had a similar situation - I just didn't feel that I could afford to redo the tile in the entire house - so I only did part of it. Huge mistake. I "solved" the problem with carpet squares. You can buy just what you need, get pretty creative and install them yourself. I'm sure there are many companies, I used Flor. I recommend getting samples - as it's impossible to accurately assess color from the computer monitor. (Samples are free during promotions and sales are frequent.) I would also suggest that moving the sofa to face away from the kitchen will not only cover up some of the transition, but also define the space in a way to enhance the separation of the rooms.