Thanks, Abbisgram! I bet the white cabs look great with the colour of your counters. And 5 1/2 years strikes me as pretty great for the Giani granite! Lots of bang for your buck. Redoing my floors is going to be my first major project in my new MH. It's really quite necessary as most of the flooring is original to the house--1979!! Exception is carpet in one bedroom and living room that is about nine years old, I think. But while the floors are indeed ugly, my bigger concern is the subfloor and the insulation situation. I want to shore up the subfloor and add insulation; the insulation that's there now is also original to the house, and I'm positive it's completely inadequate. So, since I want to pull everything up for those purposes, that means new floors, which thrills my daughter because it's an improvement she can see. it will be vinyl wood-look planks, but my daughter and I have a running argument over the whole colour theme. Mind you, she doesn't live there and I don't see her name on the title, haha! But she's almost got me convinced. I wanted to go with a very dark colour scheme, dark red/brown floors, dark cabinets and countertops. But she says it will make the house dark, gloomy, and appear smaller than it already is. She wants a gray and white neutral theme with one colour accent used sparingly for pop, namely maroon. She showed me some vinyl planks in a gray that really look nice. So now I'm rethinking everything. But anyway, thanks again for being so generous to answer my questions! Anytime you have time to post a pic or two would be great! I'm especially interested now to see the white cupboards! But I realise it's the holidays and everyone's frightfully busy, so no rush whatsoever! :-) I'm going out to my new place sometime in the next few days, depending upon the snow/ice situation, to take a whole bunch of photos and video. It's for planning purposes and also for my "before" pictures, because I want to document the whole restoration project.

Magg5412 that's lovely! wow. It's been 3 years already since I posted my question and finally went with wood laminate that was less expensive than the luxury vinyl I wanted. We went with Pioneer laminate from Flooring Liquidators (sweetwater) my husband installed himself starting the day we got keys. The 18" tile floor the builder put in kitchen & baths looked so nice that my DH just wouldn't agree to ripping it up for my 'vision' of uninterrupted wood floors. (I just paid a service to steam clean all my ceramic tile where grout got too dirty for me to get it really clean--well worth it!) im in the middle of repainting inside of my house so no good pix. but the 3 years of wear on the laminate only shows where water got spilled near a plant and no one saw. Sweep. Mop. Done.

For anyone years later who is looking for the same info: I recently left flooring as a store manager and sales rep. First, understand that NO flooring is scratch-proof. They are scratch-resistant. I know someone else recommended staying away from it in case your basement floods but the truth of the matter is that if it floods and you use your homeowner's insurance (recommended), they will insist on the entire floor being replaced no matter what you have installed. You can choose a commercial grade if you are really worried about the flooring holding up to abuse. They are often glued down. Your installer will probably want to skimcoat the floor or use a leveler. This is good practice. Urethane with ceramic bead and urethane plus with aluminum oxide particles are the strongest choices right now but there are some higher ratings Like AC 5 which is stronger than say a 20 mil wear layer. There are also a few in the 30 mil wear layer range. You will often save money hiring your own installer because stores make money from the cost of installation. Hire your own and have them buy your materials. If they have an established relationship with the store, they will often get a significant discount on your materials. The store I worked for had a 55% profit margin but when they sold to installers/contractors they lowered it to 30-35%. Stores have to make a profit and so do installers. You may save some cash if your installer charges a smaller profit margin. Ask for a Certificate of Insurance on the installer. If their installation is bad or unfinished, their insurance has to cover it. Stores should have a warranty to cover poor workmanship as well. The manufacturer will cover manufacturing defects but not workmanship. Before you hire someone, ask if they do moisture testing and what is their procedure for it. ALWAYS have a moisture test done and documented when they come out to measure. If it is too high they should recommend what to do to get it and keep it at the appropriate level. ALWAYS have it done again before installation. This is the number one thing that causes manufacturers to deny a claim.

I just wanted to share some install photos. We just finished a kitchen of One Sweet Talker. I love how it looks and I love the wider and longer planks. The customer service was again top notch. However, I hate that I have to say this but I feel like I need to share because I wish I'd known. This is our second house with Supercore and we love the company. We just finished the install Thurs. Sunday we had guests over. One of them must have had a rock stuck in their shoe or something. There's now a huge area of scratching. Almost a foot long. It's so disappointing. And I know that maybe other brands would be similar, but it just seems so soon and just under normal wear. 😕 I'll attach pictures in another comment to show how well they show up on this color.