I have had good luck with china. I think there are different types, such as vitreous china, and fine-fired (?) china, but I don't know which type I have used or how to tell the difference. In two homes I have taken rusty faucets and drains out and scoured the china sinks back to like-new appearance. I repaired a porcelain sink that my friend chipped by dropping a heavy perfume bottle into the sink. If the floor model has a crack I would not buy it. Maybe even check out the china material. Based on my past experience I am planning to buy a china sink.

As a family we have been very hard on surfaces. One approach is to pick surfaces that are "distressed" to begin with. Buy a vintage cast iron sink that already has chips that you love...and know that you can live with the chips and you won't have PTSD when the next chip happens. Get recycled wood flooring and get it finished but know that they never were "perfect" in your home. Another approach is to get materials that get a beautiful patina as they age. I would include marble, stainless, zinc, limestone, soapstone, counters, site-finished wood floors, etc. in that category. For finishes that *stay* perfect - I have seen many polished granite counters that look perfect after many years of use...I've chosen that for my kitchen. My ceramic floor tiles were in great condition after 12 years. Cabinet doors with complicated moldings can get damaged because they are hard to clean - using tools to get into crevices, etc. can damage the finish. That's why I'm doing slab fronts this time. Pulls should be large enough to not require "scrabbling" with fingers/nails to use - that causes wear on cabinet fronts. Panels used to hide cabinet boxes should be made of the identical material as the fronts, or they will age differently - that happened in my former kitchen and it really looked awful. Cabinet hardware is pretty important. I adore the Blum hardware that comes with my new IKEA cabinets. I prefer heat resistant counters so I wouldn't do quartz or corian, but Trebuchet makes a good point that at least corian can be refinished. I have seen corian age nicely in our local public library - the checkout counters. A different issue is looks. Painted vs wood cabinets go in and out trend-wise. There have been times when painted cabinets have looked dated. Right now they look fresh and as you say they can easily be refreshed. Factory painted or finished cabinet doors are NOT simple to re-paint - do-able but a big job. My sister paid $1000 to have her wood cabinets painted white by a professional in a smallish kitchen. DIY is a major job to do properly, and a misery with complicated door styles. Frameless cabinets are MUCH easier to freshen - you only have to refinish or replace the fronts rather than dealing with the boxes as well. Tiles do seem to look dated after a decade - I don't think it's realistic to do "timeless" in tile. Stone floors may stand the test of time if not "on trend" when installed. I believe that lower quality engineered wood and laminates will look dated pretty quickly.

One shouldn't compare durability of old brick buildings to current residential practices. Old brick is usually structural, three bricks thick or more. The weakness of brick is in the mortar and old professional work usually featured better sands with sharper, more varied particle sizes. Masons these days usually just stick with cheap, readily available masonry sand. Unfortunately, masonry is a dying trade. The biggest problem is that most residential brick work is a masonry veneer, covering wood-based construction. Along with stone and stucco, most brick veneer projects use inadequate vapor barriers and flashing. The masonry may look great from the outside, but the finishes are hiding mold, mildew and deterioration of the wood structure. Sometimes, this happens surprisingly fast. Masonry is considered a moisture reservoir cladding. It will soak up moisture from rain or sprinklers and send it towards the inside as the sun comes out. This makes it a more risky cladding than wood, metal, composite or vinyl. Masonry is one of my favorite exterior finishes but it takes extra effort than what is common in current construction practices. If you go with masonry, ensure your construction team understands the details like minding the gap and weatherproof window installations. When I was in Germany, there was a lot of troublesome renovation happening to the very old timberframe structures that had been stuccoed during times when stucco was considered more fashionable. The lime stuccos inhibited the drainage and drying of the wood, speeding up the timbers deterioration.

The floor is an oil finish. Either select something else in the engineered category, spend more, or do an LVP. This is going to be HIGH maintenance in a wet climate, coupled with dogs. All hardwood flooring requires common sense care, but this is not for you. Directly from the care/warranty PDF: 2. Mineral Stains: Hard water can leave surface stains on an oil finished floor. Mineral stains can generally be removed with Nu Oil® Natural Oil Cleaner. For stubborn mineral stains Restoration Oil can be used on a board by board basis, following instructions for use of Restoration Oil (available on Hallmark Floors website). If staining is persistent additional coats of Restoration Oil should be applied to make the floor more resistant to surface staining. FYI: I would abandon any idea of a board wider than seven inches. It is unnecessary for a good look in the largest of homes. It's an invitation to greater instability with even slight / normal fluctuation in humidity. At some point, go to a dedicated flooring store, local to you. Think care and longevity over trend. Hardwood has withstood children, dogs, and normal living for centuries. A good engineered product will last for decades, and the type of substrate you have seems to dictate you need that. I'd never in a million years buy a single plank of any hardwood on the internet. ...........consider that very good advice. Go shopping.