My first choice would be wood upstairs with a few nice soft area rugs for DD to roll around on. If that won't fly, then woods in the hallways and carpet in the bedrooms. You can get a prefinished hardwood that's easy to install while you're living in the house.

Thanks so much. How much do you think a second-story project would cost (there are so many variables, I know, but sq footage about 900 and including a bathroom)? We have thought of paying a contractor to do the 'heavy duty' stuff that we simply CANNOT do, but we *can* do all the finishing work ourselves (or most of it): drywall, painting, trim, flooring, all bathroom fixture installation, etc. And we'd probably pay to get an architect to draft the plans first, then work on saving for 5-10 years so we could pay mostly or all cash. Such a fun thing to be able to plan! For now, too, any advice on how to make a 'modern' house have more vintage charm would be great. I think when we replace the carpeting (ugh) with hardwoods, I'll also install higher baseboards--mine are pretty short. And I'm thinking of handscraped hardwoods or wide planked, perhaps! Thanks so much. As an aside, I'm happy to report that we went to see the 1912 farmhouse we were obsessed with for 3 days and it's a definite NO---a gorgeous, beautiful house with so much potential,and the most beautiful views I have ever, ever seen from a residence, but *too* much potential for us at this point in our lives. I have always lived in older houses (except for the one we're in now) and I walked out of there, turned to my husband and said "run away NOW!" :-) One day perhaps we'll find the right older home for us, but that one needed an extraordinary amount of rehabilitation! I hope and pray the right buyer finds it--it could be fantastic!

We once remodeled a very large bathroom that was out of level by 4.5” over a 12’ span for a similar reason (steel beam under the floor cut right through the room and wasn’t flush with the other joists). Once leveled, they had a 2.5” threshold into the room. It’s not uncommon. Short of rebuilding the house, you do the best you can with what you have.

I built in SW FL. When I was designing the house, I wanted my studio to be smaller than it wound up, although I'm glad how large it is now. I was told that it would have cost more to put a beam across to hold the weight than to build the bigger room. As for your getting a cost per square foot, unless you have finished plans and have all your fixtures picked out, it's all bogus. Why is your kitchen 2x the size of your living space? Those sink vanities upstairs are barely large enough to hold a toothbrush, let alone any extras you need. I would HIGHLY recommend you post your kitchen layout in the Kitchen forum as it needs LOTS of help. I'm sorry but it's just poor design. What does the rest of the plan look like? What do the elevations look like? What direction is north?