We are investigating the same thing right now. In the sunny South we're lucky to get 5 years out of a paint job so we're looking into removing the siding and continuing the brick veneer up the sides. You will need to have solid footing for any stonework laid if you don't have them already. Something has to hold the weight of the brick or stone.

johnatemp, thank you so much for letting me know that you used Vista Film which I think will be good for me to use also since as it is I do not get that much sun so this should help a lot. I love the Brazilian Kempas. I could hardly find any companies that made this in an engineered wood except for Hartco Valenza Collection by Armstrong's Commercial line (very nice and thick with such a gorgeous grain) and some unknown companies. That is when I went back to Brazilian Cherry as a floor I loved. If I had a sub-floor and a basement below my home (my home was built in the beautiful preserved wetlands with woods around me... country like but close to all the stores and highways), I would have more options with solid wood. I am looking for thick sawn layers on top of the plywood so I will have an engineered wood that can be refinished if I ever need to. My client just drove me around to some homes to show me the hardwood floors in my area and these homes are gorgeous. I am back and needing to work but feeling I really love the grain and rich coloring and the semi-gloss finish that is so nice without being too shiny on the BR-111 Triangulo Engineered 3.25" Brazilian Cherry planks. I also love the longer boards that are 5" wide with more grain showing but I think the 3.25" looks better in my home office so I will have more variations in the color showing that I love. I still love the Pradoo but this morning the glossy finish is smudgy while the BR-111 is not. I also love the way the Pradoo looks in the family room but in my office the Brazilian Cherry looks so much nicer with my cherry wood furniture and putty file cabinets. I think you are right that buyers will recognize quality and there will be buyers that will love the style and the choices I made in my home. For now I am not nervous anymore going with an exotic wood that has no stain. I will try to send in some pics of the samples a little bit later on since these are very beautiful big samples and not little boards to give me a much better idea how much I love the look of this wood and color variation.

The cabinets are all being painted white or a shade of white-ish.... unfortunately I picked a carpet 7 months ago - and didn't think through the entire house of colors - hence why I am irritated with the developer designer for not even recommending this website to me - never heard of it until 6 weeks ago. I prefer sea glass tones of color and this is where a gray based carpet would have been a better option. But too late now.

I would really appreciate if some of you can help with my dilemma. We are looking into flooring options for our new home. We live in Arizona. I was looking in to wood look porcelain tile because I really like the look of wood, but I want something where I can have the same kind of flooring in the entire main floor, so hard wood tile combo is out. We have hardwood in our current house in both our floors except kitchen and stairs as much as I love the look of it, I don’t like the upkeep that comes with it. A couple of our friends got LVP done in their homes and they really like it. I love how it looks but just can’t get over the vinyl part and how will it effect the value of the house? I spoke to a couple of local suppliers and contractors and they said I can’t go wrong with either it just comes down to personal choice. And with regard to the value they said only hard wood increases the value and carpet may decrease the value because buyers would like to change the carpet but vinyl or tile don’t add or delete anything in our are. it most likely will be our forever home till we downsize but just in case. Our home will be around 700k. I understand that vinyl costs less in labor charges but a 20mil wear layer vinyl is not cheap in material and I don’t mind to spend more on the labor of tile and prefer to compromise somewhere else which I can change easily later . I know some of the same things were discussed in this thread but most of them are over a year old was wondering if everyone is still on the same page. For everyone who has wood look porcelain tile or LVP do you still like it after a couple of years? What are the pros and cons. For me one big con with the tile is grout. And LVP’s pro is it’s looks. Do you have problems with footprints being seen on LVP like how a few mentioned in an other thread? any pro’s please give your input on what you think? Thanks a lot if you read till now. I will greatly appreciate any help you can provide.