Oops, sorry - I should have mentioned that we have a slab foundation. Here's the link: www.truehardwoods.com If you call and talk to Justin (it's a family-owned and run business), tell him hello from the customer that bought 70 cartons of Castle Rock Birch shipped to Texas! We're installing it ourselves, so we decided to do floating. He recommended we use the Silencer underlayment.

In a perfect world, I'd go with wood. It looks great and feels warm underfoot, is more forgiving to the knees and hips, is less likely to break a dropped dish, and ties into the adjoining rooms in such a way that everything looks seamless. In a perfect world, I'd go with tile. It just says "kitchen", is available in so many lovely renditions, cleans up more easily than any other kitchen flooring, and is almost impossible to destroy. However, since we don't live in a perfect world, I'm thinking of plain old-fashioned sheet laminate. My kitchen is small enough that no seams will be necessary, and nothing is cheaper. It's warmer and more forgiving on the joints than tile. It's easier to clean and more durable than wood. I deem it the best compromise of all options.

The only reason it matters would be if your room is way out of square. A little either way, a contractor can fudge by spacing the tiles a bit farther apart to make up the difference, but if it's off a lot, it could look better in the end if the tiles are run 90 degrees to the unsquare wall. If your room is reasonably square, then it's up to you..you have to look at it every day, not the installer!

I disagree I would do the long run infront of you when you enter but the best is too find out how the beams run and do perpendicular to thta to make the fake wood look more real. Please do not put the TV above the FP you have space on the left use a nice cabinet withTV wall mounted on an articulating are above the cabinet .That puts the TV at proper viewing height then a nic ematch cabine on the other side of the FP with a nice piecce of art above to balance the TV then you can either hang more art , just add a nice thick wood mantel and decorate only the mantel