hardwood or carpet???

[marchmommy]

Your advice would really be appreciated as I have a lot on my plate right now (all good things, but just a lot to handle). We are moving into a new home, well, closing on it in only about two weeks, and I'm also due to have a baby in about six-seven weeks. We want to do work on the house before we move in (will move in with family) and before we have the baby. We are definitely going to install floors in the living and dining room, but are deciding whether it is worth it to strip carpeting upstairs, where wood floors exist in three bedrooms and on the stairs, and refinish the floors, as well as install floors in the hallway upstairs and one bedroom that doesn't have floors. Do you think we're better off just leaving carpet in the bedrooms???? Especially with two little kids? Also, same question for the family room-we can install floors here, but it will be very expensive, or keep the carpet that's there though it's a thick shag, but neutral, or put in a new carpet or some kind of laminate or tile. May be the easiest and cheapest just to leave the carpet there. But are floors much more durable for a family room??? Any other suggestions??? Thanks!

[jamsmu]

We installed low-end carpet in the "kids" rooms because we figured it will be replaced in a few years--let me tell you.... 1 year of a baby and I can't wait to replace it!! In our family room, we chose to install berber. Great choice for easy clean up!

[ellies mom]

I'm a hardwood person myself. In our last house, I pulled up the last of the carpet while pregnant. The hardwood floors were great with a DD that spit up constantly. In our new house, hardwood throughout would have been horribly expensive so we choose hardwood for about half the lower level and carpet for the rest. DD is spitting up much less but I still cringe a bit when it hits the carpeting. If I had the money though I'd go all hardwood.

[almostamom]

We just replaced the carpet in our family room with wood which I LOVE. My only regret - at my last house the wood we had was very light. I wanted something a bit darker in this house (think in between a maple and cherry) and now I see the dog's footprints everywhere - GRRRRRR! It drives my crazy. I don't know if you have a dog or not, but I wish someone would have warned me. I would have still gone with wood, but I would have chosen a lighter color.

Good luck
~Linda~
Baby #1 due Nov 17, 2004

[Sarah1]

Well, I'm someone who loves carpet in the bedrooms. When we moved into our condo, it was already hardwood floors throughout. We actually carpeted OVER the wood floors in the bedrooms!

[Momof3Labs]

Hardwood - hands down. We put hardwood throughout the house when we bought it three years ago, exept in Colin's room and the two other smaller bedrooms. I now wish that we had gone 100% hardwood - the carpet is so much harder to keep clean (dust, pet hair) and everything just wipes up off of it. When Colin was in his super-pukey phase, it was soooo nice being able to just hold him over the floor when he threw up. And pet messes (cat puke is popular around here) wipe right up.

Though if you already have decent carpeting in some rooms, you could wait to redo those. We had awful bright green carpeting throughout almost the entire house!!

[Marisa6826]

My personal choice is hardwood with area rugs over it. It's a timeless look, you will easily recoup your money if/when you choose to sell your home and it's a LOT easier on people with allergies. It's quick and easy to clean - especially with kiddos running around.

If you can't swing the cost of refinishing the floors now, stick with the existing carpet but have it cleaned.

As far as installing new flooring, I did prefinished 5" wide hardwood white oak in my kitchen and absolutely LOVE it.

-m

[Saartje]

Or, for a cheaper option, go with pressed bamboo -- it looks like and is as durable as hardwood, but costs much less.

I adore hardwood, as does my DH. Spit up, leaking milk, cat puke, juice spills... it all wipes right up, the floors look BEAUTIFUL, and it's so nice to sweep regularly and mop occasionally rather than vacuum regularly and shampoo occasionally.

[SeekerMage]

I say carpet....we got a new house and it has wood and ceramic floors throughout the whole downstairs and its a PITA to keep clean! Crumbs everywhere, takes forever to mop, dusty easily etc. I will admit spot clean up is easy (baby and cat puke etc) but I will take carpet any time...a quick vaccuum and its done. Also we learned a quick and easy carpet cleaning trick that got every stain out (cat puke, grape juice etc)! just wipe it up and soak the area good with dish soap (I used dawn) and water put down white towels, pat the area dry then place more dry towels down, place something heavy on it overnight and the stain is gone by morning!

Also, while they look pretty....Lilbit slides all over the place and the floors are cold so I have to keep her feet in slippers or shoes at all time...no more naked feet :(

[suribear]

Hardwood, for sure.

We moved into this house before I had my baby (she was born two weeks later!) and the one thing we did before was install laminate floors (pergo) throughout. BEST decision, as it's kid friendly, easy to clean (I NEVER worry about spills, and carpet tends to hide dirt), looks great, wonderful for allergies ( I can "smell" the dust in carpeted houses - it makes a huge difference) and is somewhat less expensive than hardwood. It does get expensive when you add in all the baseboards and stair pieces, etc... Since you have a lot of hardwood already, it makes sense for you to choose hardwood in the adjacent areas.

I'm glad we did the flooring beforehand, because it would have been tough to do it later.

BTW, I know many people who consider their "kid carpet" disposable and plan to change it when the kids grow up. They tend to have lots of stains on the carpet, though. Dark colors would hide the mess better than the usual beige.

Kris