Floor Remodeling...help!

I have laminate hardwood flooring everywhere (kitchen, living areas, etc) except in the bedrooms, which I was able to save and refinish the wood in. We have a large rug in the living room, a few small ones in the bathroom/kitchen. I did not want carpet because as clean as you can get the surface, you're really still walking on trapped dirt, dust, and odors. Not good for babies especially if they're close to the ground (toddlers or crawlers). Also anything that would stain carpet just can be mopped up on my floors. There is literally nothing my floor can't handle, including our really large dog who sometimes digs his nails in... it is hard to scratch this stuff. Oh, and it's great in the kitchen/dining/living room transitions too. I don't have those bump strip things... it just runs continuous throughout and makes the space feel much larger. It was cost-effective from Nebraska Furniture Mart when they were running a sale.

My sil has slate in her kitchen and entry way and says she would never do it again. It is very hard to keep sealed in such busy areas and anything the kids drop on it shatters immediately, where with her wood floors in other home plates sometimes survived the fall.

We put in some laminate flooring from HomeDepot in all of our bathrooms right before we sold our house. It was a huge roll that my bil cut to fit each room. I really liked it! It was browns/beige colors with almost square shapes. It turned out beautiful. For carpet we put in the frieze (spelling)...I loved it as well. I can't stand berber because it's really not comfortable to sit on and it's rough. But if you are wanting something durable for the kids then that would be the way to go. You do have to be careful because it will snag.

I have pergo everywhere except the bathroom which is ceramic tile. We love it! I have big rugs scattered around for color and floor sitting. The pergo cleans easy - it is almost self cleaning I think. I have a little vacuum that you hang on the wall that I use every couple of days and a housekeeper that mops every two weeks.

My four year old boy plays everthing in the house - including ride his bike and play with real tools and wood - the floor has never scratched. We have had the house for about 3 years and it looks like new.

I have had berber carpet in other houses and it snags easily. My sister has slate floors and they never look really clean. My mom has ceramic tile throughout her house and it never seems to look really clean either. She also has berber in the bedrooms and it looks great but they are all adults there with no pets.

I absolutely hate my berber. It pulls and is awful to clean up with kids and pets.

Would you consider doing the work yourself? I would be happy to help you find resources to do so. The reason I asked is the best flooring for bathrooms and the kitchen are tiles, like ceramic and such. They even make a non-slip tile which is what I have in my bathrooms. Ceramic tile is lethal when wet.

The problem with tile floors is it is very labor intensive to install. Half of any quote goes straight to labor. We were quoted close to $10,000 for our kitchen. The materials cost us around $4,000 but it did take me two weeks to do the install since I could only work on it part time.

I have had the floors now for over ten years. They still look new because you can scrub the heck out of them and bleach if necessary.