New home-- flooring question/ design advice

We just closed on our first home together and we are trying to decide on flooring.

The previous owner put dark stained hardwood floors in the hallway and dining room. Carpet in the den and LR and laminate tile in the kitchen. Upstairs is all carpet. They had cats, so the rugs are gross and we want to replace them. I'm PG and due in May... we don't want cat pee rugs.

Upstairs first, in all the bedrooms and the hallway and the stairs. But we can't afford the same hardwood... we were thinking of doing pergo or laminate or engineered wood (I have no idea what I am talking about with flooring, BTW).

Would you keep the carpet on the stairs and try to shampoo it? Spring for hardwood on the stairs and pergo upstairs?

Also, the colors... do we try to match the upstairs and down? One idea was to match the upstairs hallway and stairs to the downstairs and then do whatever colors in the bedrooms.

What do you think? I'm so clueless!

New home-- flooring question/ design advice

Did you check to see what's under the carpet on the stairs. It might be oak treads already and all you have to do is refinish.

New home-- flooring question/ design advice

I'd check under the carpet on the stairs to see if there is hardwood there. on ours there was. if there wasn't I'd consider recarpeting for cost.

it really depends on your budget. Engineered floors aren't much cheaper than actual hardwood. Laminate/pergo would be cheaper. Have you actually priced out the hardwood? are you doing the install yourselves, or hiring it out? Engineered and laminate are easier to put in yourselves, compared to hardwood.

we did hardwood all upstairs, b/c we wanted it, and we were also doing an addition, so it was all new anyway. However, I was tempted to do hardwood in the hallway and master, and do carpet in the other bedrooms to save on cost.

New home-- flooring question/ design advice

The previous owner didn't think there was wood under the carpet. We haven't checked yet. Just got possession in the snowstorm on Monday. Now with the ice today we won't get there. Sigh. Hardwood is def not in the budget unfortunately. We have discovered so many other things that are broken now that need fixing. FH is going to do the work himself, with a friend who used to do flooring for a living. If there is oak I'll be thrilled, and try to match the color to the downstairs wood.

Re: New home-- flooring question/ design advice