sorta parenting related- house question

we are doing work on our house. its a split, with the kitchen and dining room side-by-side at the back of the house. well, we added an extension, and that rectangle of space will be used maybe 75% family room area and 25% eating section.

i'm torn as to whether or not i should have the eating area tiled or just to put hardwood flooring throughout. In trying to keep the areas separate, and considering possible furniture layouts, it's been driving me nuts. and no, i dont think i'd want tile in the family room area

if you have hardwood flooring in your eating area (keep in mind i have a 1 year old, and plan on having more kids), is it a nightmare to keep clean? does it get scratched easily? there is also a door to the backyard in our eating area, so it will be a heavy traffic area

Re: sorta parenting related- house question

Love wood floors and have them throughout...In kitchen too with french doors leading out to deck which gets a lot of traffic with our kids.

Re: sorta parenting related- house question

i live in a split with hardwood in my dining area and I have a 1 year old and its great! no harder to keep clean as compared to anything else!

oh, and i have french doors in my dining room out to the deck (do we live in the same house? )

it would get scratched if we didnt have padding on the bottom of dining chairs and table etc. but if you stay on top if it, it will not.

SO easy I just sweep really quickly at the end of each night - any crumbs etc from the day

Message edited 8/10/2011 12:52:37 PM.

Re: sorta parenting related- house question

Honestly, our hardwood looks amazing and is easier to clean and stays better looking that our tile.

People can't tell the floor is dirty or clean when they come. My cleaning lady comes and says "your floors are clean, doesn't look like much work" .. I say yeah right, take a rag wipe it and show her grimy dirty black gray gunk.

My tile always looks dirty and I scrub, steam, freaking on my hands and knees and hate it.

With the wood, VARNISH with several layers! I promise you, you will not regret it. I chewed DH head off, when he spent 3 days just varnishing our floors... I so apologize for it now.

If we buy a house we will redo the wood floors and do them everywhere but the bathroom.

Look shiny beautiful (my kid isn't too bad looking either lol - this is our dining/living room, we eat here every day, and my 1 year makes a mess on it every day)

Message edited 8/10/2011 12:58:53 PM.