I posted about this in the "Our First Home" group, but then I realized that this might be more of a style issue than anything else.

DH and I recently sold our condo and are looking to buy a larger single family home. We saw a place that we really like, but there are a few changes that we'd want to make if we were to buy it, one of which is the kitchen floor.

In our little 9x9 condo kitchen we had tile, which although beautiful, needed extra attention to stay clean. This kitchen is 28x12 - a lot more work to maintain!

Right now the sellers have linoleum, which I would want to replace. However, I'm wondering if tile would be a pain. I'd also consider laminate "hardwood," but I'm afraid that 1) With all of the cabinets it would look like wood overload, and 2) I wouldn't be able to match the flooring that's already down on the rest of that level.

Here are pics so you know what I mean:

Foyer/entrance into kitchen

Dining room that flows into kitchen

Kitchen

(I hate the purple carpet in the great room, so that would go - we would probably put a different color carpet down there, so there's no worry about continuing from the kitchen into that room.)

If anyone is interested, here's the rest of the house: Windmill Road house

So seeing what we're working with, what type of flooring would you recommend?

I checked out the rest of the pictures and this is a beautiful home! 

I'm not sure I can be of much help since I've only ever had tile in my kitchen. My parents had a beautiful brownish tile that really never showed dirt. In my home now I have a lighter tile and it gets dirty fast, however, we do have two dogs. 

I know some people have hardwood floors in their kitchens and love it, I just know it would never been a choice for us since our pups like to slosh their water everwhere, I would be paranoid of water damage. I think Mel (Plumcrush) has wood in her kitchen and had some water damage from the dishwasher? 

I currently have a high-shine hardwood floor and I HATE IT!!! It is impossible to keep shiny.

We are moving into our new house soon and I have chosen a wood laminate floor instead of the hardwood option, it's much easier to keep clean (my brother owns a cleaning business so I got his advice!)

I have always had tile previously and although it tends to show dirt quickly I found it easier to clean because I could use any cleaner I wanted on it.

Beautiful house, Lauren! I also thought of Mel right away with the hardwood floors.

I agree with the other ladies that a tile might be best (if keeping it clean/manageable is high on the list). Maybe a darker tile, like Jen mentioned? I think that would look great in that kitchen.

Ditto the other girls. I vote for tile.  Along with a darker color, you could get those that have texture or are naturally marbled so dirt doesn't show up as easily.

Did I miss the update?  What happened in the end? 

Also, we want tile in our kitchen...why were your old condo tiles hard to maintain? What type and color were they?  I lurve the look of tiles, but I can't imagine spending hours cleaning our house every week. :/

i had textured gray tiles in my kitchen that were hard to clean.  It required so much scrubbing.  Swiffers were completely useless.  But the great thing was that they were gray so it was hardly noticeable to guests that they were not the cleanest.  And when our dishwashing machine broke and flooded our kitchen, there was no damage to the tiles.  I imagine with hardwood, if not treated properly, might get damaged in a similar situation.