I don't think it would be too many wood finishes, especially in an older home. Many of them started off with that many woods and it's totally appropriate.

I would worry a bit that laminate would look too modern and ummm (yes, I'm one of those!) fake with the nicer finishes you already have.

Your home sounds lovely with the Shaker furniture which I love. I have no problem with mixing woods. I think it adds to the hominess of the house. I like mixing rather than matching and I prefer a deliberate randomness in my designs. They're more casual and relaxed. I wouldn't paint the woodwork, live with it for a while and if you do decide to paint, perhaps white wouldn't be the best color. Trim can be any color.

Sarah's rule is as long as there is more than one hit of a wood tone it can work. I think the only way to really tell is to see it all pulled together. I think your oak sounds fabulous!!

Fori, I am totally with you on that. I yearn for the real deal. That said, it is not even completely a money issue. While it is more expensive, yes, we would be willing to do it. However, the argument against them (and me) is that it will be too much upkeep, too much wear and tear, especially with dogs running around.

I do want to point out that while our home is over 100 years old, it is not a typical "old home." Very few original pieces exist. It is not modernized by any means, but it also doesn't have the character touches that are imagined when someone is looking at an older home.

I will provide pictures in a little bit and give you guys a walk-through of what exactly we are dealing with.

Just keep in mind that laminate flooring will not last as long as wood. When the laminate begins to show wear, you will need to replace as you can't refinish. If you get damage to a piece of laminate it's much more difficult to replace than wood. Should you have to replace a section of laminate you're newer boards may not match up well with the older.

If you get a good quality wood that is finished properly it's going to look great for years.

Laminate, in a 1900s home? Sacre bleu!

But if you really like the laminate and that's what you want, you should go for it. It's YOUR house. I saw a condo done in laminate, and it actually looked pretty good.

We almost didn't get wood for the very reasons you listed. We thought it would be more upkeep, and we worried about our dogs' nails scratching the wood. So we were all set to go with laminate, but then found a wood we loved. It cost more, but well worth it. In actuality, the wood is much easier to keep up than any floor we've ever had. In fact, it looks so good even with neglect. I seldom sweep or dust it. (I'm embarrassed to say that!) Did the floor get scratched up from the dogs? Yes. Does it still look good! Yes. In fact, the scratches sort of added to the rustic character of the floor.

Now, having said that, a friend of mine had dark hardwood put in her house. BIG MISTAKE. It shows every footprint. She's constantly having to go around and wipe up the spots that show on her floor. Me with my beech floor? I run over it with one of those swiffer dust catchers once a month or so. Easy as pie. I've never even used the special floor cleaning system that came with the wood. Just the dry swiffer does the trick.

Contrary to popular opinion, laminates do show wear with time. Unlike wood, you can't sand and refinish them. You have to tear out and do a new floor.

My only warning is that what usually happens with laminate is that, no matter how nice it looks in a showroom, once installed, you can tell it's fake wood. Since you have a lot of natural wood furniture pieces, this might also contrast in a bad way with the laminate and make the fakeness even more obvious.

If you get a wood floor that has a rustic finish, then I wouldn't worry about dog claw marks at all. They'll just add to the character. If it's one of those super shiny floors, though, then, yes, you'll really notice the scratches. Keep your dogs' nails trimmed. (Do that even with laminate.)

Welp, here we go with the pictures; I will try to guide you through the home, or at least the part that will be getting new flooring.

We call this our "back porch." Others may refer to it as a mudroom. While our house is not traditionally open concept, upon entering from the back door, you can see straight through the kitchen into the living room.

The back porch will likely be like this for the foreseeable future. It was renovated about 5 years ago. There used to be a HUGE furnace in the corner, so that was knocked out, dry walled, and new paint. We also added the built in storage. The molding was done then as well. The floor is a commercial grade vinyl, and while I dislike vinyl in general, this was the perfect choice for our back porch, as people would be dragging in mud and snow, in addition to the laundry being back here as well.

Heading into our kitchen: almost nothing needs done in here, as we finished updating it to our liking about a year ago. We will be getting new appliances sometime in the next year, but other than that, we are good to go. I just wanted to show you guys this so that you can see the flow of the kitchen to living room, so that you can decide how they'd fit together. Also, you can see the oak that is rather prominent throughout the house.

continued...

If things start looking a little wonky, I have to forewarn you. In our 100+ year old house, there has been some settling and foundation issues. Most of the floors are pretty solid, they just tilt. Except there is one spot in the kitchen where there is an obvious sag. We attempted to have this fixed a few years ago. Had a contractor in, he said he could fix it, and welp, he didn't. We'd like to have a structural engineer come someday and just give us the details of what is going on and what it would take to fix it. I hate the uneveness of the house, but it is what it is for the time being. What that means is no porcelain, no marble.

The paint was done a year ago. The chair rail/wainscoting was done thenas well, and the laminate floor. We're pretty pleased with the laminate. It looks nice. It is solid, though it does not feel like tile. Most people with older homes understand though why tile just wasn't an option.

The trim around the doors and the cabinets were original to the house, and originally wood. I hated to paint them. In my eyes, you should never paint wood. But, I knew it would make a difference, and it did.

The crown molding was done a year ago, as well. I was pleased with it. The countertop is about 10 years old- laminate. I never wanted granite, as I didn't think it fit in with the bright country kitchen vibe.

We did the backsplash about a year ago ourselves. It was a little difficult in some spots, especially with the unlevelness of the home. But, I am pleased with how it turned out.

This specific wall was actually a very emotional piece of renovating our kitchen. It was actually stone, original to the house, of course, and it bowed out in a few places. We knocked the wall down and dry walled it. I much prefer the smooth dry wall, but like I said, getting rid of something original to the house is never easy.

Well, now that you have been introduced to the part of the house that has already been done, let me move on to the part of the house that we are dealing with going forward.

Here is our living room. About 20 years ago, it had wood paneling, and we replaced it with dry wall. The color has changed a couple of times. Our most recent color is Macaroni, which is an off-white. Considering the darkness of the room, it is hard to go much darker.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our house is not level. By viewing the following picture, if you can imagine that corner close to the kitchen, by the rocking chair....that would be the highest point in the room, and from that point, it tilts downward every direction.

As I stated before, the original hardwoods were covered with tile. Such a shame. The original hardwoods are actually wide-plank. I actually prefer narrow plank wood, as when I imagine older homes, I imagine narrow plank wood. Anyone else?

This couch is less than 6 months old, so we anticipate it will be with us for a while. Yes, it is very dark. I knew that a lighter color may help lighten up the room, but I just wanted the easier maintenance of a darker couch, so...here we are. The recliner is on the downhill portion of its life here, and will likely be replaced within the next 2-3 years.

The wood furniture in the room is a few years old, and was very pricy. It also provides us with much needed storage. In order to even dream of getting new furniture, we'd have to sell the existing furniture for a decent amount. I don't think replacing the furniture is really an option at this point, so whatever we get has to work well with it.

Mostly everything in the living room is light oak. The door and trim obviously. Picture frames, mantle, etc. There are three things that are not. The clock, which was a gift from my husband's work, a coat rack on the wall that has been there for 40 years, and the fan, which is very old and will likely be replaced when we reno the living room. Some of the other finishes are "gold" frames throughout the room. The lamps are black with crystal orbs. The curtain rods are black with nickel touches. Oh, and the TV and it's stand are black.

The curtains are about 2 months old. They are gold, with beige and black detailing. Don't even get me started on the ceiling. That is unfortunately not something that we will be tackling this time around.

Here is the view into the next room we will be looking at.

Well I think that going down to the original floors would be a lot of work and expense, and if asbestos are a concern you need to get special permits, contractors who are qualified, and seal off the portion being worked on until it's all gone!

On top of that, the wide planks you describe may have never been intended as a finished floor and could be low grade wood - they may have intended the tile or linoleum. My sister's 100+ year old house had wide planks under tile, linoleum, carpet and many layers. They pulled it all up but the wood underneath had large gaps between planks (you could see into the dirt cellar) and it was rough and needed sanding a lot so prevent splinters. It turned out "rustic" looking but would never look like hardwood floors.

So I think your decision to go with laminate is a reasonable one, although it depends how long you plan to live there. If this is your forever home you might want to consider hardwood installed over the existing floors, but they would have to put in a new level subfloor which would deduct height from the rooms. Same for engineered wood - and I personally did not have a good experience with the longevity of that floor I think dog nails would rip up engineered wood in no time and it looks bad when scratched/dented - which is easy to do. Laminate is more scratch resistant than engineered.

Another thing to consider is vinyl plank floors - we put these in our townhouse and for very little money we are very happy with them. Very tough, dog nails would not be a problem, and the floating vinyl can bend with the subfloor. That's one reason I chose it - our floors are not completely level either and laminate can be a squeaky snap-crackle-pop disaster if laid badly on a non-level floor.

If you do go with laminate, make sure you spend the extra money for a good padded underlay to reduce the hollow noise and to help cushion imperfections in the subfloor otherwise the planks may not stay interlocked.

Whatever hard/wood type floor you choose I think you will be very happy - nothing transforms a home like hard flooring in my opinion, it just looks so much better than carpet and it suits an old home best.