I prefer the floors to match. Refinishing and matching can be expensive. Weigh the cost to replacing all floors.

I like floors to match too. But for the 'short term' I would pull up the awful rug and get the floors refinished. A good floor person might buy you of time here. I personally would prefer to wait than go for the quick fix of laminate. That 1/4 inch oak can take probably more than one refinish. You got kids right...they are hell on a house!

Can you afford to 'eat the cost' of solid hardwood floors now, or will that negatively impact your financial situation? If you honestly can, that's what I'd do. But if you're going to end up what my husband calls 'Kraft Mac and Cheese poor,' do it in stages with what you can afford. It's foolish to be house rich as you live on rice and beans for the next 10 years.

Thanks all for your input! I saw somewhere on Houzz that one of the Pros thought it was also good to have themed rooms of sorts (like kitchen vs other living areas). Still chewing on this...

@raulporter, yes, kids. That's definitely a consideration!

@hayleydaniels, it's not going to set us back to Mac & Cheese, but we need to save to update the 1950s kitchen. Although cute (and maybe even in vogue now), it has a lot of wasted space. (that'll be another question later!)

Have you checked under the carpet to see if there is hardwood there?

I like the look of onsite finished floors more than prefinished - that said I have 25 boxes of prefinished flooring sitting in my living room. It is for the upstairs and I just couldn't imagine trying to move furniture and deal with dust so I went with prefinished.

Nearly my entire main level is red oak 2 1/4 inch finished in natural. Only other flooring is tile in hall and powder room.

Can't wait to see the kitchen:)

@jhmarie The old owners said it was old linoleum (ew). All this talk about hardwood (vs prefinished is leaning me towards that direction, too. We haven't moved in yet, so that might be an option to take.

I can't wait to see the kitchen, too!

I have heard of people finding hardwood under the linoleum:) I am not sure what it takes to get the linoleum off, especially without messing up hardwood underneath - I just know there are people who have done it due to budget.

There are times when engineered is a better choice due to stability issues, like in very humid climates, but in general hardwood works great on the main level. The advantage of hardwood, pre-finished or not, is that it can be refinished many times over where as engineered is limited on the number of times it can be refinished - depending on the thickness of the top piece of wood.

we took off two layers of tile, underlayment, linoleum, maple, linoleum, and got down to the original fir floor. but the house had a 145 year head start on us.

we ended up covering the fir with tile, it was a real mess.