Laminate or Carpet (LR and DR)

RHitch

We have to replace the carpet in our living room and dining room because it's not in very good condition anymore.  My husband would like to replace the flooring with laminate, but I am a carpet lover myself. Which would you prefer? Why?

3Girls3xsTheFun

We replaced all of our 1st floor with laminate "hardwood" and I love, love, love it! It's so easy to clean up when the kids spill stuff on it. They ruined our rugs, so when it was time to replace them we decided no more rugs on the main floor for a long, long time.

We did end up buying 2 area rugs. One for under the dining room table and one in the family room, just to make the room more cozy.

 

SJU1982

When we bought our house, we put in carpet rather than redo the hardwood floors. I completely regret my decision, especially since we went with light carpet and spent a small fortune on it.  Whenever we entertain, I'm always worried that someone is going to spill something or track dirt in with their shoes.  Even though we are careful, there are still stains that will pop up. They don't look bad, but I hate feeling anxious when we have guests.

XCrissCrossX

I just pulled the carpet out of my new living room and the amount of dirt underneath and around the sides has turned me off of carpet FOREVER. It's so so so disgusting. I've heard people complain that cleaning hardwood is labor intensive and time consuming but I'd rather have a small amount of visible dirt on my hardwood than a mountain of dirt hiding under my carpets.