@LeeL:
If you do go back to hardwood. I would recommend staying with Oak. We had oak floors in our last house and have Hickory now and the Oak was much better at resisting denting. You can see a few places after 18 months where the claw marks made a dent in the surface. I never saw that in 5 years of Oak.
We have oak and it is standing up beautifully with three dogs {and Gypsy is fairly heavy} and all the kids {who are forever dragging their dining chairs across the floor despite dh's constant harping to 'lift, lift, lift" }
The only dent is from where dh dropped the stereo when he was putting the room back together immediately after installing the floor :D
I love it. It's tougher than we were told it would be and so easy to clean.
