1/ if you love carpet I'd go with the carpet ..

a lady at work has just redone her cork as she loved her cork floors so she had them sanded back and coated?

once you've changed your carpet to a darker colour I don't think the cork will be as orangey..

2/ to redo the whole house in boards is fine too you can use rugs to warm up the bedrooms ..it's not the same as having carpet though..just warning you..my kids hates it..they wanted carpet in their bedrooms..

one good thing about floor boards is dust balls up ..you can see it..a vacuuming and mop is all it takes

Having had carpet in a few houses and timber floors in our last two builds, I recommend timber. Like Vy sad you can add rugs for sitting areas, near beds etc.

I now find carpet a strange concept when you consider the dirt and stuff that must accumulate in it. Engineered floor boards these days are great. I was originally against using them as all I had experienced was awful floating boards in a few places I had visited.

Having now lived with a good quality engineered floor glued down to yellow tongue flooring and concrete, I think it is as good if not better than T&G solid floors.

I would talk to a company that specialises in suppling and laying the flooring. I used Harmony Floors on the GC.

I would go floorboards too, especially in a period house. Great for standing up to wear and tear, and would be great to have a continual surface throughout house. We have floor boards and slate with rugs in our house, our pets still seem to prefer to be sick on rugs, seems like something they do on purpose, ha!

Hi Anne, we're just about to renovate our brick bungalow in Sydney too and I've been agonising over a similar problem. I also love cork for its quiet insulation, wood for its hardiness and carpet for its warmth. Can't really work all into the solution without making a hotch potch of the house, so I'm going engineered floor. It does mean changing the floor levels for architraves etc, so not entirely painless, but the stability is important. Trying to get a good one with 6mm layer on top and multiple plys under. Any of the companies I've seen will cut the engineered flooring for stairs too - or you can just tile the stairs if you want.

Do not go dark carpet!! We have recently bought a house with dark carpet in bedrooms and media/living room. We also have a cat and no amount of foot wiping stops dust, threads etc being tracked onto the carpet. I have the cleanest carpets (because I have to vacuum everyday if not twice) but I also get the dirtiest carpets. If I could afford it I would go engineered wood planks (light oak) throughout the house and put a mid range coloured carpet in the media room for accoustics. Good luck :)

Anne, did you come to any decisions about your flooring?

That's not a fun feeling-sorry. It will be okay. Good thought about getting pro to look and help you. Keep positive. You can do this. Take care & keep posting as you can. It's a process. :)

have you considered vinyl flooring?
something like Karndean.

I am going to use it in my own new build that will be a rental.

If you do end up going with timber choose one that has a high Janka (hardness) rating and dont be afraid of adding a tint when sanding and finishing to get the colour you are after. Often we use something like Southern Beach because it has a nice clear straight grain and then get the floorsander to colour them.