I actually had a marble counter in a flat I lived in in Europe for a while. I knew nothing about maintenance so just treated it like any other hard surface, and it looked fine (and I wasn't the first person to live in that flat, I assure you). It's more common in Europe, and not so much trendy there as classic. But Europeans aren't quite as finicky as North Americans and Australians seem to be about flawless and unblemished finishes.

we wanted to insulate our verandah roof as well as allowing light through lazerlite panels so we lined under the verandah with corrugated zincaluume with blanket insulation and then put corrugated lazerlite under the lazerlite panels: a double layer of lazerlite and a neat ceiling and looks fabulous

Hi Adelina, As a general rule, MOST porcelain tiles are 10mm thick and glue allowance is 3mm. Have the builder leave 13mm total height in the areas you will be using tiles. See link to some options of neutral coloured porcelain tiles all in the 10mm thickness. https://www.tilecloud.com.au/categories/material/2/Stone%20Look  Assuming the concreting is of good quality, the tiles will be stuck directly to the slab with no need for a screed. (only really required when the concreting is poor or you need to change heights) So that takes care of the downstairs. Bamboo flooring varies anywhere from 6mm all the way up to about 22mm so it really depends on which you choose upstairs. Hope that helps!

Hi Sallie, Hardwood does add value to your house, however, with our product, it's rare that it would need re-sanding every 5-10 years, perhaps once or twice throughout its lifetime: https://www.forteflooring.co.nz/product/catalogue/engineered-wood-flooring An alternative would be laminate flooring, this is about half the price and is wear/ scratch resistant which is ideal for your dogs. Plus it is super realistic: https://www.forteflooring.co.nz/product/catalogue/laminate-flooring  Let us know if you have any more questions :) The Fortè Team