We have carpet in this house, which is all coming out soon. We probably can't afford to put in wood right now, but the carpet is going. I'll live with plywood floors for awhile! Never having carpet again.

In our last house, we had maple hardwood throughout, not a scrap of carpet anywhere. It's was great. Easy to clean. When it was installed we had an extra layer of sealer put on. The dogs could scratch the sealer if they got playing hard, but they couldn't damage the wood. It held up very well.