**I'm newish to this forum, but not to forums in general, if i ask questions that have been covered well, I'm sorry, i did search a lot but ill always appreciate links to past discussions that are relative***

So we are remolding our '75 day light ranch in Oregon. The main space we are starting with is the upstairs (ground floor from the front side of the house) take a look at my image below to get a feel for layout.
I need help figuring the flooring in this multi use areas that share a floor. and if it is more than one floor, how to pull that off well.

we do not plan to stay in the house too long, but i have already owned it for 15 years (not lived in by me the whole time). we hope to move a few hours away in the next few years, so while we need to remodel this for us, it is really unlivable now, we want to keep thing in perspective in terms of cost and styling. on the other side i dont believe in doing everything vanilla in the most palatable styles just for sale, i also live in a pretty eclectic street of a generally eclectic city. i hate beige the color and the mentality.

we have 3 year old twins and are using the main living room as a family play area and that area is pretty good, just needs styling.

its the kitchen great room that is the trauma it used to be kitchen, dining room and what we assume was a family room with its large horrid fireplace/rock climbing wall. We have begun using it as kitchen/ office (in the old dining), TV den and new dining banquette side by side delineated by the fireplace.

the kitchen is sized for a house 1/3 the size, i have no idea what they were thinking. this house is 3/4 bed, 2730 sqft, has a huge living room, a huge family room and a monster den downstairs, so why is the kitchen 8'x12'?

Anyway, we are pushing the kitten out little into 2 of the rooms it shares a airspace with, making it about 10x15 but with generous 4 foot walkways around it. the cooktop will be in the island.

So I'm sure i will have a few questions, but my main one for this post is flooring. it had a amazing over use of carpet (dining room, bathrooms, everywhere!) they were ripped out a while ago and we have been putting up with painted plywood subfloor, so I'm very determined to get this part figure out soon!

question is can i find a flooring that i like and would work in the whole upstairs (possibly not the master suite, but maybe there as well) or realize that i should do something different in the kitchen and maybe entry and have more freedom to do the rest in something that might not hold up to this wet areas?

and if I did do 2 types of flooring, where and how to i transition that in a open concept room?

My kitchen gets well used and messy, i have my hand full with kids "helping" me cook and clean so it is not realistic to think I will wipe spills up right away all the time.

i will be putting electric in floor radiant heating in everywhere, the home has no central heating, just a horrible jumble of baseboards and ceiling heat.

i like modern and easy to clean. solid colors, slate and grey and bold gemstone colors and did a mention easy to clean? I'm sure the rest of my town likes wood and nature and eco everything.

what flooring would you put in?

1 type or 2 or even more?

how would you handle transitions around the kitchen area?

**the lines on the floor around the kitchen aren't anything really, just an idea of where a different floor top may stop and start?**

This post was edited by InFlux on Sat, Feb 8, 14 at 5:59