Possible Flooring Changes - Maybe - Help - Opinions Needed!

I had a follow-up appointment with Rite Rug today and learned SO much more than my initial appointment.  Even though it was a quick appointment to look at upgrading our initial selections I knew what to ask this time - thank you fellow bloggers!

I will add some questions to ask for your flooring reps for those just starting out to one of my tabs a bit later... for now the nagging question is........ GAH, should we go ahead and change the floors?  We're looking at upgrading from the basic laminate and resilient flooring (bathrooms) we've selected to either the next level of laminate and resilient (bathrooms) or to hardwood floors for the entire main floor.

Our current situation is I have older children (closer to out than in lol), no immediate plans to add to our family, we have 1 dog currently.  The thing about planning is you can't really plan for life can you?  So our situation immediately may not be our situation in a few years, know what I mean?

The Pros and Cons:

As far as pricing, I've included the difference in cost from our current selection to upgraded options below:
Laminate B: 1575
Wood A: 2125
Wood B: 3525
Resilient A: -1990
Resilient B: -1415
Resilient C: -920

Surprising there was a obvious difference in level A laminate to B.  Not only in plank width but the photos used.

Current Laminate Selection - 8in planks - nonglossy

Upgraded Laminate Selection - 4in planks - glossy

Upgrade 2 wood - 3 1/4 in

Upgrade 2 wood - 3 1/4 in

I need help!!  I can't decide.

Flooring - Example Photos

I'm obsessed!! Just dreaming about our flooring :)

Upgraded Padding

Initially when we made our flooring selection I convinced myself that I wanted to upgrade the carpet padding in the basement and the upper floor (the main floor will have no carpeting) but I'm starting to reconsider.  Perhaps it's not needed?  We didn't upgrade to the fullest padding - we went with the 8lb admiral.  The included is 5lb.  How many of you wonderful blogger pals upgraded your padding?  What were your reasons?  If your build is done, do you regret your decision?
 

I'm beginning to feel so wishwashy!  I'm just trying to squeeze things into the budget or out of it lol.  I'm wondering how many change orders are too many?  Our SR hates me, I just know it!  :(

Our Ryan Homes - Homeowner's Guide Chapters 1 - 3 Overview

When we signed our Purchase Agreement, along with a HUGE pile of paperwork, we received a white binder homeowner's guide.  I immediately started reading it (I read everything, if not at the very moment of receipt then later when I have more time) and using postie notes for concerns and questions.  It's too bad it's standard size and all our paperwork is long, otherwise I would use this as our central document holder and information source.  We're actually in the midst of Chapters 2 and 3 at the same time - so by no means is this a chronological step by step.

 There's a nifty little Table of Content and introduction for every section.

1. Introduction
2. Purchasing Your Home
3. Arranging Your Loan with NVRM
4. Construction of Your Home
5. Closing on Your Home
6. Quality and Customer Care - What to Expect after Closing
7. Glossary of Terms
8. Appendix A - Homeowner's Maintenance Guide & Warranty

Rite Rug Appointment

We've just finished our appointment with Rite Rug for our flooring selections.  We're pretty happy with the selections we've made.  I would expect a few more posts about how pleased we are as I progress through our decorating plans and our selections next to the cabinets we select.

Our SR, Kim, knew before hand what our initial cabinet and granite selections were so this made the appointment go very quickly.  Much more quickly than I anticipated.  Kim was all business and was very efficient with moving us through our options/colors.  She told us what was popular and what was trending and she only offered an opinion when we asked and I'm glad she did.  Some people hesitate to give their own opinion, so I was pleased when she had.  All the selections we made were not a part of any model we viewed so that is a bit scary - but we're pretty confident that the choices are beautiful and go well together.

First, Kim pulled out our initial cabinet selections.  There were 2 initially selected.  I had her pull out 2 others for us to look at.  We haven't made our final selections on cabinets but picked our flooring to match all of the options we're considering.  Although, due to seeing our flooring we've already decided to upgrade our cabinets to a higher level.  We mainly stayed within the A level items for floors aside from the main floor because of our budget.  We tried not to look at any of the higher levels to avoid tempation.