This weekend we ripped up the carpet in our living room and installed Pergo Prodigy laminate flooring (i.e. fake hardwood) in "Antique Amber Oak" color. It is not quite finished - we still have to put down the moldings and trim - but it looks great.

We went with the fake stuff because we have real hardwood in our hall and family room and it is just trashed. The surface is all scratched and gouged. I think it is the dog nails. We thought we could just find some "tougher" hardwood but when we asked around at different flooring places they all advised we go with laminate if we were going to be so rough on our floors.

We got the most realistic wood-grain we could find, and a color that pretty closely matches our existing hardwood so it won't look too strange to have them both in the same house, and I have to say it looks pretty good. It is a big improvement over the gross, dingy, stained and unravelling carpet that was there before! It will be easier for our Roomba vacuum as well. :)

Installation was very easy. We had to cut around a few pillars which was a little tricky. There are no nails or glue so that really makes it simple. Putting up the moldings and trim is proving to be way more difficult than the floor itself!