We have a Begonia, sister to the Gardenia. We just finished tiling our lanai and putting new , wood flooring throughout the house excluding the bathrooms. We wanted all the same flooring throughout the house. The previous homeowners had put a very inexpensive LVF over all of the tile in the kitchen and hallways. It scratched very easily. There was carpeting in the living and dining rooms. After visiting several floor stores, we chose to go with The Floor Shoppe on 301. I am extremely happy with the attention to detail throughout this process. Ron our salesperson listened to what we wanted and helped us find just what we wanted.The team of professionals that did all of the instillation were extremely professional and cleaned as they went. All the furniture was moved by the crew carefully and covered in plastic and put back in place at the end. The cabinets and counters were covered in plastic as the tile was jack hammered out of the house. When all was done, a cleaning crew came in and cleaned the entire house. The price for all of this was 15K. This took 5 days to do but was well worth it.

That's tricky. I thought I could do that too in one of my condos but engineered wood veneer is thin. It's not recommended to sand and restain unless you know it's a thicker veneer. I chose not to do it.

I will add my 2 cents, we had carpet in the bedrooms, closets, and one hallway in our Gardenia, the rest was tile. We found a very nice Mohawk Luxury Vinyl Plank product at Lowe's. This 100% vinyl, and 100% waterproof, very flexible and very easy to install. You can trim it with a box cutter. When we talked to a few installers they were not interested in moving the furniture, and we literally did not have the room to store the furniture for several days. So this became a DIY project. Took me 2 weeks 2 to 4 hours per day and we did not have to empty the rooms. I simply did a 4 or 5 foot wide section of flooring and then moved furniture around to do the next section. I followed the instructions for cleaning the floor, and this new flooring is very quiet, you do NOT get any noise when walking on it.
The flooring we used is almost as quiet as carpet and is much warmer to walk on than tile. NOTE: if you decide to use this material do NOT install underlayment, PER THE MANUFACTURERS INSTRUCTIONS. Lowe's actual tried to sell me the underlayment, fortunately I looked into the installation instructions and saw the notice.
I saved a ton of money on this, almost $1000 on the underlayment, and probably twice that on installation. I also was able to do a custom threshold that is almost completely level with the tile, and I was able to complete the whole project without having to remove the 6-inch molding.

I like light-colored flooring in Florida homes. The Villages in my mind is a vacation spot where one relaxes, does fun things and enjoys the sunshine. It’s not Downton Abby or Buckingham Palace where dark flooring might be OK. This is just my opinion.

When we moved here seven years ago, the first thing I wanted to do to the pre-owned we bought was replace the wall-to-wall carpet and linoleum with light-colored ceramic tile. Whoops, a few months after we moved in my right knee started to hurt and after a couple operations and 18 months, I was back on my feet.

The flooring matter went to the back burner until last month when we decided it was time to replace the 20-year-old flooring. Last week we used LA Flooring of Wildwood to put down carpeting in the living room/dining area and bedrooms, and vinyl plank in the kitchen, foyer, and baths. 1,600 sq. ft. all for $11k. (We left the front bedroom, which we use as an office, as ceramic tile; we replaced this a few years ago when the roof leaked and ruined the carpet in that room, long story.)

We selected the lightest color we could find. LA Flooring did a fantastic job. They removed all kitchen/bathroom/washroom appliances such as oven, washer, dryer, toilets. Dismantled all furniture. All they did to the baseboard was paint, it looks great.

The reason we went back to wall-to-wall carpet is because during by knee rehab, the carpet felt so good on my knees when exercising. It feels sooo good today walking over it. Many have to put down throw rugs anyway or wear slippers all the time. It might hurt the resale value a little but it’s more important to get what you want and works for you now — we have no plans on moving anytime soon.

I appreciate your thoughtful and helpful comments in Talk of The Villages. I also have a Gardenia model home and would welcome your thoughts on replacing the flooring. Thank you!

Go to some flooring stores in the villages and ask those questions from the pro's