Oh Lord Almighty. I would NEVER put down wall to wall carpet in any home I live in. I find it distressing, because NO ONE (Sorry, you carpet cleaners-) can truly clean and sanitize any carpet. You may be able to make it LOOK better, but that is about it. That is MY opinion only. Carpet seems to collect and gather dust, hair, dirt, etc., better than any other type of flooring underfoot. If you look along the wall lines of any room with wall-to-wall carpet, you will see a grayish line. Well, folks, that is old dust and dirt, it has settled in quite nicely. There is not a vacuum cleaner made today that can remove that think gray line. If you spill something, which we all do, there is NO product out there that will completely remove the dirt and stains.
If I were remodelling a home, I would put down tile...a tile with NO grooves in it, because those grooves simply hold onto the dirt. A flat-surface tile in a nice color would do just fine. Hardwood floors are lovely but the up-keep is time consuming. Laminate - can look great but require a whole different approach to cleaning. Personally I would choose a good quality tile and looks like wood. They are fairly easy to care for.