Living room - sand floorboards/laminate or carpet?

[SoupDragon]

The carpet in our living room is yucky both in colour and unidentifiable stains.

I have a hankering for a wooden floor (we have a large rug in the middle anyway). Should I go with sanded floorboards, laminate, proper wooden flooring or stick with a new, nicer carpet?

Bearing in mind BabyDragon will be potty training in a couple of years and spilling drinks for the foreseeable future with her brothers.

Currently e have laminate in the hall, parquet in the playroom, ceramic tiles in the kitchen/diner and manky carpet in the living room None are our choice.

I'm leaning towards sanding the boards. We have a curved bay so self laying the laminate is not an option anyway - we'd have to get someone in to do it. Most of it will be covered by rug/sofas.

thanks

Will ask my painter man if he knows anyone who sands floorboards...

My order of preference

1. Sanded boards
2. Real Wood
3. Tiles
4. Carpet
5. Grass
6. Astroturf
7. Mud
8. Concrete
9. Glass
10. Laminate

As you can see not a fan of laminate... We had it in our last house, got the good stuff, ie real wood on top but laminate stuff underneath.. thought it looked ok, until had real wood in this house and soooo much nicer...

It is more expensive but look out for deals, loads around, we got our oak from jewsons....