This has been a long arduous journey, but I finally picked out the flooring I was looking so hard to find!!! .............
It came down to these two " real " engineered wood floors.......
These two floors are basically vinyl plank flooring that is 100% waterproof, with a twist....... The top veneer is " real " wood coated with a urethane finish.
I checked with the manufacture and no underlayment is needed, unless you have a second floor and want to quiet the footsteps below.
So this is the winner Rivers Edge Oak!!!
I liked both, but the darker Hickory showed all of the dirt on the floor even after just one hour down!!!
There were so many nice laminates, and I think the best thing anyone can do if they want to pick out a floor is to buy a box, take it home and put it down and see it in different lighting and just walk on it for a few days.....
These are some things that I found :
#1 Some floors after a few days start making popping sounds......flooring manufactures wax the edges of the planks, to quiet this .... not all do this.
I think this would detract from the flooring. Most also are built on a core of MDF that is basically compresses cardboard.
#2 A lot of the vinyl plank looks like vinyl plank
#3 Dark wood show's all the dirt, and if you scratch it, it really can be seen.
you can fill in with a colored marker.
#4 A busy and light pattern hides scratches and dirt 
#5 The engineered genuine hardwood that is 100% waterproof unlike " solid real hardwood " can handle spills and will be OK!!!
So what brought
Well the turning point was when I made a 16 oz. Latte in my new ceramic Steem coffee mug, and placed it on a coaster on the coffee table and.......
My four legged furry child decided to use the coffee table as a drag strip to get up to his six foot tall cat tree!
16 oz's of fresh coffee poured over a three foot pattern on the subfloor!!!
If this was MDF core laminate flooring I would have been tearing it all up to replace the soaked boards!!
100% waterproof Smartcore Naturals Rivers Edge Oak here we come! :)
