Is it a historic home? If so, there's a good chance the wood floors are already present beneath the carpet.
Our old house is a real mish-mash. Most of the home originally had pine floors; in the first floor rooms the pine has been covered by standard narrow oak, while the upstairs is still all pine. One room, a newer 1910-ish addition created by enclosing an outdoor porch, was built with scrap/salvaged materials and has a maple floor.
If doing a new home with wood floors, I'd probably pick a wider plank than the standard historic stuff. And I'd lean towards pine since it gives more flexibility as far as staining and finishing. If an ultra-modern home, I'd consider something like the new bamboo flooring.
Anything but veneer laminate. :barf:
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Just a heads-up: If the bedrooms are on a second floor with living space beneath, there may be a lot of extra noise transmitted between the stories of the house. Footsteps above, television and voices from below... Just something to take into consideration - might save a lot of money and aggravation to think about it now rather than later when it's too late.
Our historic home has a set of ceiling joists above the first floor, about six inches of empty space, and then a second set of joists for the above floor. As a result, there's almost no noise transfer at all between the first and second stories. Between the second and third floors, on the other hand, there is only one set of joists so carpet and padding on the third floor was a necessity.
Hope this helps.
