I've been trying to get ideas for a possible remodel, and am thinking of going with wood flooring.
I don't buy into the trends, and I think the classic hardwood or oak is nice, but what is everyone's feeling on other woods?
Also, what should the ballpark cost be to do a 1500 sqft house, and is it OK to use wood in the kitchen and baths, or is it best to choose tile?

I chose wood-look tile. 6"x36" planks can have the tendency to bow, which is infuriating if you're trying the random stagger pattern.

I'd avoid wood in the kitchen and bath.

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I did right around 1500sqft of 3/4" red oak, 3.25" width, throughout my house.  The bathrooms and basement don't have wood, the kitchen does.  No issues so far with moisture.

Several factors come into play when you are pricing your floor: thickness, plank width, 2 side or 4 sided bevel for finished flooring, grade, etc.  Do not buy your flooring from lumber liquidators.  I bought 3 boxes thinking I didn't order enough and that I might run out toward the end of my install and found the length of the average piece to be far shorter than my Shaw flooring.

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One more thing: get the flush register covers.  It's a much neater look.

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I used to install hardwood floors, and refinish them.

Red Oak is the most popular around me.  #1 select looked great with no knots, but #1 common was cheaper with more character.

I'm presently renovating a home, and we're going to install hardwood floors everywhere but the bathrooms.  I want to go with Mesquite, because it's the most dimensionally stable with humidity changes, and it's the 2nd hardest species next to Brazilian cherry.

the decision to do wood, and then the type of wood, is dependent on many factors.

a couple of big dogs?  the wood floors will get carved up.
a couple of kids?  the bathrooms will get very wet.
etc etc etc

i would not do wood in the bathrooms.  there are too many things to go wrong.
the kitchen is also an area where tile is generally preferable.  
kitchens are heavily trafficked areas and you will need to refinish a wood floor every 5 years.
my wife and i have wood floors in our kitchen, but that's us.

there is no "ballpark cost".

are you talking solid wood (3/4")?
engineered wood (1/4" ply + 1/4" wood)?
veneer wood (1/4" ply + 1/8" wood)?
etc

then, there are a million types and grades.  
pine, cheap and soft.
oak, mid-cost and fairly hard.
cumaru (brazilian teak), not cheap and very hard.

installation cost could range widely depending on what you are doing.
angled install with lots of doorways etc?  lots of cuts.
wide open space with little interference?  few cuts.  
wider planks install faster; wider planks are more susceptible to cupping due to moisture/weather changes.
sound absorbing underlay mat?  +$1/sq ft.  
etc

so
figure out how many square feet you have to cover.  
go to someplace like lumber liquidators as a start.
ask them about surface hardness.
ask them about moisture issues.
ask them about refinishing down the road.
pick a wood.
compute (sq ft need + 5 to 10% waste) * cost/sq ft
that is your material cost.
get a sample piece (should be free).

call installer people (flooring store will have some in house as well).
get installation quotes, show them the wood sample.
that is your labor cost.

material + labor + other = total cost.

other could include ripping out carpets, prep work, cutting doors/door jambs, adding thresholds where wood meets tile or carpets, underlay, etc.

ar-jedi

I put in 900+sq ft of white ash . Kitchen is ok. Stay out of the bathroom and utility room.

I have wood in the kitchen and main hallway in the current house, and have had it in several houses I lived in in the past. I personally hate it. It's loud, hard to keep clean, it scratches easily, it bows over time, and really annoyingly loud. I can't emphasize enough how loud wood is. I greatly prefer tile, and the modern wood-looking tile is pretty nice.

I like that wood looking tile, too.
Thing is I am on a crawlspace, and am afraid the tile or grout will just crack after a few years due to shifting and settling.

Use a polymer modified thinset mortar and grout, on 1/4" backer board.

Don't put wood floors in a bathroom. Little boys, (and some big boys) are bad shots. Urine smell will impregnate the wood making the whole bathroom eventually smell like a public urinal.

We did 3/4's of our upstairs with wide plank, distressed, oak from Lumber Liquidators.

I like wood for it's ease of installation, but it's grunt-labor for sure.

The wife wanted wood in the bathroom, so I found (very similar) ceramic tile with a distressed wood pattern. NOT easy to install, but patience paid off...

A couple kids with strong backs are a big plus...good opportunity to teach 'em a marketable skill too.

apply DITRA to subfloor using modified thinset (over plywood) or unmodified thinset (over concrete)
then use unmodified thinset to set the tiles on the DITRA.  (Bostik DITRA-SET is the best thinset for this)

http://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Membranes/Uncoupling-%28DITRA%29/Schluter%C2%AE-DITRA-%26-DITRA-XL/p/DITRA
https://s3.amazonaws.com/scclegacy/media/ditra-handbook_eng.pdf

ar-jedi

btw that guy Sal Diblasi is the best source of tile-setting information on youtube.  
there are a lot of people on youtube posting tile-setting videos -- and a lot of those people have no fucking idea what they are doing.  
Sal Diblasi knows what he is doing.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWpu9UZ6aiRTaMuuV8-C0pQ

ar-jedi

I guess I still don't get it.
You would think putting that Ditra under tile would just make it more likely to crack.
Is Ditra soft or stiff?
I thought anything tile goes down on needs to be very rigid and have no flex.
What am I missing?

We have two dogs and kids and they have destroyed our carpet over the last 5 years. Wood flooring looks great, but with dogs and kids the tile is our option of choice right now. Not sure if I want to tackle it or not as a DIY project.

I put wide plank oak in the kitchen.  It was fine, except when the ice maker froze up and I had an undetected leak.

I didn't replace it, just cupped a slight bit over there.

DITRA is very stiff in the vertical direction, but compliant in the horizontal direction.
this allows the substrate under the tile to move somewhat independently of the tiles.
and, for example, it prevents a crack developing in a concrete floor from transferring to the tiles.

furthermore, stiffness is not the only problem.

1) wood floors move with the seasons -- they grow in higher humidity, for example.
tile does not absorb moisture and does not "grow" -- so it has to be independent of the wood.
the decoupling membrane prevents the difference from affecting the tile field.

2) concrete expands/contracts to a greater degree with temperature change than ceramic or porcelain tiles do.
the decoupling membrane prevents the difference from affecting the tile field.

etc etc etc

what is your substrate? (e.g. 3/4" plywood, or concrete)?
if it is wood, what is holding up your wood substrate (joists on N" centers)?

whatever your substrate looks like, it is covered in one of the sections of the link previously provided:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/scclegacy/media/ditra-handbook_eng.pdf

read the manual above.  

Schluter's DITRA is a time-proven system for decoupling the floor substrate from the tiles; it is not expensive, easy to apply, and makes for a long lasting tile floor with a minimum of problems.

ar-jedi

Stay away from bamboo if you have animals, kids, or if you have the possibility of tracking in dirt/rock. It scratches and dents super easy.

I'm doing wood plank tile next time.

I have dogs and kids....they destroy everything.

Beautiful job....

I'd go with the wood looking tile too.  The wood floors get scratched by the dogs nails and anything you bring in on your shoes.  It's the finish that gets scratched.  The seams get chipped every now and then.  They are a pain to polish and keep clean.  Tile I use a steam mop and gtg.  Wood in the kitchen.  No way. If milk or some chicken grease or blood gets below the seam, yuk.

Use Ditra and epoxy grout.

It's good stuff, acts as a buffer between the sub floor and the tile.

I used the old fashioned way (cement board) when I did my kitchen. Despite the joist calculator telling me I was good to go I still ended up with some cracking. I did another part of my house later using Ditra, that stuff still looks brand new.

I want to air hammer out the kitchen now and re-do it, but that's too much work and money. (I actually don't like the tile we put down any more, so I want it gone anyway)

I am sold on the DItra too, in fact all the Schluter products are great. As an extreme example, I used Ditra on a screened in porch which is open to the elements both above and below. The floor joists are 2 x 10 on 16" centers, covered with 2 staggered layers of exterior OSB then a layer of Durock. I put the Ditra over the Durock then laid the 14" square tile with 1/4" grout lines. Not one crack in the grout after 10 years but the porch has settled enough that some of the trim had to be touched up. It's damn good stuff, I'll never do another tile project any other way.