The Great Debate: Laminate or hard wood?

We used to have carpet in the family room. Then this sweet little thang came into our lives:See her? Pee cat. We "rescued" her and she came to us hairless, a little beat up, with a tendency to PEE. There was a particular spot in the family room she visited a few times. When our son was born I told hubby I was DONE. We looked into getting hard floors installed.

I looked at hardwood and laminate. Touched the hardwoods lovingly...all the while looking at the price tag, thinking about friends who had real wood floors...imagining the dents, dings and scratches...

And how I would seriously CRY with each one of them at that price.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't spend that much money knowing they would get banged up. And knowing I would CRY. So we went with the laminate and luuuuurve it! (See above.) It's been two years and they have held up incredibly well. Shockingly well.

If I had a million dollars, or even an extra couple grand, I'd probably go for the real thing. But now they make laminate so real looking -- you'll be fooled. At the design firm I work for, the owner had to use both laminate and real wood floors -- can you tell the difference?:

Ohhhh, pretty lamp! Sorry...here you go: Can you tell which is which? What do you think -- do you have real or "faux?" If you want it to install hard floors -- which one do you plan on installing? Or do you even care?

OH!! Check out the coffee table I got for $25 at Goodwill today!:
I was looking for something to do this with. But I'm trying not to spend money...(I'm so going to tell hubby I found it on the side of the road). And the foam, fabric, etc. is not in the budget right now. At the very least, it's getting a black paint job.

It's a little country looking but I love the detail on the sides:
I'm off to sand this baby! Whoo hoo!