I?ll admit it, I have floor envy. I was over at my sister?s house the other day, and she just had new floors installed. Her kids, much like my own, had destroyed her carpet. Now that they are over the ?spilling everything on floor? stage, she took the plunge and installed brand new bamboo flooring. I?m practically sick with envy.

My carpet is well vacuumed, but looks pretty miserable. Life with a toddler and dog can be hard on something as absorbent as carpet, and the worn walking trails don?t help. My child is definitely not out of the spilling stage. I can?t help but imagine my house with bamboo flooring now, too. Believe me, it is daydream I?m ready to actually invest in.

I?ve taken my musing so far as to actually visit a flooring store and see what options are available. As it turns out, there are many. Bamboo flooring comes in a huge number of shades and patterns with grains running both horizontally and vertically. The selection is enormous, and so very tempting for dreamers like myself.

Armed with little other than a fancy, I made further inquires. It seems bamboo flooring is not only beautiful with vast selections, but also incredibly durable and affordable. Bamboo is also a waste product of clearing farmlands for planting in Asia, so its use in flooring is considered very eco-friendly, or 'green'. In fact, there doesn?t seem to be very much working against the bamboo flooring, at least according to the salesman.

Of course, being the resourceful consumer that I am, I didn?t take anything he said at face value. I, like any other red-blooded skeptic, rushed home to fact check everything online. As it turns out, it is all true. Bamboo is a cane that replenishes quickly, thus no harm is done to the natural world while creating the flooring. It is also incredibly resistant to wear and tear. Finally, the salesman is right, it is extremely affordable.

This is all well and good, but I still have a dog and toddler to consider. How will bamboo stand up to the ultimate test ? the leaky sippy cup? As I continued my research I learned that the sealant applied to bamboo flooring is water resistant, and so long as I follow my child with a paper towel, my bamboo flooring wouldn?t warp from drips, spills, and the occasional muddy feet.

So if bamboo flooring is affordable, beautiful, environmentally friendly and resilient, why did my sister wait so long to install it? For that matter, why did I? This is a problem that just had to be solved. Hey, I gotta go, my new bamboo floor has just arrived!