When I was young, I lived with some other young people in a hovel known as “party central”. It had brown carpet. Except once in a while, when we’d scrape off the solids with a knife and rent a carpet steamer…then it would be gold for a week or so.
I can see why people used it in the past. Not everyone can afford hardwood throughout their house, and a tile floor is very hard and cold. But now there are so many beautiful options for floors that are easy to take care of, relatively cheap, and look great for much longer than carpet that I can’t see wall-to-wall for a whole house anymore.
We do have nice carpeting in our bedroom, but the main living and dining areas and all bathrooms have tile or wood laminate. I agree that with kids and a dog keeping a carpet really clean just is not possible.
Sure, on the laminate, we get the tumble-fur and you see the grit faster. But 2 minutes with a swiffer and it’s clean, no need to haul out a vacuum. Once a week or so I use the hose attachment on the vacuum and go around the baseboards where the dust and hair collects and it’s done.
The 50’s ranch house I grew up in had carpet in every room, including the kitchen and bathrooms and that just makes no sense to me at all!
:smack: For some reason the thought never crossed my mind. I figured it was a new type of flooring, like Cork, and it looked cool.
No, unfortunately, it looks the opposite of cool. 
I have seen some painted/buffed/finished concrete floors that looked awesome, though!