We have a warped kitchen floor. The entire floor is flat, except in one place where it rises up gradually and then comes back down. I was thinking it was probably a warped piece of plywood subflooring and that we could pull it up and replace it so we could tile; but our carpet/tile man told us it's probably the house beam under the floor. The warp just happens to be right in a doorway where our hardwood (engineered oak) and vinyl kitchen floors meet. The strip covering the meeting joint between these two materials is wood, and it is warped as well - but not broken! Because of our heavy dog traffice (BIG dogs) we'd like to tile our kitchen floor, but the carpet/tile man said that although tile is out, we could use wood or laminate. Obviously, since the dogs have torn our foyer up, we don't want any more wood; however, we could rip all of the wood and vinyl out and replace everything with laminate. Is laminate an option for a gradual warp? When I look at in the box, it seems so rigid - just doesn't seem flexible at all. We definitely don't want vinyl again, as we want to sell the house in a year or two and buyers just don't like vinyl... Any other suggestions would be deeply appreciated. Thank you!

Any tips or hints to sanding the floor, applying the stain and poly? How many coats of stain should I use on the floor? How long between coats should I let the stain dry? How many coats of poly should I put on the floor? How long between coats should I let dry? How long should I wait before putting appliances back in place?