Live in flip flooring issue; tips, tricks, solutions?

[Alyssa K.]

My husband and I are currently in our 3rd live in flip. 6 bed, 3 bath, on 5 acres. We’ve FINALLY, after 3 years of remodeling on weekends, got the house & land completely done except flooring & baseboards for the 1st floor (about 1500 sq ft). I was especially elated to see the light at the end of the tunnel on this reno as I’m currently pregnant with our second child, and had both hoped to be able to help my husband complete this job before I’m huge, and actually have a done house by the time baby # 2 arrives.

We planned to put wood look tile throughout the bottom floor. We bought the house off market from a couple who started the reno and got in over their heads. One thing they did was diy stain the concrete slab after they ripped up the original hardwood (I could slap them).

In looking into prep for the tile, everything we are seeing says we need to sand down the slab until we get off ALL the stain. This is a huge, and obviously messy, job we were not anticipating having to do.

Desperately seeking out any tips, tricks, or solutions those more experienced than us in this would recommend to prep the floor for tile in the most cost effective way; keeping in mind the rest of the house is finished, so we are trying to minimize damage to cabinets/drywall etc.

If we have to do LVP we will, but it’s not ideal for the neighborhood/resale for this particular home, and my husband has concerns about install as the previous owners also put in ikea cabinets when they started the kitchen reno, and he says there isn’t a good way to have a floating floor around the cabinets that wouldn’t result in them eventually pulling away etc.

Thanks in advance for any solutions or suggestions your willing to offer.