I like the suggestions for painting the floor. It was my first choice. However, it would have to be "etched"with muriatic acid first. Given my general sloppiness around liquids, I'd be afraid of hurting myself. So I'd have to hire someone.

Also, painting the floor means no one after me can ever install tile without sanding the floor, which requires a diamond sanding process that is very dustry.

Lastly, I live in a third-floor condo. If I use paper, I will have to apply cork (just found this out yesterday) so people downstairs don't get too much noise. And the paper over that. And the cork would be easier to remove so the porous cement would be back if anyone wanted to apply tile. They would, however, have to put a new layer of cork down.

However, if I had money and wanted to lay down a floating wood floor later, the cork would be the appropriate base coat, and the paper/poly would not be a problem.

Maybe I should go live in a tent. I am more and more concerned about all these chemicals in the environment. I've read that they are implicated in autoimmune diseases like mine. But even floorings that are considered "natural" and renewable resources, such as cork and bamboo, usually have a certain amount of formaldehyde used in the processing -- although considered way lower than even strict European standards.

But why should we have ANY formaldehyde in our flooring? Which is why I guess the only way to escape it is to live in a tent with a dirt floor. And that probably has PCBs or something else in the dirt.