We have a large house with wood floors, and a few large braid rugs.   We also have 11 cats (in the house) and a woodstove in the living room.    I've looked at the Kenmore Progressive Canister, and various Meile's.   Any comments?
 

Sounds like you need a good canister vacuum since you have more hard floors than carpeting. The Kenmore Progressive canisters are good and made by Panisonic. Their power nozzle is made by Cen-Tec which is a very good company.  
 
If you want a machine to last a very long time, I would suggest the Miele S514i Solaris Power Plus canister team. It will cost you around $700.00 for the set up. The Kenmore Progressive canisters are around $300+ for a good setup. Both machines have excellent filtration provided you use the filtrete bags on the Kenmore (2 @ $10.00). If you use the lower cost micro-lined bags, you won't get very good filtration. On the Miele, you get superb filtration with their 2-play paper bags and Super Air Clean after motor filter. Either way, both machines should serve you well.
 
 
 
Related link: <a href="http://www.ristenbatt.com">Miele On-Line Dealer</a>
 

You won't be able to use the SEB213 power nozzle on this type of carpet because there is no way to adjust the brush roller distance to the carpet. You could either get the more expensive SEB224 power nozzle that has 6 positions of adjustment or if the looped carpet you're talking about is a smaller area rug, I would probably use their combination bare floor/carpet tool SBD285-2.  
 
Part of the problem you're having with the SEB213 (smaller nozzle) is that the brush roll is very small and threads, hair and other debris sometimes winds around the roller. The larger SEB224 has a larger diameter metal brush roller that prevents this from happening. The only thing is, you'll have to fork over $200+ to get it. I would recommend trying the combination tool SEB285-2 for $60.00 first.  
 
You can get these parts on-line at Ristenbatt Vacuums at the link below or from you'r dealer. I just bought the small turbo power nozzle for furniture and carpeted stairs from a local dealer and they "always" charge sugested list. I purchased my Miele S658i Blue Moon from Ristenbatt and saved several hundred dollars. These people are great to talk with and their web site has detailed information on many different quality vacuums.  
 
In spite of what you may have read from other people on this forum, I am in no way associated with "any" vacuum manufacturer or dealer, nor am I a salesman or sell vacuums. If you need additional information, you can click on my name above and leave an email. Good luck.
 
 
 
Related link: <a href="http://www.ristenbatt.com">Miele Dealer</a>