Need Suggestions For Setting Up a Mesh System With My Nighthawk

I'm currently using the Nighthawk R9000 which I love, however, it's in my basement (split-level house) since the cable line and cable modem come into the house there from the street.

The house is a little more than 1,500 sq ft and my WIFI starts to fade as I reach the furthest points from the house, and even more so when I go out into the yard.

I wanted to set up a MESH system on the top floor of the house, but it would be pretty difficult having to drill through a floor to run an ethernet cable to the R9000 in my basement office.

Would the NETGEAR - Nighthawk AX1800 Dual-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System be a viable solution and does the router in that system have to be connected via ethernet cable to the R9000?