Long-Awaited Stamp, Flooring, and More

It seems as we get closer (only about 3 weeks away, now!) to digging the basement, each week is full of new and exciting things.  This past week a certain hardware/lumber store in the area held their annual anniversary sale where many different items are either on sale or on clearance.  We made a point to take the family there last Monday and were able to buy 2 Mansfield Pro-Fit 2 elongated toilets for $89 each.  After looking at toilets all around here, I know that it is rare, if not nearly impossible, for toilets to be less than $100.  We were very happy with the price and took the only 2 they had.  Then as we were walking out of the store to load up our purchases, I walked into the outdoor tent and it was full of flooring.  I had seen a laminate flooring in the store that I liked and saw the same kind in the tent again.  I really, really liked it!  It was slightly nontraditional but I loved the look.  So, I took down the information and went home to research it a little.  Since I could find no reviews on it, positive or negative, and I really liked the look of it plus the price was exceptional at $0.89 a square foot, so we decided to buy it for the second storey of the house.  Jason went back that evening and paid for it all then picked it up a couple of days later.  The company is called Egger - it is made in Germany and is a light commercial product {you know, for the "gazillion" children we have :) } so hopefully it holds up well.  We figure the main floor of the house will have more wear and tear than the second floor so the main floor will have have real hard wood but the second floor we had decided on laminate.  The color we choose is called Alpine Larch Grey.

I love the long striations in it and I love the color.  I think it will look fantastic!  When Jay arrived with the truck full of flooring, everyone pitched in to help unload it, even 3 year-old Ari.  87 boxes later, we had our flooring!

Then later on in the week we received an email we had waited to receive for about 18 months.  Well, actually, from the time we put in the request until we received it was only 1 week.  But we had been working towards it for 18+ months.  We have a wonderful engineer stamp showing the approval for our floor plans and technical drawings! 

What a relief!  We needed to have this stamp in order to apply for a building permit and to do many other things so it was so exciting to see it.  I was squealing and clapping!  So, with that, today Jason will apply for the building permit and hopefully by the end of this week, we will have that as well.

Finally, just yesterday, we received the results of the soil sample test that was required to help us determine what type of septic field we will need to make.  With the information we received, we can now plan our disposal field and submit it, along with the waster water management application, in order to receive the permit for our septic system!  These are all big and important steps and it is so fantastic to be making such great progress each week!  We can see how the hand of God is pushing this project along each and every week and we are so blessed.  I will certainly write more about that in another post since that is the reason behind everything we do.  As it is, I better get some yard work done before all the excitement of this week begins!  After all, tomorrow is officially May and we build in May!  How time is starting to fly!