99% on the flooring

Well, we've decided 99% on the wood flooring, not the tile. We'll definately have wood flooring in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and up the stairs. Whether or not we'll continue the same wood flooring in the bedrooms depends on the final price of the floors.
Today, we went to Bembe, a leading producer of engineered wood floors in Germany. Not only do they sell this, but they also sell hardwood and laminate flooring. They are well known for wonderful quality and steep prices. The one advantage we have with this company? We know the president of the company. And, one of Joern's best friends is set to take over (from his father) the parent company of Bembe.
I'm proud of Joern for not playing our card too early, I wanted them to treat us as normal customers.
The manager of the store in Reutlingen, the nearest dealer in our area was really helpful. He let us look for a while before coming up to us and asking if we needed help.
Joern gravitated towards the very dark floors, which I do agree are beautiful. But, I have this gnawing fear that they are impossible to keep clean, and well, I really can't see them woring with the black granite countertops. So, I counteroffered with American Walnut, which is also quite dark, but had some warmth to it.

After about 15 minutes of looking, the store manager came over to us and asked us if we wanted help. Joern explained that we were building, and told him what we were interested in. He started by explaing to us that solid hardwood does not work well with radiant floor heating. He said that our best bet would be an engineered wood floor. We spoke about the very dark of Joern's dreams. He said that while beautiful, we need to make sure that our furniture is very light to provide a beautiful contrast between the floor and the furniture. Out! Joern agreed, the dark furniture with the very dark floors would make a pocket out of our home. So then we asked about the walnut, so, he offered us the price per square meter on the American walnut. I then asked if walnut was a good choice for kitchen flooring. The manager explained that oak is one of the hardest floors, and a good choice for a kitchen. He showed us a few different oak floors, and I fell in love:
Burgundy Oak


The manager offered us a price on the burgundy oak, which is about 10 Euro per square meter less expensive than the walnut. This is when Joern casually mentioned that we will be getting a different price, because the president of the company is our friend, and he will sort out a price for us. Impressively enough, the manager did not change in demeanour, which was very positive to me.

We'll wait until we receive the blueprints for the house before we order the floors. It turns out that the builders need to know what flooring material we will be using, because it determines the thickness of the subflooring, so it makes sense to determine the flooring type in the early stages of building.

We also discussed the stairs. We can either put solid wood on the top of the stairs, with a slight overhang, that would look best with a white and wood staircase. We can also have the stairs, which are going to be concrete, covered completely with the engineered wood. I prefer the solid wood/white combination while Joern prefers the second option. Since we're still waiting for the blueprints, we have a little time to decide.

It is all very interesting, a little stressful, and very exciting!