Here's what I'm doing on the 33 acres that I inherited in North Carolina. First, I checked with a forestry consultant, whom I happen to go to church with. He walked the land and gave me an estimate of the worth of the timber on the property. Then, he took bids from logging companies. The high bidder won the contract, the consultant handles all the negotiations and supervises the cutting. After the cut, I was left with cleared land, but brush and laps from the trees that were harvested remained on the property. These pieces are currently being "harvested" for firewood. What's left will be burned off early this winter. The area that I want to keep cleared (7 acres) has been marked off. The remaining acreage will be replanted, using part of the proceeds from the timber sale and a grant from the state Forestry Service for replanting. The area that's left will have stumps, but they have been cut close to the ground. I have scored the top of these stumps with a chainsaw and applied nitrogen, in different forms, which will hasten the decomposition of the stumps. I don't plan to use a bulldozer for anything. Total out of pocket expenses: $0.00. The timber brought a good bit of cash that I will have available for farm use and to pay other expenses. The consultant gets his money from a percentage of the price that the timber bought, plus he remains as my consultant, working to get the replanted areas back into shape for the next sale, in about 18 years. The timber company built a good road into the property (I failed to mention that the entire area was 95 acres, split betwen myself and my siblings). The consultant made sure that the road was kept in good condition, plus he marked off a 50-foot corridor to protect the small streams on the property. I am more than satisfied. My recommendation would be to find a good forestry consultant. Since you have several years before your move, I would think that you can do the same. Check with the State Forestry Service. Ours keeps a list of licensed consultants. Good luck!!

This post has some misleading comments regarding ecocork. I am investigating underlayment for vinyl plank. If you look at the actual test results from NGC testing services for the delta IIC of quietwalk LV, floormuffler lvt encore, and ecocork, they are all tested using the same 6 inch concrete slab (not 8 inches). The IIC and STC have other included materials in the test like insulation, gypsum ceiling, etc. But the delta IIC has only the concrete slab and measures the difference in sound dampening with and without the concrete slab in place telling you the true dampening of the underlayment itself. By this measure the quietwalk comes out on top with a delta IIC of 28, ecocork at 23 and floormuffler at 22. If you look at the frequencies, you can see that the quietwalk is the only material that has some degree of dampening of the lowest 100 hz tested around 5 db. The testing is slightly different in that the quietwalk was tested with a 5 mm vinyl plank on top whereas the ecocork was tested with a layer of engineered wood on top. The thickness of the engineered wood was not given. Floormuffler does not have a link for the actual test results. This article has a helpful explanation: https://arcacoustics.com/2016/08/23/stc-iic-delta-iicwhats-this-all-about/

We installed mirage floors 10 years ago. Maple cashmere. We have semi gloss in a bedroom and I do not like those as much, I do prefer the matte look of cashmere. Our previous dog nails created scratches in the floor. Our current dog is twice the weight but doesn’t scratch the floor. Odd how their paws lay/ walk differently. There are dents when anything metal like the vacuum drops or anything sharp. It has yellowed which I don’t think is unusual but thought engineered would prevent that. We went with mirage because we could sand and refinish. Haven’t investigated the cost yet. I would like to continue it into the bedrooms but not sure if I can get the floor to match correctly.

Rift and quartered flooring is going to be more stable because of the movement in cell structure. Vapor barrier underneath the flooring is something that is a minimal investment for an invaluable benefit. You might be fine without the vapor barrier 90% of the time, however, if you were to have a warranty claim this is a big red flag for any flooring inspector. The vapor barrier does not completely block moisture from coming through, rather it allows moisture to pass through at a safe level for your hardwood flooring. A good example is if the basement floods and you have the vapor barrier installed underneath your flooring on the main level, it might save your hardwood from cupping. Having finish on all sides of a plank is useful for slowing down the moisture changes in the wood allowing it to withstand small fluctuations in humidity. Flooring with grooves on the bottom side allow for the planks to get more surface area which is the most important for glue down installation. After analyzing your particular situation, I feel like with a 6" plank it is best to opt for an engineered product with a decent wear layer (3 mm or more). If you can get quarter sawn that would be the best, but this will be a more costly option and limit your choices because not all manufactures produce their floors in quarter sawn. The main thing to monitor is moisture, try and keep things between 35-55% RH and you should be safe.