Our architect meeting

Well, I first posted about our meeting with the architect and structural engineer in narrative form. It is really long and dry. I've decided to redo the post as a list, to make it quicker and easier. So, here goes.
We met with Joern's cousin, Stephan the structural engineer, and Herr B, our architect on Thursday afternoon. Herr B is now finished with the first set of blueprints, as is Stephan finished with the structural analysis. The meeting was to pull things together.
We moved floor by floor discussing the house. The major discussions focused on the placement of the insulation for the concrete slab, and correcting the uneven planned roof on Joern's garage.
Foundation and cellar:
- choices for insulation for the concrete slab were either underneath the slab and on top, or simply all on top. There are benefits to both, but in the end, we needed to go with insulating on top of the slab. We could not insulate underneath the slab, because there needs to be some elasticity in this procedure, and since we are building on a hill, elasticity is not so ideal.
- the 2 car garage (or Joern's garage,) had a roof that was two different heights. Because German law requires in our situation, that we have a green roof on part of both garages, as we are building our garages directly on the border with our neighbors. There are different types of green roofs, and evidently, the first, and not-so-great, architect planned 25 cm. of grass on the green portion. 25 cm of dirt allows grass to grow, and we would be required then to mow the roof of our garage! Bleh! We chose instead to have a more self-sustaining, less labor intensive roof covering. Plus, this allows for the roof to be evened out, and to Joern's pleasure, to have the height of the ceiling in the garage increased. This is most exciting to Joern who dreams of having a car lift in his garage.
- garages will not be insulated.
- the concrete slab will need to be reinforced against the pressures of the hill.
- the house will be built with Ytong blocks. Ytong's many advantages include ease of use, good insulating properties, sound absorption, and protection against fire. It is a well-used building block here.
- the entry foyer in the cellar continues as a discussion for Joern and myself. The architect suggested a large skylight dome be placed on the front terrace of our house. Doing this would bring tons of natural light into our foyer, as well as prevent us from using this terrace. We're not sure what to do here.
First floor
-we moved the door of the office over a bit. As was planned origianlly, you would have to trip over the sectional to access the office. Glad we moved it!
- electric Rolladen. German houses most often have Rolladen, which are metal roller shutters, simialar to security blinds. Joern likes them because they completely black-out a room, which will be a help when we try to put our kids to bed and the sun is still shining brightly! They are also quite effective against the sun in the summer. Last, I like that the electric ones provide an additional measure of security, as the rolling mechanism in electric Rollanden locks. I am already a little nervous about staying in this big house all by myself if Joern has to travel. Anything to increase the security helps!
- the electric Rolladen will be partially on a central control. I didn't want to control all, because the view from the upstairs bedrooms at night is beautiful, so I don't necessarily want to close all the shutters at once.
- interior doors will be extra high. Normal interior doors here are about 6.5 feet, but we chose doors that are close to 7 ft. high.
- we gave Mr. B the blueprints for the kitchen, which were completed by the kitchen studio. He will work these in to the official blueprints.
Second floor
- Mr. B suggested we visit a bath showroom to select fixtures that we like. This is called "bemusterung." Building companies here have a "Bemusterungscenter," where you go to chose from their options. We love that our "Bemusterungscenter," is every store in Germany, and even outside Germany if we choose!
-Mr. B feels like the children's bathroom is laid out strange. I agree. We will meet with Mr. B again next week, and he'll offer us some suggestions on how to improve the layout of the bathrooms.

The meeting lasted over 2 hours, but we accomplished so much! Next week, we'll meet with Mr. B to finalize the details, so that the official plans can be worked out.

A very busy day

Three accomplishments yesterday! Visiting the plumber, buying our refrigerator, and selecting possible tiles. Wow!
The plumber was relatively easy. When we first went to the plumber, Joern had really wanted propane for heat and hot water. The plumber gave us a quote which included propane. After some discussion though, we realized that propane may not be the best choice, and we now need a quote for a air pump heating system. We also informed him of the changes to the insulation. So now, he is working on a new estimate, which will be completed at the beginning of next week.
In the afternoon, Joern and I stopped at an electronics store called Media Markt. We had seen our Haier french door refrigerator in this location a few months ago, but it was overpriced compared to some internet sellers. To our surprise, the refrigerator was on sale as a floor sample! Turns out that most German kitchens do not fit these refrigerators, and Germans are down on their electiricy useage. Honestly, they don't use that much electricity compared to what we are paying now in our apartment for electricity! Side-by-sides are growing in popularity here, but are still considered a luxury, and you need a fairly large kitchen for these. I was completely ready to get a side-by-side, having never had one myself, until I started reading that they aren't so great. When I looked at the side-by-side with a less "dream-like" eye, I realized they aren't the best design. But the french door with a bottom freezer seems like a wonderful solution. We knew we would buy this Haier french door, no matter what, and were so excited to find it as a floor sample.

We will be picking it up today! Now, we are finished purchasing all the appliances for our kitchen!

There is a very small hardware store in our town that Joern would like to use in as many ways possible as we build our house. I love that Joern wants to keep it as local as possible. They work with a tile store in Reutlingen, so they recommended we go there to look at tiles. We stopped there last Saturday, but were told to make an appointment. Our appointment was yesterday afternoon. It was another crazy two hours of looking at their relatively small assortment, but we found some really interesting tiles!
What made the process difficult of course were my very American inspirations. A lot of tile here is very efficient, large plates with high-gloss that are easy to clean. But, they are also very modern, and do not fit in my house. I also am not a big tile fan, and in a perfect world, if wood were waterproof and dent-proof, I would have no tile in my home. Alas, the world is slightly imperfect, and we need tile in our bathrooms and in our cellar. Bleh!
We started with the master bath, which turned into a fight, and took about an hour to find something that we both liked. Actually, we fell in love with! I guess I didn't have a strong idea of what I liked. I wanted something natural, but not too natural, beige or grey. The tile had to go with our espresso vanity. Not too easy, I must admit.
After about 45 minutes, we found these, and said, "this is it!"

These tiles are from Villeroy and Boch. Honestly, I was not expecting to use such a high end tile in our bathroom.
Just as our tile designer went to write down the tile name on our form, Joern turned around and saw THE tile. Polished light beige travertine rectangular tiles. Beautiful!
As our designer realized that we were falling for a higher end look, she brought over some mosiac tiles that would go well as the floor in the shower. The ones she brought over, while ridiculously cool, were too much, lots of glass mixed in with stone. I went back to the display of mosaic tile, and found two natural stone mosiacs that were much more me.
Here are the three mosiac choices with the tile:

Here's a close-up of the designer's suggestion:


Yes, it is beautiful, and so very rich looking. But, the glass was just too glitzy for me.
Here is my suggestion, and our final decision:


This is the final decision for the master bath. We will incorporate the mosaic also into the top of the shower, but we're both really happy. I think that with the dark wood, the bathroom will have an extremely rich look.

An hour working on the master bathroom was exhausting. But, we're so excited.

The children's bathroom was pretty quick, because I am planning on wainscoting, so we only need floors. Joern loves wood-look tile, and there was wood in my inspiration picture. But, I chose instead an off-white rectangular tile, that well, almost looks like wood if you really imagine, but is clearly not imitation wood.

We chose a dark grey polished marble-esque tile for the guest bath on the first floor:

I hope it will look good against a white subway tile, and then a dark grey paint on the top half of the walls.



I really loved this blue glass mosaic too. Thinking of how to incorporate this into the house- somewhere.

Oh, and here's the cellar tile. I told Joern he could chose anything he wanted for the cellar. This will be in our entry foyer, bathroom, hobby room, and storage room. Its okay, but since Joern is so happy, I won't complain:

Well, there you have it. We are going to another tile place soon, to have another appointment. I am hoping to find something a little nicer for the children's bath. I am also hoping for a subway tile for the kitchen backsplash.

On "Birthday Eve"

Tomorrow will be an exciting birthday for Joern, I'm quite sure. We'll be meeting with the architect and the building engineer on the building lot, to receive our blueprints!!!!!!! This is so exciting!
Other news, Joern contacted the county building office today to ask about the status of our building permit. It was supposed to be finished in the middle of May. He told us that building has been approved, and it will be in the mail on Friday. We will need to go to the Neckartailfingen town hall on Monday- to pick up our building permit!
What an exciting birthday this is turning into for Joern!

A tiny little ray of light

We will have the blueprints on Thursday. Joern spoke with the architect, who set an appointment to hand over the blueprints to us on Thursday. We will also be meeting with Joern's cousin, the structural engineer, on Thursday as well. According to Mr. Architectle, it takes approximately two weeks to get estimates from builderlds. Really, we could get started soon. BUT, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. At least we will be getting out blueprints.

Annoyed in Neckartailfingen

The building permit was promised to us by the middle of May. Um, today is May 20th, no longer the middle of the month. We won't buy the land until we get the building permit. It is soooo annoying!
I guess the blueprints are finished. We have to meet with Joern's cousin, the building engineer, and the architect to get the blueprints. I want the meeting yesterday, because we need them to get estimates.
Going slightly crazy here!!
That's all the news for now- bleh!

Coming together

Two weeks ago, we still only had a few pieces of furniture. Okay, we had a lot, but when I looked at that list of still needs, it was a little overwhelming.
With the purchase of the chair and rug for the living room, our living room is now, for the most part, complete.
Yesterday, I was on Bassett Furniture's website. They had dining room chairs on sale, for a fantastic price. The price brought them in line with the price of Pottery Barn's similar chairs. Joern liked these more because the seat is upholstered, but they were always so darn expensive!
I immediately emailed our designer at Bassett, and asked her to order the chairs for us. She wrote back explaining that there was an error, and that the price was actually $150 per chair more. Yikes. So, I copied the link from the website where it listed the sale price. Surprisingly, and to my disappointment, she replied to my link by saying, "Wow, I think there must be an error. I will email the internet order department, but she won't be in until Monday." Not what I expected at all- I expected her to say that they would honor the price. I was going to place the order then on the internet, with the much better price, but I was annoyed with the company as a whole- because they should have honored the internet price, as there has never been a discrepancy between their internet and store prices, and nowhere does it say on the internet that this sale is internet only. I was mad!
This morning, I woke up and checked my email. There was a mail from my designer, she printed out the page I had linked to her, and gave it to her store manager. He told her that they could honor the price! Wahoo!! AND, the store is picking up sales tax this weekend, so I got the chairs for a really excellent bargain!


I think that the upholstery on the chair is probably pretty basic, but I have already started looking at material, so I can reupholster the chairs.
A huge relief that I finally found dining chairs, and another check off the furniture list!

What a day! New chair and rug for the living room!

I just got off the phone with Crate & Barrel. I called to ask them about the accent chair I want for the living room. I fell in love with the Azure chair from Crate and Barrel last summer when I visited Crate & Barrel in Westport with my fabulous cousin, Elizabeth. Over the past almost year, I decided that the blue would add a little pop of color to the living room, which was turning into a beige nightmare.

It turns out that the chair in blue is considered "Stock Plus," which means it is the same price as their normal stocked chair (it is stocked in taupe,) but must be made to order at the factory. Stock Plus items take 4-6 weeks for production, plus another 1-2 weeks to deliver. So, I decided the best thing to do would be just to order the chair now, to make sure it will be there in time to ship with all our furniture! So, I ordered it!
Since the chair has flat rate shipping, I was told I could add on other items to ship with the chair to stay in the same shipping price. So, I ordered my shag rug!

Oh, and while I was at it, I decided to order a set of mirrors, not sure where they'll go, but I'm sure I'll find a space.

The good news is that since the chair won't be ready to ship till the end of June, I can add other items to the order if I find something, and it will be added in with the flat rate shipping! Horray for very helpful Crate & Barrel!

Kitchen plans, almost all set!

Through the luck of the house building gods, our school kindly granted us a moveable holiday today, following yesterday, which was Ascension Day. Holidays are lovely here, but not so useful for getting things accomplished, as the stores are closed, and you cannot even mow your lawn. But the moveable holiday is a thing of beauty, because while most people are working, you are free to move about as you please, going shopping, doing baking transactions, going to doctors, and of course, mowing your lawn (if you are so inclined.)
Joern decided that we would pop in to the kitchen studio today to ask about a change I wanted to the kitchen.
Here is a picture of the kitchen as of last week:

I didn't like the way the range hood looked. You are kind of limited here with range hood designs, either modern like this:

photo: inwerk.de
or, they are the basic chimney design,like this:

photo: inwerk.de

But, a few reasons, I do not like either. First off, I am not much for very modern design. Yes, modern usually looks so cool, but for me and my personality, modern is not something I want to live with. Further, either of the two above designs look like a pain to clean, somehow, if they are built into cabinets, it is much easier to clean. I love the look of built-in range hoods. I showed the kitchen designer a few of my inspiration pictures, and asked if this was possible.

picture: lamaisonfou.blogspot.com

Turns out, little naive me, didn't quite realize such beautiful range hoods exist only as custom builds. Duh, most cabinets in the US are made of solid wood. Most kitchens here are MDF, there just is little way around it. Turns out, they don't offer such beautiful built-in range hoods. But, they offer at least something a little decorative. This explains the range hood that seems just slapped on the wall, in the middle of nothing, above our Bertazzoni.

I was pretty displeased with the way the range hood looked. I wanted place the stove betwen the built-in oven and the refrigerator to give this appliance wall more of symmetrical appearence.

So, off we went to the kitchen studio today. We were fortunate that our designer had time to sit and talk with us. Joern described our proposed change, and well, he shot us down. There were quite a few reasons why we could not move the stove to the center: it would be harder to vent the range hood, the refrigerator would stick out into our doorway, there wouldn't be much room between the door of the oven and the island, and, well, it just wouldn't look any more symmetrical. He said that the only option would be to put in tiny, 20 cm wall cabinets, and quickly added, "but that wouldn't look good at all." So, with a heavy heart, I said, fine, we'll leave it.

We talked for a while longer, and decided on, well, most everything. The kitchen is a lesson in the art of compromise.
We're going with white, high-gloss, mission style fronts:

Angola black countertops:

KeraDomo 36" apron front sink:

A stainless steel, rectangular undermount sink for the island.
A two motor built-in range hood and a built-in microwave from the Swabian company, Neff.

After all of our decisions, I decided to take a little walk around the store. As I walked around, I realized that I wanted the designer to try to put the cabinets next to the range hood, to see what it might look like (on the computer of course.) So, I went back and asked. He put the cabinets in, and then realized he could fit a second set of shorter cabinets directly next to the range hood. Joern and I both really loved the look, and even the designer agreed that it was very "harmonious." So, there you have it, we finalized the kitchen today!!! All we have to do now is to buy two faucets and of course, the French Door refrigerator. I can't believe it!

When we got home, the updated plans were already in Joern's mailbox! We now also have the price, which worked out to exactly what we budgeted. I have to say, I am so glad we signed the contract for the kitchen last October at the home fair. We got an incredible deal!

And now, if you have actually read through this entire post, a feast for your eyes (oh, and please remember, we'll have our burgandy oak hardwoods)

Lessons we've learned Part I

I'm pretty sure that we're nowhere near learning all the lessons to be learned about building a house. We may not even learn all our lessons during this building project. But, I do have to say, we are learning tons! Here are some important things so far:
1. Custom building and builder created homes are two completely different experiences. When you build a builder created home, you are given a lot of choices like layout, flooring, possibly heating and cooling, paint, etc. When you build custom, EVERYTHING is up to you! You may have a project manager, but you are the boss of the project manager. A custom build allows you to chose everything you want, but in the end, you have no one to blame but yourself :) Custom building also allows you to keep an eye on every cent you put in to the house. We were frustrated with companies who were not transparent with their costs, or with companies who admited to charging 2-3 times the standard price for laying tile. There are pros and cons to each method of building. If you chose to go with a builder created home, shop around. If you custom build, learn to be very organized- very quickly!

2. Be patient! We are so fortunate in our living situation. We have no rent, no lease, no other house to sell. We can just move out when our house is ready, and won't have the stress of needing to move out within a certain number of days. Even if you are renting though, be sure to iron out with your landlord how much time you need to give notice of moving. Once you start the process, add a few months to the projected time frame. And, be patient! It takes time to do things properly, but in the end, it makes things run much more smoothly.

3. Shop around. Shop around with everything. Builders, workers, materials, everything. When something sounds like a deal, research well, sometimes it is truly a good deal, and sometimes, it is just too good to be true. Shop around with mortgages too. Different banks offer different perks, even different interest rates. If every bank offered things exactly the same, there wouldn't be so darn many different banks.

4. Document everything! Even if it is a small note, every time you talk with someone, write it down. Date, location, and discussion. It can be extraodinarily useful to refer back to your notes as a reminder, and also as a point of reference. If someone you're talking to says something otherwise, you can always refer back to your notes, and remind them of previous discussions.

5. Know what you want, and know when to run. If you want gold leafed wallpaper, as long as it is legal, and you can afford it, go with it. Especially here in Germany, people love to tell you why you're wrong, and why your ideas simply do not work. When this is the case, it is time for another opinion, or time to move on. We want a very large kitchen, and have freqently been advised against such a large kitchen. Germans do not like eat-in kitchens, and they love closed off kitchens. If someone can't give you what you're looking for, figure out why. If what you want is simply not possible, fine, but if someone is just putting their opinionated foot down, then start walking, turning into a run if necessary.

6. Believe half of what you see and little of what you hear. One of Joern's tasks was to narrow the decision on the HVAC (well, since we're now probably getting air conditioning, we can offically call it HVAC.) Poor guy, talked to so many people, and read so many reports. The problem with the internet is that you never know who is behind the reviews. The problem with talking to a plumber, sometimes, is that they get bonuses from different companies, or they make more money off of certain items. In the end, you need to go with what works best for you, the builder, your budget, and your needs.

Hurrah!!!

Well, yesterday I posted about Mr. Architect dragging his butt. Today, we received the 3rd and final revision of our application for our building permit. Joern is off to the county building department tomorrow to drop off the application with the shorter roof overhang.
Hopefully, this means we'll have our building permit SOON!!

Its May!

Not too much new to report :( We did get a phone call from Mr. Architect, that the county building department contacted him. Turns out that our roof has too much overhang, and the current landowners are fighting this. Because our roof has too much overhang, it would effect the building on the lot next to us. As is, the lot next to us is really tiny, and the world's most narrow house must be built on the property. Obviously, as soon as we learned this, we agreed to make the overhang shorter. No problem. But the building permit has been put on hold until Mr. Architect redesigns the roof. Joern talked to Mr. Architect on Wednesday, and we were hoping to hear back from him by Friday that he had completed this task. Unfortunately, we haven't heard from him. This just reaffirms to me our decision to drop Mr. Architect. Grrrr!!! So, Joern is going to call Mr. Architect tomorrow to put some pressure on him.
Good news? As soon as Mr. Architect fixes the roof design, the building permit, or "Red Point," will be ours!