Tile sample

Nope, not interior tile samples.  Not even a sample of outdoor paver tiles.  Nope.  Today, Mr. B stopped by today to drop off a sample of our ROOF TILE!  Well, that and to introduce Joern to our roofer as well as to discuss the roof with the roofer.

Although the roofer planned on starting this week, we've hit a few snags.  First of all, it is awfully cold.  Inhumanely cold.  Secondly, the scaffolding that is currently surrounding the house is not high enough to provide the roofers access to the, well, roof. Basically, the scaffolding must be redone.  After some negotiation with Mr. Builder, he agreed to fix the scaffolding. So the plan now is that the roof will begin two weeks from today. 

I guess I should spend a minute explaining the roofing process in Germany, and then a little aside about our specific roof.  In a typical German "stone on stone" house like ours, the only part of the construction that is made out of wood is the structure for the roof. Because of this, a German roofer is actually a carpenter, so in reality, the carpenter came to our house today, after the house was built. A German roof is made from a timber frame upon which tiles are laid.  The tiles are heavy and interlocking, so they won't go anywhere, pretty much ever.  They also have a built-in rain guttering system.   Normally, because of their interlocking properties, as well as their ability to handle rain and moisture, nothing is really necessarry underneath the tiles, just some good ol' fashioned insulation.  In our case, because the pitch of the roof is so low, we are going to have a special paper installed to ensure that no moisture accidentally backs up and leaks under the tiles.  Hurrah!  The discussion continued on that after the roof is set up, Joern will assist the roofers in installing the insulation. Obviously, he will be careful, and I am honestly not sure what material we're using for insulation.

But enough "blah, blah, blah."  I am most excited about receiving the sample of tile today.  It isn't the right color, but it is the right shape.  Our roof tiles are quite a break from traditional German roof tile, but they are sleek.  We both really like them.

The roof tiles are really big!

They are curved at the front, and will overlap onto another tile.

Unfortunately, I am now out of free photo storage, so I cannot upload any more pictures until I get this figured out.  Bleh!