I guess I should start by saying that if we build, unless we win the lottery, we will be subdividing Jörn's parent's plot, which is quite large. Building a home here will require the removal of their garage, moving the driveway, and taking away a little, but not all of their frot yard.
Our meeting began promptly at 9 am and lasted about 2 hours. We've met Mr. Messner before, so it was nice seeing him again. We began with looking at the property. One day, I will get around to posting pictures of the plot. Jörn showed him where we will be moving the driveway, and where we are planning on building the house.
We then moved our meeting into Jörn's parents house, which was wonderful because it was FREEZING outside!
I really liked that Mr. Messner brought a few house plans along that he felt would be interesting to us based on previous discussions. He explained that our home choice may be influenced by a few factors, including how our home will impact the view from Jörn's parent's house, and what the town will allow in terms of roof shape.
The plan that we like the best is an Italianate style home, which in German is called a "city villa."
image from www.fingerhaus.de
We're really excited about the fact that these homes have 2 full floors. The majority of German homes have one and a half floors, with the top floor actually being the attic space. In these attic spaces, your rooms are made smaller by the pitch of the roof. We also really love the huge two-floor window. We will have a beautiful view, which includes a low mountain range and the ruins of the Neuffen castle, similar to this view from the Nuertinger-Stattzeitung.
image from www.nuertinger-stattzeitung.de
Because we will have such a wonderful view, it will be great to have such large windows to highlight the view. Plus, the windows will lend an airy feeling to the house.
I also love the floor plans for this house. It includes many of the features I'm looking for, with the option of moving the kitchen to give it more cabinets and workspace.
images from www.fingerhaus.de
We were warned though that the town may not approve of the roof style of this house, as 99% of the homes in Neckartailfingen have typical gambrel roofs. So, he also showed us another type of house offered by the company.
image from www.fingerhaus.de
He suggested this alternative if we must build a home with a gambrel roof.
Again, Jörn and I love the two-floor window. We also liked the floorplan of this home.
We discussed visiting existing homes made by the company in these two styles. The second home is being opened as a model home at the company's headquarters in Frankenberg an der Eder on Valentine's Day. We will be going there anyway on Valentine's Day, as the company is offering an open house with educational sessions, the opening of the model house, and a chance to view all of the interior options the company offers for their homes.
A family built a villa with Fingerhaus near Heilbronn, which is about an hour from us. This family has agreed to be a reference, thus, people can come visit the house. We will make an appointment to see their home.
We also spent a lot of time discussing our cellar, which is a major undertaking to suit our needs. Since we will be removing the garage, we will need to use part of the cellar as a garage. This seems odd, but since the house is being built into the side of a mountain, the garage and cellar will not be completely underground. In the end, we hope to have a garage that will house 4 cars and still leave us plenty of room for all our other needs.
We were left with some homework. We have to contact the town hall concerning the type of home we can place on the property. We also have to hire a surveyor for a current survey of the property. Then, we have to go about formally subdividing the property and putting the building plot into our names, since we cannot build until the plot is in our names.
The meeting was really informative, and I feel like we have a lot more guidance now on our dreaming. Plus, it is one more step closer to owning our first home!
