Tomorrow morning at 8 am

Tomorrow morning at 8 am, our second floor will no longer look like this:



Because, the pre-fab portion of the ceiling is being delivered tomorrow morning!  Of course, we're both a little sad at how much darker our upstairs will be with the ceiling on top, but we are so much closer to completion than we were three weeks ago!

I really need to get back into the daily blogging routine, since December was pretty much a bust in terms of house building.  I should have posted yesterday though, because this week, just like last, the builders again made great progress!

Yesterday, the builders continued working on the load bearing walls.  They completed the wall that makes up the border between the stair well and bedroom #2.

Silly poses come pretty natural when your house progresses along so nicely!

The builders also continued working on the wall for the master shower, which is now above my head.  

They also completed the entire wall for the master suite!













Standing to the doorway to our bedroom!

We also noticed how different our view to our neighbor's house is now

 Compared to the same view from September:

 

We also had

We also had a surprise visit from our architect / project manager yesterday.  Normally, he visits the house on Wednesday, but he was in the neighborhood yesterday afternoon, so he decided to stop by.  It worked out well because it was right as Joern and I were coming home from work.  It has been a long time since we both were able to meet with our architect, so it was nice to do a walk-through with him.  Of course, it all started off rather strange, when Mr. B entered the house and seemed a little surprised that we had not yet cleaned the floors.  Really?  Germans sweep out their houses during construction.  Wow, I never expected that one!  Obviously, we are a little upset and embarassed that no one told us earlier that we were in charge of sweeping out the cellar.  Okay, we are quite embarassed.  I am starting to think that there should be a book about building that all people building a home receive when they sign with a builder.  It would cover things like home builder etiquette, Richtfest "rules," etc. 
But once we got past that, the walk-through went quite well.  Mr. B was satisfied with our new stairs.  We clarified the repositioning of the wall in the mechanical room.  Upstairs, Joern said that he would like to push back the living room wall 40 cm. into the guest room.  Then, Joern and Mr. B both laughed at me about wanting a guest room, to be a guest room, complete with a bed.  I think it is a cultural thing, but sheesh, what is so bad about a guest room?  Afterwards, we went up to the second floor.  Everything looks great, except as of yesterday, the builders had no clue where the cut-out was going for the attic door and stairs.  It was good that Mr. B was there, he was able to clarify it with the builders.  Since the pre-fab concrete ceiling has already been ordered and made, it is too late to have it cut before installation.  But, if it is in fact, not in the ceiling, the builders can cut it out before adding the steel mesh and pouring the rest of the concrete.  We also discussed with Mr. B our experience with the bath showroom.  He also gave us some money saving tips and hints. 
Despite the few "jabs," it was overall a very worthwile visit.  We were able to clear up quite a few items, and were happy to hear that he was pleased too.

The builders worked hard today, completing all the interior walls that need to be completed before the ceiling is installed.  They also put up tons of metal supports in anticipation of tomorrow's big event.  Sadly, I am having trouble uploading any more pictures.  So, maybe tomorrow I will post pictures of the before and after shots of the second floor!

Well, that's all for now.  The word for the day is anticipation.

1800 Euro saved, Mr. Builder official

We spoke with Mr. B (the architect) last night. He told us that he too spoke with Mr. Builder and after a little bit of negotiating, he brought Mr. Builder's price down by 3%. Normally, 3% isn't much, but I realize now that when you're building a house, 3% is HUGE! Mr. Builder also offered us a 2% discount if we pay each bill within 10 days of receipt. This is a 5% savings, which again, in the house building world is really big!
Mr. B suggested to Joern though that the 2% discount is not really normal, and that Joern should instead negotiate for a further 1% discount if we pay our bills quickly. He then offered that if Joern would go to Mr. Builder today, we could negotiate the extra 1% discount, and if successful, accept Mr. Builder as the builder.
This morning, we drove out to Mr. Builder's office, sadly, he wasn't there. One of his office workers offered to help us. Joern asked for the extra 1%, and she said yes, she had the ability to offer us the extra percent discount. In two seconds, we saved 1800 Euro! In two seconds, we also confirmed our builder!
There is still a week or so we have to wait for contracts. Mr. B won't be back from his vacation until the end of next week. I'm sure we'll be speaking with Mr. Builder in the meantime.
FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY, we're almost there. I said to Joern last night, "I feel like we're standing on the threshold of our house." I wish this is where the stress ended, but more likely, this is where the stress begins. No matter, because when this is all behind us, we will be living in our beautiful, custom design house!

A very quick update

Since I have a lot of laundry to do, and some vaccuuming, I will just write a quick update on the house. I will do a more thorough job in writing about it hopefully during the week.
Since receiving the building permit, we are now waiting for the "Rote Punkt," or Red Point which allows us to actually start building. Mr. B needs to register himself as our project manager, which will allow us to receive the Rote Punkt. We've also met twice again since the beginning of the month with Mr. B. We've worked on optimizing the design of the house. We've moved around a few walls. In the cellar, we've enlarged the rooms, and reduced a little width in the hallway. We also enlarged the mechanical room by removing the wall to the toilet room. It may seem odd to have a toilet and shower (for rinsing purposes,) in the mechanical room, but Mr. B suggested that we place our heat pump and water tank in a way that it can be covered by a curtain most of the time.
On the first floor, we've added one meter to the dining room, and removed the shower from the first floor bath. Although it would have been nice, it will give the bathroom a much more airy feeling, as the shower really made this bathroom cramped! We also changed the design of the window in the kitchen and widened the door from the kitchen to the side terrace.
Upstairs, we redesigned the children's bath, optimizing the space, which will also give me room for my Pottery Barn sink console and some shelving space for the laundry supplies. We also worked on the design of the master bath. Mr. B gave us a few suggestions for the bathtub. He did talk us out of making the shower too big, but I'm not totally convinced on that one either. We also made the hallway in the master suite a bit smaller, which gave more space in the walk-in closet. We eliminated two windows, one in the bedroom behind the bed, and one in the bathroom. It is fine.

The blueprints are complete, and Mr. B has started the paperwork for estimates. The paperwork is huge, he fills out an enormous booklet with explicit details on the house to send to builders, excavators, etc. This way, all contractors give us an estimate on exactly the same terms, which allows for a fair comparission.

We've also booked our container. We are going with a US shipping company. Turns out, summer is high season for shipping, thus, not the cheapest time to ship. We've chosen to self-pack our container, and have two hours to pack the container, before incurring an hourly rate for packing. Ugh!

Lastly, we also booked our tickets- hooray! We'll be home from July 5th to the 20th. A nice long time!