And the money starts rolling out, rolling on out, rolling on out...

We received a letter from the Rathaus (Town Hall) yesterday. We are formally asked to come pick up our Building Permit (Baugehnemigung,) at the Town Hall. Good news! Bad news, along with the letter, we received another letter from the county building office. In that letter, was a lovely bill for 2,900 Euro! For what? Well, as far as we can figure, it is for the permission to build our house. Dear Lord, that is a pretty steep building permit fee! Of course, I have no idea how much a building permit costs in the States, but wow! The building is exciting, financial diarrhea, not so much.
I love the housebuilding process!

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!!

The Baugesuch

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Architect called us to tell us that the Baugesuch, or application for the building permit, was completed. Of course, for us, that meant we needed to hop in the car IMMEDIATELY to sign all the papers and pick up the application.
I've never built a house in the States, so I have no idea what this step looks like in America. I know what it looks like here though, so I'll explain.
The application is split into 6 folders. 4 of these 6 folders are for various town and county builidng people. The first page of the folder gives the details of the builders (us) the location (which is right now place 166), a brief decsription of the house (single family new build with garage,) and the information about the planner. The next page consists of a series of computer generated images of the house. Then comes an official application form. The next 3 pages are a description of the house, including size, approximate cost, number of garage spaces, the type of material to be used in contruction, the material, style, and color of the roof, the type of fireplace to be installed, and the type of heating system planned. Then comes another two pages devoted to the fireplace and chimney. Then comes the application for public waste -water. On this paper, the number and type of producers of waste- water are listed, including toilets, sinks, dishwashers, wash machines, dishwashers, etc. Next comes two drawings of how the house will fit in to the building lot, with all surrounding houses. Then two pages from the surveyor, with information about which neighbors will be contacted about our building plans, and lots of information on the amount of land we will be using and the size of the house. The three page floor plan (cellar, first and second floors,) comes next. Then are detailed drawings of the exterior of the house as viewed from the north, south, east, and west. The cross section comes next. Last comes more measurment information- 3 pages, including the square footage of every room in the house!
This is just the application folder we are allowed to keep. The other four have other papers depending on which department is receiving the folder.
We had to sign many, many of the pages in each folder, then multiply that by 6!
From here, it should take approximately 6-8 weeks for the permit to be approved. During this time, we can start looking for estimates from builders. We are hoping to use Mr. Architect as our project manager, and he is thinking about this propostion now. We need someone to collect all estimates from all builders and sub-contractors, and to help provide to us an overview.
My father-in-law dropped off the application on Thursday morning to the town hall. The next town council meeting will happen during the first week of March. Once it has been approved by the town council, the application then goes on to the county building department.
I am so excited, and so nervous. I think once we get the building permit, the whole thing will become real. Even though we've purchased furniture, and planned so many things, once we receive the permit, building can start pretty quickly!

How the architect did it!

Here are the plans so far: (the explanations are underneath the picture)

This is the north side of the house, facing my in-law's house. This side has the fewest windows, for obvious reasons.

This is the east view of the house. It is the side with the best view, of the Swabian Alb and the Hohenneuffen:
Castle Ruins

You can also see the kitchen addition here. We're adding a meter of width to the kitchen to allow for our island. The dining room is in the front corner (on the left side)

This is the west view of the house. You can see our front door, it is on the cellar level, we are going to have a lot of glass here to let light into the cellar. Our living room is on this side of the house, as well as Joern's office.

Here is the view from the south, the view from the street. Since the house is being built into a hill, it looks like it is 3 levels from the street view- of course, that bottom floor is actually our cellar. The garages are strategically planned because you are allowed to build garages right along the border, so one garage borders Joern's aunt's property, and the other borders the property of the new build.

Cross-section of the house. Yes, we have 3 steps up from the garage, but it is necessary to allow a terrace to be built on top of the garage.


This is the floor plan for the cellar. If you enter from our front door and are facing the house, the media room will be on your left, on the right is a room without a purpose right now, a bathroom (I would like a rinse-off area here, for the dog, muddy kids, muddy shoes, etc.),a storage room, and the boiler room. I know it seems strange, but you have to walk to the far end of the house to walk up the stairs. I've learned that unless you have an unlimited amount of money, somehow even your dream house does have to fit in the confines of the property. This is why our staris are a bit odd.


At the top of the stairs, you will be facing the front (street.) On your right is the living room, which leads into Joern's office. On your left is the dining room, moving back to the kitchen. The kitchen is 215 sq. ft, which I am pretty sure is huge, but is necessary for an island. No, Mr. Builder does not think our kitchen is efficient, but the work triangle is on the side of the addition. The other side of the kitchen (along the stairs) will be used for storage, a wine refrigerator and a breakfast making bar. Since we do not have a breakfast nook the island itself will be used for seating- which means that the island needs to be large and flat. I am thinking of putting the sink and dishwasher in the island too.
Moving towards the back of the house, the pantry is immediately behind the kitchen. The back door is near the staircase, and then there is a bathroom with a shower stall (in case we have 2 kids, this will become our guest bath.)
You have to walk up the stairs again from the back of the house, because this design allows for a large shower in the master bath.

Once you reach the top of the stairs on the top floor, you will be facing the children's bathroom. We will be building a closet into this bathroom for our washer and dryer. I know some people have strong feelings against a washer and dryer on the bedroom level, but because of my arthritis, I feel strongly about putting the laundry close to the bedrooms. Also, because the house is made of stone, and the floors are all concrete-slab (yes, even the living floors,) it will be much more resistant to noise and vibration from the washing machine than a traditional wooden home.
On the right side of the children's bath is the master suite. Our bedroom is not very large, but because we have a large walk-in closet, the bedroom doesn't need to fit much more than the bed. We have a large master bath, with a double sink, a soaking tub, and a separate walk-in shower.
On the left side of the house are the two children's rooms. I am considering putting the guest room in the large room in the back, because there will be a nice view, and have access to the balcony. The room in the front is smaller, which might be better for a future nursery. But my opinion on the guest rooom flip-flops daily.

Well, that's our house. We're waiting for Mr. Architect to print out all the paperwork for the application for the building permit. In total, we'll recieve 6 copies of the application. 4 copies go to various town and county offices, and all have slightly different information inside. 2 copies are for us, and I'm sure one of those two copies will go to Mr. Builder. As soon as Mr. Architect has completed the paperwork, we'll go to him, sign everything, and deliver the application to the town hall.