Updates

I wish I had a good reason to explain the lack of updates lately.  We've had a lot and not a lot happen housewise, which may have something to do with the lack of posting.  Or, I will pull the "mommy card," something I am looking to pulling for a while, by saying that most of my free time lately has been spent researching car seats, strollers, and hanging out on The Bump.  Whatever, I haven't been on top of posting AT ALL!
The electricians were back to make sure that all the lights work.  In order to do this, they had to install light bulbs.  Basically, I can now say, "and then there was light."  So now, whenever we want, we can go from this:

                                                      To this:

Now, if we were only doing this on our own electricity, it would be even more exciting.  Sadly, we've been waiting at least 5 weeks now for our electricity.  But, to be fair, the electric company said that it would take 6-8 weeks for our connection, so we're still in time. 

We've made quite a bit of progress with our exterior stucco.  The guys put on a layer of material and then installed a mesh over the entire house.

The mesh will help prevent any cracks from forming in the stucco. 

Once the mesh was worked into the second layer of stucco, another layer was then placed over the mesh.

Oh, and to make matters even better, it was so very hot here two weeks ago!  The stucco guys normally walk around the site fully clothed, but it was horribly hot.  Poor guys!

In the following picture, you can see how much cleaner the finished side looks, compared to the front that is only covered in one layer of stucco.

The stucco guys also installed insulation around the front door area too.  It is important to insulate around the front door as this wall is poured concrete, which is a very poor insulator.  No poured concrete in our home has contact with outside air or with the ground. 



The wall between Joern's garage and the house was also covered in insulation, and has now been covered over in plaster.  Joern is very proud

We also met with the owner of the stucco/ plaster company a few weeks ago.  He invited us over to his house to see the interior wall treatment that he has at his house.  We were very surprised that he invited us to enjoy coffee and chat with both he and his wife.  It was a lovely evening, and our stucco guy is really such a nice guy!  Joern and I also agreed that we really liked the plaster treatment on his walls.  There was a little texture, but very little, and if you didn't touch the walls, you would say that they look rather American. 

We were expecting the stucco guys to come last week to work on the house, but I guess they were busy.  It isn't the end of the world that they weren't there to work on the outside, because outside work has little to do with us moving in. 

We also met with a salesperson about garage doors.  One of our "surprise grillers," at our Richtfest installs garage doors for a living, so Joern asked him to install ours.  He got us in touch with a salesman from the company he works for, who came out to the house last week.  Honestly, I'm not such a fan of the door that we went with, but when I looked at the alternatives, well, it wasn't so bad.

I guess I made a big enough stink about the doors because Joern was willing to drive two hours, in one direction, this past Saturday to check out their garage door showroom.

Here are our doors (without the square windows up the side):

I know, I know, its plain, and I usually love plain.  One of my agruments against the door is that its super trendy.  Everyone is currently installing this door in this color in their houses.  I'm so afraid that in 10 years, everyone will say, "hey, that door is soooo 2010."  Second, I am just afraid that it is a giant wall of black.  Its just a little too sleek, with no visual interest. 

My agruments aside, there aren't many other garage door choices. 
Here is a sample of another style of door we could have chosen, along with a number of window choices:



You can see in the above picture, the bottom row represents what the majority of the door would look like, with a bunch of window options that would go along the top row of the door.  Although I would have prefered this, but with wider pannels, in the end, I broke down. Some fights just aren't worth fighting, and I really have gotten my way in the majority of house decisions.  Joern can have this one, and this way, I won't freak out the first time Joern drives something into the door. 

We also finally signed the wood floor contract!  Yesterday, it was back to the showroom again just to go over some of the details of the contract.  Of course, we have a special case, as we did the contract through our friend, who happens to own the company, instead of ordering from the showroom, but the installation is running through the showroom, which is responsible for the district in which our house is located.  But, I am really glad we went there yesterday!  The representative we've been working with asked for a final okay on the floor we chose, but when he showed us the floor, it wasn't our choice!  We changed a few weeks ago from oiled to varnished, and obviously the guy who marked our change wrote down the wrong style of floor too (our regular guy was on vacation at the time.)  So, when we were at the showroom yesterday, he asked, are you sure you want this one?  Sure enough, the other guy noted that we wanted a parquet that is made of thin strips pressed together, to give a very lively, modern look to the floor.  Those readers who know me know where I was hit, at modern.  Nope, no modern in our house!  We quickly clarified that we wanted the much more traditional look.  We also discussed oiled versus laquered.  Yes, we were warned that the oiled floor would required re-oiling twice a year, but in the end, we went the floor we liked more, which was the oiled. 

The following picture highlights everything I was just describing: 

The floor we chose is the bottom.  It is much redder and more classic than the top ones.

The one on the top right is the laquered version, it is browner, and not as warm. 
The example on the top left is the "strippy" floor.  Cool, but not my thing. 

We agreed though that applying the oil by hand twice a year was not our thing, so we will be hiring someone from the floor company to come out to the house twice a year to oil the floors.  Some may see this as a waste of money, but we will have to look to save somewhere else, and just accept this is an unavoidable cost.  No matter what the oiled floor looks so much better!

Last, we finally got the tiles for the cellar.  Although I posted before that we had chosen a tile for the cellar, we never purchased them.  In the end, we cheaped out and went to a Home Depotish store, and but the tiles.  They're beige and shiny, and I'm pretty sure they'll still look awesome. 

Today marked the next phase in the building process, but I will leave that post until tomorrow, because the beginning of a new building phase means looking forward, no more updates or reviews.  Without giving too much away, all of a sudden, we are starting to feel that we WILL move into the house, and not in the next five years.  I feel like moving in will become a reality in the near future!  Wahoo!



Some updates

Well, since it has been almost 3 weeks with no post, I'm sure you have all figured out that Joern did not update while I was gone :(
But, at least I'm back now, and realtively over my jet lag and heat-induced pregnancy miserableness. 
There was actually quite a bit of work completed in the house while I was gone.  I guess the best way to go over everything is to break up the descriptions by trades.

Electrical:
The electricians started back last week to work on connecting the electrical panel. 

And thanks to a good organization system:

it went from looking like this last week:



to this today:

They also installed more in our "command center":

Don't ask me to explain much, but one is for the radiant heat and one is for the fireplace.

Builders:
One of the interior guys from Mr. Builder's crew was back last week to build walls.  I know, our walls were built long ago, but we still needed a few things:

A little hard to see, but they built a wall around our wall-mount toilet in the cellar.

More walls in the master bath because we have a wall-mount toilet, and a mini-wall around the toilet would look dumb.

A wall around the built in parts for the bathtub faucet.

A wall between the shower and washer/dryer in the kids' bath.

Plumbers:

Not too much right now with the plumbers.  But, the heat pump has been working to dry the flooring, and the air filtration system has been working for a few weeks too.  The air filtration sounds like a very distant airplane in our rooms.  Interesting. 

One thing the plumbers did was to finish off the mechanical room.  They labeled all of the pipes:







Plaster/ Stucco guys:

Probably the biggest deal was that first layer of stucco was applied to the outside of the house two weeks ago. 

                                Its a little hard to tell, but the house looks lovely now with one continual surface

instead of being broken up by the joints of all the bricks.

Those are the latest updates from the house.  We met with Mr. B the day I got back from the US.  He walked through and measured the moisture of the floors.  It is imperative that the floors are dry by the beginning of September, which is when "Cute Tile Guy," is set to begin tiling.  Mr. B also informed us that the tiles will be delivered this upcoming Friday- wahoo!  We discussed the status of the parquett flooring, which is turning into a major production.  Most excitingly though, he proposed a TIMELINE!!!!!!

So, we're looking at about 2 weeks for the tiles, which will bring us to late September.  Then, the plaster guys will come in to do the second layer of plaster, and paint.  This brings us to early October.  The parquett will be installed in early October.  Then, the plumbers will come in to install the fixtures, and the electricians will come in to install switches and lights.  We should let the kitchen company know that we're looking at mid to late October for the kitchen installation.  And then, he told us the most exciting news- the kitchen is pretty much the final thing before moving in.  This means that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  That light will appear in NOVEMBER!  We really should be in before Christmas and the baby!  Hooray!



Putting the squeeze on some of our workers

Joern and I reached our frustration limit with the house last week.  It probably came from our realization that the plaster guys were again no-shows on Friday.  We have been putting off the plaster work for 2 weeks now.  Ugh! 
After a little drama at home, Joern decided to call Mr B, and let him know that our frustration was reaching a peak (my frustration especially.)  Mr. B explained that builders and people in the construction field now have so much work to do, they are balancing many projects at once.  In doing this, they also have a little more strength and freedom to come and go from building sites as they please.  Our electrician did just this.  Because our electrical work put us behind by 3 weeks, the plaster guys could not start when they were scheduled to begin, and had other projects to do anyway.  He also appologized and admitted that he should have at least explained this to us.  He also promised to come by on Saturday morning. 
Yesterday morning, at 8:00. the first person to show up was the owner of the plastering company.  Wow.  Then, Mr. B showed up.  We walked around showing the plaster guy the house.  He had some questions and also had a few issues that Joern needed to clear up.  One thing I haven't posted about, mostly because I do not yet have pictures, are Joern's built-in speakers on the first floor and his installed HDMI cables for all three floors.  Joern got a few new jobs, to make the holes for the speakers a bit larger, and to move some of the HDMI outlets.  The first part of the job will focus on the wet plaster, which will cover all of our currently standing walls.  We then have some more walls that will need to be created with drywall, but this part comes later. 
We then met separately with Mr. B and asked him about the Richtfest.  The symbol of the Richtfest is a tree decorated with ribbons, set atop of the house.  We will need to ask the carpenter who is coming for the Richtfest to also bring a tree with him.  I'm just trying to figure out how to get the tree decorated before the tree goes up! We're also talking with my friend, Mandy, who has so very kindly agreed to sing a song for the Richtfest.  It just isn't so easy to find a home song that isn't sad!

While all this was happening, the owner of the plaster company left and showed up again, but with backup.  He and five plaster guys worked until 2:00 yesterday!  Very impressive!  They plan to work all though the next few weeks. 

The electricians are also headed back to the house tomorrow to install contacts for the alarm system, which should have been long-completed, by the way.  But, at least it seems that we are on the right track again.
Thank you, Mr. B!

FINALLY, an update!

The reason why I have posted so little this month is because nothing has really happened this month.  I can't believe that on May 9, the plumbers were working on the vaccuum.  The electricians finished up with the rough work last week Monday, pretty much completing the roughing in portion of the construction. 
Here are a few things that also happened during the past few weeks:

The plumbers connecting the fireplace on 10 May.

                                       By 11 May, the plumbing for the fireplace was completed.

And, the wires for the recessed and pendant lights appeared!

By the 11th of May, all the plumbing was completed, and most of the electrical. 

 Of course, this was two and a half weeks ago though.  We are now waiting for the plaster guys (Gipser,) to come in on Monday to start covering up the walls. All of the walls will now be covered with plaster, leaving us with a mostly smooth surface.  Last week, we did see a guy come by from the builder. He spent two days pouring concrete into major holes in the floors, like the holes where pipes were installed.  Slowly, but surely, the house is starting to close up more and more, and slowly become home.

                                     The filled in hole in the floor between the guest room and powder room.

Our circuit breaker box is pre-wired!

All of the wires are labeled for connecting to circuit breakers.



As I said, hopefully Monday will bring with it plaster guys.  I remember in our neighbor's house, there was a huge transformation once the plaster work was complete.  With smooth, evenly colored walls, the house really became a lot more "homey." 

Today, we had an appointment with the bath showroom again.  To our chagrin, we almost missed it, but fortunately, our account representative called us and reminded us that we had an appointment three hours prior.  So, we ran over, to say "hi," and to pick our granite for the vanity countertops.  The decision was mostly easy, but required a little thought.   The choice in the children's bath was pretty easy, Imperial White granite.  This seemed to be the lightest color without any golds, pinks, browns or rust colors in it.  The children's bath is going to be very "beach cottagey," and imperial what seemed to be the most logical pick.  When it came to deciding on the master bath, we narrowed down the choices to Kashmir White granite or Mocca  Creme limestone.  I have loved Kashmir White for quite a long time, but I worred about the rust-colored spots, the problem is that since it is stone, you have no control over the actual slab you receive.  I was just worried that we would end up with a very rusty piece of granite, and did not want that in our bathroom.  The limestone was much softer looking, just a very soft beige with some darker veins running through.  We asked about the care of the limestone versus the granite.  Our sales representative explained that limestone is softer, and will need to be sealed every two to three months, but sealing is pretty much like cleaning, you need to rub in a sealant.  Because the limestone and Kashmire White turned out both to be the same price as was listed on the offer, we decided for the Mocca Creme limestone.  I think if we were going to end up with a limestone countertop anywhere in the house, the master bath would be the best choice.

Mocca Creme limestone (left,) Imperial White granite (right)

The appointment went pretty quickly.  I am pretty satisfied with our choices, there weren't really that many options that fit the requirements for both bathrooms.

Well, that is about all from the house for now.  We are busy working on planning out our Richtfest, which is rapidly approaching on 11 June.  We are currently deciding which burgers to purchase :)

Vaccuum and electrical

Since we have another week or so to go before the plaster guys come, this week is all about finishing up any rough work. 
Have I told the story of the 110 V outlet yet?  OMG.  So, when we first met with the electrician, Joern brought up that we needed place in the kitchen to store our step-up/ step-down transformer.  The electrician jumped on that and suggested instead that we put the transformer in the cellar, and run cables up to the kitchen from the transformer and install 110V outlets.  He told us only to buy outlets when we were home, which we were very careful to do.   When Smokey Old Electrician (may I please shorten this to "Ol' Smokey?")  was in the house last week he informed us that we had a problem: the boxes for German outlets are circular, and our US outlets were rectangular.  Talk about putting a squareish peg in a round hole!  This sent us into a little craze about how to fix the problem easiest and quickest.  The plan was to order the boxes from the US and pay the ridiculous amount to ship abroad, because well, we needed them.  At the end of last week, Ol' Smokey came to us with a possible solution.  In the electrical catalog, he found an outlet that was I guess, multi-voltage.  all we needed to do was to change out the plugs on all our 110V appliances.  We weren't too excited about this idea.  Then, on Saturday night, Joern and I were barbecuing at the house, and I decided to look through the electrical catalog.  My reason was to see what the electricians were paying their suppliers for light switches.  As I thumbed through the catalog, I stumbled upon a two-page spread for export appliances.  Yup.  Export.  Their supplier has outlets for British appliances, Chinese, and- American!  Joern will talk to Ol' Smokey tomorrow, and hopefully, we can fix this mini mess.

But, the electricians were at the house today, and they worked on wiring outlets and switches on the first floor.

Electrical in powder room.

Switches for the stairs to the second floor and for the kitchen.

And, the plumbers were back today!  To install the pipes for the central vaccuum!!  They installed most of the pipes for the vaccuum, and only need to connect the pipe from the cellar to Joern's garage, where we will store the vaccuum.

The blue pipe running from the guest room area to the fireplace is for the vac.

I am very excited about this feature, a toe-kick pan for under the kitchen cabinet. 

Connection for the hose upstairs.

A very long pipe running along the media room.

Hopefully, we see the electricians tomorrow. 

This week's work

As I posted on Wednesday, we have been having a few problems with the electricians showing up.  We understand that they are busy and have a lot of projects going at once, but as Joern said, "We feel like he labels customers by prority: A,B,C, and D, but we're E."  Joern and I both feel strongly that we don't want our workers to be under pressure, this leads to mistakes and not caring.  I would much rather have them take their time and do things right.  The electricians worked Monday, Tuesday, and a tiny, tiny little bit on Friday.  I'm sure they're doing a good job, but it is only frustrating when it means that the plaster guys can't come in next week to start plastering the walls.

Despite all this, I am happy to see that there is progress being made.  It is very nice to know that the rough plumbing is all done now, including our last minute addition of our central vaccuum.  And despite the very drawn out procedure, the electrical is getting there.

We didn't visit the house very much during the week, and when we did, I didn't have the camera with me, and I was too tired to really focus enough to realize that I needed to take pictures.  But, I found my energy by Friday, and I was so excited to get back on track.

It would be nice to split up plumbing and electrical, but that wouldn't really be possible without a lot of cropping.  Honestly, I'm not up for that much work right now.

Here is what our house looked like after another week's worth of work:

First floor

Kitchen.  Outlet boxes have been installed.  Straight ahead will be the outlets for the built-in oven and the refrigerator.

                                         Kitchen sink area.  Outlet boxes for both 220 and 110 Volt.

Water pipes for pot filler and possible water connection for fridge.  Electricity for oven and

range hood.

A proud homeowner and his kitchen.

Electrical running to the fireplace.

Water pipes running from the fireplace.  Electrical running the length of the living room and dining room.

Wires running through the walls in the guest bedroom.

Looking into the guest bedroom.  Orange and black tubes are for electrical and computer network cables.

There are ELEVEN switches and outlets here.  This is the control for our exterior shutters.

On the wall to the right of where all the tubes enter the wall, there is a rectangular cut-out, this is for the central vac.

Second Floor

Children's bath, hookup for washer and dryer, and water for shower.

Water pipes and electrical.

                                    Connection for sink and farther back, for the second "1920's" toilet.

                        Probably the job of the elctricians, the floor underneath the waterpipes was chisled out
                        at intersections of water and electrical.

Master shower.  Controls and water connections for massage shower heads.

Water hookup for bathtub.

The master bath plumbing and electrical, completely roughed out.

Attic

Vent for the children's bath.

                                        Vent for powder room and maybe water in kitchen.

Cellar

Looking down the stairs.  Boxes installed for LEDs along stairway.  Water pipes running out to garage.

Another view of water pipes from mechanical room to Joern's garage.

Water pipes in Joern's garage.  One tap in the far corner, behind our already present mess.

                                          Another tap installed in the front corner.  Why do I see Joern's garage becoming
                                          a man-paradise?

OMG, cables, cables, cables, waiting for the circuit box.

                                        The ever growing pile of drilled out hole debris.  

Hopefully, next week will see the completion of the electrical, so that the plaster guys can get started.  Maybe it isn't such a bad thing because we shouldn't have the pipes installed for the radiant heating before our upcoming Richtfest, on June 11th.  We'll see what next week holds in store for us and the house!