And, it's a wrap!

Literally.  Day 6 of excavation complete, and the end of the day brought the end of the excavation phase!  We're done.  The ground was smoothed out, all piles of dirt were removed.  The garages and foyer are very clearly lower than the house now.  The corners of the house were marked out with wood, and the walls for my garage were also marked out.  The sides of the hole were also covered with a plastic covering, to help prevent a dangerous situation from arising in case of a mudslide. 

Joern in his garage

Northeast corner of houe.  Standing in the future mechanical room.

The pink lines (pretty hard to make out) mark the placement for the pipes.

My garage.

That box behind the excavator contains the plans for the lot and the house.


And now for the facts.  Excavation took 6 days, 7:00 am to 5 pm daily. 
1,200 cubic meters (42,000 cubic feet) dirt removed by 80 double-trailered trucks.
Sadly, the dirt was brought all over the country, so we won't  be able to visit our dirt.

On Monday, they will begin digging for the pipes that will lay under the house.  I am so shocked and impressed that this giganitc excavation was completed so quickly!  Thank you Mr. Wolfram!!!

Excavation, Day 5

Thursday, or Day 5 on the timeline, was quite an exciting day in our excavation experience.
The walls were made quite smooth and a lot of dirt was removed.  The result was a transformation from a hole in my in-laws' front yard to a very clear area perfect for a house.

The walls were smoothed down.

Day 4 rear corner of Joern's garage                            Day 5, rear corner of Joern's garage

And most excitingly, the entrance to the driveway was brought down to the level of the street!  Meaning, once the excavator moves, we could drive into our driveway!

Photos from day 2 (left) and day 5 (right).  The entrance to the driveway remained 3 feet above the street from day 2 to the afternoon of day 5.

Mr. Wolfram (the operator of the excavator,) and another driver also measured out the ground ensuring that it was level. 

As they checked, they marked areas that needed a little extra dirt, or digging, to ensure that the entire building lot was indeed level.

In other news, Mr. B also stopped by today, wearing his two hats, architect and project manager.  He dropped off the official, completed plans.  Mr. B also called the plumber, Mr. Haag, to meet with Joern at the building lot. Sadly, I wasn't there to meet with Mr. B and Mr. Haag, but Joern was. They discussed the placement of the pipes underneath the house, which were to be marked out the next day. They decided against solar panels, because the air pump is very efficient, and because we have a special situation with solar panels and our low-pitched roof. Also because when we would need the solar panels to help support the warm water (in the snowy,cold winter,) the solar panels are often covered with snow, or there is not enough sunlight to support the solar panels. Joern also gave Mr. Haag the plans from Joern's cousin, the structural engineer.  It turns out that the air pump Mr. Haag had planned will be at its limits for our house size.  So now, its back to the drawing board, Mr. Haag will offer a few options to make up for this problem.  They also decided that we will indeed tie the fireplace into the hot water system, this way, we will use the fireplace to help support the production of hot water on chilly winter days.  This does mean that will have to be a little more serious in our search for a fireplace, but that doesn't really bother me at all.

Excavation Day 4

Today is September 1.  It seems hard to belive that a month ago, the building lot, and my in-law's front yard looked like this:

And less than one week ago, the building lot looked like this:

Today, the building lot looks like this:

So tired!

Now that we've actually started, I should be posting close to daily.  Unfortunately, last night, I didn't sleep a wink!  It is 8 pm now, and I am absolutely exhausted!

The digging went well today, despite the crazy heavy rain and wind we had today. This morning, the top of the yard had been scraped off.  By the end of the day, there is a definate hole about 6 feet deep.  It is huge!  I'm also so glad that I finally found a pair of wellies that fit, because without wellies, I never could have walked into the mud and checked out the excavation today!

Joern said that there were about 14 truck loads (trucks with double trailers by the  way,) that drove back and forth with ground  today!  So, the total so far is 14 double trailer loads, and 6 single trailer loads! 

Looking to our neighbor's house on Friday

Looking at the house from the same spot today

The hunt for the missing excavator

Makes for a good mystery novel, huh? How can an excavator go missing? And by excavator I mean the machine, and not the person.
As of last week Saturday, it looked like full-steam ahead. The surveyor was supposed to come out yesterday and stake out the lot for excavation. Today, the excavation was supposed to have begun.
The surveyor did ineed come out yesterday, and in fact, the borders of the house are all staked out. The lot is ready and waiting.
No excavation today. No word from the builder. Mr. B called us this evening and asked if the excavation machine ever showed up- they usually arrive on the construction site the day before excavation begins. No machine. Nothing, no word.
Mr. Builder did explain that the driver of the excavator also needs to help on his brother's farm. FINE. But, please tell us!
Tonight, we decided to go look at all of Mr. Builder's current construction sites, to see if he is putting off the building project for another one, or if Mr. Excavator is really farming. After about an hour driving around town, going to his construction sites, and even driving by his yard. Nothing. It seems a little odd that we can't actually find the excavator.
Well, tomorrow is Thursday and the next day, Friday. I wonder when this is going to get started. I just I hope I am there with Joern to actually break ground!

The estimates, the architect, and farming

Yes, they're all related.
As we left the country for our trip, our architect, Mr. B, prepared the 30 page document to send to all potential builders. The document listed all the materials to be used, and the amount. Each builder filled out the document and sent it in to Mr. B. When Mr. B sent out the document, he also explained the location, and the date he wanted it back, which was this past Friday, the 30th of July. The plan was that Mr. B would look over the estimates, and meet with us on Saturday morning. After we returned to Germany, we called Mr. B, who told us that two builders immediately said that they could not do it- we're kind of in the middle of a housing boom here in southern Germany. Mr. Builder was the only builder to get the estimate back on time, and 4 other builders promised to get it back by Monday. This really threw a wrench in the works, as Mr. B left for vacation on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, Mr. B is seriously, the best, and coolest architect in the world, because he has no problem talking with us while he is on vacation :) Ùnfortunately, yesterday, Mr. B called, but we were not around. This morning, Joern called Mr. Builder to ask. Mr. Builder explained to Joern that Mr. B had discussed the prices with Mr. Builder, and Mr. Builder actually lowered his prices to meet that of the lower priced builders. It pretty much looks like we're going with Mr. Builder. This is most exciting, because Mr. Builder is really, really high quality. Most of the houses being built in Neckartailfingen at the moment are built by Mr. Builder.
The most incredible news? There is a possibilty that Mr. Builder can start the week after next! Possible though because, the operator of the excavator may not be available the week after next. Why? Because he also operates the combine harvester on his father's farm. Something that a Fairfield girl never expected, to lose our excavator to a combine harvester.
Whenever they start, I'm content. I know that they'll start with our house soon. We know the builder and we know the price. All the unknowns are falling into place. Very, very exciting!