Doors, and windows, and tiles, oh my!

I won't lie, the house has been stressful the past few days, but it should be mostly over tomorrow. 
It all started with the surprise phone call two weeks ago, that we needed to make a decision about the door.  We met with Mr. Carpenter two weeks ago, and we showed him a door that we really liked. 
He got back to us on Monday with an offer.  He offered us two doors:  one wood, and one aluminum.  The wood is about 1/3 more expensive than the aluminum, but I keep worrying about how the aluminum door will look.
Here are our two options:

Both would have two sidelights, instead of the one.  The grey door is wood, and we would probably paint it black.  The white door is aluminum, and I am undecided on the color.
We need to decide by tomorrow, if at all possible, because doors have an 8 week delivery time.

That's just where the fun started though.  Yesterday afternoon, the stucco guy called and said that he cannot start with the outside stucco until we get something like window sills outside on the first floor, where the windows come into contact with the ground.  He told us that our options are stone or aluminum.  Joern wasn't too keen on the aluminim option, as we will be walking over these window "sills" very often, and aluminum can dent, or break if too much weight is applied (or if Joern launches himself if he isn't paying attention.)  He had a better feeling about stone.  But, the stucco guy cannot start until the sills are in, so he suggested that we go buy them today.

This morning, we headed off to the tile place, to ask about stone exterior window sills.  Imagine my surprise when the saleswoman told us that the delivery time on the stone sills would be EIGHT WEEKS!  I calmly turned to Joern and said, "be careful, my head is going to explode."  ARGH!  If someone had ever told us that we even needed these, we would have dutifully chosen them at the right time, and they would have long been ordered by now.  BLARGH!  So, Joern called the architect, who suggested we head to a DIY store, and chose something we could pruchase immediately.  After Joern got off the phone, he decided to ask the saleswoman how long it would take to order the tiles.  Even though we chose the tiles in October, we never officially made our decision, or placed the order.  Our growing concern was Mr. B's decision yesterday that we would finalize our decisions at the tile showroom after I return from the States.  While that sounded good in theory, we also realized that I fly in on a Wednesday, which more than likely meant that we would have an appointment at the tile showroom the following week, which would be one week before "Cute Tile Guy" wants to start work. 
Fortunately, we asked today, because she said that some of our tile could take up to 4 weeks to get!  Obviously, this would NOT work if we wait until after I return from the States.  Its a good thing the steam could come out of my ears, because it surely would have exploded upon this news. 
We agreed that we would go to the tile showroom tomorrow to finalize our selections, and that Mr. B would coordinate with the tile place today so that as soon as we finalize our selections, the order can be placed.

After we left the tile place, we headed over to the model home park, which brought back some amazing memories of looking at model homes, and dreaming of our "one day" home.
We looked at doors:

And we looked for exterior window sills:

Honed granite

Aluminum

"peppered" granite



I think it was the best decision to go to the model home park.  We got the opportunity to see a lot of things we needed to, and its always best to see things on exisiting homes, rather than in a showroom.

Joern called me this afternoon and told me that he went to a local granite dealer.  He chose the honed granite sills in black, which I really liked as well.  They will be on Monday, so hopefully, we can get started with the stucco on Tuesday!

Its really nice to know that we're in the completion phase.  I know that we can get stuck here in this phase too, but we're not building anymore, we're wrapping up!  Despite the stress and craziness, it feels good to be here, and know that soon, we'll be done!

Tuesday's progress and why working adds to the stress

It is 9:30 in the morning, and I am sitting in work.  No worries, I have a break for about 5 more minutes, and I just got off the phone with Joern.  There is one aspect of this process I have not yet discussed.  Work and decision making.  As the house is a custom build, there are often decisions to make on the spot.  Like, what size the window grills should be, or where something should be placed.  Today's decison was about the pedestal sink in the powder room.  I called Joern right when my break started, just to say "hi."  Joern responded with two questions:  what size do I want the pedestal sink to be, and how far do I want it from the wall?  And I wish I could say this was my first experience of this sort, but sadly, I've had many similar phone calls.  I told Joern to go with the 65 cm wide pedestal sink, and left the placement decision up to him.

When I got home, I really wanted to measure the 65 cm width of the future pedestal sink, and was once again, shocked to find how much progress was  made today.  I know, I know, we really need to remember that this won't happen every day from now until the house is complete, but these are the days that builders really look forward to.

Here is our powder room, all of a sudden, a room.  The hole in the wall is for the

recessed medicine cabinet.  The pedestal sink will go underneath.

The toilet will be placed near the corner.  It will be so pretty here!

                                 Joern is standing in the living room, and I am standing in the yet to be assigned room,
                                     that is looking more and more like the guest room/ my crafting/ desk room.

The builders also worked hard on the pantry wall today, or the kitchen wall, depending on how you look at it.



We got to spend a few minutes watching the builders do their stuff. 

And, then, we got to check out the pantry:

                                                         I can't believe how crazy much we can store in here!

I also decided to take a few photos of the cellar during the day, you know,with  more light and all:

                                           

                                            And here, you can see our cellar 3/4ish bath.

Here you can see just how light-filled the entry way is during the day.

PS.  The cute guy comes with the house :)

After all the photos, we met with Herr W from the bank.  First, we took another tour of the house, and then we headed back to the In-laws' house to discuss  a few items.  He had to clarifly a few points on our small loan, and then we had to sign a few papers.  Then, we all had to work together to actually prove our capital was in fact, our capital.  In the end, it worked out, and we really do have the amount invested in the house that we said we did.  Amazingly, and once again, Herr W was at the house until past 6:00 tonight. 

Since that's about all for the day, and the fact that I am really tired, its time to go for this evening.  I'll leave you all with this morning's first house photo:  the roof's first snow!