The Big Cover-up

At 7:30 this morning, as we prepared to leave the house, we received a phone call:  Joern's dad called to say that the roofers were there and that Joern needed to be there ASAP.  The plan was that Joern would help the roofers today to install the vapor barrier.  I am not sure if it is an air barrier or a vapor barrier.  But, a vapor barrier is a foil installed to prevent moisture from entering the house through the air.  Today was exciting though as it was the first day that Joern actually worked on the house.
We had just enough time to snap a picture of Joern all dressed up in his work clothes, Marty McFly "life vest" included!

Frustratingly, I took Joern's cell phone to work today, because I couldn't find mine.  This caused two unfortunate problems: 1) Joern couldn't take any photos while he worked, and 2) I couldn't call Joern during the day to ask him about the goings-on.  So, I was in for a huge surprise when I came home today.  But, I'll save that for the photos. 

Here is what Joern had to say:
"When I got to the house first we [the roofers and Joern] rolled the air barriers from a huge roll.  Because the roll wasn't wide enough,  we had to use three lines of the barrier.  You also have to leave about 1 1/2 ft. of foil overhang.  We then had to use a special tape to tape the pieces together.  The tape is necessary to keep the barrier airtight.  I also had to tape around the exhaust pipes for the bathrooms so that the roof was totally air tight.  The builders then started to build the roof.  They started with the main frame, with large beams, that they installed around the perimeter of the house.  The roofers installed these beams directly in the concrete.  The roofers then  installed the other beams of the main frame, while I began to install the insualtion.  We are using rigid polyurethane foam tiles for insulation. I had to cut some tiles using a huge knife and a saw to make them all fit properly. We sprayed a special foam insulation between the seams of the tiles to create a tight fit.   Then, I drove to the butcher to pick up food for the roofers, while they continued to work.  After their break, the roofers continued attaching the beams and I continued with the insulation.   This work continued through lunch time.  After their lunch break, they attached a metal band in the form of an "X" over each side of the roof.  These bands provide tension to keep the beams together.  Once this was complete, the roofers then wrapped the fame with a special material that is felt on the inside with a special waterproof coating on the outside.  Now that the roof is wrapped, the roof is watertight.  The roofers then began installing wooden slats that run lengthwise down the roof, these will form the grid that will hold the roofing tiles.  The roofers came from the Swabian Alb, so our roof is really Swabian.  There were three roofers, two employees and the owner of the company.  The owner was very German, everything had to be in the perfect place and if anyone even put a tool back in the wrong spot, they got in trouble. But they were all nice and enjoyable to work with.  I had a lot of fun and I am excited to work with the roofers again on Monday." 

The roofers obviously completed way more than I ever expected them to in one day!  They will come back on Monday to finish the frame, and on Wednesday, they will install the tiles!  I am so excited that Joern also helped with the house.  Somehow it makes the whole house a little more personal because now we can say that Joern helped to build it :)  Thank you dear Joern for putting in a hard day's work  for our future home!

The roofers left around 5:00 tonight, so Joern and I decided to take our daily tour of the house.  One of our favorite builders, was at the house this morning, starting on the interior walls.  He completed the perimeter of all of our interior walls.

                                             The pantry is much larger than we had imagined.

                                                                      Powder room

                                                          The unassigned room off the living room

                                                The one wall between the kitchen and dining room

                            In our cellar.  We have some logistical issues with the location of our circuit panel,
                                                        we'll see how it gets fixed. 

Our technical room/ bathroom.



Then, we walked up our private street to look at the building disaster that has become the mulit-family project near our house.  On our way back, I noticed our house, which is looking rather nice:

When we returned to the house, we went upstairs to check our our new attic.  Before we got to the attic, I decided to look out the bedroom windows to see what the overhang looked like from underneath.

I love that you can see the wood!

A close-up of the overhang.  You can see the beams, water barrrier, and the metal that is part of the gutter system.  The plumbers came today to install that metal strip. 

And then, we finally made it up to the attic.  I can see that in the right weather, my attic is going to be one of my favorite places in the house!

Without support, and a roof update

I was surprised with two things today: the builder's removed the supports from the first floor, and the roof start has been moved forward. 
Without the supporting columns for the ceiling, the first floor looks really huge!

The builders also removed some of the support columns in the second floor, and they cleaned.  The combination made the second floor look much bigger.  Hurrah!

We  also received a delivery today.  Insulation for our attic!  It is being stored in our bedroom for the next week or so.

And then, Joern told me the most exciting news of all- the roofers are coming tomorrow!  Yes, my friends, that's right, tomorrow.  The plan was to begin on Tuesday, and we're now starting a whole two days in advance.  If we were not dieting right now, we would totally have to celebrate this extraordinary event.  It is a  rare day in the building world when something occurs ahead of schedule! 

So, it was back up to the current "roof," for us, as there won't be many more opportunities to stand on the top of our house.  Poor Joern, wanted  a flat roof that we could use as a roof-top balcony, so we need to enjoy these walks on top of our roof  as long as we can. 

                                     Yeah, my eyes are closed.  But this is my meerkat routine.

So, "buh-bye" from the top of our house.  Tomorrow, we're on to a new phase!

Measuring for windows

This afternoon, Mr. B, Joern, and I met with Mr. H, our window installer.  We are now into our next step on the house, the windows.  First, we signed a contract with Mr. H. The terms were fair and his price was good.  We feel confident too in working with Mr. H because Mr. B works with him, and well, we hold Mr. B in highest esteem.
Afterwards, Mr. B and Mr. H got to work measuring our windows.  Although they are measured on the plans, they needed to exactly measure the window openings for the windows. 

                                                 Obviously, in deep discussion here.

And  when they finished measuring each window opening, Mr. B made notations on our walls like this:

I learned a lot today.  The picture in the middle with all the crosses is the window itself.  It has a grid pattern because the window has window grills, and the "greater than," and "less than," signs show the direction of window opening.  This is actually more like a french door, so both sides of the window open in.  HTS stands for (cough, something,) that signifies that this window will be used as a door.  With this specification, there will be no "lip," at the bottom of the window that you need to walk over, the trim will be flush with the ground.
There was also a notation that looked like this:

 In this case, Fest does not mean "Fest," as in let's have a party, this is the window that goes above the kitchen sink, and does not open.
We walked through the whole house with Mr. B and Mr. H. We had to make a few decisions on the direction of the windows opening.  We are still deciding as to whether or not we will be using window grills in the cellar as well.
Mr. H will place the order for the windows tomorrow!  The estimated time for the windows is now between 3-6 weeks.  Once the windows are in, Mr. B also discussed with Mr. H putting in a builder's door and blocking off the rest of the entry points, so that the house is secured.  Wow!
Before Mr. B left, there was one more decision to be made. Mr. B brought with him two samples of roof tiles.  One was a dark, matte gray, and the other was a shiny black.  Funny how when trying to visualize the two roof tiles, we struggled to decide which of the two colors would look better with the house, but once we saw the tiles, there was no question.

We're going with the shiny black tiles (on the left.)  They look really classy in person! 
With this final decision of the day, Mr. B called the roofer and asked him to order the tiles.  As this week starts winding down, I am so excited to see what next week will bring with it!
 

A few views from our roof

Joern and I jumped at the sunny and warm weather yesterday as an opportunity to take the camera up on the roof and take pictures.  Since the roof will be constructed next week, we won't have much more time to get up on top of our house. 
We enjoyed a coffee up there, and played around with the zoom lens on the camera.  We were so impressed with the results!
Here are a few with the normal lens:

And here are some with the zoom lens:

                                                 The ruins of the Burg (castle) Neuffen

                                                           The Teck Castle (Berg Teck)

                                The neighborhood in Neckartenzlingen where we thought of building.

                                A view of the Swabian Alb and in the distance, our current neighborhood.

When we started the home building process, Joern wanted a flat-roofed house, and wanted to use the entire roof as a terrace.  Although that  would have been cost prohibitive and probably not approved by the town council, I can fully see why Joern had such a vision.  Since Germany is such a compact place, standing on that roof, you really feel free and open.  We will be placing a skylight in the roof, as instructed by the roofer, but I can totally envision running up to the attic and looking out that window when life gets too hectic. 

A little bit about our fireplace

We knew we wanted a fireplace in the house from the beginning.  But, it was a long process to get us to where we are with the fireplace.
We looked at all types of fireplaces and wood burning stoves, and spoke with countless representatives from countless companies. 
Through our research, we discovered that for our situation, it would be really helpful to have a fireplace that also supports our warm water. Warm water is the key to our house, as our entire radiant heating system utilizes warm water. 
In the end, Joern found a company in northern Germany that produces a special fireplace insert that supports hot water.  We checked with Mr. B, who agreed that it looked like the exact item that will meet our needs.
Since we have reached the interior wall portion of the building phase, it is time to focus a bit on the fireplace.
Joern made some measurements yesterday, and took some bricks to plot out our fireplace.

                                                    The styrofoam is the width of the fireplace.
We will be placing the TV above the fireplace.  No worries, we have spoken with a few people, like our electrician and Mr. B, who both have seen this done before.  The heat from the fireplace can have a very detrimental effect on the TV, but we will have the wall built with the same stone as the house, which will serve to insulate the fireplace and keep the TV safe.  It is very important to Joern to have the TV displayed in a prominent place, and he wants to be able to see it from the kitchen, dining room, and living room (Oy!)

We have financing!

We had an appointment with the bank at 4:00 this afternoon.  I was very confused as to the purpose of this meeting, as I thought we still had a few things to clarify.
After we had our ritual confusion of how to open the arm to enter the parking lot, we met our financial representative, Herr. W.  As usual, he kindly greeted us, and brought us to a conference room.  Surprisingly, we have met with Herr W. at least 5 times, and this was the first time we met at his workplace, and not at the house.
As our mortgage lender is not our normal bank, the first act was to open a joint account.  Then, another man working at the bank, who specializes in construction financing, came to join us.  He and Herr W. reviewed the terms and conditions of the mortgage.  We have locked in at 25 years at 4.96% interest.  Locking in for 25 years is a huge deal here, as most mortgages lock in interest rates for 10 years, after which time, you must pay off your mortgage or refinance.  Since the rates are pretty low, we decided that we would rather pay the .5% higher to lock in the interest rate for the life of the mortgage.  We also were very pleased with the additional repayment offer, which would allow us to pay down the loan quicker.
Herr W. explained to us how the mortgage works.  Since we're building, our monetary needs are quite different from the purchase of an existing home.  From now on, when we get a bill, we must submit it immediately to the bank, and they will use our mortgage to pay the bill.
One thing that shocked me was when Joern asked Herr W. about the estimated value of the house.  The bank estimated it quite low, because it is worth over amount "X".  Evidently, banks see homes above this price as slightly negative, because houses over this price take quite a long time to sell.  What really made me laugh, of course, was that this price "X" is a totally normal house price at home, for houses well outside the wealthier areas!  Sheesh!
After all this, Herr W. printed out the contract, and we signed!  We still have 14 days to change our minds without penalty.  This helped me a bit in signing the mortgage. 
It is a huge feeling today.  By signing the mortgage, we put a heavy weight on ourselves financially, but it also lifted a huge weight because now we will be able to pay the plumbers, electricians, and further workers in our house!

Its just too cold

The well below freezing temps that we've been experiencing for the past week or so have been downright chilly.  But today's news from the construction site, "Its just too cold."  Evidently, besides the effort to prevent frostbite in the workers, it is simply too cold for the mortar used between the stone on in our interior walls. 
On the one hand, it is frustrating.  On the other hand, I am glad that our builders will not work in this weather.  It makes me feel good about the quality of our house.
Hopefully, the weather will start to warm up soon, and the builders can get on with the house.
Tomorrow, at the very least, is another meeting with the bank about the mortgage.