The chicken or the egg?

What came first, the chicken or the egg? What will come first for us, the house or the plot?
We're still thinkiing about the plot next to Joern's parents. BUT, since its on such a hill, the cellar would be so expensive! Do we need a cellar?
We spoke with the farmer who owns the building plot in the next town over. He told us the exact location of the plot. Turns out it is not in the corner, there is one more building plot between his and the edge of the town. But, there is a 2.5 acre field running all the way to the far edges of the town, that field is built in to the price of the building plot. A positive and a negative. It ensures that we would have a huge property, that we would have to plant trees around for our privacy. But, our land would run behind our neighbor's land. Hmmmm.
The house we build will be determined by the building plot, yet the plot we are interested in will be determined also by the cost of the house.
Joern should have some research to complete while I'm home. We'll see what awaits me when I return.

Joern is finally getting in to this house thing!!

As I said in an earlier post, it looks like the house is on its way to being a memory, and my mom's estate was just liquidated yesterday. We've been dreaming, talking to people, and looking at pictures, but we haven't gone too far into the planning. Now that we're getting closer to our dream, it looks like its time to actually buckle down and start the planning process. I've been looking at tons of pictures, busy getting ideas, and talking to Joern, but he hasn't really been talking back.
All of a sudden, yesterday, Joern started talking about building plots and asked me what rooms are important to me in a house. We went to a huge furniture store yesterday. I found a couch that was interesting, just the wrong color, but easily fixable. Most excitingly though, we found some incredible kitchen ideas. Joern has decided now that he wants a very large island in the kitchen. But do we want the sink in the island or the stove?
Something we love, Joern especially is the CombiSet from Miele.

image from www.Miele.com
You can mix and match counter-top stove components. You can choose from gas burners, an induction range, regular glass-ceramic burners, a stovetop grill, a wok-burner, griddle, even a built-in scale! It is a very pricey option, but if we can cut costs in other places, who knows what our range will look like?!
After our very fun experience with furniture and kitchen shopping, we headed home and Joern started planning another house. Wolfgang and Joern are going to meet with the farmer who owns the building plot next to Wolfgang and Hildegard, tomorrow. Since it is very narrow plot, we would have to do some creative planning with the house. I can't find Joern's plans to put up now, but Joern designed an extremely modern home. It is actually quite beautiful, and I think it would be amazing! I am really proud of Joern- he really has some amazing ideas!!
This morning, we headed out to Esslingen to another furniture store. It was especially fabulous that they were having a grand re-opening celebration, so we got to begin our search with a glass of sparkling wine- tee hee!
We spent most of our time in the kitchen area. Again, we are starting to form a better idea of what we want in our kitchen. Joern has become even more enamored with the Miele Combi-Set. I am really liking the idea of the island too. We're still not quite sure about the cabinet material, Joern would prefer white, while I would prefer a wood. Joern's argument about wood is that its "too Bavarian."
We'll also need to come to a compromise about the countertops. I really want a beige granite, but also like the look of black granite with white cabinets. Joern does not like granite, being opposed to the high sheen of these countertops. We're looking into Silestone as another option.
We also talked to a salesman about appliances. We would like a ball-park idea of how much our kitchen will cost. So we talked appliances. Oy! I would love to find a very large, American sized oven. Unfortunately, very large ovens are almost impossible to find here. We have a lot to research.
We also looked at sinks, and I realized when we plan, I need to bring my crockpot insert with me to judge sink sizes. I found a flush-mount sink from Villeroy and Boch:

image from www.villeroyboch.com
Joern doesn't really like undermount sinks because most are stainless steel. I don't like regular drop-in sinks, because of the lip and the dirt that gets under the lip. It seems like this flush mount sink may be a good compromise.
We also stopped at an appliance dealer. Buying the appliances at the furniture store/kitchen store may seem easiest, but really expensive. We talked about ovens, because it is so hard to find an oven here that would fit a Thanksgiving turkey. They make 36 inch ovens here, but they are long and flat, and would never fit a turkey. Of course, I feel stupid going to a store and saying, "I really need a gigantic oven for one bird once a year." But then again, how dumb would it be if I couldn't make a turkey at Thanksgiving? We talked about prices on ovens, built-in coffee machines (Joern's dream,)

We also discussed refrigerators, which of course, I am insisting on a side-by-side with an in-door ice maker. We looked at wine storage too, hmmm, that would be a lot of fun! In all, it turns out that we can purchase appliances much cheaper if we go to an appliance store instead of a big kitchen store or a media mega-store. We figured out that we could save enough money in our purchase of our ovens that we could use that saved money for the built-in coffee maker! Joern is also thinking of a steam oven. I am not so convinced on that one, simply because we don't steam anything now. But who knows?! I am very excited to see the final product!!

HGTV Dream Home 2009

When I am home, I watch HGTV constantly. I love the shows, the beautiful houses, everything!
I decided to get on their website today just to look around. They have a bunch of pictures and photo tours up from their 2009 Dream Home. While it isn't my exact dream home, there are quite a few details which were really interesting to me.


I really love the windows around the door. They add lots of light to the entry way.


This detail from the kitchen is so cool! I love the shelving for dish storage. These shelves though are in the pantry, to protect the dishes from lots of dust and grease that end up in the kitchen.


No worries, I won't decorate our guest bedroom quite like this, but I do like the homey, comfortable feeling in the room. I also really like the iron bed frame, which lightens up the room.


This guest bath is really tranquil. When you've traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to visit, you definately want an enviornment that is tranquil.


I like the sophisticated cabinets here in the Kid's Bath. Even though the counters are blue and fun, they can easily be changed out as kids get older. Since the cabinets are white, they look fun with the blue counter, and would fit equally as well with a different color counter.


I really love dark wood cabinets in bathrooms, but I do like the light cabinets here with the dark floors. I also like the built-in shelving for towels. You can store normally folded towels in these shelves. Here the towels can be a part of the decor without being rolled all special, or ending up in a basket somewhere.


The island in the walk-in closet is fabulous! It would be an excellent place to store accessories and undies separate from clothes. Further, it seems really handy to have a central place to place your clothes as you choose an outfit.


I really hope that our terrace is large enough for both an eating area and a more relaxed "outdoor living" area.
*all images from HGTV.com Dream Home 2009

Things I'm loving

Thank goodness I'm on vacation. I don't know how on earth I could keep focused on work when there are so many great decorating/ house resources on the internet! In a perfect world, we will have money for a down payment VERY soon, which means that we will be able to start on our house VERY soon!
My plan was to take the time while everything was in probate to make decisions. After 7 full years living here, I've received a bunch of "I want to come visits." Great! So excited! But, it would be so much more fun to have guests come visit us in our new house!
There are some things that Joern and I are pretty much decided upon, well, one thing, we want two full floors in our home. So, our house will look something like this:

image from FingerHaus.de

There are some features though that sure would make life nice:
1. A sun room

2. A balcony
See above photo- balconies are especially lovely when they are on top of a sun room!

While searching the fabulous world of the internet, here are some more lovely ideas I've found:

image from www.younghouselove.com


Shellbox fom www.theletteredcottage.com


I love this personalized wall canvas from www.nameyourdesign.com


Azure Chair from www.crateandbarrel.com

bathroom from TDiddy2

There are so many decisions to be made!

Where we are right now

I have to say, the house building process is not quite as easy as it all seems. And really, we're not too far along. It looks like we're finally going to get our finances in order by the end of the summer, which means that in all reality, we can actually get started on this process quite soon! Wow!
Here's where we are right now:
We know relatively little about what we want. The things I should be making a decision on are not things I really want to make decisions about, so I frequently find my mind drifting off to smaller things, decorating related. I know what the photo wall will look like in our guest room, what color I want to paint our living room, oh, and what kind of dog I want to get.
What am I confused by? Our current quandry concerns a building plot. I am forever thankful to Jörn's parents for offering their front yard to build our house. That is still a very possible option. Ufortunately, there are some drawbacks to this prospect, including: limitations, proximity, and cost.
Limitations- we can only build a flat roofed house in order to save the view for my in-laws. Without a flat roof, they will have 6 feet of their home from which to look out from and see anything other than our house. Joern's dream is to have a garage with a car lift in it, so that he can work on his old cars. There would be no possiblity of this - ever if we build on our in-laws' property.
Proximity We would only be able to build once- because we'll be squishing our house right along the property borders, we won't have the possiblity to add on. We have to make all our decisions for the next 20 or so years now. Bleh! And to quote my friend's fiance, "Did you ever think it will be like Everybody Loves Raymond?"

While I can appreciate it would be extremely nice for our future kids to have the freedom to go between our house and Oma and Opa's, as George Burns said, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."
Cost Yes, building on my in-laws' plot would save us the cost of buying land, and getting all the utilities to it, lets not forget, there will be some additional costs. The house is on a hill, so the cellar needs to be specially reinforced against the pressures of the hill. Our cellar, with garage, will cost us almost as much as buying a plot of land, because the cellar needs to be higher to accommodate a garage. Because our house will be our forever house, pretty much unchangable, we have to build a house that will exactly fit the property, more expensive than building a standard house.
So, we're looking at some options:
1. Purchasing a plot of land next to my in-laws. It is a long/narrow plot, that without having land from my in-laws, is unbuildable. If we purchased this land, we would be able to not only have a large yard, but we could reposition the house and have more options.
2. A building plot in Neckartenzlingen, a town about double the size of Neckartailfingen. The plot is ginormous! It is a 3.7 acre lot, with an approximately 1/4 acre buildable land. The rest is fields and woods. Yes, this seems ridiculous, but in Germany, where people are squished together, 3.7 acres, even if mostly unbuildable is HEAVEN! It is an end lot in a new- build area (in Germany, as towns grow, new neighborhoods are opened up for building.) This is the end of the area for building, as the woods border another town. The building plot is very gently sloped, and the woods run down to the Neckar river, but it is quite high, and in no danger of flooding. The view looks onto rolling hills, and you can even see Neckartailfingen. It is beautiful!

3. Purchase another building plot. This wouldn't be bad either, but it would be about the same price to purchase 1/4 acre buildable land as it would be to purchase the plot mentioned in option #2.
We're talking to the farmers who own the plots of land both next to the in-laws and the one in Neckartenzlingen. We'll see what happens!
For now, I guess I'll continue to peruse the Pottery Barn website to find decorating ideas.

Haven't been around in a while

We have kind of put the hunt on hold while we're waiting for money. But, some companies continue to contact us, which is fine.
Before we left for Italy though, we were suprised by our project manager from F.H. He called us and said that the plans for our house are ready. But, we have to sign the contract quickly as prices are going up. Um, fishy! We have no money right now, and we have always been upfront with this fact. As soon as we start talking to a company, the first thing we say that we are looking at beginning probably next spring, because of the monetary sitation. How on earth can we sign a contract right now with no mortgage, nothing? Obviously, the front runner company has gone down a point or 20 in my book.
We met with another pre-fab company a few times recently. We really like their version of the house we are looking into. With pre-fab homes, you can move around the insides as long as you don't start moving walls. When you want to move walls, you start messing with the structural design, and they have to get ahold of their design engineers. As soon as you start talking about structure and engineers, you rapidly increase the price. This is why if we do go with a pre-fab, it is best if we find an exisiting model with a floor plan we are pleased with. This is the cheapest option.
Today, we met with an architect. We spoke with him before, and he is in the model home park. On our first meeting, I was a bit put off. As we told him what we wanted, he came around with answers like, "that won't work because of the pattern of the sun," or my favorite, "well, that just isn't Feng Shui." I'm not a believer. To me, I want a view of the castle ruins from our bed, and I want to make sure our living room does not look into Jörn's cousin's house. But, Jörn being the one to keep our options open told me to wait to see what the architect designs.
Well, turns out that the architect designed an incredibly beautiful home. Someone from the company came out to Jörn's parents' to take detailed pictures of the plot, and based on the measurements came up with the best fit for the space we would have.
Oh, I wish I had the pictures, but he won't release them to us until we pay a semi-contract fee. Understandable, as we could take the plans and go to someone cheaper.
OH MY GOD! The house is gorgeous! It has a huge basement with a 2 car garage. The cellar includes an office with a beautiful window, and our cinema room which would be 430 sq. ft. The first floor has a guest room with a guest bath, a lovely kitchen, and a great room that is 645 sq. ft (the size of our current apartment.) In between the living and dining areas, he has planned a dual sided fireplace. There is even room on the first floor for our washer and dryer!
Upstairs, I would get my MBR suite! The master bath is huge! The two other bedrooms are quite large and share their own bath.
There are beautiful, huge windows, some of which wrap around the corners of the house. On top of our garage, he planned a very large terrace that stretches across the entire house front. We could fit an outdoor dining and living area!
The house is approximately 2200 sq. ft. Hooray!
The best though is that we would not have to move my in-laws' existing driveway or their garage. This means much less land to dig out and replace, plus, we will not have to move any pipes leading to their house.
There is really very little I would do to change this current design, which is most exciting.
What I really liked about working with the architect is that he was able to give us exactly what we want, at a competitive price. Most of the pre-fabs insist we have an entry-way in the back of the house, which we would never use. If we build a pre-fab, we will have to fit our lives to the pre-exisiting plan of the house. If we build with an architect, he has planned a house to fit our lives. It seems so beautiful and exciting!
The pre-fabs have to go a long way now to beat this offer!

A weekend to rest!

We have no appointments this weekend! For the first weekend since the beginning of February, we won't be meeting with anyone about the house. This is actually nice! And again, it makes me kind of thankful that we don't have the money quite yet. If we had the money right now to buy the house, I would be a basket-case because I would feel so completely pressured to start building the house ASAP.
Of course, just because we have no appointments, doesn't mean we won't be thinking about the house. Because all we do is think about the house!
I used this morning to get my thoughts about the house out on paper. We have no water in the building until 3 pm. Since I couldn't do laundry or clean without water, I decided to draw out my idea of the perfect house. Of course, the measurments are not correct, the house is not drawn to scale, but I think I have it!
I can't wait to show Joern!!
The best news is that now we'll be prepared for next week when we have our meeting with DanWood, and the following week, when we have yet another meeting with FingerHaus! Hooray!!