Cha, Cha, Changes

Our idea this morning was to change the layout of the kitchen. The longer we've thought about the island, the more impractical it has become. Joern would love for the island to be 9 feet long- oy! Then, we scaled back to a little over 8 feet long, but it would still leave the kitchen island jutting out a bit into our dining room. Joern came to me this morning with my origninal suggestion- a U shape. But, our kitchen is actually really large for a U-Shape, and we would end up with a very large U. This would make for the perfect work triangle. Plus, we'll still have another wall opposite the kitchen sink that will contain further cabinets, as well as built-in appliances, including our oven, a steam-oven, and microwave. With a little luck, I can squeeze a wine refrigerator into this wall as well.
Many people advised us against the island, and I originally suggested the U. Joern had his heart set on an island, but finally saw the light that a U shape is much more functional and efficient. In effect, the side of the U facing the dining room will be very similar to an island, like in the following picture:

we just won't have the stove here, it will be a very large, very long work space, which is very exciting!
We also hope to move out the wall in the pantry, to make it a square shape instead of a square with one corner lopped off. This would maximize wall space in the kitchen for our "American" refrigerator, as well as give us more room in the pantry. Joern dropped another plan on me today- he wants a mini-fridge in our pantry for his stinky cheeses and stinky Italian meats. Wahoo!! I'm all for that!
It is really fun to watch the whole thing evolve. I am really excited to see the final product!
This afternoon, at 4:00, we had an appointment with Mr. Wurth. We decided to go to the kitchen store we're under contract with early, to check out their kitchens. They're open the first Sunday of the month only for looking. I found a few things that were really interesting, and I can't wait to officially meet with them to work on designing the kitchen.

We both liked this kitchen- without the wood colored countertops and would like white for the body as well as the front. I'm a little undecided about the high gloss finish many German kitchens are showing right now. But, this was a high gloss kitchen that really didn't look bad.

I love the pull out spice racks flanking the stove. I would love these!
After our trip to the kitchen store, we headed out to our meeting with Mr. Wurth. Our building application, or Baugesuch, is officially complete. The building application here is ginormous, and four separate copies must be filed with the building department, or Bauamt. It includes all the technical details of the house, as well as how the house will stand in the property, and well, kind of everything under the sun. We must have signed 100 pages today, my hand is still cramped! But the good news is that its finished, and Joern will go to the county building department tomorrow, and turn in the application. Mr. Wurth said that it usually takes about 2 weeks to get approval, especially since the building has kind-of been pre-approved when we asked to build on our patchwork properties. Of course, Christmas is coming up and we're headed home. If we don't hear back before we head home, we'll just be putting things on hold until January.
Once we get approval, fingers crossed, we can then go forward with purchasing the building lot, and transfering some of my in-laws' property into our names. I'm already not looking forward to the costs- we'll have to pay taxes on the value of the entire lot, not just what we've purchased. This is approximately 1/2 an acre, we are actually purchasing significantly less. Bleh!
We'll also have to pay a notary public. I've had one experience with a notary public, and financially, it is not an experience I'd like to repeat. Their fee is based on the value of the transaction they are notarizing. Seriously, insane!
But, the good news is that if we are careful, we'll stay within our price-range. Hopefully, we can keep it this way!

Our current apartment, lessons in appliances

Planned obsolescence, that's what was supposed to have been industry's way of ensuring jobs and production. If your appliances have a limited life-span, then people will need to buy appliances every so often. We've lived in our apartment for 5 years now, and a few weeks ago, Joern noticed that the two back burners on our stove were not working, so now, we're down to two burners. I would have thought that it was a fluke, because five years seems to be a ridiculously short life for a stove, but then our dishwasher broke. It is constantly stuck on one mode, I can't even get it to turn off- we had to disconnect it. Okay, so you can chalk it up to a strange coincidence, two appliances at once. But the last straw was last week- a crack formed in the back of our refrigerator, and has now broken open. If you push on the crack, water spurts out of it. Three appliances, that are all five years old have broken within one month of each other, the warranties have all expired. Oh please!
Either I must research appliances thoroughly before we buy new ones, or I have to start budgeting for a five year appliance overhaul. Sheesh!

The plans and the price

We had our meeting to discuss the plans and the price on Friday. Overall, the meeting was good. Mr. Architect gave us the price of the house "turn-key ready." That's not really what we are going for, because we know people who can do work for us at a cheaper rate, plus, we know we can get materials cheaper than he calculated. Somehow, the house has turned into his Luxury Line, so the materials he included in the price include hardwood flooring, stone tile, and a whole bunch of expensive things. There are things that we definately don't need, like a towel warmer in the bathroom (I know, they may be nice, but it just isn't important for me.)
Overall, the price was really okay. A little high for Joern's desires, but somewhere within our budget- and not at the high end. We will definately work on that a bit, but we left pretty satisfied.
Oh, and in case you were interested, here are the plans for the house:
Cellar

I know it may look a little weird that the garage is not parallel to the house, but if it is parallel to the house, we would never be able to get in and out of our garage properly. It won't look bad because the majority of the cellar is underground, and the only thing you'll be able to see is the entryway and the garage. Going through the foyer, on the right will be a utility room/ bathroom, cellar, and the room for the heater and electrical system (Technik) on the left will be a very large room that may stay one large room for movies and future playroom, or we may divide it. The stairs go up from the back of the house (so yes, you have to walk all the way around the stairs to go up, but there is a reason for that.)
First Floor

We still have a few changes to make in the floor plan, and are thinking of adding a meter to the dining room, but you'll come up the stairs into the great room. On the left will be the living room, dining room to the right, with a fireplace acting as a room divider. On the right hand side of the stairway will be the kitchen, with a very large island- hooray! Vor. stands for "Vorratsraum," and will be the pantry. The back door is opposite the staircase heading upstairs. The bathroom is to the left of the staircase. Yes, I know it is a little dumb that you have to walk all around the house to get to the bathroom, but we can't really find another solution. To the left of the staircase also is the office / guest room.
Upstairs

At the top of the stairs, the master bedroom, walk-in-closet, and master bath run along the left-side of the house. The bathroom is HUGE, and we have planned a large walk-in shower. Straight in front of the staircase is the children's bathroom. I am hoping we can work the washer and dryer into this bathroom, maybe taking some room from the adjacent bedroom, which would allow us to hide the washer and dryer behind bifold doors. The two bedrooms will also have possibly a balcony.
I am generally pleased with the plans. They need a little work, this isn't the final, but a good idea of what our home will look like.
Oh yeah,and there are mostly all floor height windows. There is a great view from the top floor, and these windows will help us to maximize the view.

Boo Hoo

We were supposed to meet with Mr. Wurth today to discuss the price of the house. We requested two prices- one with the house being 32 feet wide, and the other with the house being 36 feet long. I am so hoping that the second option is doable- it really would make the house big and beautiful!
Sadly, he was too busy today, and we had to put off the meeting until Friday. Although I am nervous about the prices, I just want to know so that we can move on with the planning. Grrr!!

Another meeting

We met with Mr. Architect again tonight. Sadly, we were hoping for a bit more. Joern emailed our house design last week, and we were hoping that he had taken our design and gone over it architecturally. But, he said that he hadn't received Joern's email. So, we printed the plans out quickly, and just quickly talked about the plans.
Our garage needed to be a bit wider, but since we have a larger property now, we can definately make a garage wide enough for both of our vehicles. He also pointed out that we should move our entry door a bit, and suggested a wider entry hall. All good points.
The surveyor came out last week, and did a 3D measurement of the property. Completing this allows for the architect and the town to have an exact understanding of what the house will look like, as well as drawing up specific property lines.
We haven't planned a new meeting yet, but once Mr. Architect draws up new plans with our design, we'll meet again. He's also working on the official building application process. I'm so interested to see where this goes!

Familie & Heim Fair

This afternoon, we headed out to the Stuttgart Messe (Trade Fair Hall,) for the Family and Home Fair. Unfortunately, this is about as close to a fair for building around here. I recently saw an ad for a building fair in Bern, Switzerland that looked incredible, sadly, for us, the fair wasn't so big.
Since the fair was family and home, it was not only house related, nor building related. But, there were some very interesting things. We picked up some brochures on hot tubs, which is us just dreaming. We spoke with a representative from a company that produces fireplaces. It was so interesting! I learned how German fireplaces work- the chimney is lined with very dense bricks that heat up from the fire. If you have a good quality fireplace here, and you light a fire for a little while at night, the bricks retain the heat until the following morning! That's gotta save on heating costs. They had a model, similar to the one below, which is quite similar to our "dream" fireplace.

Then we found a kitchen seller. It was so interesting!! This company has remarkable prices compared with furniture stores here. Their prices are so low because they do not advertise in newspapers or on television. We were given a quote that included granite countertops, and it was really affordable. I have a feeling that this store's prices are pretty much unbeatable.
Overall, I am pretty glad that we went to the fair, although it could have been a little better. It was a fun, and exciting day!

Our first official meeting

We met with our designer/ architect on Friday after I got out of work. It was our first official meeting with Mr. Architect as our project manager. The meeting was quite informative, and a bit of drain already on the wallet. He started out with formally giving us the plans he drew up for our house. Unfortunately, we will not be going with his design, as we are limited by the town as to which direction we can build our house, and Mr. Architect's design was not in the proper direction. No worries though, it is fixable!
But, we paid the first 1/2 of the charge for Mr. Architect to complete a "Baugesuch" or building application for the town of Neckartaifingen. Oy, they're gigantic! The application must include a pretty accurate house plan, as well as tons of other information. We won't actually purchase the lot if this application does not get approved, but there is little chance after our meeting on Wednesday that the application will be denied.
We haven't officially signed with Mr. Architect, this will only happen after the application is approved and Mr. Architect gives us a final offer on the home we want. Although this is a little stinky after we invest some money, it also gives a safety cushion in case his actual offer comes out more expensive than another housing company.
Mr. Architect gave us our first homework assignment as well, to put together our dream design and a "wish list" by Tuesday, so that he can include these items in the application.
Good thing we're headed to Cologne tomorrow to pick up my new car, we have two hours on the train to work on the "wish list."
See you tomrrow with an update!