A bargain can be so exciting!

Ever since I saw this picture in the Pottery Barn catalog, I knew it was going to be the inspiration for our guest room:


I especially love the quilt, simple and elegant. The Olivia Silk Nesting Quilt. I even visited it over the summer. It feels incredible, and looks so pretty. It seems like the perfect thing to cuddle under after you've spent 8 hours on an airplane to come visit us.

When we were home at Christmas, Joern and I spent some time looking in Westport's Pottery Barn. I was disappointed that the Olivia Quilt had been taken off the showroom bed, which signaled to me that it had been discontinued. As I looked through all the shelves, I found the last Olivia Quilt, in ivory, in the right size. And, it was on sale! They also had the matching Euro pillow covers (Euro pillows are a must on all Roesner beds,) on sale again! I was so proud and excited with my bargain!

Imagine my surprise when looking through the website for the ten-millionth time since going on sick leave, I found that they're re-introduced the Olivia. And it is WAY more than I paid! I can't wait to have our house, to put Olivia on the guest bed. I know she'll be beautiful there, and keep our guests happy and comfy!

Dining Room Inspiration

So, I've been trying to figure out how we'll be decorating our house. Sure, we are still waiting on official permission, a mortgage, and all related things, but it is a good time to think about decor. Especially because, at the very least, we'll have to have our furniture, rugs, and other things from the States purchased by May.
This is what I'm thinking of now for our dining room:

I haven't decided on the chairs yet, pretty sure I would have to see them first. The Klismos chair on the side is from surprisingly, Better Homes and Gardens, and the other chair is from The Place Furniture on Long Island. Obviously, the table is a no question- we own it. The light fixutre is from a store here in Germany. The Malika Rug from Pottery Barn had orignally been slated for the living room, but I believe we need a darker rug for the living room now, but I think it would be beautiful with the dark table.
I'm pretty undecided about wall color, but there is about 3 feet of wall in the entire dining room, it is almost all windows. I'm thinking about a chocolateish, or a beige. Chocolate may actually be nice. Because I haven't figured out the walls, I haven't figured out draperies either. I will definately have ivory sheers, but that's about all I've decided upon right now.
Any thoughts?

Oh Happy Day!!

This isn't really house news, but house related.
One of my saddest days was the day I stopped working here on the military base. Not only did it mean that I would no longer work in the job that I completely loved, but it also meant the loss of some incredible benefits to an American living abroad. One of those benefits- a US post box.
When I lost my post box, I lost access to all my favorite catalogs. I have since found lots of magazines that deliver overseas affordably, but alas, no catalogs.
One of my favorite catalogs, and stores for that matter, is Pottery Barn. I was so very sad when I realized that I would only be getting my beloved Pottery Barn catalogs when I visited home.
Yesterday, I found out that PB now has their catalogs available ONLINE!! Hurrah! One very big positive of globalization :)

Our fab furniture!

While we were home, we were extremely busy looking for furniture! Although we haven't fully booked our container yet, we've offically bought furniture in America and are now committed to shipping furniture from home. Great!
We spent a lot of time at the Tanger Outlet Center in Riverhead Long Island. Turns out that we got some incredible deals on some fabulous finds at- RESTORATION HARDWARE! I cannot believe we own furniture from Restoration Hardware. It is all so very beautiful, and all so heavy, and well, amazing. I'm in love with our furniture.
So, without further delay, I introduce to you:

Our fabulous King sized Portman sleigh bed

Our incredibly beautiful Portman espresso finish dining room table

Our beautiful espresso finish double vanity for the master bath. It does not have a top though, which is better, so that we can match our top to our bathroom floors. Good thing we know a granite guy!

Our beautiful Hutton storage tower for our master bath.
All photos above from www.restorationhardware.com

Due to space complications, I could not get the matching nightstands for our bed. They are too wide for our bedroom (they are each 38" wide). So, I stopped at, Wal-Mart, of all places, and found these beautiful nightstands:


I have heard such great reviews about this Canopy line from Walmart. The size is perfect, and the quality does seem really good, and the size is perfect. I will change out the knobs though, but that's really small beans. I am so very excited about our nightstands!

We also found Bassett Furniture while we were home. In comparission, they are affordable, and have really nice quality things. Plus, you can customize most of their furniture. They were also great to work with, and we were able to request that the furniture stays at the factory until we are home to accept delivery, which is so perfect!
We ordered our couch and coffee table from them. I am planning on ordering the matching end-tables from them as well.
Here they are:

This is the color and style of the sectional. I only don't like the circle throw pillows, but those are easily changeable. I am also in love with the exposed legs. They are dark, so they match the dining room table. I'm trying to figure out what kind of accent chair would go well with the couch.

At first, I wasn't in love with the idea of a round cocktail table, but with the U shape of the sectional, it is really the best solution.

I haven't purchased the end tables yet, but I am pretty certain these are the end tables that we'll get.

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.