Day 3

They just keep digging, digging, digging!  Another 15 truck-loads today!

Friday

Today

So tired!

Now that we've actually started, I should be posting close to daily.  Unfortunately, last night, I didn't sleep a wink!  It is 8 pm now, and I am absolutely exhausted!

The digging went well today, despite the crazy heavy rain and wind we had today. This morning, the top of the yard had been scraped off.  By the end of the day, there is a definate hole about 6 feet deep.  It is huge!  I'm also so glad that I finally found a pair of wellies that fit, because without wellies, I never could have walked into the mud and checked out the excavation today!

Joern said that there were about 14 truck loads (trucks with double trailers by the  way,) that drove back and forth with ground  today!  So, the total so far is 14 double trailer loads, and 6 single trailer loads! 

Looking to our neighbor's house on Friday

Looking at the house from the same spot today

Our excitement for the day

I guess the last post really says it all, we broke ground today! We found out yesterday that the excavator operator would be available from today on.  For the past few days, I have been disappointed because I was really hoping to have been home to witness the entire first day of excavation.  When we arrived this morning, my feeling changed from disappointment to relief that at least I could be a few minutes late to school today.  That feeling changed again pretty quick when the excavator dug its jaws deep into the dirt, this time, the feeling was absolute elation, excitement, and a few tears.  This is our future, and we were able to watch the beginning stage of it.
We arrived to the building lot at 7 am, when Mr. Builder said that we would be breaking ground.  Joern and I were the first ones there, so we took some final pictures of our untouched land.  The excavator and the first truck for loading were already parked in front of the lot since last night.
At 7:20, both the operator of the excavator and the truck driver arrived.  Joern knows the operator, so they chatted for a minute, and then the operator turned on the excavator.  As he waited for it to warm up, he took a few shots of us, digging the first piece of ground, called the Spatenstich in German, and then hopped in the excavator.  He got to work immediately, digging the great jaws of the machine deep into the earth, pulling it out, and placing it into the bed of the truck.  Joern and I watched as the truck filled up pretty quickly.  After about ten minutes, I knew I had to get going to work. 
Of course, we had a guest speaker come to school today, so it was hard to break away to ask Joern how things were going.  By 3:00, I still hadn't gotten ahold of Joern and was a little anxious, I really wanted to know what was going on..  Of course, one can't actually explain what excavation looks like, but Joern did telll me that there were tons of rocks in the ground.  They're really big rocks, and Joern was able to ask Mr. Builder if we could use these rocks for our retaining wall.  Mr. Builder got ahold of the geologist who tested the ground for the duplex near us, and asked about the rocks.  He confirmed that we could indeed use these rocks for our retaining wall.  Good news, it will definately save us a lot of money. 
By the time I got home, at 4:00, the operator had gone home, but I was completely shocked to see the building lot!  Joern said that about 5 truckloads of ground were driven away during the course of the day. 
Mr. Builder and his nephew were marking out the exact borders for the excavation.  We chatted with Mr. Builder for a bit.  Mr. Builder told us that we'll have about 12 or 13 truckloads excavated on Monday, and it will probably keep up at that rate all next week!
I still cannot belive the amount of work completed in one day.  Needless to say, this is all incredibly exciting!

In other news, we received the Red Point, or Baufreigabe, which is the formal building release.  This is the building permit we had  permission to apply for.  The wife of Joern's cousin, our building engineer, stopped by with a few sets of plans for the plumbers, electrician, etc.  Lots and lots of exciting paper!

I have the pictures up on my the share site.

Drumroll please....

(Channel Chevy Chase, Christmas Vacation (Schöne Bescherung) - the house lighting scene)

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum.

Rat-a-tat-tat-Rat-a-tat-tat

Bum-bum-bum-bum

Daaaaaaaaa


"JOY TO THE WORLD!"

At 7:20 am today, we broke ground! 

The hunt for the missing excavator

Makes for a good mystery novel, huh? How can an excavator go missing? And by excavator I mean the machine, and not the person.
As of last week Saturday, it looked like full-steam ahead. The surveyor was supposed to come out yesterday and stake out the lot for excavation. Today, the excavation was supposed to have begun.
The surveyor did ineed come out yesterday, and in fact, the borders of the house are all staked out. The lot is ready and waiting.
No excavation today. No word from the builder. Mr. B called us this evening and asked if the excavation machine ever showed up- they usually arrive on the construction site the day before excavation begins. No machine. Nothing, no word.
Mr. Builder did explain that the driver of the excavator also needs to help on his brother's farm. FINE. But, please tell us!
Tonight, we decided to go look at all of Mr. Builder's current construction sites, to see if he is putting off the building project for another one, or if Mr. Excavator is really farming. After about an hour driving around town, going to his construction sites, and even driving by his yard. Nothing. It seems a little odd that we can't actually find the excavator.
Well, tomorrow is Thursday and the next day, Friday. I wonder when this is going to get started. I just I hope I am there with Joern to actually break ground!

The container is now history

With only a few casualties, like Georg's elbow and my camera, the container is now history!
With everything tentatively worked out in Hamburg with customs, the container arrived at Joern's parents storage warehouse yesterday at 12:30 pm. I wish I could find my camera, so you could see the picture of how the truck was loaded. Two 20 ft. containers were loaded on the trailer, with someone elses container behind ours. Our first question: How on earth were we going to access our container? Once the driver maneuvered the truck around to the loading bay (yes, there is a loading bay, not like the experience poor Joern had loading the container,) we realized that our container had been loaded on backwards, so the driver just angled the trailer, and we could open the container from the front.
After a little pomp and circumstance, Joern's father popped open the seal, and we got to work offloading. Joern's two friends Georg and Marc came to help. I can't even begin to describe how different the offloading experience was from loading in Connecticut.
In all, it took about 3 hours to offload the container, and then another 2 hours to get everything into the two rooms for storage. The loading bay is in the back of the warehouse, and Joern's parents' storage is in the front on the other end. It was a lot of work, and a lot of planning, but it worked quite well.
We also started unpacking all of our furniture in preparation for customs to visit this morning. Let me start out by saying that I am in love with our furniture! The china hutch is like something out of my dreams! It is HUGE, and matches the table exactly! It is so very beautiful! The chair from Crate and Barrel is so grandma-y, and beautiful. It did suffer a little mishap, and some of the material popped out from under the piping at the bottom right corner, but I'm sure that can be remedied. The living room couch is a beautiful medium brown, buttery leather. It is so soft and comfortable. Not too soft, but not Germanly hard either. Our barstools are beautiful too. We unpacked the two bathroom vanities, they're both perfect. The medicine cabinets all made it with no scratches. Our bedroom dresser did get one nick in the front, but it also has some big damage on the side, but that happened when we bought it. Good news, is that this damage showed to customs today that it was used and not newly bought :) We had everyone sniff our cedar lined dresser drawers, and Georg even said that he could fix the damage!
The only item that broke was the lid of our beverage dispenser. But all in all, everything weathered the voyage just fine.
This morning, it was back to the warehouse at 9 am, to meet with someone from customs. She wanted to inspect the items to ensure that they were indeed inherited. It was pretty nervewracking, especially when she asked to look in a bunch of boxes. Not that there was anything bad, I just didn't enjoy having someone thumb through all of my things to determine if they should or shouldn't be taxed.
In the end, it worked out fine. She was with us for about 30 minutes, and everything was fine.
We are just waiting for a bill from the shipping company, for the time the container was detained in Hamburg, but it is mostly history.
After the customs agent left, Joern, Joern's father, and myself drove two SUVs and one station wagon, all completely full with packing materials to the waste center. We filled up two bags that were about 5 ft. long and 4 ft. high with styrofoam. They had us put the packing foil into a special bin, because they like to store it for people who come and ask for packing matierials. We had at least 50 boxes. It was insane. But again, now its all done.
No more worrying about the container. Now, we can focus on the house!

Our first neighborhood Richtfest

In Germany, there is a tradition that when the frame, or Rohbau, of the house is complete, the family that is building has a party to thank the people who helped to bring the house to that point, called a Richtfest. In the German translator, it translates "Richtfest" as a "Roofing ceremony." It seems that it is celebrated in different ways in different parts of Germany, and I'm pretty sure that they are what you make of them. It is typical to invite your family, friends, builders, and neighbors. Joern's friend Markus, who is building one half of the duplex next to our building lot, is now at the point where the Rohbau is complete. Last night, we were invited to their Richtfest.
Since the house is a duplex, both families were celebrating last night. The weather has been so lovely the last few days, it was a perfect evening to party!
The party started at 5:30, when Mr. Builder (who built their house too,) climbed to the top of the staging, and stood next to a tree that was placed on top of the roof. Mr. Builder then had a little speech about the meaning of the tree, marking the pride of the builders and the home owners. Mr. Builder then went on with the typical German poem about building a house, and asking God for protection. A couple gulps of wine, and then Mr. Builder threw the wine glass on the ground. The broken glass is supposed to bring good luck, if the glass doesn't break, bad luck!
After that, we took some pictures, and both families, Markus Fink and Marco Niebling, showed people around their homes. We spent a lot of time chatting, and had some yummy food.
All in all, it was a nice party. We had a lot of fun, and spent a long time chatting with the people who sold us our land, they're so nice! In German fashion, we came home around 2 am, needless to say, we are a little tired this morning.
I was happy to have that experience before we have ours. There are a few things I would like to change, and a few things that I will keep the same. I'm looking forward to ours, in late October!

The container story, an update

URGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The container that we shipped from America with all of my personal items that I never moved, and all our beautiful new furniture. It has been stuck in Hamburg for exactly one week now. Why? I don't qualify for the one time, tax free, move. Why? I've been here too long. This one makes me sooooo angry. Although there is a lot of stuff in the container that is new, there is also tons of stuff in the container that I have been keeping at my father's house for the past 10 or so years. I have my books from school, all my old posters and items from traveling, old prom dresses, even mom's second wedding dress. Just because I've lived here so long simply does not mean that I am not moving my personal items now. Don't they realize that people can, and do, put things in storage for extended periods of time, when they are living abroad. You can't bring everything over at once in a suitcase.
So, the new approach- my mom and stepfather died, and I inherited 1/2 of all their household goods. I have good reason to belive that I should be entitled to bring my mother's items to Germany. But, we need death certificates, and copies of both wills. I have one stamped copy of my stepfather's death certificate, but only a photocopy of my mom's (my fault, I know.) And, I only have a signed version of my mom's will.
Sheesh!
So, they wanted to hold the container in Hamburg until we got everything worked out. This could take a reeally long time! Joern told his father the story, and to my very happy surprise, he contacted his friends at Nuertingen customs. They discussed the situation, and they agreed to take over the job of the container from Hamburg customs. The positive in this is that our furniture will be delivered to us on MONDAY!! We need to unpack the container, and then wait for a few weeks until customs arrives to check through the contents.
This is the best news. Joern and I are off to organized the Joern's parents' storage warehouse, so that we can store all of our very beautiful, very going to live in our new home furniture!
Thank you so very much Wolfgang!

Meeting number one million

After the bliss of yesterday morning's purchase started to settle in, we had an appointment with Mr. Builder and Mr. B (our architect and project manager.) It was the first meeting between Mr. B and Mr. Builder, and they had some items to clarify. Mostly, this part of the meeting could have been completed without us, because we didn't really have any clue what they were talking about. The first part of the meeting lasted about an hour, and started with Mr. Builder's news- the retaining wall running behind all the new properties pushed forward a bit. The positive is that our piece of the wall is minimal, so if we do need to chip in to replace it, it won't be very much. Not sure who is responsible for fixing the wall though, as it was built many, many years ago. It would be nice if we won't have to pay to fix it. Oh, the joys of homeownership!
Mr. B and Mr. Builder started off discussing the insulation for underneath the foundation. I remember Mr. B and Joern's cousin, the structural engineer, discussing in great detail this insulation. It is now popular to place a lot of insulation underneath houses, but this was a problem for us that we were building on a hill. Joern's cousin then planned a material called Misapor to be placed underneath the house. Misapor is a soft stone made with recycled glass fibers. Sounds great. Mr. Builder though said that because of the nature of our building site, there will be times when the crane needs to be placed directly onto our building lot, and may have to sit on the layer underneath the foundation for a few days. Evidently, while the stone can stand up to the weight of a house, as the weight is more evenly distributed, it will crush underneath the crane. So, we will have stones laid underneath our house.
We discussed making the cellar water-tight. A special paper will be applied around the entire cellar, as an extra insurance, to insure that it is water-tight.
We also have not had a geological test completed on our lot. We have not done this because there is a house that is being built one lot over. We can pretty much asume that our ground is the same as theirs, but you never know. It was discussed that once we start excavation, Mr. B and Mr. Builder will look at the ground to decide if we need to have a geological survey done on the property.
There was a bit of a discussion about using pre-fab pieces for the garage instead of having the walls for the garages built directly at the site. Mr. Builder countered though by explaining that especially Joern's garage is very high, and pre-fab concrete walls of that height would be almost impossible to move. Oh well.
They also both discussed pitching the garage floor. Huh. It turns out that if the floor is not pitched, and you drive into the garage with a wet or snowy car, the water just sits in the garage; whereas, if it is pitched, the water will drain off. I guess it is really expensive, but is standard in higher-end homes (yes, we found out today that our house lies on the high-end side of the scale.) I don't know what to do about this, Joern says we don't need it. Does it get moldy if you don't drain or dry it?
Mr. B brought up that we want a roof-light dome in the foyer. Joern wants to use a glass that you can walk on top of, so we don't lose any use of our front terrace. This is going to be a very expensive option, so we may just be looking at reduced use of this one terrace.
Lastly, we found out that the operator of the excavating machine will not be available till Wednesday next week, so, we'll probably be breaking ground next Wednesday! Wahoo! It actually works out well, because the surveyor cannot come out until Tuesday to mark out our lot, which means that they can't break ground until Wednesday anyway! Fab!
After Mr. Builder left, Joern and I spent another hour with Mr. B.
Here are some points we discussed:
1. We signed the paperwork that Mr. B needs to file with our town hall
for the Roter Punkt, the approved vendor list release (?) which
allows you to actually start building.
2. Windows. We still aren't there yet. I was almost in tears.
We know the material, and we know we'll have window grills,
but we don't know how to set up the windows in the front.
Joern changed the windows to the same size on the top and the bottom,
but now that they're the same size, I feel like they have too modern
a look to go with the grills. We changed from sliders to french doors,
that's fine by me. So, after 20 minutes, we came to an agreement that
we need to talk about it for a few more weeks. We have to decide
how we want to protect the upstairs windows. Our options are
to have the window split in half, the top half is able to open,
and the bottom half does not open, or we can use french balconies.
3. We discussed the chimney. Last time this was discussed, we decided
on a stainless pipe that goes up the outside. I HATED this option
because it is way to modern on my beautiful house. So, we asked
about cementing over the chimney on the outside, and painting it.
Mr. B explained that this is really expensive, and for some reason,
they don't hold up to the weather. After hemming-and-hawing, Mr. B
said, "How about putting the chimney back inside the house, and
running it up through the master bedroom?" We lose a few inches
in one corner of our bedroom, but this way we don't lose space in the
children's bath, plus, we get to keep the window in the children's
bath, and I don't have a stainless pipe running up the middle of my
house. Plus, I think the chimney will look nice on the roof.
4. We rearranged our bathroom again, and got rid of the bidet. I know
Joern really wants the bidet, so we are thinking of going to a
bathroom designer to see if they can reconfigure the bathroom.
Its a huge room, it should work.
5. We will have recessed lighting in the living areas of the home.
Turns out, they are NOT cheap!
6. We asked Mr. B about our recessed medicine cabinets and asked about
possibly making built-in shelves in the living room. No problem.
Those walls then will need to be built by a carpenter instead of
with stone. No problem!
That's about it. It was long, and a little stressful, but it was so nice that most everything worked out. I think once we make a final decision on the windows, we'll feel better.

After the meeting, we headed over to our new neighbor's house. The other couple, not Joern's friend, were in their house doing some electrical work. We chatted for a while, and it turns out the husband was just in Farmington, CT two weeks ago. Funny :) They also invited us to their "Richtfest" tomorrow night. Mr. Builder evidently set up their Richtfest, so I'd like to see one before having to hold one by myself. The new neighbors seem so nice, it seems really good.

Officially landowners!!!!

How freakin' exciting!!!! As of 10:30 this morning, we are officially landowners! Obviously, the day has been filled with excitement and lots dreaming and even a walk through our land.
Wahoo! It feels incredible!

Dear family Roesner, you are formally invited to

Pay up! We received the letter today from the notary public. Now that we have completed all the necessary steps, we now have the permission to purchase our building lot. Wow, thanks!
10 days to pay, but we're going to do it much sooner, like this afternoon, or tomorrow.
The good news is of course, that we will officially own, a very small, but very ours, piece of property!
Hooray!
In other news, we stopped by the builder's office today. He wasn't there, but his secretary checked and he has marked in his calendar that we will be meeting with both Mr. Builder and Mr. B tomorrow afternoon :) Yay! I can't wait to hear what news they have for us!

Are you kidding me?

We got a letter in the mail today from the Finanzamt, the tax ministry. UGH! There was a lovely cover letter confirming that they have been informed (because Big Brother is always watching,) that our building lot has now been entered into the Grundbuch (the property registry) in our names. This means it is time to start paying property tax. We haven't even paid for the property yet!
The following pages were two copies of a questionaire that we need to complete and return. It is a little ridiculous.
The questionaire is 5 questions, which seems simple enough, until you read the entire thing.
1. Do you plan on builiding on this lot?
2. Have you already planned what will be built on this lot? If yes, please send a copy of your building application permit.
3. How did you purchase this land? (Through a thrid party, through an architect, blah, blah, blah...)
4. How did you become aware of this property? Please send a copy of the advertisement for the lot with this questionaire.
5. Was there any work on the property before you purchased it? (Excavation, an existing house, foundation)

This is to determine the amount of property sales tax that we need to pay. Seriously?

What is so dumb is that this was a simple private sale. We called the owners who we knew were selling off their building lots, and they sold us one. Simple. The problem is that we wonder if this may even effect the old owners' taxes. They purchased the land a few years ago, split it up, and sold it. But really, this is crazy. I don't save everything, I certainly don't have the advertisement for the lot, and I don't really want to give them our building permit application until we have to.

All this needs to be completed by 31 August, or we run the risk of having our names taken off the property registry.

GRRRRR!

We have a new picture site!

I hoped that I could keep the housebuilding process confined to this blog, but I can't. There is no way I can put all of our house pictures on this blog, it would be way too huge. But, Joern and I want to take a lot of pictures not only for documentation, but also so that everyone who is not here with us, can see in detail the house building process.
So, I created a share site on Shutterfly. This is where we'll store all of our pictures, and you, my faithful blog readers can check it whenever you want (I think.)

www.makingahomefortheroesners.shutterfly.com

Hope you enjoy as we get closer and closer to our break ground date!

A little inspiration

Joern and I had the craziest day yesterday. This past week, we have been going crazy trying to figure out the situation with the windows. I won't go into all the ridiculous details again, but the windows were driving us crazy. And we were getting really mean towards each other.
The problem with the windows is that if they look bad, well, you're stuck with them for quite a while, afterall, they are a large investment. And no matter how you picture something in your head, it has no real-life impact.
So, we decided to head back to the Model Home Park in Stuttgart, to look at houses and get some ideas.
Along the way, Joern decided to make a detour. Ever since we've started this house project, over a year ago, we have spent countless nights and weekends driving around looking at existing houses for ideas. Joern also had the luxury of looking at houses as he drove around his region for work. A few months ago, Joern had spotted a house that he thought I might like. It is about 20 minutes drive here, on the other side of the Neckar Valley. He brought me for a drive to see it a few days later, and I immediately fell in love. The house is quite similar to ours, two full floors, plenty of floor length windows. The house is white with a black roof, and window grills. It looked so beautiful.
Of course, as we have looked at thousands of house pictures since seeing this one, it faded a bit in our memory. Joern decided to return to look at the house yesterday as a refresher.
Oh My God! I am in love. Out of all the houses we've looked at, it is by far up there with my other favorite (the house belonging to my friend in Dresden.) BEAUTIFUL! PERFECT! OURS!!



It is now our main inspiration.
One thing I'm always a bit nervous about is slowing down in front of houses, and the continual drive-bys. I'm convinced that in one neighborhood, we're already on watch, we've started taking my in-laws' cars for drive-bys. Yesterday, as we drove by my DREAM HOUSE, we noticed that someone was working on the lawn. To my surprise, even though this shouldn't surprie me, Joern pulls into their driveway! He grabs all our houseplans, and hops out of the car, and introduces himself to the homeowner. Joern explained that we're building a house and we are in love with his house. The homeowner, instead of thinking we were crazy, proceded to spend the next hour talking with the homeowners and touring their home!
It turns out that we are not the first people to ring their doorbell, and proclaim our love for their house. And the homeowners were a lovely, kind husband and wife, living in the house with their two adorable children. He expalined to us that his house is actually a timber-framed pre-fab home. The company actually went bankrupt two months after they built in 2006. He explained to us all about the window grills (which are built into the windows, are are 30 cm for our knowledge,) and their windows were plastic. Surprisingly, they were really beautiful. The house is white with all white trim, white front door which was styled like the windows, with sidelights on both sides. Their house has a beautiful balcony with white wrought-iron railings. Very beautiful. He showed us all sides of the exterior, and even told us what brand of roofing tiles they used.
They were so open with us, and were really interested to see our house plans as well. They even talked openly about costs with us, which in the end, is pretty much the same price as we're going to be paying. I did learn though that I need to buy curtains in the States! They went to a designer here, and paid 15,000 Euro for the window treatments! The hardware, well, I expected to pay about what they paid, but the curtains themselves, while beautiful, were 12,000 Euro! They were right, that they felt strongly that such a beautiful home needed beautiful window treatments. Hello Pottery Barn!
As we ended our visit, Joern gave them his card, and said if they ever want to drive by and check out our house, they're always welcome. They wished us lots of luck with the house, and said they look forward to enjoying a coffee in our home :)
We left the house, and felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from our shoulders. The house was gorgeous, and it was my plan from the beginning. I just started to have my doubts.
From there, we did drive out to the model home park, to measure windows. We need to change some window sizes, and Joern wanted to measure. Fortunately, not too many salespeople bothered us, and most sat in our offices while we walked around, took photos (secretly,) and measured. We're still undecided on the width of the windows, but we'll speak with our architect tomorrow about the windows to get his opinion.
The last thing we did at the model home park was to visit with Frau V, from one of the pre-fab companies. We had worked closely with her and her company for a while, going so far as to get an offer from them. Joern was honest about everything from the get-go, that we prefered to build traditionally with construction workers from the area, and if they were too expensive, that we would indeed choose this company. We went back ýesterday to tell Frau V that we were indeed building with a local builder. At first, she seemed kind-of put-off, and said, "well, I figured since you never got back to me." What's most amazing is that the truth is, until last week, when we received the estimates, we had no idea still who we would be building with. We started talking about our move away from Mr. W, and she admitted, she was concerned when we seemed so excited about working with the previous architect. She said that he doesn't have the best reputation, when it comes to being transparent with costs, and that many people who build with him end up 50,000- 75,000 Euro above his given price. She knew she couldn't tell us this though, so she kept quiet. In the end, she asked to see our house plans, and was excited to see all the changes we've made. We parted on a very positive note, which made me happy because Frau V. is a very nice person.
It was a fabulous day, and at the end, we felt like a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders. The last time we were in the model home park, we had no idea how long this whole thing was going to take, or where we really were in the process- it was in February to pick up our application for the building permit. This time, we know a lot more of what we're doing, where we're going, and approximately how long its going to take.
I'm really happy, really excited, and of course, really nervous!

Today's mailbox find

We got TWO official house-related letters. Both important and both signifying that we soon have to cough up a lot of money to buy our building lot.
The first letter came from the town. We were waiting for this letter, although it makes me annoyed. Before you purchase a piece of land here for building purposes, you need to clear it with the town that they do not have any earlier claims put a the land to build on it, you know, like putting up a pool or building a school on your land. It makes sense, but this late in the game, makes little sense for us. First of all, this should have been done in February, when we put through the application for the building permit. The building permit application listed exactly where the house was going to be built. Since our town is so big (HA!), this goes through the same person anyway. Second, our building lot is a part of a much larger piece of land that belonged to an old couple. They died, their property went up for sale, and two people bought the land, and broke it up into 8 building lots. HELLO, the town would have stopped the purchase two years ago had this been an issue. Oh well, we got the negative letter today. One of the first times in my life that a negative is a good thing.
The second letter we received was from another notary public. This, notary public, unlike the one we spent over an hour with, is responsible for making changes to the land title registry. Oy! So, not only did we receive a notification that there will be a change to the land title registry, but, came along with a lovely 118 Euro bill as well. Sheesh!
Now that these two letters are in our possession, we are now waiting for a letter from the first notary public, who will give us the green light, and set in motion the 10 days we have to pay for the very, not cheap land!
Exciting and nerve wracking all at once. If we don't come out of this experience with ulcers then I'll know that Joern and I are strong people!

Windows day 2

I'm at the point in the housebuilding process where I can say, "I wish we had used the past year of waiting to educate ourselves better." Somehow, I really wish we weren't at this impasse right now. We should have gone through this already.
As I said in yesterday's post, Mr. B has already sent out requests for estimates on windows. These requests are for full wood windows with security type shutters and window grills.
Only now, that we already have a bunch of requests out there, we've decided to get busy looking into windows. Today, we went to the showroom of a window producer in Stuttgart. On many, many levels, purchasing direct from them would be really cool. We had another lesson in the options- plastic, plastic covered with aluminum/ plastic, full wood, or aluminum/wood. Oy!
I don't love the thought of plastic. Really. Joern seems to like full wood the best. To me, the biggest problem with full wood is that you have to paint the weather side with wood every 2 years. While Joern is a great guy, house repairs aren't high on his list. I just get the feeling if you install full wood windows, that you need to be someone who loves to repair their house. Not Joern.
Obviously, to me the best option would be aluminum exterior, and wood interior. The only problem with this of course, is the fact that you could buy a considerable car with the price difference between plastic and aluminum / wood, with full wood somewhere in the middle.
And window grills? Huh? Do we need them? My argument for them is that they provide some visual interest to the outside of the house. I find German houses pretty square and boring. When you add window grills, it spruces up the look and here especially, it would help the house to stand out a bit.
The other problem: you have to know the color of the house when you order the windows. Why? Because the color you order for the windows needs to match the house and the roof. Sigh.
I don't know what to do. To make matters worse, I feel like my mind is crashing with the color of the house. I originally wanted white with a black roof. Then we chose roof tiles the week before we left, they were not normal German roof tiles, so I liked them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what Mr. B said until we got back from our trip, that this style only comes in a dark gray. Nooooo!!! All houses lately are built here with white exteriors with a gray roof and gray trim. This is how you end up with an "oh that's so 2010" house. I am not a trendy girl. Now, Joern told me today, he wouldn't mind beige as an exterior color. Last week, he shot me down when I suggested a beige house. Yes, if we don't like the exterior, we can paint, but if we don't like the colors of the windows, depending on the material, it isn't so easy to change. Aaahhh!

Wow and oy!

I'll start with the "oy" first. We looked at windows today. We've never formally gone into a window showroom and had an appointment with a salesperson. Last April, Joern and I visited the booth of Co-Design in Echterdingen (near the airport,) at the House, Wood, and Energy Fair. Since visiting the booth, we've received a few calls from them asking if we would set up an appointment. Since we were still waiting on the building permit, Joern promised we would set up an appointment after we received the building permit and were working with a different architect. A few days ago, Joern gave the store a call, and set up an appointment for today.
Honestly, the whole meeting left me wishing we had done this a few weeks ago. Before we left for the States, we finalized the details with Mr. B, allowing him to send out requests for estimates on the house frame, as well as estimates for windows and the roof. We spent a considerable amount time speaking with Mr. B about our window choice, as well as protection from the sun (blinds versus security-type blinds.) When it came to deciding on the types of windows, we were sadly, uneducated. Our final decision was to go with full wood windows, both outside and inside, and the Mr. B would ask for estimates with and without window grills.
So, today, we go to this showroom, wanting to request an estimate for full wood windows. Turns out, that they only had one type of full wood window, and the salesman worked hard to talk us out of full wood. He offered either full plastic with a sheath of aluminum on the outside for added protection for the color and added strength. He also offered us aluminum on the outside and wood on the inside.
Hmpf! He then went on to tell us 1,000 reasons why full wood windows are a poor choice. In the end, he was really pushing the plastic windows, which to me was odd, because they are the cheapest. Maybe I should list a few pros and cons of each type of window, maybe that would help:
Wood/ Wood
Pros: fully paintable
wood
I'm American, and missing wood in my house
Cons: Paint/ stain needs to be redone on the weather side every 2 years
Can swell with too much water exposure, this may ruin the seal of the window
Is definately on its way out here

Aluminum/Wood
Pros: doesn't need to be painted outside
extremely durable
aluminum color will not fade for a long time
special protection against weather
interior is still wood, and can still be painted
Cons: EXPENSIVE!
I guess that's about the biggest problem
The interior wood can expand and contract still, and may cause problems with
the proper seal
Plastic
Pros: doesn't need to be painted at all
probably the least maintenance
least expensive
won't expand/ contract, the tightest seal
new technologies mean less problems with color and plastic breaking down
on exterior of home
Cons: material not as desirable, especially on the interior, as wood
can't be painted- what if I don't want white trim forever
although the plastic technology has improved, still kind-of a crap-shoot

Listing hasn't really helped. The meeting today didn't help either. I don't know what to do. We left today asking for estimates for plastic and aluminum/wood. We also asked for very simple window grills (which Mr. B does not know we want.)
The positive though is at least I understand a bit more about our window choices.

And now, on to the WOW! We met with the bank today. We were approved for the mortgage! We're going with the smaller/large bank that offered the better monthly rate. They need a few more documents from us, but we're all set. Once we get the final documents in, we'll meet again to discuss the payment process and sign contracts! We have an excellent monthly rate, thanks to 3.9 % interest. Wahoo!

1800 Euro saved, Mr. Builder official

We spoke with Mr. B (the architect) last night. He told us that he too spoke with Mr. Builder and after a little bit of negotiating, he brought Mr. Builder's price down by 3%. Normally, 3% isn't much, but I realize now that when you're building a house, 3% is HUGE! Mr. Builder also offered us a 2% discount if we pay each bill within 10 days of receipt. This is a 5% savings, which again, in the house building world is really big!
Mr. B suggested to Joern though that the 2% discount is not really normal, and that Joern should instead negotiate for a further 1% discount if we pay our bills quickly. He then offered that if Joern would go to Mr. Builder today, we could negotiate the extra 1% discount, and if successful, accept Mr. Builder as the builder.
This morning, we drove out to Mr. Builder's office, sadly, he wasn't there. One of his office workers offered to help us. Joern asked for the extra 1%, and she said yes, she had the ability to offer us the extra percent discount. In two seconds, we saved 1800 Euro! In two seconds, we also confirmed our builder!
There is still a week or so we have to wait for contracts. Mr. B won't be back from his vacation until the end of next week. I'm sure we'll be speaking with Mr. Builder in the meantime.
FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY, we're almost there. I said to Joern last night, "I feel like we're standing on the threshold of our house." I wish this is where the stress ended, but more likely, this is where the stress begins. No matter, because when this is all behind us, we will be living in our beautiful, custom design house!

The estimates, the architect, and farming

Yes, they're all related.
As we left the country for our trip, our architect, Mr. B, prepared the 30 page document to send to all potential builders. The document listed all the materials to be used, and the amount. Each builder filled out the document and sent it in to Mr. B. When Mr. B sent out the document, he also explained the location, and the date he wanted it back, which was this past Friday, the 30th of July. The plan was that Mr. B would look over the estimates, and meet with us on Saturday morning. After we returned to Germany, we called Mr. B, who told us that two builders immediately said that they could not do it- we're kind of in the middle of a housing boom here in southern Germany. Mr. Builder was the only builder to get the estimate back on time, and 4 other builders promised to get it back by Monday. This really threw a wrench in the works, as Mr. B left for vacation on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, Mr. B is seriously, the best, and coolest architect in the world, because he has no problem talking with us while he is on vacation :) Ùnfortunately, yesterday, Mr. B called, but we were not around. This morning, Joern called Mr. Builder to ask. Mr. Builder explained to Joern that Mr. B had discussed the prices with Mr. Builder, and Mr. Builder actually lowered his prices to meet that of the lower priced builders. It pretty much looks like we're going with Mr. Builder. This is most exciting, because Mr. Builder is really, really high quality. Most of the houses being built in Neckartailfingen at the moment are built by Mr. Builder.
The most incredible news? There is a possibilty that Mr. Builder can start the week after next! Possible though because, the operator of the excavator may not be available the week after next. Why? Because he also operates the combine harvester on his father's farm. Something that a Fairfield girl never expected, to lose our excavator to a combine harvester.
Whenever they start, I'm content. I know that they'll start with our house soon. We know the builder and we know the price. All the unknowns are falling into place. Very, very exciting!

The container story

We booked our container about a month prior to our trip home. We went with a company out of New York. We chose to self-load the container, and signed a contract sometime in June. Before leaving for America, I needed to provide my passport information as well as a copy of my residency permit. The container was set to arrive at my father's house at 8 am on Thursday the 15th for us, and we had two hours during which to book the container.
Once we arrived in the States, we got to work looking for last minute items for the house, as well as prepare to receive some deliveries and to pick up some furniture in Long Island. Here are some of our final purchases for the container:

Napoleon barstool from Pottery Barn

Malika rug from Pottery Barn for the dining room

Clara rug from Pottery Barn for the guest bedroom

We bought five of these medicine cabinets, not all white, from the Restoration Hardware outlet.

This is the vanity for the children's bathroom from the Restoration Hardware outlet too.
We also bought a wonderful set of pots and pans at the Williams Sonoma outlet. We've been going for 9 years with Ikea pots, I can't wait to have a real set of pots and pans to cook with.
What shook us was the message when we came home from Long Island, it was from someone from the shipping company. It turns out that they intentionally always overbook ships, okay not their fault, as we were working with a forwarding agent and not the actual shipping company. But, as the ship was overbooked, our forwarding agent would either need to store our container at their port, at their expense, or push forward the day we would load our container. Joern was pretty angry about this, but it turned out to be the final shove we needed to extend our stay at home for a week. It also gave Joern an excellent bargaining position, and allowed us to get the third hour to load the container at no extra expense. This extra hour was a huge help, as the original contract stated we had two hours to load the container, and each extra hour would come at a cost of $120 per hour. Ugh! So, we agreed to move the date of the container to the following Monday, 19 July.
We used the extra time to purchase a king sized down comforter and some other odds and ends. During the rest of the week, we welcomed into my father's garage the order from Pottery Barn, and the following beauties from Crate and Barrel:


On Wednesday morning, we received yet another call from the forwarding agent. Since we did the entire shipment under my name, as a foreigner, I am allowed one shipment of personal goods without customs tax, I needed one more important document. It turns out that the US changed their export laws in January of 2010, requiring ALL US citizens who export goods outside of the US, even personal goods for personal use, to file for an Employer Identification Number. This simple process, I was told, could be completed via the internet, and I would immediately receive a EIN number. The forwarding agent told me that this number was needed before we received the container. This left me with 3 business days, and spotty internet avaiability.
On Thursday morning, I rushed to my stepmother's house to fill out my EIN application. Turns out, basically, I was required to file with the IRS that I was opening a business! Hello! Business! You have got to be kidding me! I ended up calling the IRS, because I was so confused. I called the phone number for help filing for an EIN, and the lady on the phone still had no clue. Finally, after speaking with her manager, she confirmed indeed, I needed a number. And so, with her help, I started a business.

We also received the shipment from Bassett. I failed to mention how the New England Furniture Warehouse was giving me angina, and well, same for my dad. I had been back and forth with the furniture warehouse responsible for shipping out Bassett's Connecticut orders since April. Evidently, they received our first Bassett sectional in mid-January, although I was told it would not arrive from to warehouse until March. They had held onto my furniture for almost 6 months. In May, they called my father and said that if we didn't get this worked out, they were going to get rid of my, already paid for, furniture. I had a big runaround with the warehouse and Bassett furniture. In the end, the store manager promised he would work everything out, and that because I had been such a good Bassett customer (ordering 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, living room tables, and a china hutch) over a 6 month time period, they would put pressure on the warehouse to wait for me. I called the warehouse as soon as I arrived in CT in order to set up a delivery date. The woman was relieved to set up a time. Fortunately, the container was pushed back, because the first available date she had would have been the day after the container was scheduled to be packed and leave. What a nightmare that would have been.

As you can imagine, my father is a saint. He moved one of his trucks out of the garage at the beginning of the trip, so we could start collecting all of our funiture in one place and preparing it for shipment. Here's what the garage looked like BEFORE the 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, coffee table, two end tables, and a china hutch arrived:

That's my dad's very large Chevy Silverado, that ended up packed into the garage for a week or so, hidden behind our headboard

And yes, that is poor Joern sweating because all this was happening during a crazy 100 degree (40 C) heat wave.
Here's the garage after all the furniture arrived.

There was barely room to close the door!
We had a busy weekend before the container came, but I used every spare minute to pack, pack, pack. I ended throwing away some things, because they really were frivilous. But, I did manage to send overseas a bunch of my old stuffed animals, collector Barbies, my grandmother's china, old prom dresses and my mom's last wedding dress, all of my momentos from high school and college, and lots of old books, including all the remaining yearbooks I had not yet brought over. I also packed my flute, which will be so nice to have here. I packed away a painting from my mom's house, as well as a few Fairfield posters.
Each item that went into a box needed to be inventoried, and each box needed to be numbered. All items that went into the container also needed to be numbered and inventoried.
We woke up at 6 am on Monday the 19th, with the plan to spend two hours finishing the inventory, as the container was scheduled to arrive at 8 am. As soon as we stood up, Joern shot out of the bedroom, saying, "the container is here!" Sure enough, the container arrived ridiculously early. And the best news of all? We had until 10 am to fill it. This would have been good news- meaning we had one extra hour (4 hours instead of 3 to pack the container,) but my cousin's boyfriend was coming at 8 am to help us out. Obviously, I could not help Joern lift a couch into the back of the container which remained at the height of the truck. What was meant to be a busy, but smooth two hours, turned into chaos. I had number every item in the garage, and finish two boxes in the house. Plus, I had to desperately call my cousin's boyfriend to see if he could come any earlier. He did arrive around 8, and unfortunately had a job interview that required him to leave at 9 at the latest. Hmmm... now we were in a bind.
As my cousin's boyfriend drove away, my heart sank. I had no idea how to help Joern with the heavy items, and even less idea of who to call to ask for help. I am pretty sure without help, we would have needed a week to pack the container. My dad arrived from breakfast about 15 minutes after my cousin's boyfriend left, and he brought the dark clouds with him. As the impending thunderstorm started rolling in, our lifesaver, my godfather, called to ask how things were going. All I heard my dad say was, "they really could use a little help." So there it was. Ten minutes later, with an ever darkening sky, my godfather drove in to save us. He and Joern worked hard for about 20 minutes before the sky let loose. We had to retreat into the garage, and I had to ask the driver if he could wait extra time (knowing we'd have to pay, we had no choice.)
After 10 minutes, the rain slowed, but it stayed rainy for the next 30 minutes or so. Joern and my godfather packed, and I numbered.
The biggest challenge was the last item: our king-sized mattress.
Here are Joern and my godfather, Rich, trying to hoist the mattress on top of everything in the container:

Joern and Rich decided to use the box as a smooth surface to slide the mattress onto. Both Joern and Rich are underneath the box at this point.

At one point, Joern got lost under the box. Would we have to ship him too?

A few failed attempts, time for a conference.

A last attempt.

SUCCESS!
As soon as the mattress was loaded, the container was shut and sealed. It will not be opened again until it reaches Hamburg on August 11th. Good luck to those customs agents who try to take on our container!

The seal that goes through the lock.

See you in a few weeks on the other side of the ocean!

My dad picking up the remains, and looking forward to full use of his garage.

After 6 months of stressing over our furniture, it was a relief to see the container roll away. Unfortunately, a few pieces didn't make it in, like an end table from my mother and our personalized door mat, but that's about it. My whole life right now is on a boat, making its way to us.
It arrives in Hamburg on August 11th, and will arrive in Neckartailfingen two to three days later. Joern is currently building his unpacking team and looking for the proper place to store our stuff!