Today's photos

More progress today!  I guess the simplest way to do the post today is through pictures.
                                               Completed pantry / kitchen wall

                                                
                                 Amazingly, this wall will now soon look like this:

                                             Standing by the back door looking into the pantry

                                            
                                        Looking into the living room from the front terrace. 

Looking at the wall with the TV and fireplace from the "couch."

                                       When I came home at 3:30 this is what was going on with the master:

(That wall is for our walk-in closet.)

And, the wall for the back bedroom was started.

                                          
                                           And, the builders had marked out the walls for the children's bath.

And, Joern was doing this: 

                                                           Joern's masterpiece in progress:

Then, Alex came to check out the walls.  He told us that the balconies and crane will

probably go next week.  And then, he and Joern had a big discussion

about central vacuums.

And by the time we left the house, at 4:30, the builders were still hard at work, and we had definite rooms!
         
                                                                   The front bedroom

The children's bath

                                                                     Master bath

It has been so exciting to watch the walls go up.  Now that we have rooms, we've noticed that some things are just as we had imagined, and other things were way different.  For example, the unnamed room in the first floor actually looks like a cozy guest bedroom.  The living room is a little smaller than I had imagined, but is completely appropriately sized for a living room.  Our foyer and stair case to the second floor are really huge and give you such an open feeling.  The first bedroom upstairs is acceptable for a bedroom (I thought it would be too small.)  But, the master suite is just as I had imagined.

All in all, it looks like things are winding down with the builder, and we'll enter a small hibernation period as we wait for the windows.  Perfect timing, as we'll be heading to the States in a little over a week, and when we return, its time to work on the Richtfest!

Tuesday's progress and why working adds to the stress

It is 9:30 in the morning, and I am sitting in work.  No worries, I have a break for about 5 more minutes, and I just got off the phone with Joern.  There is one aspect of this process I have not yet discussed.  Work and decision making.  As the house is a custom build, there are often decisions to make on the spot.  Like, what size the window grills should be, or where something should be placed.  Today's decison was about the pedestal sink in the powder room.  I called Joern right when my break started, just to say "hi."  Joern responded with two questions:  what size do I want the pedestal sink to be, and how far do I want it from the wall?  And I wish I could say this was my first experience of this sort, but sadly, I've had many similar phone calls.  I told Joern to go with the 65 cm wide pedestal sink, and left the placement decision up to him.

When I got home, I really wanted to measure the 65 cm width of the future pedestal sink, and was once again, shocked to find how much progress was  made today.  I know, I know, we really need to remember that this won't happen every day from now until the house is complete, but these are the days that builders really look forward to.

Here is our powder room, all of a sudden, a room.  The hole in the wall is for the

recessed medicine cabinet.  The pedestal sink will go underneath.

The toilet will be placed near the corner.  It will be so pretty here!

                                 Joern is standing in the living room, and I am standing in the yet to be assigned room,
                                     that is looking more and more like the guest room/ my crafting/ desk room.

The builders also worked hard on the pantry wall today, or the kitchen wall, depending on how you look at it.



We got to spend a few minutes watching the builders do their stuff. 

And, then, we got to check out the pantry:

                                                         I can't believe how crazy much we can store in here!

I also decided to take a few photos of the cellar during the day, you know,with  more light and all:

                                           

                                            And here, you can see our cellar 3/4ish bath.

Here you can see just how light-filled the entry way is during the day.

PS.  The cute guy comes with the house :)

After all the photos, we met with Herr W from the bank.  First, we took another tour of the house, and then we headed back to the In-laws' house to discuss  a few items.  He had to clarifly a few points on our small loan, and then we had to sign a few papers.  Then, we all had to work together to actually prove our capital was in fact, our capital.  In the end, it worked out, and we really do have the amount invested in the house that we said we did.  Amazingly, and once again, Herr W was at the house until past 6:00 tonight. 

Since that's about all for the day, and the fact that I am really tired, its time to go for this evening.  I'll leave you all with this morning's first house photo:  the roof's first snow!

Monday, Monday

Well, thanks to our brief interlude to spring, our roof is now complete, and the plumbers came to install the air filtration stuff last week.  But, winter has, sadly, returned, and we were certain that the freezing temperatures would mean that no one would be working on the house today. 
Joern decided to drive me to work today, because my car just went through "open heart surgery," and he wanted to make sure it was okay.  As we rounded the bend on our street and looked up at our house, we were so surprised to find a truck from Mr. Builder at the house!
It turns out that Nice-Builder Guy and Interior-Builder Guy were at the house all day working on our interior walls!  Sadly, we didn't get back to the house until 6:30 tonight, so it was already dark by the time we got to check out the day's progress.  Fortunately though, since the house is still a shell, my car lights were able to illuminate a large part of the cellar and first floor from the driveway. 
The builders pretty much completed all of the cellar walls now.  It is crazy, and beautiful downstairs.  I cannot wait to see our finished entryway!
But for now, this is how it looks:

The entryway from the front door.  According to the electrician, this is "very American."

                       Entryway and media room as viewed from my garage.  It is quite spacey down here.

Some of today's work.  The half-wall on the left will be home to the electrical panel.

The builders completed the doorway into the hallway.

This is the wall that forms the shower/rinse area in the bathroom in the basement. 

The toilet and vanity will be on the other side of this wall, and the cut-out

is for the recessed mirrored cabinet.

And to our total surprise, the builders also worked on first floor walls too!

Looking into our pantry through the pantry door.

                                   Looking at the wall between the kitchen and pantry from the kitchen.
                                That hole in the wall will be the location of the controls for the floor heating.


The builders also worked on the wall between the living room and the unassigned room.  

Okay, I have to admit that the living room looks markedly smaller now that the wall is in place, but, I'm pretty sure it will still be a nice living room. 

Its supposed to be pretty cold outside tomorrow, so I am kind of hoping no one comes tomorrow.  But, if anyone comes to work, then hopefully, Joern will provide plenty of tea like he did today!



                                            

The rest of last week, in quick review

Once Mr. K left on Wednesday, it was too dark to take pictures.  On Thursday, Joern was away all day, with his father, at a customer, so sadly, no pictures again.  But, on Thursday afternoon, the roof was officially completed. 
I've since heard a few stories, through Joern, that the neighbors are talking about the house.  But, they are talking in a good way.  It turns out that our roof is attracting quite a few very positve comments.  And hey, it deserves it- the roof now looks like the beautiful, crowning touch to what will be a classic, beautiful house.

The house was all dressed up for Friday's anniversary.   One year ago on  February 18th, we officially began this home building process by submitting our application for the building permit.  And while sometimes this process seems so long, other times, well, a ton of things have changed in a year!

Progress update and meeting with Mr. K

Today's house progress included a main portion of tile installed on the roof.  And, continued work installing the gutters.  Again, sadly, no ability to upload pictures, but it all looks wonderful.  I'm pretty sure that the roofers will be done tomorrow.  We'll see how much longer the plumbers need to install the gutters, but they are really working hard. 

We met with Mr. K, our electrician, this afternoon at 4:30.  Everything went really well, even when Mr. K said that our house, despite being small for American standards, is huge for German standards.  I slowly feel like we're a really interesting item as a German/ American couple building in the "Ländle" (country.) 
But otherwise, we toured the whole house with Mr. K.  He had some great suggestions for us as to the placement of our home server, and a few other things.  We talked about security cameras, which suprised me, because despite my wanting a security system, I think cameras might be a tiny bit over the top.  We talked about our alarm system as well, and clarified a few points.  Mr. K said that his electricians won't come to work until the windows are installed, so we're looking at up to six weeks from now that the electricians get started.  Hmpf!  He also suggested that after the windows come in to make an appointment with Mr. K and his master-electrician to do a walk- through.  On the walk through, we'll discuss placement of outlets and switches.  Interesting meeting.  Mr. K will also call Mr. B tomorrow, and request a formal contract to be drawn up between Mr. K and us.  Hooray!

Job of the day: gutters

Today was gutter installation.  So, here in Germany, gutters are installed by Flaschners, who happen to be plumbers.  The installation is quite a process.  First the plumbers installed holders all along the perimeter of the roof.  Afterwards, they began installing the actual gutters themselves.  Those puppies are heavy!  The gutters are made from titanium zinc, and are quite lovely looking when installed. 
I hope that we can soon fix our internet problem soon so that I can upload pictures again! 
Until then, well, just believe me when I say that it all looks very nice!

Some Valentine's love for our incredible team!

Happy Valentine's Day from the construction site!
It was an incredibly busy day on the house today,Mr. Builder,Mr. B,  plumbers, builders, roofers, and Joern!  And they all deserve a little Valentine's "I really love you all," in different ways, of course!
Here's a quick run-down of this very special Valentine's Day.
The roofers spent the day making the grid that goes around the entire roof.  This grid holds the tiles.

And they also covered up the exposed beams under the overhang.  They explained to Joern too, the purpose of the slotty metal pieces.  If a roof tile breaks, the water will run down the waterproof sheeting, and run out the slotty metal pieces, which will signal to us that there is something wrong with a tile.  Cool! 

Oh, and the roofers installed our skylight today.  It is small, but adds a ton of light into what is fast becoming my favorite place in the house. 
At 4:30 this afternoon, the roofers totally surprised us by starting on the roof tiles!  It is a little more brown than we expected (joke,)  they're just covered in dust from them cutting them to fit.  WAHOO!

Mr. Builder was at the house for a little while today.  He checked on the house, and moved his sign from the duplex next door over to our house.  Although I'm not the world's biggest advertisement person, I must say, I feel like we just stuck a Mercedes symbol on the front of our house.  I am very proud to have a Mr. Builder house!

Mr. B was also at the house today.  He needed to clarify the height of the floors, and deliver the message that we need to rethink our windows in the front of the house.  We had originally planned two doors on each window, but Mr. H (our window guy,) said that the doors would be too big and he could not guarantee the hinges on these huge doors.  We have a few options that we need consider now over the next few says.  Mr. B also delivered the news that we have to redesign the location of our electrical panel yet again.  Ugh.  It turns out that our original planned location, underneath the stairs, was illegal, because there must be 1 meter of space on three sides, in case there is an accident, that the electrician can fall without hitting their head of ceiling.  So, we move again.  It is remaining underneath the stairs, but will go behind a door that faces you as you walk in from the foyer.  I'm not bothered by it at all.

Our plumbers were at the house today for quite a long time too.  They drilled some holes in the cellar walls for the air filtration system.  They also elongated the tentacle-like pipes for the air filtration system.  And, they installed a box for the outcoming air and one for incoming air.  The pipes run into the boxes, and the boxes into the air filtration system.

 Our interior builder, M, who is just such a nice, hard-working guy.  He worked on the cellar today, and all of a sudden, we have a full techincal room, and a clearly defined area for our built-in storage.  He also completed the small wall on the side of our foyer.  And right before he left, he started filling in the small hole that was placed for the electrical panel.

And last, but not least, the latest addition to our building team- Joern.  Joern spent a few hours today gluing the overlapping air barrier to the sides of the exterior.  It all looks beautiful and is now airtight.  Thanks Joern!

So there you have it, a crazy busy Valentine's Day!  I am going a little buggy now separating all of the photos into the proper folders.  Ugh!  But I'm not complaining.  Obviously, I feel a lot of love for all the fantastic guys involved in the creation of our house!

New blog feature!

As I was checking over the blog this morning, I realized that there was a mistake in my list of Important Dates over on the left side, it was slightly out of date order.  As I was changing the dates around, I realized that there were a few too many dates on my list: like, did I really need to include the first date we met with the kitchen guy?  But, typical Allison, I was talking to Joern while I tried to delete one item on the list, and instead, I deleted the entire list.  After a few tears and a few hugs from Joern, I set to work looking back through the blog and recreating the list. 
The new list though, links to the corresponding posts.  I think this makes the blog much more user friendly, both for Joern and myself, and for our readers.

The Big Cover-up

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

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

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

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

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

                                             The pantry is much larger than we had imagined.

                                                                      Powder room

                                                          The unassigned room off the living room

                                                The one wall between the kitchen and dining room

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

Our technical room/ bathroom.



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

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

I love that you can see the wood!

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

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