Ugh, I missed a week

Most often, I feel like I am a responsible blogger.  But, sometimes, you can let a few days get away from you.  The problem is that once you start letting one day pass, the thought of blogging gets harder and harder, because there is so much more to blog about and so many more photos to plow through.  Add to that a nasty head-cold/ virus thing, and well, its Monday again, and well, this is why my last post was seven days ago. 
Tuesday was a really busy day at the house.  Here is our driveway:

Yup, that is a plumber's van and an electrician's van!

The plumbers chisled out the wall in the powder room for the pedestal sink.

And the electricians chisled out the headboard wall in the master bedroom.

                                    The plumbers roughed out the master bath, and installed the tank for the toilet.
                                    The electricians roughed in the outlets in the master bath.

And our walls turned into graffitti cenral.  This is the wall in the children's bath (laundry on left/ shower on right.)

The drain system for the kitchen, powder room, and master bath (in the cellar.)

Drainage for the top of my garage.

Drain pipe for the children's bath. 

Wednesday was another busy day for the electricians and the plumbers, and we were welcomed the arrival of someone who will most definately become our friend:

Sorry its fuzzy, but that's our fireplace!

And, here is the inside of said fireplace.

The plumbers and electricians were really busy on Wednesday.  The electricians installed wire in most of the outlets and lighting connections in the second floor.  It was pretty amazing.  The plumbers did lots of drilling.

Thursday was our first big disappointment since the plumbers not arriving.  The electricians didn't show up.  No call, nothing.  No electricians.  But, the plumbers were there, and they worked like mad. No pictures though, because I was "making rather merry." (Oh my gosh, Mom, if you're reading, I do hope how you like how I was able to use your favorite Bob Crachit quote!)

Friday, more of same.  Hard working plumbers, and non-existent electricians. 

. 
Today, well, the plumbers have really earned back my love.  I finally got to run around with the camera to take lots and lots of pictures.  Here you go:

The water connection for the utility sink (pantry.)

                                      Water and drain connections in the powder room.  Warm water exchange pipes for
                                             radiant heat.

                                           Kitchen plumbing.  Prep sink water supply and drain, and
                                          water exchange pipes for radiant heat.

                                    The transportation holders for the windows are now gone from the terraces.

Wiring in the master closet.

Plumbing in master bath. 

                                                   Growing network on the second floor.  Both plumbing and
                                                       electricity.
Since we don't expect to see the electricians until the week after Easter, I guess there won't be any more electricity updates.  Plumbers will be back tomorrow.

This evening, we also met with our mortgage guy.  He had more papers for us to sign.  It turns out that for every bill sent to the bank, we need to sign off at the bank on the payment. 

Well, since this was a huge post, I should be going.  Hope you all enjoyed the update, and look forward to my being a better blogger this week!

Woah, it isn't going to be so easy to blog anymore!

Today was crazy busy at Casa del Roesner!  The plumbers arrived around 9:00, and got to work on extending the wastewater pipes, drilling holes, and well, a whole bunch of stuff.

Wastewater pipe for the prep sink!

This is so cool-like a map!  The left side is for the powder room and master bath.  The right side goes to the kitchen.

                                                       Children's bath waste water in the cellar.

                                              Children's bath wastewater on the first floor.

When I got home today, I was excited to get there before the plumbers left.  I was able to take a peak into our locked mechanical room!  The plumbers are using it for storage, AND, they installed the wall hanging toilet tank in the cellar.

                                     This is a toilet tank for the wall hanging toilet in the cellar.  It is installed!

And, I got to witness the great farmhouse sink location debate!

I don't know why, but I particularly love the flowers in the picture :)

The debate was cleared up when we realized that the architect widened the terrace door, this changing the plans slightly.

And, I got to hear the sound of plumbers working in a German house.  The plumbers have lots and lots of holes to drill out of concrete.  Needless to say, it wasn't a quiet event!

Drilling the hole for the "scheiss" 1920s toilet.

                                          Preparing for the wastewater for the utility sink in the pantry.

We also had a long discussion with Plumber Guy (the master plumber under Mr. Plumber,) about the vanity in the children's bath.  We bought the extra wide vanity, against my better judgement because we got a good deal on it at the Restoration Hardware outlet.  Now, we are paying.  We now have to open the bathroom door into the hall (as opposed to into the room, like normal,) because we don't have enough room in the children's bath.  Bleh! 

As if my head wasn't spinning, or ringing, enough, at 4:00, we met with Mr. Electrician, and Smokey Old Mr. Electrician.  Today, we were marking out all of our light switches, outlets, satellite outlets, homeway boxes, hanging lights.  OH MY GOD that was a draining two hours!  I am so glad we put in the time yesterday to prepare, but of course, we missed a ton of stuff.  Smokey Old Mr. Electrician came along to mark out all the locations, and he seems to be the master electrician, who will kind of be in charge of the electricians on our project.  They had, of course, tons of helpful hints as to location.  We have a million and one outlets, but this is a good thing.  Mr. Electrician also had a fantastic suggestion for the master shower, which is pretty much a black hole- we will place lights in the ceiling, and cover with a milk-glass plexiglass.  This needs to be completed by a carpenter, but he said that we will have a really warm light in our shower.  After solving the shower problem, he and Joern went on to spend 10 minutes discussing the location of the television in the - MASTER BATHROOM!  Like it isn't embarassing enough that we have TVs everywhere in the house, including the focal point of the entire first floor, Joern wants a TV in the bathroom.  Oy!

We also learned that we must have a real wall, not only a glass wall, in between the shower and washer/ dryer.  This will probably save us a little money anyway.  No problemo!

We headed downstairs towards the kitchen.  Somehow, I had no idea that this would take so long.  And it is in the kitchen that I need to remind myself that our house borders on ridiculous not only because of Joern.  We discussed the placement of our 110V outlets in the kitchen.  Seriously, I cannot believe that we're getting a dual voltage kitchen.  Is this really necessary?  We planned out exterior lights as well, which again, was a big deal.

We planned a lot of wall sconces in the foyer and up the stairs to the first floor.  Honestly, I thought a lot about the foyer, but I didn't think that I needed to know this today.  Ugh!

All in all, I am glad its over now.  Smokey Old Mr. Electrician will begin tomorrow!  I've heard that electricians are really messy, so I'm looking forward to the mess awaiting us this weekend.  Joern even has to order  a dumpster and a garbage chute for the electricians!  The electricians will work all this week, and then not for two more weeks, and then in three weeks, come back to work.  According to Mr. Electrician, the majority of the work should be completed by the middle of May. 

We are also in a little fight with the plumbing supply store.  Not only are they overpriced, but now they want to charge us 250 per hour for advising us.  Mr. Plumber got in a big argument with them, all over us.  Boo.  Hopefully though, we find something, I would like the plumbers to be able to install something!

Well, that's all from the site today!  Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings!

Our Sunday project and a huge complement!

We've had an exciting weekend home-wise.  After the joy of having the plumbers finally get started, Saturday, we had friends over for a cook-out.  My friend Amanda, from middle and high school, was back visiting her boyfriend who recently got a job here in Stuttgart, so we decided to have dinner at our house.  It was a lot of fun sharing laughs and yummy grilled food.  Amanda and Ed also brought us some adorable pink Gerbera daisies.  They are now decorating our beer table that has taken up residence in our kitchen.

Today, it was back to the house again for a big project!  As you can see from the above picture, we had our plans all laid out on the bench.  Since the electrician is coming tomorrow to do a walk-through to mark out outlets and light switches, we needed to plan where we want them. 



We spent a good hour walking around the house, marking off the location of all outlets and light swiches.

The masking tape on the wall is a marking for two light switches. 

We marked off outlets, HDMI connection, the location of our homeway boxes (these are the connections for the phone, cable/ satellite, and network cables).  We also marked off where we wanted light switches.

As we were nearing the cellar (we started at the top,) we saw a couple walking up Joern's parents' driveway.  I assumed they were friends of the in-laws, but Joern didn't recognize them.  So, Joern popped his head out of the house, and asked if he could help them with anything.  They explained that they live a few towns over, and had driven by the house multiple times, and really loved it.  They are thinking of building within the next year, and wanted to look at our house.  Oh man!  What a huge compliment!  The wife explained that due to a detour, they were forced to drive on our street to get to and from work for the past few months.  She explained that they quickly realized that the house was going to be something really special, and that they have enjoyed watching it grow.  They were extremely nice, and we welcomed them into our home for a tour.  The husband loved our cellar, and the wife complimented Joern on his design that has eliminated most of hallways in the living space.  They were really nice, and chatted with us and the in-laws for about an hour. 

After our surprising visit, we returned to our job, and completed marking out the outlets in the cellar.  Okay, maybe we need to tone down the outlets- we have over 30 outlets.  But, we'll see what the electrician says tomorrow.  We also have the 110 volt outlets to give to Mr. Electrician, as well as the lights for the master bath.  That and a billion or so questions are waiting for Mr. Electrician tomorrow afternoon.

I am also looking forward to getting home tomorrow before the plumbers lock up the door to the mechanical room. I want to know what that is behind the locked door!



THE PLUMBERS!!!!

I received a huge surprise during my daily morning break phone call to Joern.  When I called him, he was in the middle of walking through the house with the PLUMBERS!  Yup, they started today!
They first walked around the house, marking the location of all of our plumbing fixtures.  Then, they got to work!  Today included some wastewater pipes, a locking door for tools and equipment,  and most importantly the distribution manifold (yeah, I can get technical too,) for the radiant heating!
I decided instead of photos today, that I would instead do a video walkthrough of the house.  I stole the idea from another blog I follow, Bower Power, not that I think I have reached the blogging status of Katie Bower, but it did seem like a pretty smart idea.  The only problem is though that the video is on my iPhone and I can't seem to find the USB cable.  Bleh, technology!
So, dear readers, you can look forward to a video walkthrough of the home, with the plumbing updates, within the next few days.
For now, ciao from our slowly coming together home!

Twiddling our thumbs AGAIN!

Well, we were supposed to have our plumbers start two days ago.  No plumbers.  Joern called the plumber with a question yesterday, and spoke with the master plumber.  He confirmed my translation of the whole last meeting with Mr. Plumber, that indeed, they had planned on beginning our house on Monday.  But, he then explained that they have become really backlogged with "emergencies," and that they hope to start on the house real soon. 
I hate to sound bitchy, but I cannot wait for the plumbers to get started!  I mean really, can't you hang out witout a working toilet for a week or so, just so that we can get going?  The nerve of some people!  (Okay, really, that is a joke- most plumbing emergencies are of the unpleasant sort, and I would not want people to have to live uncomfortably because of me.)  But, I would love to see the plumbers get started.

In electrical news, we have a walk-through date set with our electrician!  On Monday at 4:00 pm, Joern, Mr. Electrician, and myself with walk through the entire house discussing the location of our outlets and our Homeway boxes. As you can imagine, this means that Joern and I have quite an exciting weekend already planned out.

So, that's really all the news for now.  Hope to be able to update more quite soon!

Slowly making the house ours, including our first dinner!

Last night was very exciting!  It involved cleaning doors, moving cars, and finally, dinner.
Joern and I headed over to the house with a variety of tasks on the bill.  We had a very small mishap last week during a rainstorm, which left one car and many windows spattered with mud.  Since the downspouts are not yet attached, our gutters are currently drained through lovely plastic "gutters," which love to blow around in the wind.  You can see what I am talking about in the following picture, the "gutter" is that piece of plastic that runs down the side house. 

Eventually this plastic will be replaced by a real downspout.  But, we didn't realize what would happen when you mix a construction site (mud) with rain and wind.  The house was splattered with mud a few days ago.  And the blue car in the foreground was also really badly hit.  So, our job before we got to dinner was to clean. 

Thanks to my friend, Iris, I already had glass cleaner, so I got to work on the back door and the windows.  You can get an idea of just how muddy everything was, just by looking at the door handle.

The back door was hit the worst, but the window in the pantry and the window in the powder room were pretty badly splattered too. It was nice though when I was finished, because I had some really clean, sparkly windows. I'm debating on cleaning all the windows, but it really wouldn't be worth it right now- there is a lot more mess to go.

While I was doing this, Joern was cleaning our car. This car is one of our "collection," our two 1980s BMW 7 series. The splattered one is actually our museum piece, so seeing splattered with mud was really painful.

 After Joern cleaned the car,  the next job was to move it. One of the cars has been living in Joern's parents's driveway and the other has been living in their garage, this has been the case for the past 4 years or so.  Obviously, Joern's dad was anxiously awaiting the day that we would either have a garage of our own, or sell the "damn things," so that he could get back his driveway and his garage.  Obviously, selling is NOT an option.  Since the builders filled in our driveway with lots of gravel on Friday, we could now easily drive our cars into the garages.  Yesterday was the day to move the blue car, the 750, into "my garage," for the next few months.  Of course, it wasn't so easy, as the car is in need of a little work.  The move had to be quick because a hose is broken, so when you turn on the car, all the water pours out in a few seconds.  And we had to position the ramps very carefully, because the height regulator that lifts the car when you turn it on is not working, so the car was pretty low, and we had very little clearence between the bottom of the car and the floor of the garage.  But after a few tries, we did it.  Now, our garages look like this:

And Joern's garage now looks like this:

So now we've realized just how large Joern's garage really is.  The car in his garage is a 735iL, "L" standing for long.  This car is huge, and we still have lots more room.  Now that we know how easily the car fits into the garage, Joern is already considering how to best use the garages for storing our collection, as well as our two everyday cars.  Plus, Joern is planning a rather extensive workbench area, so that he can fix all the specific "quirks," belonging to our cars. 

We were so proud of ourselves after our cleaning and car moving accomplishments, it was time to fire up the grill, that Joern so excitedly moved to the house earlier in the day.  The weather was fantastic, a super time to open the grill for the summer, and enjoy some steaks in our new home.  While Joern was grilling, our future neighbor, Marco, brought over a bottle of wine to thank us for delivering him some Pepsodent from the States.  Our neighbors are really kind, which is a relief!

Our first dinner in our home was fantastic, complete with steak, grilled potatoes, and pasta salad, and some sparkling wine. 

Oh yeah, and the spray I Can't Believe it's not Butter, proved to be really handy for transport. 

We enjoyed a deliecious dinner while looking out our dining room window.  It was such a special, fun, and enjoyable evening.  We're looking forward to the many, many future dinners in our home!