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!

We have financing!

We had an appointment with the bank at 4:00 this afternoon.  I was very confused as to the purpose of this meeting, as I thought we still had a few things to clarify.
After we had our ritual confusion of how to open the arm to enter the parking lot, we met our financial representative, Herr. W.  As usual, he kindly greeted us, and brought us to a conference room.  Surprisingly, we have met with Herr W. at least 5 times, and this was the first time we met at his workplace, and not at the house.
As our mortgage lender is not our normal bank, the first act was to open a joint account.  Then, another man working at the bank, who specializes in construction financing, came to join us.  He and Herr W. reviewed the terms and conditions of the mortgage.  We have locked in at 25 years at 4.96% interest.  Locking in for 25 years is a huge deal here, as most mortgages lock in interest rates for 10 years, after which time, you must pay off your mortgage or refinance.  Since the rates are pretty low, we decided that we would rather pay the .5% higher to lock in the interest rate for the life of the mortgage.  We also were very pleased with the additional repayment offer, which would allow us to pay down the loan quicker.
Herr W. explained to us how the mortgage works.  Since we're building, our monetary needs are quite different from the purchase of an existing home.  From now on, when we get a bill, we must submit it immediately to the bank, and they will use our mortgage to pay the bill.
One thing that shocked me was when Joern asked Herr W. about the estimated value of the house.  The bank estimated it quite low, because it is worth over amount "X".  Evidently, banks see homes above this price as slightly negative, because houses over this price take quite a long time to sell.  What really made me laugh, of course, was that this price "X" is a totally normal house price at home, for houses well outside the wealthier areas!  Sheesh!
After all this, Herr W. printed out the contract, and we signed!  We still have 14 days to change our minds without penalty.  This helped me a bit in signing the mortgage. 
It is a huge feeling today.  By signing the mortgage, we put a heavy weight on ourselves financially, but it also lifted a huge weight because now we will be able to pay the plumbers, electricians, and further workers in our house!

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!