A very quick update

Since I have a lot of laundry to do, and some vaccuuming, I will just write a quick update on the house. I will do a more thorough job in writing about it hopefully during the week.
Since receiving the building permit, we are now waiting for the "Rote Punkt," or Red Point which allows us to actually start building. Mr. B needs to register himself as our project manager, which will allow us to receive the Rote Punkt. We've also met twice again since the beginning of the month with Mr. B. We've worked on optimizing the design of the house. We've moved around a few walls. In the cellar, we've enlarged the rooms, and reduced a little width in the hallway. We also enlarged the mechanical room by removing the wall to the toilet room. It may seem odd to have a toilet and shower (for rinsing purposes,) in the mechanical room, but Mr. B suggested that we place our heat pump and water tank in a way that it can be covered by a curtain most of the time.
On the first floor, we've added one meter to the dining room, and removed the shower from the first floor bath. Although it would have been nice, it will give the bathroom a much more airy feeling, as the shower really made this bathroom cramped! We also changed the design of the window in the kitchen and widened the door from the kitchen to the side terrace.
Upstairs, we redesigned the children's bath, optimizing the space, which will also give me room for my Pottery Barn sink console and some shelving space for the laundry supplies. We also worked on the design of the master bath. Mr. B gave us a few suggestions for the bathtub. He did talk us out of making the shower too big, but I'm not totally convinced on that one either. We also made the hallway in the master suite a bit smaller, which gave more space in the walk-in closet. We eliminated two windows, one in the bedroom behind the bed, and one in the bathroom. It is fine.

The blueprints are complete, and Mr. B has started the paperwork for estimates. The paperwork is huge, he fills out an enormous booklet with explicit details on the house to send to builders, excavators, etc. This way, all contractors give us an estimate on exactly the same terms, which allows for a fair comparission.

We've also booked our container. We are going with a US shipping company. Turns out, summer is high season for shipping, thus, not the cheapest time to ship. We've chosen to self-pack our container, and have two hours to pack the container, before incurring an hourly rate for packing. Ugh!

Lastly, we also booked our tickets- hooray! We'll be home from July 5th to the 20th. A nice long time!

The Baugesuch

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Architect called us to tell us that the Baugesuch, or application for the building permit, was completed. Of course, for us, that meant we needed to hop in the car IMMEDIATELY to sign all the papers and pick up the application.
I've never built a house in the States, so I have no idea what this step looks like in America. I know what it looks like here though, so I'll explain.
The application is split into 6 folders. 4 of these 6 folders are for various town and county builidng people. The first page of the folder gives the details of the builders (us) the location (which is right now place 166), a brief decsription of the house (single family new build with garage,) and the information about the planner. The next page consists of a series of computer generated images of the house. Then comes an official application form. The next 3 pages are a description of the house, including size, approximate cost, number of garage spaces, the type of material to be used in contruction, the material, style, and color of the roof, the type of fireplace to be installed, and the type of heating system planned. Then comes another two pages devoted to the fireplace and chimney. Then comes the application for public waste -water. On this paper, the number and type of producers of waste- water are listed, including toilets, sinks, dishwashers, wash machines, dishwashers, etc. Next comes two drawings of how the house will fit in to the building lot, with all surrounding houses. Then two pages from the surveyor, with information about which neighbors will be contacted about our building plans, and lots of information on the amount of land we will be using and the size of the house. The three page floor plan (cellar, first and second floors,) comes next. Then are detailed drawings of the exterior of the house as viewed from the north, south, east, and west. The cross section comes next. Last comes more measurment information- 3 pages, including the square footage of every room in the house!
This is just the application folder we are allowed to keep. The other four have other papers depending on which department is receiving the folder.
We had to sign many, many of the pages in each folder, then multiply that by 6!
From here, it should take approximately 6-8 weeks for the permit to be approved. During this time, we can start looking for estimates from builders. We are hoping to use Mr. Architect as our project manager, and he is thinking about this propostion now. We need someone to collect all estimates from all builders and sub-contractors, and to help provide to us an overview.
My father-in-law dropped off the application on Thursday morning to the town hall. The next town council meeting will happen during the first week of March. Once it has been approved by the town council, the application then goes on to the county building department.
I am so excited, and so nervous. I think once we get the building permit, the whole thing will become real. Even though we've purchased furniture, and planned so many things, once we receive the permit, building can start pretty quickly!

Our Fingerhaus meeting

Yesterday, we met with our Fingerhaus man. He is one of the Stuttgart Fingerhaus representatives, and he has been offically designated to guide us in the creation of our home. Of course, this does not mean we are definately building with this company, but Fingerhaus is high on our list.
I guess I should start by saying that if we build, unless we win the lottery, we will be subdividing Jörn's parent's plot, which is quite large. Building a home here will require the removal of their garage, moving the driveway, and taking away a little, but not all of their frot yard.

Our meeting began promptly at 9 am and lasted about 2 hours. We've met Mr. Messner before, so it was nice seeing him again. We began with looking at the property. One day, I will get around to posting pictures of the plot. Jörn showed him where we will be moving the driveway, and where we are planning on building the house.
We then moved our meeting into Jörn's parents house, which was wonderful because it was FREEZING outside!
I really liked that Mr. Messner brought a few house plans along that he felt would be interesting to us based on previous discussions. He explained that our home choice may be influenced by a few factors, including how our home will impact the view from Jörn's parent's house, and what the town will allow in terms of roof shape.
The plan that we like the best is an Italianate style home, which in German is called a "city villa."

image from www.fingerhaus.de
We're really excited about the fact that these homes have 2 full floors. The majority of German homes have one and a half floors, with the top floor actually being the attic space. In these attic spaces, your rooms are made smaller by the pitch of the roof. We also really love the huge two-floor window. We will have a beautiful view, which includes a low mountain range and the ruins of the Neuffen castle, similar to this view from the Nuertinger-Stattzeitung.

image from www.nuertinger-stattzeitung.de
Because we will have such a wonderful view, it will be great to have such large windows to highlight the view. Plus, the windows will lend an airy feeling to the house.
I also love the floor plans for this house. It includes many of the features I'm looking for, with the option of moving the kitchen to give it more cabinets and workspace.


images from www.fingerhaus.de

We were warned though that the town may not approve of the roof style of this house, as 99% of the homes in Neckartailfingen have typical gambrel roofs. So, he also showed us another type of house offered by the company.

image from www.fingerhaus.de
He suggested this alternative if we must build a home with a gambrel roof.

Again, Jörn and I love the two-floor window. We also liked the floorplan of this home.

We discussed visiting existing homes made by the company in these two styles. The second home is being opened as a model home at the company's headquarters in Frankenberg an der Eder on Valentine's Day. We will be going there anyway on Valentine's Day, as the company is offering an open house with educational sessions, the opening of the model house, and a chance to view all of the interior options the company offers for their homes.
A family built a villa with Fingerhaus near Heilbronn, which is about an hour from us. This family has agreed to be a reference, thus, people can come visit the house. We will make an appointment to see their home.

We also spent a lot of time discussing our cellar, which is a major undertaking to suit our needs. Since we will be removing the garage, we will need to use part of the cellar as a garage. This seems odd, but since the house is being built into the side of a mountain, the garage and cellar will not be completely underground. In the end, we hope to have a garage that will house 4 cars and still leave us plenty of room for all our other needs.

We were left with some homework. We have to contact the town hall concerning the type of home we can place on the property. We also have to hire a surveyor for a current survey of the property. Then, we have to go about formally subdividing the property and putting the building plot into our names, since we cannot build until the plot is in our names.

The meeting was really informative, and I feel like we have a lot more guidance now on our dreaming. Plus, it is one more step closer to owning our first home!