Painting Day with a surprise!

Yesterday at our house was a day of gigantic changes!  By the time I got home from work, almost every room had been at least painted once.  The pantry was even complete! 
Here are some views of our house as of yesterday afternoon:

Living room

A test patch of gray in the powder room.

Pantry- completed

Master bath- I can't wait to uncover the tile!

Children's bath

Master bedroom

Erbse's room!

I'm really pleased with all the colors!  I especially love Erbse's room and the master suite.  The owner of the plaster company fell in love especially with Erbse's room.  He kept saying, "It looks so beautiful, but it isn't very German at all."  But he kept coming back into Erbse's room commenting how beautifully the blue came out.  I have to admit, this room will look especially rich with all of our espresso wood furniture!  And I love that the master suite really looks like someone splashed hot cocoa all over the walls, its so cuddly, just like a big mug of hot cocoa!

I was a little surprised with the paint in the kid's bathroom, but it isn't going to stay this way very long.  This room will be covered halfway up the walls with white beadboard, which will cut down on the shocking blue in the kid's bath.  I was also a little sad when I saw just how light the walls are in the great room, but then I realized it will get darker with the second coat of paint, and the wood floor and all of our dark furniture will pull the light away anyway, so maybe its good that we have only lightly beige walls in the main living spaces.  

We had one more big surprise happen yesterday:

That's our front door!  I think it looks nice, but I don't really think I'm in love with the door handle.  Of course, we realized that no one ever asked us what we wanted for a door handle, but it will stay for now. There is so much glass, that I feel a little naked when I stand in the foyer.

Its amazing when you build a house how time passes.  Some days, and weeks, time seems to go nowhere, it feels like you will never get to move in.  But some days, like yesterday, a ton of changes happen at once, and you start to realize that the structure that began as a giant hole in the ground, is slowly becoming your home.



Decision weekend

This weekend hasn't been an easy one.  It started with the fact that I was supposed to have made a front door decision by Friday.  Friday was such a busy day though, and we had been through enough decisions, that I made a different decision on Friday:  I needed the weekend. 
Joern gave me the front door.  Do you know how difficult it is to chose a front door?  It is so important, and really speaks about the entire house.  Horrible.  Two factors in my decision were that it must have as much glass as possible, as the front door is one of the biggest sources of natural light in the cellar, and I want black.  Here are the three candidates:

Of course, you have to imagine all in black, and all with sidelights on both sides.  Argh!  The top two are wood, and cost 1,200 Euro more than the bottom door, which is made from aluminium.  The wood door would need to be painted every so often, but that is something we can live with.  I like that the first two look more "front doorish."  I even posted the doors on Facebook, and of course, I got really mixed feedback. Here are the results:

Door #1 - 5 votes

Door #2 - 4 votes

Door #3- 4 votes

And some comments:  "door #2 goes with the symmetry of the house,"  "door #3 is most striking (but I don't like it)"  (thanks Dad,) and "you should should get it in a fun color!" 

Add to that the other decision as to what type of glass we should put in the door:  clear, frosted, or textured.  My brain is still in a knot.   As of Sunday night, I am leaning towards Door #3, black, with clear glass.  This is subject to change of course.  I have until tomorrow morning. 

Major decision #2:  entryway/ cellar tiles.  Oh my.  This is a really difficult decsion because our entryway is so large.  We went to the granite guy who is the business neighbor of Joern and his parents.  He was kind enough to give us samples, that we could keep over the weekend. 

So, here is what our entryway looked like this weekend:

Not an easy decision!  We like the gray and the two that are not in the row.  Our fear with the gray though is that it is too trendy, and too dark.  The in the forefield are a natural stone, which also won't show the dirt, not slippery, and won't show breaks if we (or Joern) drop anything on them.   But, the gray definately has a much more eye-catching style.  Not an easy decision!  We need to decide soon though, because they need to be ordered, and in before "Cute Tile Guy" starts work in early September.  "Cute Tile Guy" even came to the house tonight, to give us his opinion.  He likes the gray the best, for color, but he said that the two are easiest to work with, and easiest to care for, but not his style.  Thanks "Cute Tile Guy," we were hoping for more. 

The samples need to go back tomorrow, and we have to return to the tile showroom for the children's bathroom floor, and to tell them what tiles to use in the shower in the cellar. 

But the exciting news is that at 7:45 tomorrow, we have an appointment with the electrician, plumbers, and representative from Stiebel Eltron, for our air-heat pump's test run!