Kitchen and tiles

Thursday afternoon, we had an appointment with the kitchen studio.  It was to finalize our decisions- we didn't really finalize anything, and after 3 1/2 hours, decided that 8:00 pm was time to call it quits for the night.  We have to finalize next week.
We were assigned to a new designer, as our original designer retired in August.  I really liked our old designer, but after a few hours with our new guy, I realized that the original guy was ready to retire.  This new guy had so many fantastic ideas. 
He started out by informing us that the kitchen company we are going with changed the drawer size. This means reconfiguring the set ups of the drawers.  Joern and I have quite a bit of homework here, trying to decide how to best utilize the space for our needs.  He showed us a lot of options for things we can put inside the drawers to better organize everything.  Wow!
We also discussed the countertop.  Our new kitchen guy showed us a honed granite countertop, which we really loved.  It works nicely for both of us, because Joern was never a fan of the high polish, and I was never a fan of high polished black, because I heard that they are a total pain to keep streak-free. 
It is still black, but with a slightly uneven surface.  I really love it!  Of course, it is more expensive than our orignal choice, but it is about 100 Euro per sq. meter more expesnive, and in reality, we don't have that many square meters of countertop space. 
We also discussed our range hood. We have a unique, but growingly more common, problem with our range hood: because we have an air filtration system and our high efficiency air-heat pump, our range-hood cannot vent outside.  Our air has to be filtered, and recycled into the house.  We're fairly certain that the air-filtration system will deal with the damp, but Joern was so worried about the smells.   Joern brought up his concern with the new kitchen guy, who promptly had a solution- an active charcoal filter that can be installed in any range hood.  The filter is HUGE and heavy. It is refillable, and the kitchen guy suggested that since we like to cook, we refill the charcoal once a year.  The packets are about 40 Euro, which seems like a good investment if we're considering keeping smells out of our living area!  The kitchen guy also made a few modifications in the range hood, so that the air can be properly exhausted. 
From range hood, we went over all the rest of the appliances.  We flip-flopped the dish sink and dishwasher, because even though the designers agree that the dishwasher should be on the left of the sink if you are right-handed, ours is currently on the right side of the sink, and I love it there!  The designer also has to play a bit with the location of the dish sink along the wall, as well as the cabinets.  I guess there was a little poor planning involved, one of our dining room outlets will endup being covered by the kitchen cabinets.  Hmmm....
Then, it was on to the microwave.  Joern brought up that the interior space of the microwave was really bothering him.  We microwave a lot, and usually use our lovely, gigantic Pfaltgraff plates.  Joern was really concerned that for us, going from our countertop microwave with tons of space to a built-in tiny microwave was going to be miserable.  New kitchen guy had a solution- which excites me :)  He suggested a combination oven / microwave.  Since its an oven, it has much larger capacity than a traditional built-in microwave.  Plus, I was already worried about Thanksgiving, when we usually use our oven, my mother-in-law's oven, plus a tiny countertop oven.  This way, I am getting THREE ovens for our Thanksgiving party! 
From there, it was on to the prep sink.  We need to look at a bunch of prep sinks and decide which we like the best.
New kitchen guy also asked us about solutions for the garbage.  Joern really wanted a hole in the island, this way he could just sweep the scraps from the veggies away.  So, New kitchen guy showed us a system, basically a hole in the countertop, you just pull up the cover, and the scraps go into a little bin underneath the countertop, which you then empty out.  He also suggested an alternative, an electrically supported drawer underneath the prep sink.  You just bump on the drawer and it opens!  So, you can have your hands full of veggie scraps, and bump the drawer with your knee, and the door opens like magic! We decided for the drawer, as it was cheaper, and for me, who empties the garbage, the better choice.
The final discussion focused on the cabinet doors.  The doors we origianlly chose is no longer in production, so we had to chose new doors.  Our original plan was a white, high-gloss, mission style door, but the new version had slightly more undefined lines.  New kitchen guy showed us few other white door options.  I pointed to a matte finish beaded cabinet, saying that those are the doors I usually like best.  But, when we took out the two door samples and held them together, we both decided we liked the high-gloss one much better.  The color was just a lot nicer.  Well, thank you very much, New kitchen guy, because he suggested we take the door samples home over the weekend to decide.  There is a HUGE difference between seeing something in a showroom and seeing it in your home.  We placed them in the kitchen, so that the light would hit them the way it will when the kitchen is installed.

It isn't so easy to tell how much better the one on the left looks in real life, but believe me, it looks significantly better!  Its something about the color of white.  The door on the right looks so much more yellowish in our house, and the one on the left, which looked almost gray in the showroom, looked to be a lot more of a true white in the house.I want to return to the house with some paint samples, and I really wish we could have had a sample of the granite, but there is almost no argument. Plus, even Joern agreed that the beaded doors fit in with the decor of the house much better than the mission style cabinet. 
New kitchen guy had to pretty much redraw the kitchen, because it didn't transfer properly into his software program when he inherited our kitchen.  So, the plan is that he'll finish the drawings in the upcoming few days, and we'll go back to finalize the decision, so that the kitchen can be ordered.

In other house news, "Cute Tile Guy," was back yesterday.  Yesterday's job was to grind down the surface of the "Estrich," or that concreteish substance above the radiant heating.  He did this in the cellar.  The other job was to paint on a waterproofing layer on the floors and on the shower walls, and surrounding the bathtub. 

We did discover a tile problem though, which made us both quite mad, and was probably a poor way to start off the weekend.  Joern picked me up from coffee (okay, bubbly apple juice,) with a friend, and on the car ride home, he said to me, "did you know your mosaic tiles cost 2/3 the price of the entire tile bill?"  I said I knew they were expensive, but didn't think they would cost that much.  Then, Joern told me, well it was 17 sq. meters of mosaic, for the master shower, and for the bathtub surround.  It was at that moment, I realized that there was an error, that the mosaic was ordered for the entire shower, including the walls.  This was NOT our plan!  We wanted the travertine mosaic tiles on the shower floor and as a border on the shower walls, the rest of the shower walls were going to the the same tile as the floor in the master bath.  Turns out that Mr.B called Joern when I was in the States to finalize the order for the tiles, and Joern said something like, "I don't feel comfortable doing this without Allison being here," to which Mr. B said something about time not being on our side, and that the order needed to be placed.  So, when Mr. B asked Joern about the mosaic covered shower walls, Joern was uncertain, but agreed that this was correct.  It was NOT!  So, at 7 pm on a Friday, Joern called Mr. B.  Obviously, we are most upset with that annoying lady at the tile showroom, Ms. Gray, who had no problem insulting me and my home country, but couldn't even get our tile order correct.  But, Joern was also upset with Mr. B, who kept putting off the tiles, which left us in the unfortunate spot that the tiles needed to be ordered, and I wasn't there.  Mr. B managed to calm down Joern a little, by saying that despite the fact that it says on the order form that the mosiac tiles are not returnable, he will fix it.  But we are still so angry with the annoying lady at the tile place.  We've even decided that the final tile order we need to make, for the shower in the cellar, will be done through another tile showroom, the one "Cute Tile Guy" works with, because we do not want to run the risk of having to deal with Ms. Gray again!  I am only hoping that this doesn't mess us up too much time-wise, as cute tile guy wants to be done by the end of next week. 

Well, that's all the news for right now.  I'm sure this upcoming week will be full of updates!

Our busy, busy day

I knew that we had planned on tiles today, but I had no idea that we would spend an entire day, from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm running around for the house.  It feels so good to be home, relaxing, and I'd love to say, not thinking about the house, but I always think about the house, but at least I'm not running around anymore.

Our day did, indeed, begin at 8:00 am, with a trip to the tile place.  Three hours, a fight with the saleswoman, and a lot "blah, blah, blah," later, we walked away with almost all of our tile decisions finalized.  We're getting down to the wire here, orders need to be placed, otherwise, the only people we can blame for another month of empty house will be ourselves.

We originally went to the tile showroom Mr.B works with in October.  The man we worked with was a wonderful guy, who was supportive and energetic.  Sadly, he is on vacation now, and Ms. Gray took over the account.  Let's just say that her name describes her, kind of a miserable human being.  As soon as we started talking to her, I wanted to finalize our selections as quickly as possible and be done.  Unfortunately, when it comes to picking out tile for your house, the process is never quick.  We started with the master bath.  Ms. Gray had printed out the list of all of our choices, so we worked our way over to our first choice, master bath floor tile.  I was so proud of my preparedness:  I had my inspiration notebook, the computer loaded with my three bathroom mood boards, tile samples from home, and a few books with yet more inspiration photos.  Ms. Gray was not interested in all my hard work, just interested in the tile.  Fine lady.
Turns out that we still really liked the tile we chose for the floor, and the tub deck nine months ago:

We also realized that we still really liked the travertine mosiac we chose for shower floor and bench:

Ms. Gray suggested that we use the mosiac for the tub skirt as well, but "Cute Tile Guy" suggested instead that he would cut "strips," of the floor tile in order to wrap around the roundish tub skirt.  I'm now confused.

I also am uncertain about tiling around the toilet and behind the vanity, we need to do some measuring before making our final decision.  It was in this discussion that Ms. Gray ended up really offending me, and caused Joern to threaten to leave.  Joern said that we were undecided about tiling behind the toilet, because we want a minimal amount of tile in the bathroom, and then he added, "in America, there isn't a lot of tile in bathrooms."  To which Ms. Gray responded, "ugh, I know, it looks horrible, and those wobbly American houses can't hold tiles anyway!"  Seriously?!  Can you say that when you are a salesperson, and you have an American customer.   This is a usual comment here, but one I am particularly sensitive to, considering that my dad and godfather build houses.  Joern lost it, and said that he is so sick of people making these unfounded comments, that it is unfair to me, and that Ms. Gray needed to appologize and if not, we would leave. 

Although I found it a little embarassing, Joern was right.  We are the paying customers, and she needed to keep her opinions about the quality of American home construction to herself. 

She finally appologized, and started pulling out all these stories, backpacking through the States nine times, her son spent a year in the States studying, "blah, blah,blah," which I didn't really care to hear.  But whatever, we need the tiles, and Mr. B gets a significant discount at this tile showroom, I just hope that we don't have to work with Ms. Gray more often.

Once the mood lightened, it was on to the children's bath.  My beautiful, cottagey, beachy, bathroom.  Since we chose a "wood look" tile for the flooring, Ms. Gray asked about our parquet.  Since you should never try to match these two floors, we needed a contrast.  The only problem with answering this question was that we never finalized our parquet choice either.  We decided that we would go from the tile showroom to the parquet company, to finalize our flooring choice.  I did change the tile in the shower though.  Our original choice was Joern's choice, a very large, rectangular, matte tile, which didn't really fit with my cottagey theme.  So, I changed the tile to my beveled edge subway tile.

From there, we moved on to the powder room.  We will use the above beveled edge subway tile halfway up the walls, which I think will look incredibly sharp with a dark gray paint.  We also chose, for now, a dark grey floor, which will also be used as the floor in the pantry because it is located so close to the powder room:

Ms. Gray warned that the floor doesn't go with my subway tile.  I'm not sure what to do here.  I also asked if there was some sort of a "cap" tile for the wall tile.  I really made Ms. Gray work on that one, but after about half an hour of searching, she found a proper, fitting cap tile. 

From the powder room, it was on to the cellar, which is by far, our most challenging tiling choice.  The problem with the cellar is that it is such a huge, tiled space.  I see throw rugs in our future, because it is just such a large, continual space, and I am not the world's biggest tile fan (according to Ms. Gray this is because I am American and we have no senrse of style or taste.)  We had originally chosen a very lovely gray tile for the cellar:

But Joern, who has free reign in the cellar tile choice, decided he wanted beige.  We looked at bunches of beige tile:

It isn't easy to chose a beige tile for about 450 sq. ft (45 qm) of unbroken space.  I have a fear of beige, which is funny because we'll probably have beige walls, and our very beige and brown master bath, but I have a fear of too much beige, unbroken, in one space.  When I walk into large spaces of beige, I feel like I'm being swallowed by beige, but I understand that I may be weird.

After three hours, we left without finalizing the cellar tile, and agreed to return on Monday with a parquet sample and a sample of the stone countertops in the two second floor bathrooms.  And I took a deep breath of relief to be away from mean ol' Ms. Gray.

From the tile place, we headed to the granite guy, who is supplying our exterior window sills.  He also sells tile, for less money than the tile showroom, and he is nice.  Joern was more than happy to jump at the opportunity to give him the order for our very large tiled cellar.  He pulled out a whole bunch of beige tile:

We were particularly drawn to the two tiles on top in the middle.  They are a stone tile, and have tons of life.  Since they are stone, and a natural product, no two tiles are the same, which means plenty of interest and beauty, and I love stone!  The nicest thing of all was that he offered that we could take home a bunch of samples, because that's really the best thing you can do.  Getting samples from most places is like pulling teeth.  It was so refreshing to have this offer.

From there, we headed to the house to check out the tile in our foyer:

Joern likes the one on the right, and I like the two on the left.  Both are interesting though.

Since we were in the house, and I had the camera, I decided to snap a few shots of all that is going on in the mechanical room:

The air filtration system and the heat pump.

The pipes are now all insulated, and the plumbers then put a cover over the insulation.

A view of the insulation cover.

                                 I'm in the picture, so you can get an idea of how large the hot water tank is.

We also noticed this very pretty control box. 

Once we had sufficient photos, it was on to Reutlingen to Bembe, the parquet company.  We had visited the parquet showroom a few times last year, chose a wood, but again, never finalized the decision.  We were immediately impressed that the salesman recognized us, and greeted us by name.  We checked, and agreed that the burgundy oak was still the best choice:

We also liked the smoked oak:

But we then agreed that the smoked oak with all of our espresso wood and chocolate leather sofa would be dark overkill.  So, we wrote up the final decision for the burgundy oak.  And then we received the great news:  as of 11:00 today, the parquet factory was closed for their three week summer holiday.  Fan-freakin-tastic!  We won't be able to get the parquet until the middle of September, at the earliest.  This may set us back a week or two, but this one is our fault.  At least we were able to walk away with another decision checked off the list, and two pieces of flooring.

Then it was time to head to the bath showroom, to ask for countertop samples.  Sadly, our account guy was out for the afternoon, but they were able to send someone else to help us.  Of course, he acted like we were asking him to solve world hunger, but we were finally able to get the samples of our limestone and granite countertops. 

From there, it was back to the tile guy, to clarify a question for the exterior window sills.  We even had to call poor Mr. B, who was headed out for vacation.  Fortunately, he picked up the phone and answered our question, so that we were able to proceed with the production of the exterior window sills.  They will be ready on Wednesday, a little late, but they are beautiful.

While we were at the tile place, we decided to go to Joern's parent's storage warehouse, which is in the same building, to check the vanities against the stone samples.

And while I was having fun with our samples, I decided to look at the floor samples against our dark furniture:

I'm so pleased with the look, we almost don't need a carpet in the dining room!

So that was our day.  Hours, and hours, and a bunch of decisions, that can't be changed now. I also made the decision to spend the weekend thinking about the door.  I even posted the door choices on Facebook, and got some really exciting feedback!  The final process of the house is exciting and scary, but it feels good to know that a whole bunch of decisions are behind us, and I can't dwell on them any longer.  Hooray!

Putting the squeeze on some of our workers

Joern and I reached our frustration limit with the house last week.  It probably came from our realization that the plaster guys were again no-shows on Friday.  We have been putting off the plaster work for 2 weeks now.  Ugh! 
After a little drama at home, Joern decided to call Mr B, and let him know that our frustration was reaching a peak (my frustration especially.)  Mr. B explained that builders and people in the construction field now have so much work to do, they are balancing many projects at once.  In doing this, they also have a little more strength and freedom to come and go from building sites as they please.  Our electrician did just this.  Because our electrical work put us behind by 3 weeks, the plaster guys could not start when they were scheduled to begin, and had other projects to do anyway.  He also appologized and admitted that he should have at least explained this to us.  He also promised to come by on Saturday morning. 
Yesterday morning, at 8:00. the first person to show up was the owner of the plastering company.  Wow.  Then, Mr. B showed up.  We walked around showing the plaster guy the house.  He had some questions and also had a few issues that Joern needed to clear up.  One thing I haven't posted about, mostly because I do not yet have pictures, are Joern's built-in speakers on the first floor and his installed HDMI cables for all three floors.  Joern got a few new jobs, to make the holes for the speakers a bit larger, and to move some of the HDMI outlets.  The first part of the job will focus on the wet plaster, which will cover all of our currently standing walls.  We then have some more walls that will need to be created with drywall, but this part comes later. 
We then met separately with Mr. B and asked him about the Richtfest.  The symbol of the Richtfest is a tree decorated with ribbons, set atop of the house.  We will need to ask the carpenter who is coming for the Richtfest to also bring a tree with him.  I'm just trying to figure out how to get the tree decorated before the tree goes up! We're also talking with my friend, Mandy, who has so very kindly agreed to sing a song for the Richtfest.  It just isn't so easy to find a home song that isn't sad!

While all this was happening, the owner of the plaster company left and showed up again, but with backup.  He and five plaster guys worked until 2:00 yesterday!  Very impressive!  They plan to work all though the next few weeks. 

The electricians are also headed back to the house tomorrow to install contacts for the alarm system, which should have been long-completed, by the way.  But, at least it seems that we are on the right track again.
Thank you, Mr. B!

FINALLY, an update!

The reason why I have posted so little this month is because nothing has really happened this month.  I can't believe that on May 9, the plumbers were working on the vaccuum.  The electricians finished up with the rough work last week Monday, pretty much completing the roughing in portion of the construction. 
Here are a few things that also happened during the past few weeks:

The plumbers connecting the fireplace on 10 May.

                                       By 11 May, the plumbing for the fireplace was completed.

And, the wires for the recessed and pendant lights appeared!

By the 11th of May, all the plumbing was completed, and most of the electrical. 

 Of course, this was two and a half weeks ago though.  We are now waiting for the plaster guys (Gipser,) to come in on Monday to start covering up the walls. All of the walls will now be covered with plaster, leaving us with a mostly smooth surface.  Last week, we did see a guy come by from the builder. He spent two days pouring concrete into major holes in the floors, like the holes where pipes were installed.  Slowly, but surely, the house is starting to close up more and more, and slowly become home.

                                     The filled in hole in the floor between the guest room and powder room.

Our circuit breaker box is pre-wired!

All of the wires are labeled for connecting to circuit breakers.



As I said, hopefully Monday will bring with it plaster guys.  I remember in our neighbor's house, there was a huge transformation once the plaster work was complete.  With smooth, evenly colored walls, the house really became a lot more "homey." 

Today, we had an appointment with the bath showroom again.  To our chagrin, we almost missed it, but fortunately, our account representative called us and reminded us that we had an appointment three hours prior.  So, we ran over, to say "hi," and to pick our granite for the vanity countertops.  The decision was mostly easy, but required a little thought.   The choice in the children's bath was pretty easy, Imperial White granite.  This seemed to be the lightest color without any golds, pinks, browns or rust colors in it.  The children's bath is going to be very "beach cottagey," and imperial what seemed to be the most logical pick.  When it came to deciding on the master bath, we narrowed down the choices to Kashmir White granite or Mocca  Creme limestone.  I have loved Kashmir White for quite a long time, but I worred about the rust-colored spots, the problem is that since it is stone, you have no control over the actual slab you receive.  I was just worried that we would end up with a very rusty piece of granite, and did not want that in our bathroom.  The limestone was much softer looking, just a very soft beige with some darker veins running through.  We asked about the care of the limestone versus the granite.  Our sales representative explained that limestone is softer, and will need to be sealed every two to three months, but sealing is pretty much like cleaning, you need to rub in a sealant.  Because the limestone and Kashmire White turned out both to be the same price as was listed on the offer, we decided for the Mocca Creme limestone.  I think if we were going to end up with a limestone countertop anywhere in the house, the master bath would be the best choice.

Mocca Creme limestone (left,) Imperial White granite (right)

The appointment went pretty quickly.  I am pretty satisfied with our choices, there weren't really that many options that fit the requirements for both bathrooms.

Well, that is about all from the house for now.  We are busy working on planning out our Richtfest, which is rapidly approaching on 11 June.  We are currently deciding which burgers to purchase :)

And the yellow card goes to: the electrician!

The plumbers were hard at work last week, while we were here:

And now, I am recovering from some serious jet lag, and most probably readjusting my sleep, because Hong Kong is definately best enjoyed at night (and by night, I mean 1 am-ish.)  Which means that I have some catching up to do on the blog!

But, the news is that the plumbers are mostly done with all the pipes and we could be ready for the next stage next week.  Alas, we can't get going with the next stage BECAUSE, the electricians, who planned to finish the electrical in two weeks were not there again.  And not there a few days before Easter.  And now, well, they've made the project run slow.  Joern talked to Mr. B today, told him of the situation.  Mr. B has now issued a warning to the electrician- complete the project by next week, or we have a problem.

Slowly, we are running out of patience. 



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!

Almost a week since my last post

I'm over stressing about time.  Our builders were busy during the past week working on a project for Ritter Sport.  And yes, I think its pretty cool that Ritter Sport, the makers of those fantastically yummy chocolate squares, are customers of our builder :)  But, S and a new guy came by the house at 2:00 to start working on our walls again.  I honestly don't have a problem with this, because not only does our builder have bigger customers than us, but it is damn cold again.  Poor guys. 
But, "S" and New Guy are both really nice and easy-going, and definately hardy too.  They focused on the master suite today, which turned out to be a big drama for quite a few hours. 
When I left work at 3:30, I gave Joern a call to let him know that I was on my way home.  He told me that the builders were there and needed my measurments for the master bath vanity.  The measurments were important in order to determine the placement of the cut-outs for our two recessed medicine cabinets.  Joern couldn't find what I had left for him, so I raced home as fast as I could.  Fortunately, I had another paper with my own measurments to give to Joern and "New Guy."  Adding to the fun, of course,was the fact that all of the paperwork from the Restoration Hardware, had measurments in inches.  Ugh, I hate when everything needs to be recalculated!  Somehow, I didn't totally trust my own measurments, so as soon as I got home, I ran off to print out a new set of detailed plans for the vanity. 
After a ton of measuring and calculation, and quite a bit of stress, Joern, "New Guy", and "S" all came to a consensus on where to squeeze in the medicine cabinets:

No worries, the medicine cabinets are actually espresso in the master bath.  This is just the one we chose

to use as the sample. 

Meanwhile, while Joern and "New Guy," continued to work on the medicine cabinet dilema, S worked diligently on the wall between the master bedroom and the closet. 

And, here is what we had by 5 pm today:



We're not sure if the builders will be back this week, or next.  Of course, it makes us a little sad to think that they may finish when we are in the US, but we can't change things. 

In other news, we received a letter from the town declaring that we, and the bank, are officially listed as owners of our property in the property register.  Yay?  Bleh that the bank is there too, but it  means that the bank is officially now our mortgage lender!

We are also expecting that our first checks will be cut to the workers tomorrow from our bank! It seems like this process has taken forever, but there were so many little details that had to fall into place before the bank could officially lend us the money. I  am so looking forward to actually being able to pay the bills that are sent to us from all of the people working on the house!

The SUN!!!

It really has warmed up here over the past few days.  Snow turned to rain, and the rain even dried up today.  It was so nice here today, about 50° (10°C) and sunny.  The rumor going around is that our neighbor-to-be, Markus, was talking to one of our builders, and the builders plan on returning to our house on MONDAY!  If it stays warm enough and dry enough, our second floor just may be finished quickly!  It is so frustrating because once the roof is on, the builders, plumbers, electricians, and everyone else can work in any weather.  Grr!  We are so close and yet so far to being to the point where people can work no matter the weather.  No complaints though from this girl.  I would much rather have the builders stop than push through and build when it is not good for the house or for the workers. 
So, fingers crossed, PUHLEEEEAASEEEE!  And in an open appeal to the weather gods, just hold out your fury for a few more weeks!

Progress

The builders were busy again.  Today, they put up the reinforcements for the garage ceiling slabs, which come Monday!  I am so excited to see what it looks like when our garages have ceilings!  WAHOO!!

Joern's garage

My garage

In other news, Joern went to meet with the plumber today at a bath showroom.  Joern and I had visited the showroom a few weeks ago, but our architect strongly suggested that we work with this company, as both he and the plumber work closely with this showroom.  Sadly, I just wasn't up to going, and in the end, it was probably the best as Joern was there about 3 hours.  But, thanks to Joern, who marched out the door today, with my ever-growing Inspiration Binder in hand.  What a fantastic guy to walk around with a 5 inch thick binder with flowers all over it, to go represent the both of us at the meeting with the plumber and the bathroom designer.

I guess it was easy to give the designer a good idea of my style through my Inspiration Binder.  Plus, I had chosen the fixtures I wanted anyway, so it wasn't too difficult.  I guess it was a little controversial that I wanted two toilets with "gasp" tanks mounted on the back, which almost never exists here anymore.  For me, there is no question in the children's bath that we'll have an exposed tank and floor mounted toilet- it just goes with the cottagey look of  the bathroom, the beadboard is definately the clincher.  Joern came home laughing about this discussion, when the plumber said, "Oh wow, those toilets are like ones from the 1920s."  So there you have it, we are sooooo old fashioned in America :)   But the designer agreed that because we have the large vanity that goes to the ground, he explained that the line of having the toilet go all the way to the ground would be the best look.  Score one for me!

Joern showed them the bathtub that we had picked out together last time we went to this showroom.  It is a corner tub, which I think is the best fit in our bathroom. 



We'll do a wall-hung toilet in the master bath, and a floor mounted one in both the children's bath and powder room.  In the cellar, its whatever is cheap!  Joern showed them the pedestal sink that I would like in the powder room as well.

What turned into a big problem without me were the faucets. The first problem was I wanted Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) fixtures in the master bath. I armed Joern with a ton of pictures and a towel ring. Turns out it doesn't exist in Germany. UGH! So, the plumber took the towel ring, and promised Joern he would look for something. Otherwise, our choices are pretty limited in finishes to chrome or satin nickel. Here are a few choices the bathroom designer picked out as possiblities:

Jado: Lighthouse Series

Kludi: Anlon series

Both are interesting, and okay. I am just not sure what on earth we will chose for our finish in the master bath if we don't find an ORB solution.

Joern also decided that he would like a rain shower head for the shower in the master bath, plus we'll have a hand-held shower head.  We'll have a hand-held shower head and faucet mounted on the wall for the bathtub.  In the kids' bath, we'll have a hand-held shower head that is controlled with a thermostat (good because you can set the thermostat.) 

Another piece of on its way to exciting news, Joern and the designer also found a possible kitchen sink candidate:

Dornbracht: Madison Flair

This is the first not totally modern kitchen faucet I've seen with a separate hand-held spray.  The only problem is that the sink probably doesn't have three holes for faucet and controls.  Maybe this is a sign though that there's hope?!

The hunt for the missing excavator

Makes for a good mystery novel, huh? How can an excavator go missing? And by excavator I mean the machine, and not the person.
As of last week Saturday, it looked like full-steam ahead. The surveyor was supposed to come out yesterday and stake out the lot for excavation. Today, the excavation was supposed to have begun.
The surveyor did ineed come out yesterday, and in fact, the borders of the house are all staked out. The lot is ready and waiting.
No excavation today. No word from the builder. Mr. B called us this evening and asked if the excavation machine ever showed up- they usually arrive on the construction site the day before excavation begins. No machine. Nothing, no word.
Mr. Builder did explain that the driver of the excavator also needs to help on his brother's farm. FINE. But, please tell us!
Tonight, we decided to go look at all of Mr. Builder's current construction sites, to see if he is putting off the building project for another one, or if Mr. Excavator is really farming. After about an hour driving around town, going to his construction sites, and even driving by his yard. Nothing. It seems a little odd that we can't actually find the excavator.
Well, tomorrow is Thursday and the next day, Friday. I wonder when this is going to get started. I just I hope I am there with Joern to actually break ground!

The container story, an update

URGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The container that we shipped from America with all of my personal items that I never moved, and all our beautiful new furniture. It has been stuck in Hamburg for exactly one week now. Why? I don't qualify for the one time, tax free, move. Why? I've been here too long. This one makes me sooooo angry. Although there is a lot of stuff in the container that is new, there is also tons of stuff in the container that I have been keeping at my father's house for the past 10 or so years. I have my books from school, all my old posters and items from traveling, old prom dresses, even mom's second wedding dress. Just because I've lived here so long simply does not mean that I am not moving my personal items now. Don't they realize that people can, and do, put things in storage for extended periods of time, when they are living abroad. You can't bring everything over at once in a suitcase.
So, the new approach- my mom and stepfather died, and I inherited 1/2 of all their household goods. I have good reason to belive that I should be entitled to bring my mother's items to Germany. But, we need death certificates, and copies of both wills. I have one stamped copy of my stepfather's death certificate, but only a photocopy of my mom's (my fault, I know.) And, I only have a signed version of my mom's will.
Sheesh!
So, they wanted to hold the container in Hamburg until we got everything worked out. This could take a reeally long time! Joern told his father the story, and to my very happy surprise, he contacted his friends at Nuertingen customs. They discussed the situation, and they agreed to take over the job of the container from Hamburg customs. The positive in this is that our furniture will be delivered to us on MONDAY!! We need to unpack the container, and then wait for a few weeks until customs arrives to check through the contents.
This is the best news. Joern and I are off to organized the Joern's parents' storage warehouse, so that we can store all of our very beautiful, very going to live in our new home furniture!
Thank you so very much Wolfgang!

Are you kidding me?

We got a letter in the mail today from the Finanzamt, the tax ministry. UGH! There was a lovely cover letter confirming that they have been informed (because Big Brother is always watching,) that our building lot has now been entered into the Grundbuch (the property registry) in our names. This means it is time to start paying property tax. We haven't even paid for the property yet!
The following pages were two copies of a questionaire that we need to complete and return. It is a little ridiculous.
The questionaire is 5 questions, which seems simple enough, until you read the entire thing.
1. Do you plan on builiding on this lot?
2. Have you already planned what will be built on this lot? If yes, please send a copy of your building application permit.
3. How did you purchase this land? (Through a thrid party, through an architect, blah, blah, blah...)
4. How did you become aware of this property? Please send a copy of the advertisement for the lot with this questionaire.
5. Was there any work on the property before you purchased it? (Excavation, an existing house, foundation)

This is to determine the amount of property sales tax that we need to pay. Seriously?

What is so dumb is that this was a simple private sale. We called the owners who we knew were selling off their building lots, and they sold us one. Simple. The problem is that we wonder if this may even effect the old owners' taxes. They purchased the land a few years ago, split it up, and sold it. But really, this is crazy. I don't save everything, I certainly don't have the advertisement for the lot, and I don't really want to give them our building permit application until we have to.

All this needs to be completed by 31 August, or we run the risk of having our names taken off the property registry.

GRRRRR!

Windows day 2

I'm at the point in the housebuilding process where I can say, "I wish we had used the past year of waiting to educate ourselves better." Somehow, I really wish we weren't at this impasse right now. We should have gone through this already.
As I said in yesterday's post, Mr. B has already sent out requests for estimates on windows. These requests are for full wood windows with security type shutters and window grills.
Only now, that we already have a bunch of requests out there, we've decided to get busy looking into windows. Today, we went to the showroom of a window producer in Stuttgart. On many, many levels, purchasing direct from them would be really cool. We had another lesson in the options- plastic, plastic covered with aluminum/ plastic, full wood, or aluminum/wood. Oy!
I don't love the thought of plastic. Really. Joern seems to like full wood the best. To me, the biggest problem with full wood is that you have to paint the weather side with wood every 2 years. While Joern is a great guy, house repairs aren't high on his list. I just get the feeling if you install full wood windows, that you need to be someone who loves to repair their house. Not Joern.
Obviously, to me the best option would be aluminum exterior, and wood interior. The only problem with this of course, is the fact that you could buy a considerable car with the price difference between plastic and aluminum / wood, with full wood somewhere in the middle.
And window grills? Huh? Do we need them? My argument for them is that they provide some visual interest to the outside of the house. I find German houses pretty square and boring. When you add window grills, it spruces up the look and here especially, it would help the house to stand out a bit.
The other problem: you have to know the color of the house when you order the windows. Why? Because the color you order for the windows needs to match the house and the roof. Sigh.
I don't know what to do. To make matters worse, I feel like my mind is crashing with the color of the house. I originally wanted white with a black roof. Then we chose roof tiles the week before we left, they were not normal German roof tiles, so I liked them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what Mr. B said until we got back from our trip, that this style only comes in a dark gray. Nooooo!!! All houses lately are built here with white exteriors with a gray roof and gray trim. This is how you end up with an "oh that's so 2010" house. I am not a trendy girl. Now, Joern told me today, he wouldn't mind beige as an exterior color. Last week, he shot me down when I suggested a beige house. Yes, if we don't like the exterior, we can paint, but if we don't like the colors of the windows, depending on the material, it isn't so easy to change. Aaahhh!

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!