The problem with the windows is that if they look bad, well, you're stuck with them for quite a while, afterall, they are a large investment. And no matter how you picture something in your head, it has no real-life impact.
So, we decided to head back to the Model Home Park in Stuttgart, to look at houses and get some ideas.
Along the way, Joern decided to make a detour. Ever since we've started this house project, over a year ago, we have spent countless nights and weekends driving around looking at existing houses for ideas. Joern also had the luxury of looking at houses as he drove around his region for work. A few months ago, Joern had spotted a house that he thought I might like. It is about 20 minutes drive here, on the other side of the Neckar Valley. He brought me for a drive to see it a few days later, and I immediately fell in love. The house is quite similar to ours, two full floors, plenty of floor length windows. The house is white with a black roof, and window grills. It looked so beautiful.
Of course, as we have looked at thousands of house pictures since seeing this one, it faded a bit in our memory. Joern decided to return to look at the house yesterday as a refresher.
Oh My God! I am in love. Out of all the houses we've looked at, it is by far up there with my other favorite (the house belonging to my friend in Dresden.) BEAUTIFUL! PERFECT! OURS!!
It is now our main inspiration.
One thing I'm always a bit nervous about is slowing down in front of houses, and the continual drive-bys. I'm convinced that in one neighborhood, we're already on watch, we've started taking my in-laws' cars for drive-bys. Yesterday, as we drove by my DREAM HOUSE, we noticed that someone was working on the lawn. To my surprise, even though this shouldn't surprie me, Joern pulls into their driveway! He grabs all our houseplans, and hops out of the car, and introduces himself to the homeowner. Joern explained that we're building a house and we are in love with his house. The homeowner, instead of thinking we were crazy, proceded to spend the next hour talking with the homeowners and touring their home!
It turns out that we are not the first people to ring their doorbell, and proclaim our love for their house. And the homeowners were a lovely, kind husband and wife, living in the house with their two adorable children. He expalined to us that his house is actually a timber-framed pre-fab home. The company actually went bankrupt two months after they built in 2006. He explained to us all about the window grills (which are built into the windows, are are 30 cm for our knowledge,) and their windows were plastic. Surprisingly, they were really beautiful. The house is white with all white trim, white front door which was styled like the windows, with sidelights on both sides. Their house has a beautiful balcony with white wrought-iron railings. Very beautiful. He showed us all sides of the exterior, and even told us what brand of roofing tiles they used.
They were so open with us, and were really interested to see our house plans as well. They even talked openly about costs with us, which in the end, is pretty much the same price as we're going to be paying. I did learn though that I need to buy curtains in the States! They went to a designer here, and paid 15,000 Euro for the window treatments! The hardware, well, I expected to pay about what they paid, but the curtains themselves, while beautiful, were 12,000 Euro! They were right, that they felt strongly that such a beautiful home needed beautiful window treatments. Hello Pottery Barn!
As we ended our visit, Joern gave them his card, and said if they ever want to drive by and check out our house, they're always welcome. They wished us lots of luck with the house, and said they look forward to enjoying a coffee in our home :)
We left the house, and felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from our shoulders. The house was gorgeous, and it was my plan from the beginning. I just started to have my doubts.
From there, we did drive out to the model home park, to measure windows. We need to change some window sizes, and Joern wanted to measure. Fortunately, not too many salespeople bothered us, and most sat in our offices while we walked around, took photos (secretly,) and measured. We're still undecided on the width of the windows, but we'll speak with our architect tomorrow about the windows to get his opinion.
The last thing we did at the model home park was to visit with Frau V, from one of the pre-fab companies. We had worked closely with her and her company for a while, going so far as to get an offer from them. Joern was honest about everything from the get-go, that we prefered to build traditionally with construction workers from the area, and if they were too expensive, that we would indeed choose this company. We went back ýesterday to tell Frau V that we were indeed building with a local builder. At first, she seemed kind-of put-off, and said, "well, I figured since you never got back to me." What's most amazing is that the truth is, until last week, when we received the estimates, we had no idea still who we would be building with. We started talking about our move away from Mr. W, and she admitted, she was concerned when we seemed so excited about working with the previous architect. She said that he doesn't have the best reputation, when it comes to being transparent with costs, and that many people who build with him end up 50,000- 75,000 Euro above his given price. She knew she couldn't tell us this though, so she kept quiet. In the end, she asked to see our house plans, and was excited to see all the changes we've made. We parted on a very positive note, which made me happy because Frau V. is a very nice person.
It was a fabulous day, and at the end, we felt like a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders. The last time we were in the model home park, we had no idea how long this whole thing was going to take, or where we really were in the process- it was in February to pick up our application for the building permit. This time, we know a lot more of what we're doing, where we're going, and approximately how long its going to take.
I'm really happy, really excited, and of course, really nervous!
