Prep work

The house has been really busy the past few weeks, with a some waterproofing, prep work, and continued tiling.
Last week started with the arrival of the people who install waterproofing.  They worked to cover our garages  and foyer.

Tar paint covering the foyer, and the guys are rolling out a water-proofing material over the paint.

Covering the tar paint with waterproofing material on top of Joern's garage.

The waterproofing covered with a special covering in preparation for greening.

Finishing up Joern's garage.

The foyer covered in tar paint.

Installation being installed above the foyer

                                            The waterproofing material down on top of the
                                                                   insulation on the foyer.

There was also a lot of work done on the balcony.  First, the plumbers came to install a gutter system on the balcony:

 And then, the waterproofing guys installed insulation and waterproofing on the balcony:

The waterproofing was especially necessary.  We could easily have encountered problems in the dining room and kitchen with water.  We were already starting to have some leakage in the foyer, underneath where my garage meets the foyer, and Joern's garage was leaking a bit, on the wall that his garage shares with the house.  We asked quite a few times, and were assured that this was normal, as the leakage was occuring at the juncture of two strucutures (garage and house,) and that this problem would clear up with the waterproofing.  The waterproofing has since been put to the test with quite a bit of rain, and so far, we're okay!

The plaster guys also worked very hard last week and into this week prepping our ceilings and walls for paint. The plaster guys applied a flat grounding for the paint onthe walls in the first and second floors, and a slightly bumpy ground for the cellar walls.   They also spackled, sanded, spackled, and sanded the ceilings to ensure a smooth surface. Then, beginning on Monday of this past week, the plaster guys started finalizing the ceilings.  First, they applied primer, then glue, in small sections, to the ceiling:

                               
Then, they applied the paper covering, which is a mixture of cellulose and textile fibers, which mixes to make a strong and flame-resistant covering.  We chose this cover for our ceilings because they are concrete, and no matter how much you try, it is hard to sand out every imperfection in the concrete.  Since we have so many windows, and so much light pouring in, we were a little conerned that it would draw attention to any imperfections in the ceiling.  The paper covering came out quite nicely.

On Tuesday, the plaster guys painted the ceilings:

And while the guys were painting, Joern and I sat with the owner of the plaster company, and chose paint colors.  We went with an off-white in the cellar, light gray-beige in the main areas of the first floor and second floors, a steel gray in the powder room, a turquoise-infused blue in the kid's bath, a lovely blue for Erbse's room, and a hot-chocolate-like color for the master suite. 

On Thursday, the plaster guys worked to cover over all joints with an acrylic paint.  But, the coolest surprise was what we found in the house when we arrived on Thursday night.
In the living room, we found:

So then, we ran upstairs to find this in the master bedroom:

And this in the kid's bath:

And the paint that brought happiness tears to my eyes:

Yup, we got our Erbse's little boy blue paint!

We also checked out the house, to take final pre-paint pictures, including the mostly completed tiles.

The primed walls in the master bedroom:

The cutouts in the wall in the master bedroom to access the pipes and wires in the wall:

Here, you can see the texture on the cellar walls:

And here is a view of our little storage room in the cellar:

 Here is a view of the completed tile in the master bath:

 The master shower:

A closeup of the trim in the master shower:

And, one fixed wall in the powder room:

Well, there you have it.  Friday deserves its own post.  But, this is a good recap of the past two weeks. This is such a great phase, not only because we are so close to the end, but also because we get to see our decisions and choices come together!





Yesterday, today, what will tomorrow hold?

It turns out that the "race to the finish," when building a house is just that.  The house hasn't really been this busy in quite a while, and there is a lot more busy to go.
Yesterday was tiles and continued work on the drywall.  By the end of the day yesterday, we had more tiles, a bench in our shower, and most surprisingly, a new storage room!

One of the plaster guys installing drywall around the air filtration pipes in Erbse's room.

The biggest deal of the day was of course the storage room in the cellar.  I don't know if I mentioned our decision before, that we would put a wall in at the end of the media room, making the media room a little smaller, but allowing us to have a sizeable storage space in the cellar.  This was a big deal to me because the cellar is so big, but so open that we had little space available for pure storage.  Sure, we could use cabinets here and there, but for a good old-fashioned storage room, we had nothing available.  Adding this wall, and creating a room that linked Joern's garage to the cellar also solved another problem: the wastewater pipe running down the middle of the wall in the media room.  We have now a very large storage space, that does not disturb the media room.

Of course, knowing this was coming could not prepare me for the feeling of bounding down the cellar stairs, and getting "lost" when I was headed towards Joern's garage.  Honestly, it took me a minute to realize where I was.  Yes, this was my house, but when a room exists that wasn't there 24 hours beforehand is a little shock to the system.

I love the storage space!

Here's a view from Joern's garage heading into the house.

And this is our slightly smaller, but still super-cool media room!

We also met with Mr Plaster-Guy last night.  He met us at one of his construction sites to show us our options for finishing the ceilings.  There are two options here for our concrete ceilings: 

1) Spackle- the ceiling would be sanded down, spackled, sanded again, spackled again, and then painted

OR

2) Vliestapete- a type of wallpaper made from cellulose and textile fibers.  

Mr Plaster-Guy showed us both types of celings, as one of his current construction sites has the Vliestapete in the top three floors and spackled ceilings in the cellar.  According to Mr. Plaster-Guy, a positive of the Vliestapete is that it will cover any small cracks that may appear in the ceiling.  We also saw that the light reflects differently on the spackled ceiling versus the wallpapered ceiling.  In the end, we decided for the wallpapered ceilings.  

On Thursday, the plaster guys also got to work on our ceilings.  They taped over all the joints in the ceiling:

And Cute Tile Guy was also rather busy.  He properly installed a backsplash (after a fit of passive agression,) in the pantry behind the utility sink:

And he got started installing tile on the shower walls, as well as mosaic on the shower bench:

Well, there you have it.  Tile Guy didn't come on Friday, but the plaster guys continued to work on the ceiling.  But, it isn't really photo worthy.
I will have to update though with some pictures from the front of our house: the electric company came today to dig out a hole for our electrity connection, we should have electricity next week!  We're coming up on a three day weekend, so we have to wait for Tuesday for people to come back to the house.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, *Saturday,* and Tuesday

We had a lot of progress again on the house over the past few days.  Wednesday brought with it the very cool ability to walk on our tiled cellar stairs:

And he tiled the floors in the powder room and the pantry:

By the time I got home, Tile Guy had made considerable progress on the shower in the childrens' bath too (even though it wasn't right.)





Of course, it was on Wednesday that I realized that the subway tiles were incorrectly installed.  Almost a week later, I still haven't decided if I want the shower tiles redone, or just the powder room. 

On Thursday, Tile Guy completed the shower:

And, he installed the tile on the floor of the children's bath:

I know that the floor is totally dirty here in this picture, but the floor is so cool looking!  Here is a slightly less dirty corner:


Friday, was completion of the floor in the chidren's bath, and the backsplash behind the oven:

Joern was also super busy on Friday evening, he was installing the speakers in the office and Erbse's room:

Surprisingly, Tile Guy was back on Saturday, to build the wall around the bathtub:





Sadly, no Tile Guy on Monday.  We've started to realize that he simply may not work on Mondays.  But, we were surprised on Monday morning, by a visit from the EnBW, the electricity company.  They came to tell us that they will begin digging a new electrical line for us next week.  Evidently, the original plan was that we would share a line with the building lot next door, but the people from the electric company didn't feel comfortable with this decision, so they will be giving us a new line.  But, the good news is that by the end of next week, or early the following week, we FINALLY should have our own electricity and phone lines!

We also had a surprise visit with Mr. B.  I had the day off of work as a preventative measure (the doctor wrote me out sick,)  so I was able to be at the house when Mr. B came.  Mr. B came to check on the progress of the house.  He checked if we had ordered the interior doors, and also told us that someone would be coming to install the waterproofing on top of the garages.  Wahoo!

Today, Tile Guy was busy again.  He finished the backsplash in the kitchen:

And he started the master bath:

The plaster guys also started today.  They spent the day covering over the pipes:

Pantry

Erbse's room

Its really starting to look like the tiles, without the changes, will be finished by Friday!  I'm interested to see how long the plaster guys need.  Once the plaster guys are done, then it is time for the floors!

It looks like we're having a good week!





Monday, Tuesday

The past few days have seen a lot of progress house-wise.

Yesterday, I was shocked to see the house when I came home from work.  When we drove by the house yesterday morning, this is what we saw:

And here is the same view at 4:30:

Yup, the guys came to take down the staging yesterday.  But not before an emergency downspout installation.  On Saturday, the owner of the stucco business came in the afternoon to fix a small problem between the house and the wooden part of the roof overhang.  While he was there, he asked Joern who was coming to install the downspout in front of the house- the downspout that could not be safely installed without staging.  This realization, that we did not have the downspout installed, caused a bit of scrambling on Joern's behalf, as the guys were planning to come at 7:00 am on Monday to take down the staging.  After a few frantic calls, Joern was able to get the plumbers to the house at 7:00, and the guys removed the staging around 10:00.

I can't believe how beautiful the house looks now!  Not only were we unable to see the house exterior for 2 months, but our windows have all been covered over for the same amount of time.  I love it!

Cute Tile Guy also made tons of progress yesterday.  He tiled the entryway, the part of the foyer between my garage and the front door.  I love how light everything is!

It was also the first day that I walked on the tiles, so of course, we had to record the event:

We also found our first mess.  When we were in the house over the weekend, Joern told me that there was a bird in the cellar, but as he walked into the cellar, the bird made its way over to the garage.  But, the bird didn't go without leaving us a small gift:

It goes without saying that I cannot wait for our doors to arrive!

We went back to the house last night, once it got dark, to see the official result of Joern and Marcel's lighting project. We cannot be more pleased with the results:

Today was another day full of progress.  Cute Tile Guy finished the foyer steps.  I know that home decor is all a matter of taste, but I love how our foyer turned out!

Cute Tile Guy also tiled the walls in the powder room.  Don't freak out like I did: he will be using white grout between the tiles, which will totally change the look.

Unfortunately, the cap tile did not arrive yet.  It will look even better with a cap around the top.

I also noticed that the opening above the window in the entryway was closed, and Joern told me that the stucco guys were at the house yesterday to work on the outside of the cellar.  So, we had to take some more pictures:

It was exciting day again at the future home of Joern, Allison, and Erbse.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!