A little inspiration

Joern and I had the craziest day yesterday. This past week, we have been going crazy trying to figure out the situation with the windows. I won't go into all the ridiculous details again, but the windows were driving us crazy. And we were getting really mean towards each other.
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!

Today's mailbox find

We got TWO official house-related letters. Both important and both signifying that we soon have to cough up a lot of money to buy our building lot.
The first letter came from the town. We were waiting for this letter, although it makes me annoyed. Before you purchase a piece of land here for building purposes, you need to clear it with the town that they do not have any earlier claims put a the land to build on it, you know, like putting up a pool or building a school on your land. It makes sense, but this late in the game, makes little sense for us. First of all, this should have been done in February, when we put through the application for the building permit. The building permit application listed exactly where the house was going to be built. Since our town is so big (HA!), this goes through the same person anyway. Second, our building lot is a part of a much larger piece of land that belonged to an old couple. They died, their property went up for sale, and two people bought the land, and broke it up into 8 building lots. HELLO, the town would have stopped the purchase two years ago had this been an issue. Oh well, we got the negative letter today. One of the first times in my life that a negative is a good thing.
The second letter we received was from another notary public. This, notary public, unlike the one we spent over an hour with, is responsible for making changes to the land title registry. Oy! So, not only did we receive a notification that there will be a change to the land title registry, but, came along with a lovely 118 Euro bill as well. Sheesh!
Now that these two letters are in our possession, we are now waiting for a letter from the first notary public, who will give us the green light, and set in motion the 10 days we have to pay for the very, not cheap land!
Exciting and nerve wracking all at once. If we don't come out of this experience with ulcers then I'll know that Joern and I are strong people!

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!

1800 Euro saved, Mr. Builder official

We spoke with Mr. B (the architect) last night. He told us that he too spoke with Mr. Builder and after a little bit of negotiating, he brought Mr. Builder's price down by 3%. Normally, 3% isn't much, but I realize now that when you're building a house, 3% is HUGE! Mr. Builder also offered us a 2% discount if we pay each bill within 10 days of receipt. This is a 5% savings, which again, in the house building world is really big!
Mr. B suggested to Joern though that the 2% discount is not really normal, and that Joern should instead negotiate for a further 1% discount if we pay our bills quickly. He then offered that if Joern would go to Mr. Builder today, we could negotiate the extra 1% discount, and if successful, accept Mr. Builder as the builder.
This morning, we drove out to Mr. Builder's office, sadly, he wasn't there. One of his office workers offered to help us. Joern asked for the extra 1%, and she said yes, she had the ability to offer us the extra percent discount. In two seconds, we saved 1800 Euro! In two seconds, we also confirmed our builder!
There is still a week or so we have to wait for contracts. Mr. B won't be back from his vacation until the end of next week. I'm sure we'll be speaking with Mr. Builder in the meantime.
FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY, we're almost there. I said to Joern last night, "I feel like we're standing on the threshold of our house." I wish this is where the stress ended, but more likely, this is where the stress begins. No matter, because when this is all behind us, we will be living in our beautiful, custom design house!

The estimates, the architect, and farming

Yes, they're all related.
As we left the country for our trip, our architect, Mr. B, prepared the 30 page document to send to all potential builders. The document listed all the materials to be used, and the amount. Each builder filled out the document and sent it in to Mr. B. When Mr. B sent out the document, he also explained the location, and the date he wanted it back, which was this past Friday, the 30th of July. The plan was that Mr. B would look over the estimates, and meet with us on Saturday morning. After we returned to Germany, we called Mr. B, who told us that two builders immediately said that they could not do it- we're kind of in the middle of a housing boom here in southern Germany. Mr. Builder was the only builder to get the estimate back on time, and 4 other builders promised to get it back by Monday. This really threw a wrench in the works, as Mr. B left for vacation on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, Mr. B is seriously, the best, and coolest architect in the world, because he has no problem talking with us while he is on vacation :) Ùnfortunately, yesterday, Mr. B called, but we were not around. This morning, Joern called Mr. Builder to ask. Mr. Builder explained to Joern that Mr. B had discussed the prices with Mr. Builder, and Mr. Builder actually lowered his prices to meet that of the lower priced builders. It pretty much looks like we're going with Mr. Builder. This is most exciting, because Mr. Builder is really, really high quality. Most of the houses being built in Neckartailfingen at the moment are built by Mr. Builder.
The most incredible news? There is a possibilty that Mr. Builder can start the week after next! Possible though because, the operator of the excavator may not be available the week after next. Why? Because he also operates the combine harvester on his father's farm. Something that a Fairfield girl never expected, to lose our excavator to a combine harvester.
Whenever they start, I'm content. I know that they'll start with our house soon. We know the builder and we know the price. All the unknowns are falling into place. Very, very exciting!

The container story

We booked our container about a month prior to our trip home. We went with a company out of New York. We chose to self-load the container, and signed a contract sometime in June. Before leaving for America, I needed to provide my passport information as well as a copy of my residency permit. The container was set to arrive at my father's house at 8 am on Thursday the 15th for us, and we had two hours during which to book the container.
Once we arrived in the States, we got to work looking for last minute items for the house, as well as prepare to receive some deliveries and to pick up some furniture in Long Island. Here are some of our final purchases for the container:

Napoleon barstool from Pottery Barn

Malika rug from Pottery Barn for the dining room

Clara rug from Pottery Barn for the guest bedroom

We bought five of these medicine cabinets, not all white, from the Restoration Hardware outlet.

This is the vanity for the children's bathroom from the Restoration Hardware outlet too.
We also bought a wonderful set of pots and pans at the Williams Sonoma outlet. We've been going for 9 years with Ikea pots, I can't wait to have a real set of pots and pans to cook with.
What shook us was the message when we came home from Long Island, it was from someone from the shipping company. It turns out that they intentionally always overbook ships, okay not their fault, as we were working with a forwarding agent and not the actual shipping company. But, as the ship was overbooked, our forwarding agent would either need to store our container at their port, at their expense, or push forward the day we would load our container. Joern was pretty angry about this, but it turned out to be the final shove we needed to extend our stay at home for a week. It also gave Joern an excellent bargaining position, and allowed us to get the third hour to load the container at no extra expense. This extra hour was a huge help, as the original contract stated we had two hours to load the container, and each extra hour would come at a cost of $120 per hour. Ugh! So, we agreed to move the date of the container to the following Monday, 19 July.
We used the extra time to purchase a king sized down comforter and some other odds and ends. During the rest of the week, we welcomed into my father's garage the order from Pottery Barn, and the following beauties from Crate and Barrel:


On Wednesday morning, we received yet another call from the forwarding agent. Since we did the entire shipment under my name, as a foreigner, I am allowed one shipment of personal goods without customs tax, I needed one more important document. It turns out that the US changed their export laws in January of 2010, requiring ALL US citizens who export goods outside of the US, even personal goods for personal use, to file for an Employer Identification Number. This simple process, I was told, could be completed via the internet, and I would immediately receive a EIN number. The forwarding agent told me that this number was needed before we received the container. This left me with 3 business days, and spotty internet avaiability.
On Thursday morning, I rushed to my stepmother's house to fill out my EIN application. Turns out, basically, I was required to file with the IRS that I was opening a business! Hello! Business! You have got to be kidding me! I ended up calling the IRS, because I was so confused. I called the phone number for help filing for an EIN, and the lady on the phone still had no clue. Finally, after speaking with her manager, she confirmed indeed, I needed a number. And so, with her help, I started a business.

We also received the shipment from Bassett. I failed to mention how the New England Furniture Warehouse was giving me angina, and well, same for my dad. I had been back and forth with the furniture warehouse responsible for shipping out Bassett's Connecticut orders since April. Evidently, they received our first Bassett sectional in mid-January, although I was told it would not arrive from to warehouse until March. They had held onto my furniture for almost 6 months. In May, they called my father and said that if we didn't get this worked out, they were going to get rid of my, already paid for, furniture. I had a big runaround with the warehouse and Bassett furniture. In the end, the store manager promised he would work everything out, and that because I had been such a good Bassett customer (ordering 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, living room tables, and a china hutch) over a 6 month time period, they would put pressure on the warehouse to wait for me. I called the warehouse as soon as I arrived in CT in order to set up a delivery date. The woman was relieved to set up a time. Fortunately, the container was pushed back, because the first available date she had would have been the day after the container was scheduled to be packed and leave. What a nightmare that would have been.

As you can imagine, my father is a saint. He moved one of his trucks out of the garage at the beginning of the trip, so we could start collecting all of our funiture in one place and preparing it for shipment. Here's what the garage looked like BEFORE the 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, coffee table, two end tables, and a china hutch arrived:

That's my dad's very large Chevy Silverado, that ended up packed into the garage for a week or so, hidden behind our headboard

And yes, that is poor Joern sweating because all this was happening during a crazy 100 degree (40 C) heat wave.
Here's the garage after all the furniture arrived.

There was barely room to close the door!
We had a busy weekend before the container came, but I used every spare minute to pack, pack, pack. I ended throwing away some things, because they really were frivilous. But, I did manage to send overseas a bunch of my old stuffed animals, collector Barbies, my grandmother's china, old prom dresses and my mom's last wedding dress, all of my momentos from high school and college, and lots of old books, including all the remaining yearbooks I had not yet brought over. I also packed my flute, which will be so nice to have here. I packed away a painting from my mom's house, as well as a few Fairfield posters.
Each item that went into a box needed to be inventoried, and each box needed to be numbered. All items that went into the container also needed to be numbered and inventoried.
We woke up at 6 am on Monday the 19th, with the plan to spend two hours finishing the inventory, as the container was scheduled to arrive at 8 am. As soon as we stood up, Joern shot out of the bedroom, saying, "the container is here!" Sure enough, the container arrived ridiculously early. And the best news of all? We had until 10 am to fill it. This would have been good news- meaning we had one extra hour (4 hours instead of 3 to pack the container,) but my cousin's boyfriend was coming at 8 am to help us out. Obviously, I could not help Joern lift a couch into the back of the container which remained at the height of the truck. What was meant to be a busy, but smooth two hours, turned into chaos. I had number every item in the garage, and finish two boxes in the house. Plus, I had to desperately call my cousin's boyfriend to see if he could come any earlier. He did arrive around 8, and unfortunately had a job interview that required him to leave at 9 at the latest. Hmmm... now we were in a bind.
As my cousin's boyfriend drove away, my heart sank. I had no idea how to help Joern with the heavy items, and even less idea of who to call to ask for help. I am pretty sure without help, we would have needed a week to pack the container. My dad arrived from breakfast about 15 minutes after my cousin's boyfriend left, and he brought the dark clouds with him. As the impending thunderstorm started rolling in, our lifesaver, my godfather, called to ask how things were going. All I heard my dad say was, "they really could use a little help." So there it was. Ten minutes later, with an ever darkening sky, my godfather drove in to save us. He and Joern worked hard for about 20 minutes before the sky let loose. We had to retreat into the garage, and I had to ask the driver if he could wait extra time (knowing we'd have to pay, we had no choice.)
After 10 minutes, the rain slowed, but it stayed rainy for the next 30 minutes or so. Joern and my godfather packed, and I numbered.
The biggest challenge was the last item: our king-sized mattress.
Here are Joern and my godfather, Rich, trying to hoist the mattress on top of everything in the container:

Joern and Rich decided to use the box as a smooth surface to slide the mattress onto. Both Joern and Rich are underneath the box at this point.

At one point, Joern got lost under the box. Would we have to ship him too?

A few failed attempts, time for a conference.

A last attempt.

SUCCESS!
As soon as the mattress was loaded, the container was shut and sealed. It will not be opened again until it reaches Hamburg on August 11th. Good luck to those customs agents who try to take on our container!

The seal that goes through the lock.

See you in a few weeks on the other side of the ocean!

My dad picking up the remains, and looking forward to full use of his garage.

After 6 months of stressing over our furniture, it was a relief to see the container roll away. Unfortunately, a few pieces didn't make it in, like an end table from my mother and our personalized door mat, but that's about it. My whole life right now is on a boat, making its way to us.
It arrives in Hamburg on August 11th, and will arrive in Neckartailfingen two to three days later. Joern is currently building his unpacking team and looking for the proper place to store our stuff!