Radiant heating

The plumbers managed to lay the radiant heating tubes for all three floors in just two days!  They worked like mad, but by last week Monday, all the radiant heating was completed!

Plus, they connected it all to the distribution manifolds:

And, what surprised me the most:  the plumbers installed our bathtub!

Plugging along

Last week and this week belonged to the plumbers.  They are preparing to lay the radiant heating! 
Turns out that despite its strength for construction, the concrete is really inefficient for radiant heating.  In order to combat the inefficiency of the concrete, the plumbers have been busy laying insulation.  I don't think I have ever seen such a highly insulated house before!
The plumbers started last week in the cellar.  Since its the cellar, they began with a moisture barrier.  Once the entire floor was covered with the moisture barrier, the plumbers then covered the entire cellar floor with one inch of styrofoam.  The most amazing thing is how tedious a process covering the floor with insulation can be.  The insulation comes in sheets, about 3 ft. long by 2 ft wide, which need to be cut to fit close to perfectly.  It was like the floor was tiled with styrofoam.  By the end of the day on Thursday, our cellar was beautifully tiled with styrofoam.  And then, the fateful question posed by Joern to the plumbers:  "Can you drill a hole from oustide the house into the cellar?"  Joern has a grand plan to run a wire underground between his parents house and our house, to connect to our central house computer, as Joern will then be able to work at his parents house on our computer.  This goes with our anit-WiFi stance (not because of electro-smog, but because WiFi is annoyingly slow,) plus it would take a really strong signal to communicate between Joern's parents' house and our cellar.  So, before the day ended on Thursday, a beautiful hole was dug into the top of our cellar for Joern's cable. 
On Friday morning, Joern and I headed to the bakery to pick up breakfast, and we left my cousin, Elizabeth at the apartment to sleep.  When we got back, Elizabeth was awake, with news, Joern's dad had called, and said there was a "small problem with the house."  Turns out that no one bothered to cover the beautiful hole, and we had quite a bit of rain on Thursday night.  The plumbers arrived on Friday morning to about 1/2" of muddy water filling most of our cellar!  They need to pump out the cellar and remove all the insulation and moisture barrier, so that everything could dry out! 
This is now what our cellar looks like:

A little sad, because this was much farther along last week :( 

The plumbers decided to ensure proper drying, that they would begin this week insulating the top two floors, and then returning to the cellar last.  Poor guys.  But after two days, there was some major progress.

Our foyer, filled with insulation

We found out that the radiant heating tubing does not lie on top of those styrofoam tiles.  Nope.  Another layer of styrofoam, about another 1/2" thick, covered with a rather thick plastic goes on top of those styrofoam tiles!  So, we have at least 1" of styrofoam insulation between our concrete floors and the radiant heating!  No hot ceilings in our house!  Here is a good view of both layers in the kitchen;



The styrofoam tiles on the bottom also had to be cut with a special burining tool to create channels for the pipes and tubes running along the floor:

And this is what it looks like when installed on the floor:





In some cases though, it would be too much work to cut out the styrofoam.  There is a special material that is used like a "grout" between the tiles to create a tightly insulated cover, which they also used to insulate around the longer pipes:

As of last night, most of the first floor was completed and the second floor is finished:

                                                                 Living Room:



                                                                     Master Bedroom:



I even found a surprise when I walked into the master bath:

We have a bathtub!  It will be installed within the week, as it must be installed before the Estrich (the untranslatable concreteish layer that is poured over the radiant heating,) which is set for next week!

I realize that the progress isn't overwhelming like it was during the building phase, the interior isn't as easy to notice the changes.  But, now I realize that every time something is completed now in the interior, the house begins to look more and more like a home!



Quite a bit of progress in the past, oh, month or so

Okay, so I realize that my last post about the house was one month ago, to the day, but I think I have some fairly good excuses.  Once the Richtfest was finished, we had two weeks to prepare the apartment for our visit:  my cousin, Elizabeth, and her friend, Carla, came to us at the last stop of their whirlwind European tour.  Also, the last 2 weeks of work were really crazy, and invovled a couple of late-nighters for me.  Then, Carla and Elizabeth arrived.  We've been having lots of fun, and have done quite a bit of exploring in Germany.  Of course, I should not forget the most important reason though:

Yup, this is ours!  Joern and I are having a baby, who we have named, "Erbse" (German for pea.) A baby who I happen to think is the absolute most adorable baby in the world! 

Despite all the goings-on in our lives, we have finally seen progress with the house!  The plaster guys finally started on June 4, a Saturday.   They were able to complete plastering the walls on the top two floors, but not the staircase.  After the Richtfest, the guys came in and fninshed by the end of the following week.  So officially, the plaster guys finished on the 18th.  Of course, they are not completely finished, but they are finished with the first layer of plaster, which is quite thick.  They will be back after the Estrich (the cement-like material poured over the insulation, pipes, and radiant heating,) so probably in late August/ September.  The walls look incredible, and I really need to take pictures of how lovely our very finished-looking walls are!

Last week, the electricians were at the house again.  All of our alarm contact wires are installed, and they now installed all of the outlets, without their covers, of course. 
Here are a few pictures:

                                                      Three plug outlets in the kitchen.

Not sure what the four holes with wires are for, but the squares with arrows

are for our exterior metal blinds.  It feels like "command central."

And last week, someone from Mr. Builder came in to pour the foundation for the air heat pump.  The plumbers came and put up the air filtration machine, and worked some more on the pipes in the mechaical room.

Yesterday, the plumbers came, and put up the air-heat pump.  They connected the air intake and outake portion, but of course, there is no plumbing completed yet.  It looks amazing so far though!

Today, the plumbers installed the gas pipe for our stove.  You can also see how nice the plastered over walls look in this picture:

The blue along the wall is the protection between the walls and the poured concreteish floor covering. 

We were also surprised to discover that the plumbers started to lay the insulation that goes beneath the radiant heating.  They started in the Erbse's room:



So there you have it, a very brief update!  Hopefully, now that life is a little calmer, I will be able to update with much more frequency! 
Ciao!





The Richtfest in Review!

June 11, 2011, the day that Joern and I will now always remember as one of the most incredible days ever. 
Our Richtfest was so wonderful.  It was such an incredible lot of work in preparation, but I am so glad that we worked so hard, because it really paid off.  I like to think of our Richtfest as highly personal, which seems to fit our personalities.  Before the party, I read a lot about Richtfests on the internet, and having had experience attending one, they tend to be very rote.  Man stands up on the roof, says something, drinks a glass of wine, throws the glass down, people eat.  Joern and I worked really hard to make the party a little more reflective of our personalities, homey and comfortable.  I hope all of our guests would agree with my assessment of the party. 
I will write another post about the preparation involved, but for now, I just want to focus on the party itself. 
The day started for Joern around 7:00, when he arrived at the house, with his longtime friends Marcel and Fabio who helped Joern to set up.  I stayed home to print out and prepare the remainder of decorations for the party.  I picked up my friend Iris, who so very kindly offered us to help set up, at 11:00 from the train station.  Once we arrived at the house, it was prepare, prepare, prepare. 
For the most part, preparations ran smoothly, until it came time to put out the 300 chocolate chip, peanut butter M&M, and Snickerdoodle cookies I had made last weekend.  The chookies vanished.  It was upsetting. Joern and I looked in his car, my car, and we both went back to the apartment to search.  Sadly, we didn't find the cookies until Sunday morning, the day after the party, when my mother-in-law found them in her car. 

My friend Mandy, her husband, and their dog, Abbey, were among the first guests to arrive, around 2:30 to set up for Mandy's song. As a surprise for Joern, we did not tell him that "Bug," (or Elizabeth,) who completed her student teaching at the same high school where Mandy and I worked, had come in for a visit, and Mandy brought her along!  Joern was so excited and surprised to see Bug!  Mandy got to work setting up her sound equipment, and I handed the camera over to Bug, who so kindly agreed to take pictures of the event.    We had a little problem around 3:00 when the electricity stopped working, which meant that Mandy's sound board and amplifier would not work.

 After a lot of fiddling around with Joern's parents' electrical panel, and the sound equipment, we finally got things working again!  Just in time for the guests to start arriving:

Because some guests arrived exactly on time, there was a little time to spare, my friend Iris started offering house tours:



While Joern and I greeted guests in our foyer:

The guests made themselves comfortable at our tables:



My friend Julie checked out the food:

And Bug found our "Neckartailfingen Beer":

And our guests greeted each other, while I juggled our presents:

And there were lots of hugs:

At 3:55, Joern got a phone call from the Dachdecker, the roofer, saying that they were running a few minutes late, and that they would be arriving at 4:05, about 5 minutes after the Richtspruch was supposed to begin.  Fortunately, our guests seemed okay chatting, catching up, and looking around the house, so it didn't seem to be such a big deal. 
Then, the roofers arrived, with the Richtbaum, the Richtfest tree, in hand.  Andy, the roofer who was to deliver the Richtspruch, was dressed in traditonal clothes of Zimmermänner (roofers) here.  Roofers still wear very traditional clothing, and the profession is one held in high esteem here.  First, he climbed out on our front terrace, navigating along about the 8 inches of concrete rim around the terrace, with a tree in one hand!  Obviously, roofers have very good balace, and little fear of heights

Once we agreed on a place to secure the tree, it came back in for some quick decoration.  The Richtbaum is a traditional part of the Richtfest.  The tree is a major symbol of the Richtfest, symbolizing the pride in the completion of the roof (since this is normally attached atop the untiled roof, ours was just a lot later,) from both the roofers and the future homeowners.  The Richtbaum is traditionally decorated with ribbons, so the tree came back inside, and my friends Iris, Prisca, Prisca's husband Godwill, and myself attached the ribbons.

It isn't so easy to tell from the picture, but I chose red, white, blue, red, black, gold as the ribbons.  Some people were very good at guessing the purpose of my color decision:  the US and German flag colors, which is a running theme our lives.

While we prepared, the guests started to gather in the driveway:

The Richtbaum was then cleverly attached to a beer table bench, and the builders and roofers gathered on the roof:

And then, the roofers hopped up on the edge of the foyer, for Andy, the guy in black delivered the Richtspruch. The Richtspruch is a little speech about how the roof is a symbol of pride, that the builders worked hard to create a home that will protect the owners, and a request that God help protect the house as well. 

Following the Richtspruch, Mr. K, the family from whom we purchased the land, yelled something (I need to figure out what he said,) from the back of the crowd, followed by "Hoch, Hoch, Hoch," a German expression that is the form of a toast.  Then Andy drank down his glass of wine, and turned to throw the empty glass behind us all (as there was a little danger of hitting someone in the crowd with the breaking glass,) which promptly shattered, and is meant to bring good luck to us in our new home. 

Once the clapping and Richtspruch were complete, the attention turned to my friend Mandy, who we asked to sing a song.  When we attened our neighbors' Richtfest, Mr. Builder, who delivered the Richtspruch, also sang a song.  But, Joern and I did not want a very religious song, and we both love the way Mandy sings, so we decided on having Mandy sing a song instead of something chosen by people who don't know us so well. 

It turns out that Mandy had a difficult time finding a song that would be good for this purpose.  So, she and Bug, worked together to compose a song!  The inspiration from the song came from Bug's haiku that she wrote for Mandy and Doug's wedding last year.  The song was incredibly beautiful and so very touching.  And rather emotional:

Following Mandy's song, Joern took the opportunity to thank the Mr. B, the builders,the  roofers, and the plumbers.  He also announced that it was my birthday, and then the crowd broke out into Happy Birthday, in English and German!



Once the clapping died down, Joern announced that it was time to party, to enjoy some good food and lotsa drinks.  And we made our way into the house.  Bug met me in the house with another surprise, she and Mandy made me a birthday cake! 

And the boys fired up the grill:

And we mingled with the guests:

The party went well into the night.  It was a fantastic time to gather with our friends, and share with them our excitement and happiness.  It was such an incredible day, with so many happy memories.  The house feels more like a home already, with the memories of our first party!







Taking a break from regularly scheduled posting!

Today is our RICHTFEST!  This means that is has been a ridiculously crazy week. 
Look forward to more regular, sensible posting next week!
If you can make it, we look forward to seeing you this afternoon at 3:30!

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!

That'll teach me to blog when I'm exhausted

Last week, I was so excited to post about our Richtfest, which is now less than 6 days away.  I was really tired when I posted, but decided to push through the tiredness and achy eyes to post.  Yesterday, I opened up this blog and was surprised to find that the post was missing.  After a little detective work, I found it here.  Since I can't figure out how to post the whole thing over on this blog, we'll have to make due right now. 
In other Richtfest news, 300+ cookies are now finished!  I decided to make chocolate chip, pecan chocolate chip, peanut butter M&M, and Snickerdoodles.  The Snickerdoodles are sooo tasty, and I'm a little worried they won't make it to the weekend!  We also haven't done the shopping that I expected to do on Friday because Joern wants to wait till next Friday to get the meat, and we had a big day on Friday, which I will write about in a separate post. 
Obviously, house-wise, we have a long way to go before the Richtfest, but we have now gotten a lot accomplished.  I have to say, I can't wait till Saturday at 5:00, when all of our work is done and we can just enjoy our partay!