Kitchen! Day 1

Our kitchen actually arrived yesterday!  Everyone, dance with me!!!!  Partay time! 

The delivery guys brought the kitchen in the morning, and the carpenter came to install in the afternoon, I didn't get to the house until last night around 5, and I must say, I was totally impressed with what I found.

And of course, we had to take cheesy photos of us in the kitchen:



But the breakfast wall is pretty much installed:

What was super-exciting here is that the cabinets under the appliances all have roll-out shelves.  I love the thought that the shelves can roll out because there is nothing I can stand less than cabinets that you have to root through to find things.  This is so exciting!

I also had to tour our living room, because it was full of goodies:

Here are a few of the more exciting components:

The top picture is our range hood, and the bottom is our farmhouse sink!

I also snapped a picture of the makeshift workshop the carpenter set up in the dining room.  Pretty cool!



We did have a mini-problem though.  There is a visual break at the end of the kitchen on the side of the "breakfast wall," and a cork line between the kitchen floor and dining room floor.  The problem is that this creates a very easy to see "end" of the kitchen.  But, there was a cabinet that went beyond this line, on the opposite "window wall," which looked like we had a cabinet spilling into the dining room.  Plus, we weren't sure if it would be taking up too much room in the dining area. 

We brought up our concern with the carpenter, who offered to go with us to pick up the dining table, so that we could make a best-informed decision as to wether or not to nix the extra cabinet.



We were impressed that the table does fit nicely.  But, that little white cabinet next to the dishwasher just felt like it was "creeping in" to the dining area.  We decided to nix it, which left us with a new dilema:

We're not entirely certain what to do with the extra wall space past the dishwasher.  Of course, the side of the dishwasher will get covered, and the countertop will end at the end of the dishwasher, but now we have this little wall.  Here's what we're considering:

1.  Remove the extra tiles, and just paint.

2.  Put a glass plate on the wall to cover the wall and prevent splashes on the wall.

3.  Install a slab of granite on the wall that matches the countertops.  Hmm, this isn't my favorite choice.

4.  My new thought today:  build a mini- wall out of drywall along the side of the dishwasher.  We would then remove the tile and it would make the dining area look a little more like a room.  We would also make the wall a little higher than the countertop, creating a definite end, and protecting the other side of the wall from splashes. 

We need to decide in the next few hours what to do, because the plaster guys are coming today and tomorrow to finish up.  Oy!



Floors and furniture

The floors were finished by Friday, the 21st.  Unfortunately, I wasn't quite quick enough to snap a bunch of pictures before Joern started covering the floor for protection, but I was able to get a picture of the kitchen:

And, as soon as the floor guys left, Joern started measuring out the baseboard for the living room :

On the following Monday, the 24th, the floor guys were back to oil the floor.  We weren't allowed to walk on the floors for two full days following the oiling. So, the earliest we were able to get back into the house was Thursday.  It looks wonderful!

Here are two views of the master bedroom:

Joern also was working hard on his baseboard project.  He set up a little workshop in his garage, and has been busy with his mitre saw for days now:

And while we were wating for the floors to dry, our garage doors were installed!

Joern also decided to take advantage of Marcel's visit this past weekend.  Joern, Marcel, our neighbor Torsten, and Joern's dad started moving in some of the heavy furniture and the vanities.  Seeing our furniture in the house really made the whole thing feel real!  Only a few more weeks, and we'll be in the house!

That's our refrigerator under the black wrapping.

We now have one comfy chair in the house!

 The rugs are all waiting in the guest room.

Erbse's vanity!

The super, ridiculously heavy dresser in our bedroom.

We lit a fire on Saturday afternoon. So cozy!

The vanity and storage cabinet in the master bath.

                                                         The boys after a long day of moving!

Joern has been working hard on the baseboard and last night, we installed medicine cabinets.  We hit a snag in Erbse's bathroom, the hole for the medicine cabinet is too large, and we need to get the plaster guys to come back to help us fix the problem.  Unfortunately, we can't install the beadboard until the medicine cabinet is installed, and we can't have the plumbers install the fixtures in Erbse's bathroom until the beadboard is in and painted.  Good thing this isn't the only bathroom in the house!

I can't wait to see where we are by this Friday, as this is supposed to be a big week.  Of course, it is a very short week, because Tuesday was a holiday, and no one came to the house on Monday.  But, this week should include the completion of the wood floors, installation of the kitchen, installation of interior doors, installation of the exterior blinds, and plumbing fixture installation.  Of course, we'll see if this all really happens in the next three days.  And, we have no idea when the electricians plan on returning to finish up the electrical. Oh well, the good news is that we'll be in by the end of the month, at the latest!   This is fantastic!  Now, its time to get to work with the bittersweet job of packing up our apartment!

My first Pottery Barn international order!

Well, I finally did it.  I really didn't want to actually spend an ungodly amount of money on shipping for Pottery Barn stuff, but I guess it was almost an emergency, so I broke down and made a purchase from Pottery Barn international.  Seems really ridiculous knowing that my shipment of Erbse furniture and various other home related items were packed out of my stepmom's house on Thursday.  Unfortunately though, I realized that in my haste to prepare our home, I only have here in Germany, one set of king-sized sheets, and the other set is on its way in the container.  Sadly, the container won't arrive until early December, which leaves Joern and myself with one measly set of sheets for about 6 weeks.  It *could* work if I wasn't in the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy, and had the stamina to make sure that the bed gets stripped in the morning and the bedding washed, dried, and ironed by the afternoon, but alas, no guarantees.  And while Joern is wonderful and does everything I ask him to do, he will be busy enough with the house over the next few weeks, and may not have the time to really ensure that our one sheet set is laundered in one day.  Making matters worse, king-size beds do not exist here.  The only people in Germany who can buy king-sized sheets are those with base access, and I sadly, no longer have base access :( 
Enter Pottery Barn international shipping to save the day!  I ordered a king-sized set of Pottery Barn essential 300-thread count sheets, with a monogram! 

Of course, the monogram is espresso and not blue, like in the above picture.  They will go fabulously with our chocolate and blue color block bedding from Restoration Hardware.

What most surprised me is that, according to the website, the shipping time is 7-9 days!  I'm fairly certain that it will be a bit longer than 7-9 days until the sheets arrive, simply because they'll have to clear customs.  But, the important thing is that they will be here before the beginning of December, and will be able to fill our need for a second set of sheets.  If this works out, Pottery Barn will be in my list of things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Paint's finished, tile is almost there, and the floors have started!

The plaster guys, who happen to be the painters too, came back Saturday and finished painting.  On Monday, they came to clean up.  All of a sudden, the house was completely transformed.  Since the plaster guys were back in the house, it turned into a total pigsty, and it was really hard to imagine how the house would look without dust and junk everywhere.  The floors reappeared and the windows were revealed again. Its kind of amazing.

Tile Guy also came back on Tuesday night to work on the powder room.  Thank goodness he agreed to at least redo the tiles that poor Joern had to remove.  Even when it wasn't finished on Tuesday, it looked so much better!  From this:

To this:

And then, he came back on Wednesday night to finish up the tile, and to install the cap tile, in the powder room. 

Tile Guy still has some work to do.  Most importantly, the grout must be completed in the powder room, so that the plumbers can come in next week to install the plumbing fixtures.  He also has some work to do in the foyer, as he couldn't finish the tiles until the front door was installed.  But that isn't such a huge deal, it won't have an effect on our moving in anyway. 

The most exciting change in the house was definitely yesterday.  If I wasn't sick, I would have braved the pouring rain and freezing cold to go see for myself.  But the good news is that it will all be there tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.  The guys from the parquet company started installing the wood floors!  They started with the top floor, and finished the master bedroom, hallway, and the office. 

The good news is that as of today, we won't be covered in dust anymore, like Joern is in the above picture.  I'm ready to say "goodbye" to the dust and so ready to see our house that much closer to becoming ours.

Okay, so I love the floors!  I can't believe how they warm up the house.  And yes, it looks ridiculously American, but since there are 1 1/2 Americans living in our house, that's fine by me :)  As soon as I walked up the stairs, I felt immediately at home.  I can't wait to see what the first floor looks like when the floors are in!

We also got news today from the garage door company:  the garage doors should be in next week!  For the first time since forever, the house will be closed off.  No more worry that someone could walk into the house and walk off with whatever. And even better, no more freezing my butt off in the house! 

I hope beyond all hopes that either the plumbers or the electricians will be available next week to start the finishing touches.  Maybe its because I'm the daughter of a plumber, but I cannot wait to go to the bathroom in our house- and wash my hands there too!  I knew that this was all very exciting, but didn't realize just how exciting it was going to be to get to this stage!

Painting Day with a surprise!

Yesterday at our house was a day of gigantic changes!  By the time I got home from work, almost every room had been at least painted once.  The pantry was even complete! 
Here are some views of our house as of yesterday afternoon:

Living room

A test patch of gray in the powder room.

Pantry- completed

Master bath- I can't wait to uncover the tile!

Children's bath

Master bedroom

Erbse's room!

I'm really pleased with all the colors!  I especially love Erbse's room and the master suite.  The owner of the plaster company fell in love especially with Erbse's room.  He kept saying, "It looks so beautiful, but it isn't very German at all."  But he kept coming back into Erbse's room commenting how beautifully the blue came out.  I have to admit, this room will look especially rich with all of our espresso wood furniture!  And I love that the master suite really looks like someone splashed hot cocoa all over the walls, its so cuddly, just like a big mug of hot cocoa!

I was a little surprised with the paint in the kid's bathroom, but it isn't going to stay this way very long.  This room will be covered halfway up the walls with white beadboard, which will cut down on the shocking blue in the kid's bath.  I was also a little sad when I saw just how light the walls are in the great room, but then I realized it will get darker with the second coat of paint, and the wood floor and all of our dark furniture will pull the light away anyway, so maybe its good that we have only lightly beige walls in the main living spaces.  

We had one more big surprise happen yesterday:

That's our front door!  I think it looks nice, but I don't really think I'm in love with the door handle.  Of course, we realized that no one ever asked us what we wanted for a door handle, but it will stay for now. There is so much glass, that I feel a little naked when I stand in the foyer.

Its amazing when you build a house how time passes.  Some days, and weeks, time seems to go nowhere, it feels like you will never get to move in.  But some days, like yesterday, a ton of changes happen at once, and you start to realize that the structure that began as a giant hole in the ground, is slowly becoming your home.



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!