as is or mirror image

Started the household discussion today on mirroring the floor plan. Currently the plot is laid out as follows. Please note that I am completely guessing that it is exactly square. I doubt that it is but it isn't too important yet.

502 sq.m.

length front to back - 26.8 m. (estimated)
length of frontage - 18.7 m.(measured)

Facing the plot from the street, north is to the left. Backyard/Garden faces east. My wife tells me north is the worst side to have anything interesting on like windows and such so this is probably where the fictitious garage will go, at least this is where the mud splotch will be where we park the car.

It is most likely we will mirror it pending discussions with the architect.

If I haven't mentioned it yet the plot is basically in the center of the plots for free standing single family homes.

kitchen planning, getting an idea

Full time babysitter today.

Took a short bike trip with the daughter to eat at McDs and measure the frontage length of the lot. It is 18.7 meters by the way. Also one of the next door neighbors who already have started building. A betonplatte is already present there. Apparantly there is a discussion forum for Gut Karpendelle already dedicated to our neighborhood. I guess I will need to check that out. On the way back found a rather enormous bramble patch of blackberries on one of the bicycle ways. Yum.

Still managed to have a first pass at the kitchen using some free software from Alno kitchens and of course the lower priced alternative IKEA. We need to have a good idea of the kitchen in order to request appropriate placement of the doorway coming into the kitchen, the side tiling, outlets, water connections, light switches, and the oven wiring. Also it would be nice to know how much the kitchen costs so we can plan better.

finance paperwork sent

Not much excitiment in dreamhouse land but important nonetheless. Sent off all of our savings information, bank information and proof of income to our financial advisor for the mortgage this morning. He will bundle it up and send it off to the bank I suppose on Monday. He said it would take about a week for everything to get worked out, then the real paperwork shifting starts.

signed the contract for the plot

Today we signed the contract for a plot of land in a newly zoned residential area called Gut Karpendelle in the city of Mettmann, a city of ca. 38,800 people lying just east of Düsseldorf . We purchased the land from the firm Paeschke who was selling different single home plots. Apparantly they build only duplexes (side by side), and row houses but not single family homes. The land was previously farm land. The first plot we had reserved had proved to be to 'long and skinny' to put our house on it and luckily a different more square plot became available that seemed to fit just right at 502 qm. The price for the land is 275 €/qm. On this wonderfully sunny day we set out to the Notär, basically a lawyer, to sign the contract. The Notär dutifully read through the contract word for word in German and explained the different parts. During the middle of the session a rather intense thunderstorm hit Mettmann and while we were slowly reading through the German legaleze we all started wondering what windows we left open and if the awning for the patio was out. When we got back home the awning seemed to have survived, only being filled with water. (I guess I should mark down the firm that makes the thing). My only thoughts where that we just lost a few thousand Euros to the awning replacement fund. That signed, now all the paperwork has to go back and forth between us, the Notär, the bank, and the city of Mettmann.

Hi, here is the plot we plan to buy. The first image shows the general area in the western part of Mettmann and what Paeschke will be building for side-by-side duplexes. When looking at the farthest out zoom picture to the left, F73 is located in the area where the word Karpendelle is printed. In the other images you can see the exact plot.

signed the work order to build the house

We have signed the Werkvertrag or work order to build our new house. The house is a prefab or ready-built house from the firm Streif. The house range is called 'Life' under the 'Country' line and the total useable area of the rooms in the house is DIN 124.77 qm (1343.024 sq. ft.) This, of course, does not include the cellar. The work order becomes valid upon our actually purchasing a plot of land approximately 550 qm in the city of Mettmann.

The two above shots show about what the house looks like from the front and back view. What is missing (also in the software) is the two single window gables on the back in the two bedrooms. Also the latticed windows currently also do not look like they do in the image, we have ordered only horizontial latticed windows.

The house has a cellar, ground floor, and a upper floor(German first floor, U.S. second floor). The ground floor has a hallway, guest room, guest bath (toilet and sink), kitchen, and living room. the upper floor has three bedrooms and a bath with shower. The kitchen will be an open kitchen to the living room. I am sure I will have a lot more to say after working with the architect to hammer out all of the little details, though. What else can I say? We are very excited about building and very nervous as well. Today was the first day where it really became serious!

The next step is to get the right financing and ensure we get the right plot of land.