HARD Lessons from Building a House in Germany
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- čas přidán 23. 06. 2024
- Building a house was easily one of the most difficult (and longest) challenges of our time in Germany. Although we move into our German house just 6 weeks (eek!) we wanted to share some of the biggest lessons we learned as an American family living abroad.
Episode 57 | #construction #housing #architecture in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany | Filmed May 9th, 2022
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Quick jump to your favorite section:
0:00 FULL HOUSE TOUR
02:53 How WAR & PANDEMIC have affected our house build
05:50 Lost in Translation
09:31 We got SUPER lucky
13:02 Professionals Do It Best
15:46 We made a mistake
18:44 About that GIANT Wall of Stone...
23:40 We need your help
28:16 Bloopers
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Originally from the Midwest of the USA, we moved to the #blackforest in 2013 and quickly embraced #expatlife. As American expats living in #Germany, things weren't always easy, but we've grown to love our life in Germany. We started this #travelvlog to share our experiences with friends and family, and to help those who are interested in moving overseas! Whether you are interested in moving abroad, working abroad, studying abroad, raising a family abroad, or just want to #traveleurope, we're here to give you a first person look at what lies ahead. 😊🎥🌎
Now you know why for most Germans building a house is a once in a lifetime event. Complete different than in the US, where people move every few years, it seems.
Often even a once in 3 lifetimes. I know so many people that live in the houses build by their grannies
Most Germans never build a house though. Most either rent or straight up buy a house/apartment since space is limited here.
It's just really expensive and your average German cannot afford a house. You'd need a couple in which both are working above average paying jobs in order to be able to afford it.
Naaa, wir alle wissen doch, dass man exakt drei Häuser im Leben baut! Feind, Freund, für sich.
@@rudelverni Meahendra meinte, dass man alle 3 Generationen 1 Haus baut. Deshalb leben viele in den Häusern ihrer Eltern bzw Großeltern.
@@moni7649 Das ist klar, was ich sagte ist nur ein allgemeiner Ausspruch, dass man das erste Haus für den Feind baut, denn wenn es fertig ist merkt man erst wie viele Fehler man damit gemacht hat, dann das zweite für den Freund, da sind dann nicht mehr so ganz viele Fehler, erst das dritte Haus ist für einen selbst, da stimmt dann alles - vom Lichtschalter bis zur Positionierung der Fenster. Wie oft hört man doch den Spruch "Na das Haus haste aber auch für nen Feind gebaut!". Bei uns zumindest :D
I am from the Netherlands and I don’t know how things work exactly in Germany, but I have the feeling you were building without an architect and were coordinating the buildingprocess your self. If an architect is doing his work right he should take care of most of the communication problems and processissues you encountered and you have only one person to communicate with. He should inform you about the deadlines for decisions to take. Offcourse you will have to choose the couch yourselves!
Sometimes, when the artilect is a mess, you end up with having to deal with all this kind of issues yourself. Happens these days more often than it really should.
That's right, without an Architect(Building contractor), you will have to coordinate everything without any connections or experience. Well, what result would you expect.
A friend of mine hired an architect who was never there and a lot of things went very wrong.
I didn't hired an architect and went there every evening and things still went wrong (one bad employee destroyed a wall that wasn't supposed to be destroyed and made holes in my insulated double glass windows in one day) :D
24:51 CONEL CLEAR 2.0 RD Hauswasserstation
This has several purposes
- Druckminderer - keeps the internal water pressure on a constant value (normally 4 bar) if the external water pressure is higher
- Rückflussverhinderer - prevents in case of a pressure loss (leak) in the external water supply that water from your internal system flows back into the external system
- a mechanical filter preventing any particles reach your internal water system and may cause problems there (clog/damage valves, dishwasher, etc.)
- Rückspüler - to clean the filter. That's why this device is also connected to the wastewater. A function you have to start manually. How often depends on the quality of the external network. Maybe every several years. Albeit a yearly routine won't harm.
24:54
left: to refill or empty your heating water system. The black thing with the green wheel on top is another "Druckminderer" as the heating water system has a lower max. water pressure (e.g. 2 bar).
right: this silver thing on top is the emergency valve of your heating system. The white cylinder below is most likely a special water filter for heating systems. Something which you might have to replace after some time. It looks like they have fixed a manual about this system there.
24:54
its only for filling/topping up the heating-circuit the let thing is a Systemtrenner BA it prevents the back flow of Water in your heating-circuit to reenter the drinking water pipes in it are 2 "normal" check valve´s and a pressure differential valve in a middle chamber that opens if the main water pressure is less then 200mbar above your pressure of your heating-circuit. and since we are German we dont want water dripping on our floor a drain pipe has to be connected :)
The white cylinder is indeed a water filter and a special one at minimum a Demineralisation one most likely a desalination one to prevent incrustation in the heating-unit
24:19
the big white round thingi is a MAG Membran-Ausdehn-Gefäß in it is a Rubber Membrane witch is pressurized with Nitrogen on the one side and on the other side is the Water of your heating-circuit. when the water in your heating-circuit gets warmer it wants to expand since water is inkompressibel the pressure would rise to prevent this a appropriated sized MAG is added to take up the expansion. a membrane expansion vessel :)
at 24:25 at the 2 Valve´s there are clear plastic tubes connected to the drain ports of the valve´s they have to be shorted to prevent any chance of drinking water contamination basically every pipe that is connected to drinking water has to end 3cm 1"3/8 above anything that is connected to a drain pipe.
@@buildmox 24:20 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_tank
Martin and badmox nailed it. They seem to be professionals or have recently built a house themselves.
Would recommend to activate the clean filter function every 3 month. Will prolong lifetime of the filter.
If your heating system suddenly losses more water than usual (should almost 0 losses for such a small system), have it checked for leaks. especially if you have floor heating. the water often ends up underneath the top floor. By the time you spot the mold, you looking at 30k in damage (replace most of the floor) and more than a week where your home is near uninhabitable.
And you should normally get the full documentation (every manual, but also every revision-plan) when they're finished.
Technic room: the white thing is the "Druckausgleichsbehälter". I am not a plumber but as far as I know it contains a bladder with Co2 / N and is needed whner the water in the system expands an retracts depending on temperature
A few others have shared some links and this is EXTREMELY interesting how it pressurizes itself.
Best to get all of the manuals in digital form and save them on Google Drive or something. My parents took photos (analog ones at the time) of all the walls before the cable runs were hidden. They're in a small binder and were very helpful this week. I also created a diagram of the phone cable runs (Leerrohre) so we know once and for all where each Lehrrohr leads.
If you don't have this "Ausdehnungsgefäß", the water inside your circuit will expand when heated up and will leave the safety value, which you also have. When the water cools down, you will not have enough water in the circuit anymore and you will loose efficiency and you will have higher energy costs.
The white thing is also use the reduce the water hammer in the pipes and avoid a "pipe explosion". Really important..
The white thing is called 'Ausdehnungsgefäß' and is used for your heating. It is used for heatings that are working with different water temperatures (the so called " Vorlauftemperatur" ) to avoid damage to the system (its a so called closed system) as water expands and shrinks when getting warmer or colder. It also gives the pressure to press the water into the upper flloors.
A lesson I learned from renovations is, keep an extra spare package of the tiles and floor wood you‘ve used in your basement for the case you have to do some repair. Because in five years you probably won‘t get your tiles nor your floor wood anymore. On the other hand there are people who like to do a whole renovation from time to time. 🙂
YES aboslutely! This is such a good piece of advice. Thankfully they have left us boxes of both the wood floor and the tiles in our technic room already for just those moments.
@@TypeAshton I would recommend also to try to keep some spare roof tiles (if you have tiled roof) as spares because you only can purchase them in larger quantities later on.
From my experience it´s pretty normal that the workers will leave you with extra tiles, floor pieces, roof tiles and even paving stones for your garage drive- or footways. If not you can always ask the contractors during or short after they did their work. Never failed me.
As for the rest, we build our house some ten years ago and we had a lot of issues similar to yours. On one side of the house the realy forgot the cavities for the external blinds (I hope that is the right word for "Außenrollo" :-) ) and the holes for the strapes to operate them. We had a lot of dicussions. The other realy bad thing was that we had ordered underfloor heat for the bathroom. It was installed but after we moved in we had a lot of banging noises from the valve/thermostat unit whenever it was heating up for more than half an hour. We called for the contractor but he hand gone insolvent very short after he finished our bathroom. So we reached out for the company how coordinated the whole house building project because the warranty was on their side. The tried to fix it serveral times, told fancy story about the water flow was not planned or installed correctly so that now they had to use something they called dabblervalve (?) (pfuscherventil in german) to compensate. Long story short, it never realy worked out and so we rarely use our underfloor heating. Currently I am thinking a lot about smart home technology. It might work if I only switch the valve on for short periods of time or change the thermostate temperature slowly up and down.
So be prepared for the time after you move in. Probably your will have to communicate with the contractors again. Ideally you exactly know how has done what and when. The builder's diary, that the did for us was sometimes a bit - uhm - unscpecific at times.
@@martinohnenamen6147 though with roof tiles the problem is less getting matching ones and more the fact that the spare ones haven't aged the same. So new tiles will always stand out unless you get lucky and someone sells matching used ones from a roof that gets redone.
@@b.quentin7097 underfloor heating is nice in many aspects, but it's main drawback it's really slow to react. slow as: 24-72h until you get the full effect of changing the settings. and thermostats are not meant to be switched down and up all the time in this setup, but rather to be set to the correct temperature (bathroom, recommended, something slightly above the rest of the house, ensuring that you never run into a mold problem).
except
I think you are on the better side with that massive retaining wall. You don't want mud in your house because the prior planned wall couldn't cope a massive gushing rainstorm and the mountain side moves towards your house.
The cracks are *so* wide between the rocks, I think you can plant some crawling plants with modest requirements to survive and get it a bit greener
I was going through the process of building a house in 2019 myself (with contractors ofc) and if these are the worst things happened to you, you can surely consider yourself blessed. The positive approach you are taking to things like the wall is realy good and it helps to just move on instead of being negative all the time you look out these basement windows (btw, the granite stones look great in my view). As a sidenote, you need to have spare tiles of every tile (especially floor tiles) in your house as over the years you might crack one (and then you most likely can't get them anymore). So ask your contractor to leave a few at the site, as they anyway haft leftovers. Great video and congrats on the new house, it looks splendid!
Absolutely, we feel pretty lucky that, all things considered, the "mishaps" are pretty easy to smooth over. Hopefully we will still move in about 6 weeks and only a few landscaping items will remain to be finished (they warned us that will not be completed on schedule). Also - YES about the tiles and extra flooring. We do have extra boxes stashed away in the technic room which will certainly come in handy down the road.
@@TypeAshton hopefully you will see the spare tiles collecting dust cause those are the best you can have cause they do not make work and they are ready to rock.
@@TypeAshton Some tiles have a glazed edge. Be sure to get those too and not only plain ones.
@@TypeAshton it is rather typical that people move into their new house and the landscaping of the garden is not finished yet. Yes, it's sad when you see the excavator instead of the lawn and how good looking it might already be, but usually they'll do it. They are just happy that you can move in (and pay another part ;-)
But finally you will be in your new house. They finish up the things on the outside and eventually it will be done and you will be happy - hopefully.
The wall against the hill is really important, you said it. When it's raining a lot, the hill might flow down and the wall must hold all the material back. There can be a lot of pressure against that wall. Hopefully they secure it against tipping over into your garden. I think, that is important.
For your entry/stage area, an open clothes hanger will eat some of the echoes. Tapestry helps, too. If this doesn’t suffice, think about covering one of the long walls with sound absorbing things like pictures framed without glass. The fuller the rooms get, the less echo you’ll experience.
24:20 It's an expansion tank for your heating pipes. It's a metal bubble with a flexible membrane inside. The water inside the pipes can expand into the bubble when heating up. Without an expansion tank, your pressure relief valves would have a lot to do, and you had to refill the heater every few days to keep the water pressure high.
Regarding the entry way:
My wife died when our daughter was ten months old. So she grew up not knowing her mother. I decided to place a wall of magnet accepting glass panels* to place photos of her. They are placed on the wall of for the stairs upstairs.
I can imagine that a photo wall with pictures of your son growing up and your family evolving might be a nice colorful eye catcher in the entry hall.
Bought those from either Aldi or Lidl. They have a white glass surface about 35x35cm with a metal back, so you can write on them using a white board maker or use magnets to place the photos.
That sounds beautiful!
You guys have something that few people can attaining : a dream house built the way you want. Most people buy a house that’s already been built and they have to live with it because with a remodel, your tastes are not going to be any one else’s. The downside of course is you have no control over when you can move in. Hopefully you can do it soon and we’ll see an update when you finally take possession of your new home!
We are very fortunate to be able to build a home. Funny enough, with the housing market being so tight right now in our area... we actually did look at some existing properties and weighed the option of renovating to suit our tastes... but with inflation and the rising cost of materials, it was actually cost neutral to just buy a new home. Plus we have the peace of mind of knowing that at least for a little while, we don't have to worry about things breaking. We still have a lot of learning to do with the different technical systems to keep up with the maintenance of the house.
Tailoring your house to your needs is beautiful. But don't be too daring. Your needs change over time, especially with kids, and if they are too extravagant the “accessories” may compromise the resale value. We sold our house when the kids left and adapted to the new needs. We still have two floors, but it is convenient to take a shower and the bedroom on the same floor as the kitchen and living room when you are older. We still have a second floor for guests and an “office” but we don't have to change floors so often.
@@TypeAshton actually, new houses tend to always have some issues. best period is from about 2-20 years. but the way to handled the issues so far, broods well, that the will resolve any issues appearing after you move in without to much trouble.
I once had also such a narrow hallway and I put mirrors on one side that made it look a little more open and breathable :-) Have fun with your new house!
About the accousic in your entry hall, I would suggest accoustic elements on the cieling, as a sound engineer in my years long experience this works very well, is quite affordable and can look great. The use of dampening pads that look more ore less like the inside of egg boxes is very efficient, you could mont them in a chessboard pattern direct under the cieling and they are usually availiable in a lot of different colours.
I think, that is why I like our American way, to buy used houses or new model home houses. It is so much more predictable what I am getting. I did my own inspection and got a great house with everything I wanted, including many enjoyable projects where I can improve, repair, and make things nicer. Great show:)
Thanks for the great insights again! All in all it really looks like you had great builders and architects because there could be much worse things happening when building a house. I hope there won't be any more delays and everything goes well moving into your own new home! Viel Glück!
Yes, all in all they are a great team. We are REALLY excited and hope it all goes smoothly from here. We've met a few of our neighbors and they told us that for about 2 weeks now it feels like they are working on "overdrive" and have started to work on Saturdays as well.
I bought a run-down little timber-framed house 4 years ago and had it renovated. The electrician wanted to know in detail where the TV would be, which way the master bed would face etc to put in the new sockets accordingly. Of course I realised only afterwards that the bed makes much more sense the other way round, and the TV ended up on a completely different wall… Oh well, it happens……
Yeah we had nearly the same situation in the bedroom as well. We also wishes we could have moved the dining room light a bit different.
Black Forest Family There are really cool cable extenders that actually make your ceiling look better - to avoid all the drilling into a brand new ceiling.
@@TypeAshton You can opt for a lighting rail system, allowing you more freedom in placing the lamps.
I do understand, that those decisions regarding TVs are something that can annoy you for quite some time. On the other hand, I think, it is something you can relax on in the long run. Because although TVs seem to be a "standard thing", this is technology that is continuously evolving. Just think how deep and thick and "small" TVs have been only 20 years ago and this will be similar in 10 to 20 years from now. At some point, there will be the need to find solutions to adjust and you will be able to find them.
Do never plan in a way, that you cannot change things. This is not sustained. In 50 years the needs will be diffrent and a house should last way longer. ;) For example inside walls should be removeable to create new rooms and windows should not have special highths.
(I feel like I cannot express my thoughts appropriate in English.. 😅 Sounds rough.)
There’s a saying that you need to build 3 houses. One for someone you love, one for someone you hate and the last one for yourself, combining your learnings from the other two.
That's a great way to put it!
😂 it didn't stoped me from makeing new mistakes.
That's an expensive saying lol!
17:21 for this the easiest way to handle it is by just having a large composite panel (wood)behind which the cables would be re-routed and then the tv mounted to it. Not a big deal and will not eat into your room more than an inch. The other cool thing is that you can add strip lighting on the back of it.
Oh this is a VERY interesting idea!! Maybe make it more of a "feature" wall. I will run this past Jonathan.
Black Forest Family Essentially it becomes a feature wall, exactly.
This is exactly what I was going to suggest. When we had our bathroom renovated in Berlin, they put new solid paneling in front of the old plaster wall, and essentially hung the fixtures and cabinets from that, with the pipes and electrical wiring behind it.
The composite idea is probably better than my thought of installing a (very thin) drywall to mount the items on and leave space behind for all wiring as well as concealing the hole built into the concrete. The idea of lighting the edges is also great; much like the Philips TVs with “Ambilight” - just without the dynamic light patterns linked to the current TV image. Hope it works out for you! Cheers, Doc.
For your sound bar: Just mount a large (maybe nicely painted) mdf-board 2 inches before the wall. Drill holes where you need them and use the existing outlets behind the board. Also gives the wall a nice 3-dimensional look which might look good. Of course: To look really good the board would need to be laquered perfecty with professionaly shaped edges.
Having built a home (by a contractor) myself and as my professional occupation includes dealing with lawsuits concerning building failures, let me congratulate you to - based on the impression of your video - a exceptionally beautiful house and well executed project. In my experience there is no building project that is completely without problems and delays and it seems to me that your professionals have done a pretty good job all in all. Love your videos and am very happy for you. One can feel your excitement. Wish you all he best in your new home.
My father used to be an architect and worked also with lawyers and for the court in cases where homeowners to screwed. I'd like to back up what Norbert X said. Building a house in Germany really can be quite an adventure.
24:32 That thing is called a "Ausdehnungsgefäß" it allows for expansion of the water in your heating system and helps to keep the pressure constant.
At the entrance you could have climbing plants in front of the panels and along the ceiling. The leaves spoil the soundwaves and they are great for the room climate as well. At the same time, plants don't make a room feel as stuffed as furniture of the same volume would. There are many varieties of philodendron that would work perfectly there and can rank along for several meters. The variety ph. monstera is even in the picture of the sound panels you showed.
For the sound "problem" in het hallway there are lots of options you can look for acoustic panels (decorative kind) you can go for a Cork wall that will isolate sound and give you the option to pin stuff on the wall like for instance family and travel pictures. If you have a coat rack that also dampens sound.
Wall rugs can help with the sounds.
the panels you showed were beautiful too. just don't know if it's not too busy if you hang the whole space full with this.
Yet another couple of choises that need to made😁
We finished our house 5 Years ago and i can understand all your Problems. It was already for us complicated without language problems in Germany and a friend and family community with good connections around the city. My wife a Tax Officer and me as a Supply Chain Engineer and SAP expert are very far away from the building stuff.
So, you have my full respect to go these steps. Good luck in your new House!
@17:50 The offset should be no problem: most soundbars come with mounting brackets that allow for a small gap to the wall (you typically don't want the soundbar touch the wall for accoustic reasons). Worst case: just insert spacers between the bracket and the wall so you can route the cable behind it.
@23:00 as a lighting technician I think putting some lights out there is a great idea. Especially grazing lighting looks very nice on rough surfaces.
You might also think about some vines to break up the wall visually. On hot summer days this can be a perfect cool spot to spend the day outside! Then the closeness of the wall might even be a bonus, as it means less airflow through the back alley and therefore less heating of the stone wall - i.e. it will remain cool for a bit longer. And even 1.7m are enough for a small table - just think of it as the 'intimate space', and the side patio as the 'party space' :-)
@24:18 that's an expansion vessel. It's basically gas filled tank with a membrane inside, that allows the water of your heating system to expand when it heats up, in order to maintain a constant pressure throughout the system.
@26:00 I'd wait for the furniture. I guess you will have at least some sort of clothes rack and dresser, which will already absorb/disperse a lot of sound. But if it's really not enough those acoustic panels do actually look quite nice.
Hi, new viewer here. Just found you today. Idea for your hallways: Most people in Germany put a small cupboard into their hallway wich can store shoes, scarfs, bags, ... and different type of wardrobes to put Jackets away. Also in case you own large umbrellas people also have something that looks like a giant garbage can in wich they store their umbrellas and depending on what you like people also have small shelfs to put shoes on. I also saw a lot people having a full sized mirror on the walls in their homes here in Germany
I think those are all great ideas. My biggest thing is just that it is all "neat" and put away (i.e. not "open" storage). I think a cabinet or some kind of built in closet could be a great solution! Thanks!
Putting our Gaderobe there muffles the sounds nicely and a bench to sit down and change or take the shoes of if appreciated.
On the noise reduction in the entry way
Give it a bit of time
Wait to see how you "use" the space, ingress, egress, storage, where you hang stuff, how much stuff . Whether you like a cleaned up behind doors thing, or more of an everything in the open.
Acoustic walls/ceilings are always available, but see how much space you need and want to use, then build around usage if the sound issue persists
Great advice!!! We are actually going to wait just a bit anyways... we'd love to have my dad's help installing (he used to be a contractor) and he is going to visit us in August. Then we will have a better plan and see how we use the space.
Jonathan is handy he said, i see egg cartons or shag carpet on the walls. groovy! :)
Exactly. There could be a Garderobe on the left, a Schuhschrank in the little nook, a painting and/or a big mirror on the right wall, a rug on the floor etc. I don't think it will be echo-y once it is furnished.
Yes, never judge a room without furniture regarding accoustic / echoing. Put your furniture in and your every-day stuff and judge it again. It will surely echo less than it does right now. And if you're still unhappy with the result, you can do something against it later as well.
In terms of Garderobe, I would suggest 2 hooks or coat hangers per person. Minimum. Maybe even 4 additional ones on top of that for visitors. You'll have one everyday coat/jacket that you want quick access to, a second one in times of variable weather, scarfs/hats/gloves in the winter, if you're biking you might have rain pants that have to be hung somewhere to dry... Don't skimp on those things so much that visitors have to put 4 jackets onto a single hook if you ever throw a slightly larger party.
For the decentralized TV issue you can install a hollow wooden TV panel centered in the wall that has a width that covers the sockets, in a way that you can then cover the cabling with it and center the TV on the panel, therefore centering it on the wall.
Idea for the entry way? When I saw all the stairs, I was thinking nice you don´t need to go to the gym anymore, so maybe add a rowing machine, maybe some weights and a yoga mat....😆
So reminds me of the week we spend at Sankt Blasien. Clouds below us as we cruise over the hills on our bike
I am a civil engineer and planned my house myself, except for HVAC which was done by a specialised firm. Though I had the house itself built I did most of the installations myself (pool, water, sewage, heating with hot water tank, boiler and pellet store, ventilation system, solar panels, photovoltaic modules, central vacuum cleaner), so I have a pretty good idea of what goes on in your technical room (though mine looks slightly less professional). I had to google most of the assembly and operating instructions on the internet, and I still haven't gotten around to putting together a building manual for my family. When I'm not around, they're helpless.
For your entryway, a rug, a few canvas pictures on the walls, and a piece or two of furniture will help. Besides the stairs, for example, a hall closet will fit. An open wardrobe with all the clothes also dampens the reverberation. Friends of ours have acoustic panels, which are also effective, but quite expensive. For the larger wallet there is also something available which is disguised as a "work of art".
Ah great ideas! We plan to also put in some kind of storage for shoes, hats, gloves, etc... as well as a bench to put your shoes on. Thanks for the inspiration (also I think a home manual would be a GREAT idea. I think we need to make something similar).
Listening to you makes me glad to have saved all that hassle and just bought a house. Since German houses are rather solid (and the former owner had similar likes as we do, even was close to our age) there was just about nothing to do and we could move in the same week they moved out (yes, they left the house "clean", even with working kitchen and bathroom). All we had to do, was get new tapestries and paint several walls. For that we hired a friend, who lived at our new place for a week and did all the work while we enjoyed a vacation.
But I will admit, seems like we got lucky, very lucky. But sometimes you just got to have luck.
That's really cool! Hopefully the move in date will stay and not get pushed back again. Thankfully our landlord was really understanding and allowed us to extend our lease. We kind of had a panicked couple of days when they first pushed it back and our house was already listed online and people were putting in offers hoping to move on June 30th. Now we have another month as a buffer.
Tapestry is an interesting thing in and of itself, since there seem to be huge differences between the north and south of Germany. At least in my experience, tapestry is still used in newer houses in the north from time to time, while it has pretty much gone extinct in the south and can only be found in old houses there. Could be area-specific tho, at least here in southern Bavaria that's the case.
Watching this video brings back (/triggers) memories of our building experiences. We bought our place in its shell construction phase and had to plan/make adjustments to the interior. Even with a German husband who could argue and push back on suggestions/mistakes, it was still me walking to the construction site daily to see the next “surprise” addition/adjustment/deletion. Our text chain from those days was a series of panicked “Wasn’t it supposed to be …” rounds. So as much as I have no desire to repeat the process, I do love that we got to make this home our own, esp. as building or buying in Germany is so expensive everything feels like a compromise.
Oh man, your experience sounds EXACTLY like ours... the panicked emails and all. But I am sure in the end, having our house customized to the way we like it will be for the best.
Tile mounting is a real profession... Fliesenleger even have Meister trainings to do that accurate and correctly.
We met with the tile installers (we actually struck up such a good conversation, we are now friends on Facebook and have swapped WhatsApp numbers). They did an EXCELLENT job and even pointed out issues with the design to us that we should raise with the developer. They really went above and beyond - even having us come in to discuss where the grout lines should line up and how we wanted the tile to be laid.
I have a Handwerker who does everything, tiles, pipes, Trockenbau, floors, windows, furniture. He did everything perfecty
I can completely relate the frustration you must feel at these delays. Totally, no doubt that it is nerve-wracking, and makes planning for a move virtually impossible.
With that being said, let's consider the other side.
I am certain that your suppliers and builders did not feel happy about having to delay it again and again. I'd wager any bet that they'd have loved to have supplied you with a perfect house perfectly on time, as well.
It's probably that they did not consider such a world-changing situation happening on top of the pandemic.
With all of the sanctions, inflation and skyrocketing prices on gas and fuels many suppliers simply can't provide the same services at the same cost anymore. But often they are contractually obligated to not go above a certain price tag.
The delivery delay of materials could also be linked not to Russia not supplying the base materials such as steel or aluminum, but the gas for forges or similar production processes.
With the cost of gas skyrocketing many producers had to either swallow HUGE production cost increases, thus diminishing already incredibly tight profit margins, or start looking for other providers. In either case for the builders and suppliers not to go bankrupt (which would be a much worse problem for you rather than a simply delay) they had to either slow production of certain parts, or even quit producing for the time being until other suppliers could be found in a similar cost range.
Having a supplier or building company go bankrupt during a construction process is horrible for the contractors themselves. So consider yourself lucky that this did not happen (again) in the current situation.
I'm from California, where hillsides have been sliding down into people's yards and houses this winter because of heavy rains. Big, thick retaining walls with lots of re-bar are a good thing.
25:50 what looks really great in such spaces is making them green. Just put either climbing up or climbing down plants and put an automatic system for watering them based on soil moisture to avoid the work to really "tinker" with them on a 2-3 day basis - as that would require a lot of precise watering for all this soil. :)
24:53 the white thing on the waterline is a particle filter for the drinking water, that filters out maybe tiny metal bis and stuff from the drinking water. You have to open it at the bottom every 2-3 months to spill out any residue. Any plumber can explain that. The second thing is a pressure valve called „druckminderer“ that handles overpressure coming into your house.
Love this review! It is so interesting thanks! 🙂
Thanks for watching!
Love your content!
Thank you so much!
24:20 -> Thats a "Ausgleichsbehälter" or "Ausdehnungsgefäß"... its filled with water and set under (air)pressure (that small black dot in the middle should be a valve) to keep all the tubes of your heating under the same pressure and free of airbubbles at all times.
24:40 -> Thats the decuppling (heat exchange) to seperate your heating system from your radiators / or tubes in the floors, or walls - building it that way will improve the livetime of the whole system drastically. The two thermometers show the "Vorlauf" (red) and "Rücklauf" (blue) so the temperatur of the water as it enters the circulation and as it flows back.
24:51 -> Thats a "Rückspühlfilter" its a filter for your main Water supply - cant tell for sure in your case but usually something like that is in the system to keep lime from entering your house internal water systems, depending on the full setup it might as well include a safety system that will cut the water supply if you have some broken tube (sudden massiv loss of water).
About your TV/Soundbar issue - had that myself and ended up mounting it all on a TV Wall mounting system made by Vogels - aint cheap but its worth it ;-)
About Murphys Law --- Uhh I hate and love that at the same time ;-)... especially because of the original story behind it *GGG*
Entry area / noisy - wait until you have your stuff in that house - that echo might just be gone as soon as there is some furniture ... if not, you could just tighten a sail (like those sunsails) right under the ceiling that should help a lot and if put some lights above it'll keep the room very bright without any direct light.
best of luck to you with that date in June!!!
Wow!! I just googled the Vogels TV wall mounting system - that looks VERY beefy and really sturdy.
Hello BFF, so exciting to see the progress of your new home. I love your bathroom and flooring, very Tres chic! Not sure what the German phrase is for that. Despite the hiccups you have landed firmly on your feet with beautiful fittings. The back wall is going to be amazing . I can just imagine the lighting effects and plants that will become your feature wall. Your idea for the entry sounds perfect and will add yet another layer of visual interest. Ahh! I remember that feeling of getting your first home. Wishing you so much happiness as you start this exciting chapter of your lives. 💕💕
Thank you! The overall "look" we are going for in our house is mostly neutrals (oak wood, black and white). We wanted a neutral color palette since we have collected a lot of art over the years during our travels. These tend to be very colorful and we want them to not clash.
I really love your videos! You are so upfront, have a great way of telling stories and make it interesting throughout the whole video.
For my house, I basically let them do the heavy work like removing walls, install door frames, do the tiles, etc.
All floors, walls, doors, the kitchen, electrical stuff was done by myself, friends or family. Luckily we know an electrician.
I learned a lot on the work site since I'm an engineer and normally work on totally different things.
For your drill holes: There are many ways to cover up holes. Not only cover them up but fill them so there is no major structural damage. All hardware stores and also amazon has options for concrete, wood, bricks and whatever material you wish to fix. It takes a little work if you really want to make it perfect but it's worth the time. I'd say 1 hour or maybe 2 hours if you need to go and buy the stuff and read through the manual. I hope I could help you.
I managed to drill so many holes that I had to fill again.
That is AWESOME. Perhaps one day in the future we will be brave enough to take on a renovation ourselves.
@@TypeAshton I just added a little hint for how you can deal with the holes in your wall. Cheap and easy, doing it yourself. I really feel your pain "ruining" a concrete wall.
I really hope it helps and I appreciate your interaction with the community so much.
Germany can be very proud to have the two of you loving here 🇩🇪♥ 🇺🇸
Thank you so much for all of your help! This is wonderful information.
Love the house tour and the little guy being happy in there :) as for the entry way: in my experience hanging jackets and maybe having a carpet and some paintings will take care of soundscape.
I have to say I really enjoy your Videos, especially as we are looking for houses in the same city. I really envy you on good Timing and the luck you had with your build. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Have a good move!
Thank you! We are so happy to move in. Good luck with your search!
Regarding the wall, the developer should have obtained an engineering report prior to planning.
The timber wall in the hallway sounds like a good idea, hope it has underfloor heating too as there's no door to the stairs. Perhaps full height glass door(s) to keep out the cold air.
Yes, the downstairs also has underfloor heating (which I think will help a lot in the wintertime - although we have to old dogs who LOVE a nice cool floor).
My best friend works for a house construction company here in Germany and let me assure you that you got very lucky with the few (surely very stressful!) problems along the way. It's a constant mess of communication between a lot of actors to get done right. Even here in Germany ;)
To reduce the noise in your hallway, you could look into plants. You seem to get light from at least two sources (if I saw it correctly one window over the main door and one at the wall where the first stair turns left), which might be enough to get a real lush "djungle" going at the upper walls and ceiling. Leaves are really good at breaking sounds, and it's also a great way to cope with the hot air you inevitably will bring with you when entering during summer.
Actually the company that installed the technology in the tec-room should explain the main components to you.
Gas main switch in case of emergency for example. Main Water switch and so on.
The round sphere shaped thing you showed and asked the function for, is the ( Ausdehnungsgefäss ) it belongs to your heating system and regulates the changing water volume.
Cold heating water in summer needs less space in the system. Hot water in the heating system in winter needs more space as water expands when heated up.
Inside of that sphere there is a membrane to deal with the changing "water levels".
Not sure if you have been told by now but the white bubble is a "Ausdehnungsgefäss" (expansion vessel). The expansion vessel has the task of acting like a "cushion" when the volume of water changes; i.e. as the volume of the water (in the tubes) decreases when the temperature decreases and increases when the temperature increases. Because water cannot be compressed, the pressure created by the temperature change must be kept constant. This is exactly what an expansion vessel is supposed to ensure.
Perfect description!
for your cable management problem in your living room, you can just fill the holes and you can rent a "Mauernutfräse" from any Baumarkt, so you can cut your own channels for your cables or better you place "Leerrohre" in your walls, so you can decide afterwards. I did this in my complete house too, and placed many "Unterputzdosen".
Ah great! Thank you so much for the advice.
or the Better soloution speak with your Elektrican about this issue they normally have the too and expirence to set this right
tool
No need to cut the wall, you will have washboards(baseboards) on the wall in the same color as your floor is. There exist washboards that are designed to contain cables and you can use that for cables. There are whole systems that have different addons with outlets for power, network etc.
I feel with you. I own a house in the Bavarian Forest, where I live in, and I currently have a problem to buy a sack of cement to do some repair work.That's not a problem with the supply chain, I could get a truckload if I wanted, but nobody seems to be willing to sell me the mere 50 kilos that I need. And that goes on down to the smallest items. I recently bought eight batteries instead of the one I needed because they don't come in smaller batches. I had a Lampenfassung to repair, and instead of one, I got three, so there are two left over. And the list goes on. If it continues that way, I can start my own dealership before I run out of storage space in the attics. I understand that beer comes in crates with 20 bottles, and if you have some good friends, that even won't last a weekend. But why has it become so difficult to buy single items? I remember times when you could buy one banana, or a handful of strawberries, but now it's all packed for a family of six, or a small restaurant. I hate wasting things, but sometimes I have to.
That's a very good point! We used to have a specialist store in town would sell you everything in single items or very small batches...
And then the Baumärkte moved in and they could not compete anymore.
With the hillside right next to your house you should also check if they install a proper drainage system.
Else, you could find yourself in a bad position, having standing water against the house wall after heavier rain.
An additional recommendation: Check the level of "Radon" in your entrance area and technic room (all rooms which are in the "basement") and in the area of your stairs - here in the black forest we have higher levels of natural "Radon" and if the concrete base is not properly sealed of, it could get into the house.
Normally forgotten by home owners as it is only mandatory for facilities with working personal due to workplace safety laws.
Greetings from a "neighbor". 🙂
Thank you for the tip! We did not consider this yet.
Ich drücke ihnen die Daumen. Umzüge sind furchtbar aber ein Haus bauen, wo auch immer, ist wirklich eine Lebenserfahrung. Also Augen zu und durch.👍
Techroom, the white bubble container is a ausdehnungsgefäss. A container which is there to compensate the volumechange of the heating water while getting hot and cold/er again to avoid damage on the installation, also to keep the pressure in the system nearly constant.
@25:05 You`ll living in a 22nd century house - of course it`s complicated :-))
It`s always heardwarming watching your very well done videos about things or habits we germans don`t might even think about. Thank you for being such a nice and well meaning mirror to me (or us germans).
Thank you so much for the kind words! We are thrilled that you enjoy our videos.
Hello and good evening from Austria.
As for your problem for the TV wall and the off-centered sockets, you could think about using a horizontal wooden panel stripe, for instance 1,2m high but covering most of the width of the wall, to cover your electrical installations. So you could use the wall sockets but shift them to another place in the wooden stripe cover.
You could use oak if that matches your floor. :)
Yes I think this would be a great idea! Thank you!
I have seen people mounting a huge wooden panel on a wall. The panel will then have the holes where you need them and the TV would be mounted onto that panel. All cables will be hidden behind the panel and you can also illuminate it from the back. Can look really fancy. 😊
Hey guys, fellow North American (Canadian) and Engineer who has been living in Germany for multiple years here :) I recently discovered your videos as im currently in the process of buying my own house in Karlsruhe (about 1,5 hours north of Freiburg). I find your videos to be very educational and entertaining - keep up the great work! P.S.: I also lived in Freiburg for a while, I hope the "Schlappen" is still going strong ;)
Hah, greetings from Karlsruhe to Karlsruhe ;)
Great video, you two, as always...I have to say, I really like that 'megalithic' wall they built there. It looks massive and will most probably keep you folks safe. That mountain isn't going anywhere in the next 2000 years😂👍
For the tight entry way, work with mirrors on one side, and HORIZONTAL wood reducing walls on the other. Mirrors add light and make the room look open and totally change the perceived space, which is a crazy improvement to quality of life. Horizontal lines are calming (horizons, waves, etc.)
24:34 Pump pumping the water to the heaters. The thermometer to the right shows the temperature of the water going to the rooms (35°C Vorlauf) , the left one the temperature of returning water (30°C Rücklauf).
24:52 sand filter. Collects sand of the water coming in. It has to be cleaned every months by pressing a button and flushing out the sand.
24:58 another filter- Not sure whether it just filters or if it is filled with salt and reduces chalk content of the water
Good advice: Put a pack of each tile type on side for late repairs. It will happen you crack a tile, have to remove it some day or whatever. If you try to buy this specific tile years later you will most likly not find it anymore. I put few packs of each on side and over the years I used some of them already. Best idea I had about that.
for the echoy entryway i'd actually wait for the gaderobe to be put in place. jackets shoes and cabinets will eat a lot of the echos and maybe, at least thats what i experienced with friends and familiy, you might put a "läufer" and/or a schmutzfänger (essentially a big mat to catch the dust and dirt from the outside) on the floor. all this will eat a lot of echo. revisist when this is in :)
Ah great ideas. thank you so much!
I was going to write pretty much the same suggestion as daredemon91... And when you travel to different places, you might find a tapestry or textile painting (or two or three?) that you like , (a practical souvenier) , to hang up on the wall, which will also take away the echo-ey sound.
Having our own house built happened many years back but I do remember that although the price included the cost for an architect to supervise the building process I had to go there at least twice a day to make sure all went according to plan ( and very often things didn't ), call the contractor because of mistakes that had been made ( once they built a room and forgot to leave an opening for a window!) and report workers for being drunk on the site. Of course it took several months longer than planned and during the garden planning period we found out that they had dumped everything ( from left over material to empty beer bottles ) on the ground and covered it with soil. So you see for some people building a house can be traumatic. But stay assured that after you have moved in all that will be forgotten soon ( unless the cellar os flooded during a bad rainstorm on new years night) . But seriously moving in and decorating the new home as well as the feeling it gives you to own the place - never mind that the bank is the true owner - is so great ! I'll keep my fingers crossed that you will be able to move in soon !
Yeah, we went in for a "Surprise" visit and found some of the workers smoking in our house. We had to kindly ask them to go outside... now that the floors are in, as well as the paint on the walls I really don't want smoke damage.
@@TypeAshton pretty normal that they smoke inside at least until the plaster ist done
@@Dunkler.Krieger Not to forget the port-a-potty so they don't use the wall next to the entrance for beer recycling.
@@TypeAshton I understand. Fortunately nowadays construction workers don't drink alcohol any longer during working hours but back then it was normal. House owners used to bring them a "Kasten Bier" regularly to keep them motivated , can you even imagine that ?
Don't worry about the acoustics until the house is furnished and ready to live in. Every little thing you ad to the room will reduce the echo effect. It probably won't be a problem.
24:19 That's an expansion vat. When you heat up the water in the central heating, it expands and thus needs somewhere to go. (unless you're ok with the pipes bursting open and all the water spilling out :) ) This thing is half filled with water and half filled with air, and has a rubber membrane in between. That way the water can expand when it is heated, and the system will stay pressurised when the water is not heated.
Very jealous of your properly built German engineered home!! I am amazed you had so many issues, that's not very German like.... But who says no to a freebie!
I am sure you and your kids kids kids etc will enjoy it for many many centuries!
Thank you so much!
Hi Jonathan, wow the house is very unique and very interesting, greetings from Indonesia, God bless.
I bought a house exactly a year before you guys did and moved in exactly a year before you will (hopefully!) move in. It's so interesting to see how your experiences align and where the differences are just a year later.
That's awesome! Did you have COVID delays with your build as well or did it start construction before the supply chain issues?
@@TypeAshton No, I was extremely lucky. They delivered two weeks ahead of schedule, no sourcing issues, no cost increase, no communication error from Stille Post. What I've heard from the main contractor is that the issues started to become really bad just before my house was finished. I have a few friends who are in the same position you are in, work just stops because some stuff is missing. When I bought the house in fall of 2020 people were worried for me because the price was so high. When I tell people now how much I've paid they usually say "Wow, that's so cheap". All within two years. So insane.
Yeah we still feel really lucky. We purchased it in June of last year and fixed the price. Since then, prices have only gone up with inflation,.
Moving a lot in recent years and more often building or at least renovating on a larger scale ourselfs we learned quite fast that the best way to go is always using a general contractor - that way you just communicate with him and he will take care of his contractors. One main benefit of this: You do not only eliminate the problems of "Stille Post", but he will also be able to organize craftsmen and material in a shorter period of time as you could.
As for your Soundsystem: It might depend how much work and dust you want to spend into it. You could openthe wall and move the cable and the sockets the classic way. However you also could close the existing sockets and move on top of the wall behind a skirting board like most people do. Then you would need a small cable duct from the floor to your TV. Putting that on top of your wall does not look as perfect as you might wish, but might be a lot easier than putting the cables into the wall again and making new sockets into the wall.
One lesson you can learn from this for your next house though: Make sure that you alwayss have enough empty conduits in your house. When we are building anew we always have empty conduits used for electricity or datacables in a certain height in every wall. That way you never rarely have problems pulling new cables. You would only have to slit the wall up or down until you reach the position where you want to put your new socket.
Opening the wall alone is gonna cost let me tell you that. Concrete walls are not easy when it comes to breaking open and fixing. Depending on the amt of work needed that'll be a couple thousand. He's probably better leaving as is and working around it.
@@livelovelife32 As said you might be right that it is way easier to put the cables on top of the wall - especially if the wall is already painted.
However - making a groove into a stone wall wall is not that much work as long as it is no steel beton. There are special saws for this. Depending on the kind of stone you coult rent one for ~100€ and you might need to buy your own blae for another 100€ - that's it if you would do this yourself. Plastering everything yould not be as hard as well. The hardest part might be to paint it again so you will see no difference to the rest....
Your videos are always so nice to watch. Make me understand better our construction.
Few ideas:
- drilling in tiles can be made quite easy even for a beginner (which you are not) by using diamond crown drills. It is water cooled and can be somewhat costly. But you will probably only need one 6mm piece. There is a lot of tiles in your house, so buying one could make sense.
- tech room looks quite straigtforward to me. You get the technical drawings of it I suppose, if not, demand it. This will make not only servicing and upgrades easier, but also help you understand what does what. It is really quite simple. It takes some "contemplating" (rational looking at) with a drawing in your hands, then you get it all. It is also not a bad idea (it is possible, that the contractor even is legally bound to do it) to label all the devices in the system - ask them really nicely to do it in both languages. Because there are two significant "seasons" in the operation (with heating on and off) it is also a good idea to make yourself a "plan", a protocol, what to do when switching. This may be covered by your contract - if not, nicely ask the contractor to assist you in making it. I think it's important that you are as much independent in managing the system yourselves, that you "own" it - your profession enables you in it. This will make troubleshooting easier and will spare you much expenses. Even before the digitalisation, which made most system commands (valves etc.) motorized and centralized in a single unit it was achievable, but now it's mostly pretty easy; it's like controlling your own personal spaceship ;) One of the happiest momets of the year is when in autumn you make the big beast start spewing fire to fill the veins of your house with heat, when you hear and feel it wake up from the summer sleep and is wild and powerfull ... :D
Great advice! Thank you so, so much. Another commenter suggested that we make a "manual" for the entire house. I think that's a great idea.
Hahaha…. Good one. Possession date… I was told in Canada that I would move into the house in April/May 2010. Of a sudden in the beginning of January - minus 30 degrees Celsius outside - I was told that I would had take possession on January 27. As a German who hates moving at all - moving by minus 30 degrees?! My response: Hell NO! 😮 Well. I took possession on January 27th. Moved in 2 days later. No idea I was in bed to get a little bit warm again. - Final walk through 14 days before moving in? Not ONE door was closing! Water damage in the kitchen ceiling where fridge was - water still pouring down. “Cool. I got a 4th shower for free… 😮” Standing there - I think with an open mouth and 3 times the size of my eyeballs as usual - I completely lost it. How can anyone think that I would sign up on this disaster?! - In the end - they got I don’t know how many people working on all issues. I was so close to canceling the sale at that time. 😢
Your house is very beautiful. I am certain you will be very proud of your accomplishment. All the hard work will pay off.
Thank you so much.
With the TV room, you can’t change the wall or what’s built in, the obvious solution is to exchange the furniture until you have something that works. As long you have the purchase receipt, it should be possible but you might need to experiment to find the perfect setup! You’ll no doubt be happy once you find it.
Yeah for sure. We really like the furniture we picked because, as opposed to the "original" layout this offers more seating places. But I think we can make it work. In the end these are just small details. But I also like the idea that we could possibly switch up the furniture placement... even if it was mirroring the L shape of the couch.
@@TypeAshton You could always just put something next to the TV to make the whole arrangement (TV shelves + CD rack or whatever) visually centered on the wall.
Get a huge wall carpet with nice motives; you can also rehang your ceiling with echo absorbing tiles and put some flowers into the corners to reduce the echo in the entry hall.
As soon as you cover the walls in the entry room with anything (garderobe, shoe-cabinet, mirror(s), pictures, plants, hangers and stuff hanging on it, etc.), the acoustics problems will be gone.
The granite wall in the back is gorgeous. Since it is so close to the house, you could even put a glass roof between your house and the wall and glass walls at both ends and have a great winter garden, factually adding quite some m² to the size of your house.
Good idea! Thank you.
To kill the echo in your Hallway, Blocks of Acoustic Tile placed sporadically on both walls can be decorative as well as kill the echo. Just my suggestion. I've seen it done in some meeting rooms where I worked and it was esthetically pleasing to the eye while taking care of the echo. Hope this helps. Best Wishes. Your house looks great. Charlie
Thank you!
There is a good reason why you build in Germany once and then live in this house forever. They are buildings that can stand for hundreds of years, in contrast to the majority of American houses that are quickly assembled. In German houses you also feel safe and secure against the forces of nature - they are a home in the truest sense of the word.I would say - you have done everything right!
Love the European houses..strong safety
Yes! This house certainly feels like it is built to last.
On the downside you can run into problems with our solid houses. Now when you want to make a house build in the 60s energy efficient it is much more difficult than in a house build only from wood and dry wall. Or in this case much cheaper to tear down and rebuild the dry wall one than the solid one.
Good that you have this easy going attitude. I know of couples whom broke up because of issues during building or rebuilding.
Thank you. I think we have both kind of adopted this "team" attitude because we are both going through the gauntlet together. Everything is new and we are just making the best of it.
Hallo Superfamilie ,schön das wir bei einem Rundgang in eurem neuen Haus dabeisein konnten ! Ich persönlich kenne keinen Neubau bei dem alles 100 prozentig in Ordnung war ,also nicht ärgern ihr seid nicht alleine 🙈🙈 ansonsten ist das Haus super mir gefallen die vielen Räumlichkeiten sehr gut wenn alles steht sieht es noch einmal eine Klasse besser aus 🤩🤩und ihr könnt euch zurück lehnen ,und den Ärger vergessen ! Liebe Grüße
Vielen Dank. Wir gehen davon aus, dass es nach unserem Einzug noch einige Dinge geben wird, die Aufmerksamkeit erfordern ... unser Nachbar sagte, dass sie nach ihrem Rundgang mit dem Hausinspektor eine Liste mit 103 Gegenständen hätten, die repariert werden müssten. Der Entwickler repariert langsam alles und bis alles erledigt ist, zahlen sie die letzte Darlehenszahlung nicht aus.
@@TypeAshton Ja das ist auch richtig so 👍 bloß nicht alles bezahlen wenn noch nicht alles in Ordnung ist👍viel Glück das nicht zuviel Beanstandungen da sind☘️☘️☘️☘️
The movie-scene " bring it to the point. The greman title is "Geschenkt ist noch zu teuer".And buying an old house hides lots of surprises more than buliding a new one.
Your entryway is amazing!!! You have enough room to introduce a clean zone like they do it in Japan! The part close to the door and utility room stay floor level. The rest ( looks at least like 2x2,5m?) will be raised to the level of your first step. Visitors take of the shoes on ground level and the rest of the house stays clean!
Also a good carpenter might have great ideas too (don’t know how much budget you have left). But incorporating the acoustic panels on walls and ceiling with indirect light and a risen wooden floor would feel like an additional portal to the living area. Definitely a beautiful space to develop.
And ask for a tour for your utility room. German Handwerker are most of times very proud of their profession!
Beautiful house! Congratulations!
Thank you! We are very pleased with the way that the entire house has turned out. I also really like the opportunities that there are in the entry way. I like the tall ceilings and I think some really neat hanging lights could also be visually appealing as you come down the stairs.
Idea for your entry hall: Why not hang up a decorative kelim or large & colorful (handmade) wool blanket on the wall ? This can lend a very personal note to a house right at the enty.
This video motivates me to build a house.
I like the back wall, it looks cool
We think it will look quite nice when we are finished with it. But, thankfully the rest of our windows have an excellent view, we just don't want to show exactly where our house is.
I think you're lucky if those are the biggest hiccups with you house (knock on wood). For the entrance, textile decorations like hanging a persian rug (like a tapestry) or a quilt or something like this from the wall is also a good option to reduce the echo.
Re the hole in the wall/tv placement thing: It happens to the most experienced builders - my house builder put my kitchen window too high and I need a kind of granny pole thing to open the window. 🤦🏻♀️ Jonathan, find a solution that you are happy with. You just will not get over it, I promise 😝 I always remind myself how fabulous it is to live in the house, but that pole always makes me crazy…
A granny pole 😂😂😂 that make me laugh. Have you heard of the "Gopher"? This silly American invention they sold late night on TV... its like a claw at the end of a stick to help you pick up stuff. That is what my mind immediately went to.
Also - I am going to reply to your email this afternoon! I've had a lot of other meetings going on that I am a bit behind on replying.
@@TypeAshton Omgoodness I only sent it yesterday! But thank you, now I know you got it!
It honestly is just like a gopher, but really ugly, like a functional item in an old folks home that the old folks say is too ugly to have there. It does not fit with my cottage chic kitchen 😂
Hello Black Forest family, I like to follow your videos and how you experience your life in Germany. Especially the balance between entertainment, video quality, information and sympathy you manage very well. I like that very much, so I experience as a German our country from a new perspective.
Also, the fine line between how much and how little you reveal about yourselves and your family is exactly the right middle ground between German and American culture.
Now to your problem in the hallway. I think the products but also the advice from DavidSound could be exactly the right solution or supplement for your situation. Especially the redi.PAD is not just a bit of foam, but a very well engineered product. DavidSound also offers proper acoustic planning, which can also be worthwhile in the private sector, since you have to endure or enjoy the acoustics every day. I am curious how your projects continue and look forward to new content.
By the way: I am very active in an internationally networked church denomination, which originally comes from the USA; therefore I am also curious whether or how you will compare this topic between the USA and Germany. After all, many traditions and laws of both countries are based on Christianity. Blessings
Regarding the "Conel" Thing in your technic room - this is the main water filter with a retaining valve. You have to backwash it every now and then. The valve is to retain contamination from your plumbing floating back to the main pipe. It also has a pressure reducer to keep the pressure on a normal level. The grey insulated thing with the pump might be your low temp floor heating valve to keep the temperature at a certain level. But this is just a wild guess, since there is no real picture of it. The pump itself is a real nice one!
And of course the big cylinder should be your hot water reservoir (boiler). It´s not bad having "Fernwärme"!
Awesome! Yes I think the entire system is really quite impressive to look at (and to us looks very commercial). Our house is certified to be a KFW55, so we are looking forward to the energy efficiency savings.
@@TypeAshton absolutely! But as a German, we are always keen to optimize! ;)
Next time you are heading to Frankfurt, just stop by...!
For the TV room, you could install a dry wall in front of the concrete wall with a distance of 80 mm. You can put your outlets anywhere you need them, and can adjust with ease, if you change the furniture layout in the future.
Great idea!
Oh yes, been through all of this building my dream studio. The California fires started in the middle of construction in 2017. Thankfully, the fires stopped five blocks from us but all construction stopped and then the lumber shortages began, crane shortages, etc. It took a full year extra to finish but no complaints! And I LOVE the movie The Money Pit. Highly recommend anyone remodeling watch it! So hilarious. Oh! And watch “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.” Ashton, you’ll love it.
Glad to hear you escaped the fire in 2017!
The Money Pit is one of our favorites, such a classic!
For your entrance perhaps installing a bigger wardrobe to break up the wall will help and a „Schuhschrank“ will probably help too. And a little bench to sit on while tying up your shoes, some pictures and of course your acoustic panels.
Yes! We plan to do just that... something for shoe storage, as well as a nice bench are currently on order.
well, that´s why in the eighties we decided not to build a new house, but instead looking for an existing house. it was a settlemet house that was sold because the owner had died and it was ready to move in after some small work, and we changed a lot of things step by step in the following decades, e,g, a terrace and a wintergarden with fully movable sliding doors, new windows, new flooring, modern bathrooms, gas central heating heating . thermic isolation etc. we never regretted it because it was so flexible in use when we had our children. of course we had to make compromises but it was worth it in the end
24:18 - That balances the pressure in heating system, it allows system to have pretty consistent pressure from 10 to 90 degrees
the reservoir pointed to in the video is a pressure vessel for the heating system, regulates the pressure in the system
" Soundbar was the dream of Jonathan" 😄
My dream for the new house was a joiners bench. I bought it at the day I got the keys.
... and later: that was a very used item all the time
I congratulate you on your new home. It is really very pretty and very German. Your “mischiefs” really seem minor. I was not brave enough to go through the project of our houses myself. We bought new but finished or almost finished houses to avoid the risk and the discussions in the couple. Having to discuss the furniture was more than enough. Sure, we didn't get exactly what we wanted and presumably needed, but we don't have to blame ourselves for the mistakes. As to floors, I prefer the Italian style, either ceramics or stone. In particular with floor heating this is much cosier and reacts much faster and avoids the weird German habit of asking guests to take off their shoes. Now you have your oak which looks really nice. In summer, tiles keep nicely cool. I like your clean, clear entrance. As to the sound, I would consider structured and thick "Tapeten" in plain white. They are cheap, look modern and tidy and take away the echo. They can be painted over when they get stained. Look for Strukturtapete or Vliestapete in your local Baumarkt, the paper with the glue absorbes the sound
As to the soundbar, connect it by HDMI if your TV has an output to spare and your bar has an HDMI input. Then the remote of your TV will also control the Soundbar. Fibre does not carry the control signals. AUX cable are thick and and messy
The white cylinder is an Expansion Vessel/tank (Ausdehnungsgefäß). In a sealed, pressurised heating system (combi boiler - Kombikessel) the water expands when heated and the expansion vessel maintains the correct pressure. There is usually an expansion vessel within the boiler casing but large systems may require an external one. One side is filled with water from the central heating system and the other side of a diaphragm is pressurised with air or nitrogen via a Schraeder valve.
Building your own home is a kind of HELLZAPOPPIN:
Anything can happen and it probably will!😂
The technik room needs an own CZcams channel 😂. So much to Explorer there.
Glad that most of your lessons were more on the positive side.
If I had to provide one important piece of advice here: get surplus tiles of your bathroom, kitchen whatever surfaces you have, even the wood. If you ever break a tile in 10 years cause you chnge something, you will need those, same for other accidental damages. Better than searching for something that looks "almost" the same then.
And I could probably explain what all the parts in your tech room do, but I won't be able to explain how to operate them. Here goes the same as you said, better leave that to a professional.
One thing I am curious about is, why are the outside walls made of concrete? Was that a concious decision? Usually it is only the basement that has concrete walls and for the living areas you would use "softer" stones like "Kalksandstein" so you don't need a percussion drill to get a nail into the wall. Or were the wall prefabricated, delivered and then placed there?
Good idea! We hope they builders will have some left over for us once we take possession. If not, we will ask them.
As for the concrete walls, this was the suggestion of the builder.