Samstag, 24. August 2013
A new house (3)
The hardwood-floor in the kids' rooms has been laid and each child was allowed to pick the color for the walls.
Ina, August 22nd 2013
Wiebke August 22nd 2013
Katrin August 22nd 2013
Nils August 23rd 2013
Nils' and Katrin's bathroom August 22nd 2013
Ina's and Wiebke's bathroom August 22nd 2013
Donnerstag, 22. August 2013
A new house (2)
While the house's basement was drying the workers continued with the upper floors:
Entrance July 2nd 2013
Living room July 2nd 2013
Dining room July 2nd 2013
Kitchen July 2nd 2013
Master Bedroom July 2013
WIC July 2nd 2013
Wiebke's Room July 2nd 2013
Kid's hall on the 2nd floor July 2nd 2013
Heating system and water tank in the basement July 2nd 2013
Master bathroom July 25th 2013
Kids' bathroom July 25th2013
The house doesn't look almost ready but most of the work is actually done by now: all the walls have been boarded, plastered, and smoothened. What's missing now is just the "final layer": paint, tiles and hardwood floor.
The house doesn't look almost ready but most of the work is actually done by now: all the walls have been boarded, plastered, and smoothened. What's missing now is just the "final layer": paint, tiles and hardwood floor.
Mittwoch, 21. August 2013
A new house (1)
I'm really still planning on finishing our West Coast adventure (it is a great souvenir for us to read this belated diary). But before I do so let me come to more recent events: the construction of our new house.
Our kids just didn't stop growing and their rooms as well as our kitchen and everything else grew too small so that we decided to move out. After a long time of fruitless research for a house (we were even ready to leave the direct surroundings of Laudenbach) we decided to buy a lot in our very cul-de-sac in winter 2011. It is a 684 sqm (7400sft) lot, which is one of the bigger ones here in the south of Germany close to big cities like Frankfurt and Mannheim and especially the kids were happy that they didn't have to change anything again now that they had just adjusted to this area, schools and friends.
The lot was covered by shrubs, small trees and mounts of blackberries that Dietrich and I cut away in a couple days in spring 2012.
July 17th 2012
As our neighborhood is situated in the old Neckar riverbed all the houses need to be built on concrete pillars to prevent them from subsiding.
August 8th 2012
22 enormous wholes have been rammed into the ground by an even more enormous drill and filled with concrete to form the necessary pillars.
Right after that Dietrich sprang into action. As we try to pursue an ecological concept in different aspects we opted for a geothermal heat pump. Our system provides winter heating by extracting heat from shallow heat exchangers that are buried horizontally in 2 to 3 metres (3 to 8 feet). It was hard work but Dietrich and 2 friends (and Nils) also had much fun digging the trenches and burying the pipes:
With the baseplate the hole already didn't look that deep any more:
On the plate they sat the large walls of the basement and insulated it:
October 10th 2012
October 17th 2012
October 19th 2012
The working space around the basement got filled up and then we had to wait through the whole winter before we could have our first afternoon tea in our future living room :-))
(The reason for the long idle time were difficulties with our building project organizer and delays of the house's delivery)
March 2nd 2013
But finally one sunny day in March they delivered our house!
March 4th 2013
As it is a kind of a prefabricated house (you can see the walls on the truck that almost didn't manage to enter our cul-de-sac) so that it didn't take long to have it all set up:
March 3rd 2013
March 5th 2013
March 6th 2013 The ceiling of the 1st floor
The roof being finished the house got the traditional blessing by the carpenters followed by a little party with the workers that had contributed so far to the construction of the house and neighbors and friends (only the first glasses of wine has traditionally been drunk on top of the roof by the youngest carpenter who had to say the blessing and a little poem).
Our kids just didn't stop growing and their rooms as well as our kitchen and everything else grew too small so that we decided to move out. After a long time of fruitless research for a house (we were even ready to leave the direct surroundings of Laudenbach) we decided to buy a lot in our very cul-de-sac in winter 2011. It is a 684 sqm (7400sft) lot, which is one of the bigger ones here in the south of Germany close to big cities like Frankfurt and Mannheim and especially the kids were happy that they didn't have to change anything again now that they had just adjusted to this area, schools and friends.
The lot was covered by shrubs, small trees and mounts of blackberries that Dietrich and I cut away in a couple days in spring 2012.
As our neighborhood is situated in the old Neckar riverbed all the houses need to be built on concrete pillars to prevent them from subsiding.
22 enormous wholes have been rammed into the ground by an even more enormous drill and filled with concrete to form the necessary pillars.
Right after that Dietrich sprang into action. As we try to pursue an ecological concept in different aspects we opted for a geothermal heat pump. Our system provides winter heating by extracting heat from shallow heat exchangers that are buried horizontally in 2 to 3 metres (3 to 8 feet). It was hard work but Dietrich and 2 friends (and Nils) also had much fun digging the trenches and burying the pipes:
August 23rd 2012
In the beginning it looked a little messy but they ended up doing a neat job, didn't they?
August 25th 2012
After Dietrich had buried the loops around the place of our future house the workers could finally come and dig the pit for the basement:
September 21st 2012
With the baseplate the hole already didn't look that deep any more:
September 27th 2012
On the plate they sat the large walls of the basement and insulated it:
The working space around the basement got filled up and then we had to wait through the whole winter before we could have our first afternoon tea in our future living room :-))
(The reason for the long idle time were difficulties with our building project organizer and delays of the house's delivery)
But finally one sunny day in March they delivered our house!
Our house is a low energy house that is built in two corresponding layers. Air is warmed in a winter garden and circulates in the space between the layers and up to the attic. Next to a warming effect that allows us to turn down a ventilation installation that we weren't really fond of.
As it is a kind of a prefabricated house (you can see the walls on the truck that almost didn't manage to enter our cul-de-sac) so that it didn't take long to have it all set up:
The roof being finished the house got the traditional blessing by the carpenters followed by a little party with the workers that had contributed so far to the construction of the house and neighbors and friends (only the first glasses of wine has traditionally been drunk on top of the roof by the youngest carpenter who had to say the blessing and a little poem).
March 14th 2013
Unfortunately, spring brought a lot of rain and although the walls of our house are 100% water proof it came in through the basement's window :-(
June 1st 2013
It went under the concrete in every room of the basement and wholes had to be drilled into the floor so that the blow dryers could dry out all the water:
June 12th 2013
Mittwoch, 12. Oktober 2011
Interjection
October 7th 2011
Have you ever been taught "first you finish this job before you start the next"? I q u i c k l y wanted to post some pictures of our last big vacation in the States, write a little about the great time we had on the West Coast and then report about our new old life in Germany. As you can see below I'm almost half through our 5 weeks vacation... and some of you still haven't heard from us since we are back in Germany. I'm really sorry and I promise to make up for that. The reason is we have been very busy and it has not been so easy adjusting to our old home. Here's the last year in a nutshell (for pictures and more you can scroll down the blog):
THE START
Ina had to go to 6th grade in "highschool"(our elementary school is from 6yrs to 10 yrs, and then there are 3 different levels of secondary schools). She was very well prepared for secondary school at our Cary elementary school Oak Grove and adjusted very well academically and socially.
Wiebke had to go to 4th grade in elementary school. It was a little stressful because she had to perform very well to be accepted at "highschool" and she had never been to a German school before! But she did very well, too although sometimes some of her classmates were not very welcoming. Fortunately, she had a very nice and supporting teacher.
Nils' start was much more complicated. As Nils started school (kindergarten) a year earlier in Cary than he would have in Germany and as Nils had no problems reading in German neither with the other subjects we put him in 3rd grade instead of 2nd according to his age because he would have been so much advanced there. Unfortunately, the teachers did not support that. In most of the subjects Nils was at level but there was no real encouragement in the few things where he had to catch up, and what was worst: the classmates did not include him in their midst although he knew many from preschool. Thinking back to the time when we came to Cary and the kids didn't even know a word in English but everybody was sooo welcoming and encouraging made us very unhappy and missing Cary very very much....
Katrin however had a good start. She went to the preschool where all the others have been. It was quite an adjustment to much more liberty in how to spend the day: running around all 4 groups they have, in the whole house or outside, weaving in one group or painting in another etc., and we were glad that after 3 years of the very structured American preschool she also got to know this.
Dietrich got back to his old job which wasn't quite as sad as he had expected because he was pushed into quite interesting projects and finally even got promoted. Still, he is missing his American work environment a lot.
And I was busy getting everybody and everything started. Nevertheless I got to know to a French family and I started teaching their girl twice a week to help her improving her german.
HOMESICK
Not everything was bad (of course, and we were happy to catch up with old friends) but we were (and are) missing Cary a ton!!! That's why we observed all the holidays that we loved so much: we had a spooky Halloween Party and the funniest Saint Patrick's day with a lot of "mischief". The best way however to cure us a little was.... to visit us. We were so glad that Max and Tristan stopped by when they where visiting their German family and we had the best time with the Dexter family here on Easter and another great week with Sofia!
MEANWHILE
Ina is in 7th grade and is doing very well. She does Geography in English (the bilingual branch) and loves it as well as French that she just started.
Wiebke is totally excited to finally go to "highschool", loves all the new subjects and all of her teachers. She also made new friends in the new class.
Katrin started first grade and loves to go to school. She has great teachers and a very nice class. Only getting up at 6:20 is a little bit hard...
In spite of all the difficulties, Nils finished the last school year well. After 6 weeks summer break he needs to readjust to working but in general he is doing o.k., still being quite slow with his homework what he still has to improve because it blocks the afternoon for the whole family. He made some friends in his class, too.
And there is a life outside school, yes. All four kids play the piano and go to a year round swim team, and the three oldest also sing in our church's chorus. Coming home between 1 and 2 p.m., they love to have playdates (homework permitting...) or just playing outsides in the bushes in our cul de sack where they built a fort and a maze. They enjoy strolling around by bike, going to the ice creme place or to the village's tiny school supply (and candy) shop.
At the end of May Dietrich's father suddenly passed away and we spent a lot of time in the north of Germany to support his mother. This, a lot of stress at work and a big new private project (we are going to build a new house in our cul de sack) was especially hard on Dietrich and he ended up having a tinitus. He's not completely recovered yet but doing much better with the help of a stress relief therapy and we are trying to work off one "constructions site" after the other.
At the same time I increased my workload by accepting some teaching jobs (3 french evening classes for adults). But I love to be in my old job and it is very rewarding for me.
O.k. - this was a big nutshell. But now you are a little bit better informed and I promise that from now on I will post more regularly to avoid such a mass ;-)
Have you ever been taught "first you finish this job before you start the next"? I q u i c k l y wanted to post some pictures of our last big vacation in the States, write a little about the great time we had on the West Coast and then report about our new old life in Germany. As you can see below I'm almost half through our 5 weeks vacation... and some of you still haven't heard from us since we are back in Germany. I'm really sorry and I promise to make up for that. The reason is we have been very busy and it has not been so easy adjusting to our old home. Here's the last year in a nutshell (for pictures and more you can scroll down the blog):
THE START
Ina had to go to 6th grade in "highschool"(our elementary school is from 6yrs to 10 yrs, and then there are 3 different levels of secondary schools). She was very well prepared for secondary school at our Cary elementary school Oak Grove and adjusted very well academically and socially.
Wiebke had to go to 4th grade in elementary school. It was a little stressful because she had to perform very well to be accepted at "highschool" and she had never been to a German school before! But she did very well, too although sometimes some of her classmates were not very welcoming. Fortunately, she had a very nice and supporting teacher.
Nils' start was much more complicated. As Nils started school (kindergarten) a year earlier in Cary than he would have in Germany and as Nils had no problems reading in German neither with the other subjects we put him in 3rd grade instead of 2nd according to his age because he would have been so much advanced there. Unfortunately, the teachers did not support that. In most of the subjects Nils was at level but there was no real encouragement in the few things where he had to catch up, and what was worst: the classmates did not include him in their midst although he knew many from preschool. Thinking back to the time when we came to Cary and the kids didn't even know a word in English but everybody was sooo welcoming and encouraging made us very unhappy and missing Cary very very much....
Katrin however had a good start. She went to the preschool where all the others have been. It was quite an adjustment to much more liberty in how to spend the day: running around all 4 groups they have, in the whole house or outside, weaving in one group or painting in another etc., and we were glad that after 3 years of the very structured American preschool she also got to know this.
Dietrich got back to his old job which wasn't quite as sad as he had expected because he was pushed into quite interesting projects and finally even got promoted. Still, he is missing his American work environment a lot.
And I was busy getting everybody and everything started. Nevertheless I got to know to a French family and I started teaching their girl twice a week to help her improving her german.
HOMESICK
Not everything was bad (of course, and we were happy to catch up with old friends) but we were (and are) missing Cary a ton!!! That's why we observed all the holidays that we loved so much: we had a spooky Halloween Party and the funniest Saint Patrick's day with a lot of "mischief". The best way however to cure us a little was.... to visit us. We were so glad that Max and Tristan stopped by when they where visiting their German family and we had the best time with the Dexter family here on Easter and another great week with Sofia!
MEANWHILE
Ina is in 7th grade and is doing very well. She does Geography in English (the bilingual branch) and loves it as well as French that she just started.
Wiebke is totally excited to finally go to "highschool", loves all the new subjects and all of her teachers. She also made new friends in the new class.
Katrin started first grade and loves to go to school. She has great teachers and a very nice class. Only getting up at 6:20 is a little bit hard...
In spite of all the difficulties, Nils finished the last school year well. After 6 weeks summer break he needs to readjust to working but in general he is doing o.k., still being quite slow with his homework what he still has to improve because it blocks the afternoon for the whole family. He made some friends in his class, too.
And there is a life outside school, yes. All four kids play the piano and go to a year round swim team, and the three oldest also sing in our church's chorus. Coming home between 1 and 2 p.m., they love to have playdates (homework permitting...) or just playing outsides in the bushes in our cul de sack where they built a fort and a maze. They enjoy strolling around by bike, going to the ice creme place or to the village's tiny school supply (and candy) shop.
At the end of May Dietrich's father suddenly passed away and we spent a lot of time in the north of Germany to support his mother. This, a lot of stress at work and a big new private project (we are going to build a new house in our cul de sack) was especially hard on Dietrich and he ended up having a tinitus. He's not completely recovered yet but doing much better with the help of a stress relief therapy and we are trying to work off one "constructions site" after the other.
At the same time I increased my workload by accepting some teaching jobs (3 french evening classes for adults). But I love to be in my old job and it is very rewarding for me.
O.k. - this was a big nutshell. But now you are a little bit better informed and I promise that from now on I will post more regularly to avoid such a mass ;-)
Donnerstag, 31. März 2011
Trip to the West Coast 8
July15th
After the desert we are cooling down at this very comfortable RV Park. We enjoy the bowling and the pool.
We were not the only ones int the streets....
We enjoy the pool and sweat through the night (still 100F).
July 17th
As our plug is still broken we don't go back to L.V. but to Cruise America's main hub to get it fixed... Afterwards we cross the Hoover Dam with Lake Mead which is impressingly big but alarmingly empty!
We continue our trip east wards to the Grand Canyon and shortly before Williams we get into a thunderstorm with heavy rain - I thought we were in the desert...
Only at 6 p.m. we arrive at the Grand Canyon, jump into a shuttle for Hermit Point and after a short walk to Hopi Point where we get to watch a breath taking sunset!!!
Wow. This is so big and red and deep and all these cliffs and far far down the Colorado River!
After the desert we are cooling down at this very comfortable RV Park. We enjoy the bowling and the pool.
I think that most of our german friends have no idea how many American RV parks look like. It's rather like a big parking lot and has nothing to do with the camp grounds we know.
This one was really nice. That didn't help though that it was very hot and in the evening we had to have a very quick dinner because with the sun set came the cock roaches out of their hiding places and invaded our picnic spot. We kept the AC running day and night and we still had 95F at night!
July 16th
Exploring the amazing nature is a great experience but today we are heading to THE city! Unfortunately, oil is leaking from our caravan and the main plug for the electric hook-up is broken so that we have to go to a garage - why do these things happen on Fridays?!
We still take the time to go on a scenic loop through the Red Rock Canyon on our Way to Vegas. These old sand dunes are so incredibly red!!
Finally at the garage in L.V. we're told that the differential is broken and that we need an exchange. Had I mentioned that our R.V. is totally old and shabby and I had to clean it before moving in? Well, we could hope for a new and better one now. Unfortunately, the central office doesn't agree, sends us to another garage that fixes the differential ... and we are spending the whole day waiting for our truck instead of making millions in the L.V. casinos. We only cross the city on our way to an RV park in Boulder City (at least we have to pick up the keys for the bathrooms in the Casino! How exciting!!!)
We enjoy the pool and sweat through the night (still 100F).
July 17th
As our plug is still broken we don't go back to L.V. but to Cruise America's main hub to get it fixed... Afterwards we cross the Hoover Dam with Lake Mead which is impressingly big but alarmingly empty!
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