House Update - The Struggle Continues...

And here, the "Bog Every Day In May"-challenge has made it on our house journey page, as indeed, it is what we struggle most these days. I am totally aware, that this is most definitely a first world problem, but still, we've gotten ourselves into it, and need to figure it out.

So, a few weeks back, in the end of April, I've had a letter from the district building department in our mailbox. I was cautiously excited, hoping for the building permit (haha, says Murphy). Well, it was a letter telling us that they would reject our application at our expense if we would not recall the application voluntarily because the total squarefootage of the house in relation to the property size (Geschossflaechenzahl, short GFZ in German  --> a bonus point for you if you can pronounce it!) was much above the legal maximum. Ok, panic attack is coming on since I have no idea what the GFZ is and what that means for us. I call our building engineer and learn from his assistant that he is out of the office already and would not be in the next week due to vacation. In the meantime I google all the information and double-check our building application just to notice that about all the info in the application had been entered incorrectly. The size of the property was entered as 120 sqm instead of 164 sqm, and instead of 2 full levels they entered 3, increasing the size of our house by 50%. Come Monday, I call the office again and tell them to contact the architect, who has mastered this piece of work (= building application), and tell him to double-check it. The assistent promises that the issue will be taken care of and that she would call me back on Wednesday at the latest. Well, Wednesday passes, Thursday is a public holiday, so I call back Friday, since the assistant has not called me back as promised. She tells me that she doesn't have any info yet but calls in to check; a minute later she returns with the information that indeed, there were mistakes in the building application (duh!!), but that our building engineer will have to look at it on Monday.

Come Monday, he really calls me, just to ask what the matter was, as the only info he had received was to call me back urgently. I explain him again what had happened and he promises to check and call me back immediately. Indeed, he gave me a call back a few minutes later and confirms that there have been major mistakes but that they will send in the necessary paperwork to correct the matter. More time passes, and the following Monday I call in again, since no-one gives me any info. I learn that my building engineer had had an accident the week before but was now back in the office and would take care of the issue. This night we received two pages with correction to sign as appendix to the building application, which we return immediately. However, when I called the district building department to confirm that everything is fine now, I learn that indeed no paperwork has been received to correct the matter, and that another minor issue has, as well, not been taken care of. Pretty annoyed I call our building engineer again to ask what the matter was. He informs me that the case worker has been on vacation and will take care of the matter in person as to not having to take the "official" route.

So I hope that tomorrow, we will finally learn that everything has been figured out and corrected. Keeping fingers crossed and knocking the heck out of all the wood around me, trying to keep Murphy at bay. Richard and I have asked ourselves multiple times if there was any way out of the whole matter, but of course there's none. Too much money has been spent already, so the only way to go for us is forward. We know that once the house is actually built and we have moved in, the struggles we're facing now will not matter any more, but right now, we're at a point where we're not even looking forward to owning a house any more. All he stress, issues, and obstacles we've faced so far before even a single worker has set foot on our property to start building has taken the fun out of it all. Had we known 9 months ago what we know now, we've never even set foot on the path of building our own home but waited until the right house had popped up on the market; yes, buying an existing house would have been a lot more expensive in terms of fees and taxes, but it would have saved us a lot of nerves and stress on the way.

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Weekend Recap

Oh dear, it's Monday already! That means, one day closer to another weekend. Last weekend was a lot more busy than we had planned, but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

Friday:
Richard and I had a cuddly Friday night date on the couch after the girls had gone down for the night. The movie changed on short notice (from "The Illusionist" to "Burke & Hare"), and the wine came from France, not South Africa (note to self: don't wait buying the wine Friday night after work). I really enjoy our new "tradition" of spending the Friday nights without computers and enjoy each other's company more.

Saturday:
The plan was to go on a short trip into Erlangen to buy a new music stand for Richard and check out shoes for the girls. Our trip ended at the corner store, where the car decided not to move any more. Luckily, our neighbors are mechanics and helped out. Obviously, the battery had lost it's charge over the cold winter and only driving very short distances most of the time. So we spent the afternoon outside with the girls enjoying the spring weather. I cooked spaghetti with shrimp, red onions and olive oil, yummie. We're really glad that the girls are good eaters and love sea food. The evening until bed time was spent playing games, Lily telling us a picture story, and blowing bubbles on the porch. In the evening, Richard played computer games with his friends in the US while I called a friend of mine and spent some time working on my blog.

Sunday:
The morning was spent with some cleaning. Around 10:30 we headed out to collect a signature on our building application; luckily, the battery in our car had recharged and everything went well. After lunch and baking a bunch of muffins, we headed out to visit a friend of mine. We relaxed and talked while the kids played; after the rain had stopped we even got to go to the playground for a while. Yes, I'm definitely ready for spring! On the way home we treated the girls to some BK (the "My Little Pony"-toys were a hit!). After coming home I went to collect another signature on our building application; when I came home, Violet had already gone to sleep; I helped Lily with her shower, read her a good night story and cuddled our little girl to sleep. The evening was spent quiet, doing some laundry and preparing for the new week.

House Update - The Application And Hunting For Signatures

Sorry for writing a second post on our house just a few days after the last one. Today, we have met with the person who is going to organize our house being built, and I have to say, I've got a very good feeling. He seems very experienced and seems to have a good team of contractors. We might just be celebrating the Yule holiday in our own house!! Since Lily just has moved with her kindergarten to a new classroom, she is constantly talking about the different people who are going to work on our home and she's planning her new room. We're glad that she's mostly looking forward to the move and her new room even though sometimes she doesn't want to move. She is friends with the girls who live downstairs and will miss them a lot. We all are sad to move, since we're getting along so well with our neighbors and really, really like our apartment, but it's not like living in our own home.

At today's appointment, we have also received six folders with all documents to apply for our building permit. I did not expect THAT much paper, but well, Germany is the country of bureaucracy. Besides signing until we both nearly had blisters, we also need to go hunting for some signatures from our future neighbors, or better, the people and company who own the lots and pieces of land bordering ours. While one of them won't be a problem since it's the person who sold us our lot, the other ones will be slightly more difficult. But we have until the 13th of this month in order to meet the deadline for entries at the town hall.

Keep you fingers crossed that the signatures won't break our neck. If everything goes smooth, we might be start in mid-May!

House Update - Approvals And Taxes

I can't believe it, but last week I received an email that FINALLY our building application is ready to be picked up!! I had hoped to submit it to the town for February, but that obviously didn't happen. So we're going in to pick up all the forms and to meet with the person who is going to organize the entire building process. I still hope to be able to start by May, maybe June at the lastest. After our building application is (hopefully) being approved by the town council at then end of the month, it is going to be submitted to the district building council for approval. This month, all the trees and shrubs are going to be removed and the lot levelled. The soil samples will then be taken and evaluated, another step towards starting the whole adventure. Keep your fingers crossed they don't find anything dreadful there (WWII bombs are sometimes found around here).

Another little stepstone in our path to becoming home owners: we received a little form from the finance department trying to extort just a little more taxes from us. There's a little clause in the law referring to "related contracts", meaning that the sale for the lot and the contract for the house are linked (e.g. if the seller of the lot also builds the house). I have read up on it and don't think that our contracts are considered "related" in any way; even though they were all signed around the same time, the builder is in no business relationship with the seller of the lot, quite the contrary. However, I am still suspicious of all departments and my sleep is going to be somewhat impaired until we have the final notice on the taxation. Worst case scenario, we would have to pay another € 5k that we haven't planned in.

All in all we are glad that we are moving forward and try to stay positive regarding little obstacles along the way. Can't wait to be done with everything though!