The Months of Math

Dear Family and Friends,

So I started out writing weekly. Then… I ran out of muse.

OK. That is not really true. I actually ran out of energy to process everything and keep writing about it.

The problem is: I am learning a LOT! And this is not the stuff I am good at.

I was hoping that we would be so much further along by now. In my fantasy world, we would have finished the 3 big projects we were focusing on and would be working on the details now. I would have been able to present great progress reports weekly making this a true “reality-show-timed” renovation. At the same time, you would all be dazzled and mesmerized by our technical know-how acquired effortlessly by “just doing it” and making all the advertising jingles a reality.

So what is reality?

Did you really have to ask? Do you really want to know? Let me see if I can recap the highlights of getting nothing done.

Tradition!

In August, we continued the tradition of Kristin getting great presents by making our first major purchase for the house.

When we really got into the house after the purchase, we were unfortunately surprised to find a large crack in the tile—straight through the great room. This meant we had to replace at least that flooring. We decided that we would replace the flooring in the great room, kitchen and hallway to the bathroom, but leave the tile (oh so practical) in the entryway and the stairs.

Deciding on a floor was not easy. There are so many types of flooring to consider and we also have something small known as a budget to consider (don’t we all?). That made it more difficult. Add to that the overgrown garden making this south-facing room look amazingly dark and it was… complicated. Add to THAT mix an American woman with tastes differing from “German oak” and the challenge for Thomas was complete.

Although I did not drag him to more than 3 stores, I think the direct quote was finally: “Get what you want and I will lay it! Just do it!” (OK, I sense a Nike theme through this post.)

However, I wanted to have him as involved in the decision as I was. It wasn’t his passion but gosh darn it—he must have an opinion! Right? Right?!

Nope.

Well, yes, he did. We both were able to quickly agree on wood or laminate flooring for these rooms.

In my mind, this (someday) bright room would allow the walnut to glow and create a perfect mix between Bavarian alpine farmhouse and American farmhouse.

Thomas was certain our dark room would make the walnut too dark and oppressive. Plus, German oak is more traditional and looked really nice and warm.

Add to that the fact that walnut parquet here is very hard to find and cost around 200€ / m² and I was not getting my flooring. We do NOT have 10,000€ for flooring. Not happening anytime soon. No, really, it won’t.

The problem with that is that, no matter what my logic said, I could not like oak. Wherever we were, I was drawn to the dark walnut—even when not knowing which wood we were looking at. Quite the conundrum.

In August I convinced him to take me to one more store—then I would compromise and we would get the high-grade laminate flooring in “Hickory”. I just couldn’t fall in love with the modern “honey oak” we were seeing everywhere. I liked white oak, but it was as hard to find as walnut.

We went to an outlet of a local floor-manufacturer about 45 minutes away. And there, I found it. Walnut flooring for a fraction of the price and right on par with the oak flooring we had been considering from the start.

One week later we picked it up and brought it home. Where it is now stacked neatly in our living room / dining room / workshop awaiting installation–someday.

Winter is Coming

I know it sounds like an epic series quote, but here in the Alps it is a basic reality. The nights are getting chilly and we need to figure out the heating system. The house has an electric system, including floor heating, but it is an expensive system to run and we would prefer a more economic and environmentally sound solution.

After considering all our options, we are tending towards a pellets oven system. Unfortunately, heating systems are not cheap and there is that budget again. We are also working on figuring out how we could implement it in this house including a bunker necessary for the pellets.

Thomas has done most of the work on this because I just cannot figure out all the details, let alone compare offers and details.

Heating appears to be less science and more philosophy and/or religion. Each type of heating system has its evangelists and its sceptics. At times questioning seems heretical, which just seems extreme to me.

Our basic premise: it must keep us warm.

Using Algebra in real life

When we discussed reinsulating the attic crawl space, I sure did not think that I would be discovering why I quit engineering those many, many years ago.

I remember people discussing “real-life learning” using the following argument:

“When was the last time you used advanced algebra in your everyday life? I thought so. Now let’s teach balancing a checkbook instead.”

Granted, I will admit learning to balance a checkbook is a great thing for American children to learn. (Germans balance their finances differently and that will REALLY screw you up when you try to figure it out.) However, I have used more algebra in the past month than I care to ever do again.

I was not good at math. It never really made sense to me and was more than a bit frustrating. Somewhere along the line, I missed some vital information and the hole just never got patched up. In high school I gave up and in college I went the humanities route. Now I have been confronted with the knowledge that math is power as I struggled to figure out reading about insulation values and heat coefficients.

Yes, these are important to understand if you want to correctly insulate your house. Especially for German standards. If done incorrectly, it can lead to higher heating costs (not great), drafty rooms (uncomfortable) or even mold and mildew problems (from ewww gross to dangerous). Fortunately, there is a way to figure out what is needed and how best to do it. And THAT, dear friends, requires math and physics.

Sigh.

For all the nasty details and interesting results, well, I’m writing a post about our “Adventures in Insulation” for those who are interested.

The end result is, it is September and we do not have a completed bedroom, yet. But we will. And it will be fabulous!

What we have.

We may not have much done, but we still each have 6 weeks of vacation and I still have my 1 month of overtime to take.

The goal is for us to find the most inexpensive yet quality insulation for our chosen system and then spend a week focusing on the bedroom.

I thought we should focus on the whole ceiling, but Thomas has convinced me that a “room approach” is better. If we run into challenges, we can figure out how to deal with them without opening up everything to the elements. It will also allow for “small projects” that take “more time”.

If we complete the one room, we can work on evening and skim-coating the walls, creating a professional and flawless base before completely priming the entire room including the new drywall ceilings and then painting. We can then move the wardrobe into its niche and set up the bed, etc. and be moved in.

That will empty out a lot of our stored items (including winter clothing) and give us a place to relax. It will also empty the other 2 rooms so that we will have a guest room again for Thomas’ son and room to “move” and set up a temporary office space we desperately need. When we figure out the flooring upstairs, moving the bed out will not be a major hassle.

So as you can see, not much to tell. The planning is taking it’s toll.