Two Steps Forward, One Step Back = Progress

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s been three weeks. WOW! Time flies when you are trying to get yourself organized and ready to go. Thomas and I are still alive and working towards our goal of turning our house into a home.

Somehow it seems that I should wait for a momentous post to cover the pluses and minuses of our house and the decisions we are making concerning updates. On the other hand, why wait? There will be so much to share and tell soon that I KNOW I will get behind and get lost in the details.

If you want to see where we started, you can check out the posts here:

Week 1

Week 2

Someday I hope to write more posts going into the decisions we have made and how we did things. Right now, I only have time for these “diary entries” to keep everyone “in the know”. Internet is non-existant at our new house (and I am busy working on the house and not writing).

I also figure it will be great for us to be able to look back on this time and remember where we were in the process and how things worked out. It all goes by so fast.

Last week we left off having a plan and a basic idea of where we were going. Our goal was to keep searching for the right flooring and wall elements we wanted to efficiently update the house.

That was last week.

Like all good plans, they crack, change, alter and adapt.

Traunstein vs. Anger

While renovating, we are working full-time and still living in Traunstein 3-4 days a week. This week we spent Monday – Wednesday in Traunstein working, searching the internet for solutions and ideas for the house and supposedly packing (we haven’t filled a box in ages).

Thursday was a national holiday and Friday was what Germans call a Brückentag (bridge day) and Austrians call a Zwickltag (pinched day). That is a work day between a day off and a weekend. Many people take the day off for a long weekend. Our company decided to close the office for the day.

Don’t get too excited. We each had to use a vacation day for the day off.

Long weekends are AMAZING! Four days off!

The only drawback is that national holidays here mean that all stores are closed. It is a holiday, not a work day. That also means that we could work on the house but not shop for it. The same goes for Sunday. This is important to keep in mind when figuring out what we are doing each weekend. No heading over to Home Depot or Lowes for anything we need that we forgot or ran out of.

I think we are managing just fine.

Box Day

Thomas’ sister lives right across the border in Austria and works in a furniture store. She had asked us if we could use some boxes for the move.

Free is a very good price, so we jumped in the car to pick them up on Tuesday evening after work. The number of boxes filled our car; we are so thankful for the help. His sister told us that her store was having a large sale starting Wednesday if we wanted to check things out.

We decided on Tuesday that I would go to Salzburg on Friday to check out the flooring they had on sale.

It was also decided that we would return on Sunday to celebrate the birthday of Thomas’ nephews. Our weekend was planned.

Mapping Furniture – Changing Plans

Thursday we were at the house and Thomas decided it was time to set up the major furniture pieces in the house. Well, at least recreate them and place them in their planned rooms.

We had done this exercise many times on paper, but in the room itself, it is a very different experience and gave us a much better idea of what we were looking at.

Why should you do this? Easy. It is MUCH easier to move a cardboard cut-out than it is to move a heavy piece of furniture. I highly recommend doing this BEFORE any major changes have been made.

And I speak from experience here.

Our main room is the great room. We have a luxury problem: we have great views in every direction and want to make the most of it.

Most people we know turn the sofa away from the window. A lot of rooms center around the television or another “focal point” in the room. We knew that we wanted the windows to be our “focal points”. I guess that is odd to some people, but we want to “bring the outdoors in”, especially in winter when it is too cold to sit outside.

We set up the mock-up of our L-shaped sofa as we had thought we would set things up.

I don’t know if you remember, but our plan was to open up the kitchen to the great room and have the dining room next to it. That is the original location of the dining room, and it made perfect sense.

Originally, the sofa was in the middle of the room facing the one wall without a window. The panorama window / sliding door is in the middle of the room directly in view when you enter it.

When we placed our sofa there, it really made the room feel suddenly small. In addition, we had talked about adding a panorama window in the corner to take advantage of the mountain view from the window.

However, this made adding a mason oven much more difficult and the location of a television would be the focal point of the room.

Although the “room” is officially larger than our current living room, it just didn’t feel big. It felt cramped. Then, Thomas moved the sofa to the other corner. The location where the kitchen peninsula would be.

It was perfect. Suddenly the room made sense.

It opened up the room completely. The entryway was now integrated into the room instead of being a “hallway without walls”. The view of the mountain was directly in front of the sofa where we spend most of our time. The television would have room next to the large panorama window pulling it “out of focus”. The dining area would then have a view of our garden. We have better options for the mason oven.

In short, everything fell into place. It felt “right”.

Compromising is Necessary

We were thrilled! For about 10 minutes.

Then we realized that in order for this to work we would need to keep the tiny kitchen closed.

We went around all the options. Would it work to move the sofa the other way around facing the garden? However, this made the option of having a stove or oven almost impossible.

But I have been talking about the open-kitchen concept for so long. We both grew up with variations of an open concept. Thomas had an “eat-in” kitchen and I grew up with a full open-concept. Having a “functional cooking kitchen” just does not feel “right”.

Last weekend when I knew this was an option, I had gone downstairs while Thomas slept and thought about the options. I knew that Thomas was right. This exercise just confirmed it.

Now we get to readjust to having a tiny closed kitchen. We can do this!

Successful Shopping

Friday we headed to the furniture store to check out their flooring. At -70%, we knew that if the right flooring was there, we would probably come home with it.

We were also looking for central lighting. We had an idea of what we wanted, and as we have both spent our adult lives in apartments, we only have one of the lights we need. At the same time, we don’t want to spend a lot of money on lighting we just “like” because we need it. The hope was that we would find at least a few of the center lights.

Originally, I was planning on going alone. Thomas has a serious shopping aversion. But his Mom and sister could not come with me and he decided to tag along, after all. I was glad, as I knew that making major decisions such as flooring alone is a formula for disaster.

At the last minute, Thomas’ Mom decided to come with us and so we spent the morning with her looking around. She went her way and we went ours. We met for lunch. OK, Thomas ate lunch; she and I did coffee and cake. Priorities, people!

We left the store with exactly zero purchases.

So why was this a successful trip?

Looking at the flooring made us both realize what we wanted and didn’t want. That is HUGE! We need to focus ourselves and zero-in on the right elements. Now we both know what the other person wants and where our limits are both financially and in appearance.

Bedroom Demolition: Top-to-Bottom

Remember the bedroom ceiling last week? This week the goal was to empty the room completely. Last week Thomas and I took apart the wardrobe and moved it temporarily to the small bedroom. Then, Thomas showed off his strength and power by taking down the wood paneling on the ceiling and wall.

It was a huge risk, as we didn’t know what we were going to find behind it. We were pleasantly surprised and can just drywall the already completely insulated ceiling and wall. What is most important, the insulation was taped and sealed professionally meaning we do not have to open up the rest of the ceilings to improve the insulation.

Now, it was the floor’s turn.

Important note: Germans GLUE their wall-to-wall carpeting to the subfloor. Another important note: the previous owner made sure everything was installed permanently and thoroughly.

The carpet was no exception. I tried to help, but Thomas gently informed me that I lack the “weight” to fight both the carpet and the glue. The carpet came up, and Thomas managed to scrape over 90% of the glue off the subflooring while I donned gloves and disposed of the latex glue and the smaller pieces of carpeted “baseboards”.

Just before starting this adventure, Thomas invested in an industrial-strength wet-dry vacuum. It is one that is sold to companies with workshops and is more heavy-duty than I have ever used. It is the best thing ever! It works so well and as the previous owner left us an extra set of vacuum attachments, we can really put this vacuum through its paces.

If you think we are done, you are mistaken. The residual glue needs to go. It smells and will keep whatever flooring we decide to use from applying properly. I guess that is where the first putty knife and a respirator will become my best friends in the coming week.

We have figured that we have 46 m² (495 sq. ft.) of carpeting to remove. It’s moments like these that I am thankful we have a relatively small house.

Stormy Skies

This week also introduced us to the majesty of mountain storms. Thursday a storm front moved through the mountain range. It started with thunder like I have never heard before. It rolled through the valley volleying off the mountain sides for what seemed like forever. Instead of multiple claps, we had rolling thunder for 5 – 10 minutes at a time. I have never heard anything like it.

Eventually, the storm hit us and the winds picked up through the ravine below our houses. The spruce trees below our house bent almost to the ground and then sprang back up.

Then, the rain came pounding down on us. Had we been outside, we would have been drenched, but we were on the neighbors’ covered porch where we could watch the natural spectacle while safe and dry.

In a half-an-hour it was all over. We headed home and Thomas made a fire in the fireplace. We have a lot of twigs and other material left from the former owner which we need to get rid of. This was as good a time as any.

I made iced coffees and we spent the evening in front of the fireplace sitting on the floor (we need some furniture in this place!).

Although there is so much more to tell, I think the romance of our first storm is the perfect place to leave us for the week.

Next up: we’ll see. At least the weather is sunny and warm. Time to enjoy our convertible while we can.

Until next time.