ᐅ Hillside House in the Southwest Palatinate – Our Home Construction 2.0

That already looks great. I always find it really fascinating to be able to “look inside” a building like this. To see exactly how everything is constructed before you end up with just smooth walls, ceilings, and floors in the end. I didn’t know about the use of styrofoam in the shower either. 😀

Things seem to be going really smoothly for you. I’m honestly a bit jealous.

Jurassic135 schrieb:

That already looks great. I always find it fascinating to be able to "look inside" a building like this. To see exactly how everything is constructed before you eventually only see the nice smooth walls, ceilings, and floors. I didn’t know about the polystyrene in the shower either. 😀

Yes, I find it interesting too. I take lots of photos like this, even if you just need to check something later on.
I didn’t know about the polystyrene either. Our first house also had a walk-in shower, but back then we lived a bit farther away and weren’t on site every day.
I’m always amazed at how many things are done differently compared to the first house. It really makes a big difference which region you build in.

WilderSueden schrieb:

Everything seems to be going really smoothly for you. I’m honestly a bit jealous.

Thanks, we’re very satisfied so far. I hope there won’t be any nasty surprises later, but I don’t really think so.
We definitely won’t be building a third time. You shouldn’t push your luck, and I can’t imagine finding a reliable builder three times in a row.

Are you having any issues? You were roughly from around this area too, if I remember correctly?

kati1337 schrieb:

That pipe angle almost ended up in the living room – it was my mistake; I didn’t notice it in the planning documents. Both the builder and my husband didn’t care about how it would look. But I was very particular and absolutely didn’t want such an angled corner RIGHT in the middle of the living room. I was almost desperate when I saw it during construction. But the builder fixed it. He moved the drywall wall forward by the thickness of the pipe.

Men 🙄!!! We had a similar spot in our living room. My husband saw it and said, “It’s not ideal, but it’s just a corner…” And I felt the same way you did. We also put up a wall there, and to make the “loss of space” worthwhile, we created three recessed shelves in it. Now I have space for some decorations or a picture frame…

kati1337 schrieb:

I am always amazed at how many things are so different compared to the first house. It really makes a big difference which region you build in.

Where do you notice the differences?

Jurassic135 schrieb:

Where do you notice the differences?

Well, starting with the appearance, of course. In the new development up north, it’s all brickwork. Here in the southwest, you won’t find anyone who can do that. My builder said he’d have to bring in a masonry crew from the north. Of course, that wouldn’t have been worth the effort or the cost for us.

Then the plaster in the bathroom looks completely different here. The garage and bathrooms have lime plaster, while the rest is gypsum plaster. In the new house, all ceilings on both floors are suspended. We also have quite high ceiling heights overall. That’s standard with my builder because he believes it’s the proper and sensible way to do it. He doesn’t like low ceilings. =)

The screed is different too. In the old house, it looked more grayish, while in the new one it has more of a brownish tint.

The different roof shape means we don’t have sloped ceilings. Instead, upstairs, underneath the suspended ceilings, there are metal rails with foil and insulation below, plus lots of cables and pipes.

We also have completely different building services here. No brands have stayed the same. In the old house, we had Tecalor and Mitsubishi for air conditioning. Here we have a heat pump with a buffer tank from Viessmann, ventilation from Vallox, and air conditioning from Remko. I hadn’t even heard of many of these brands before. I have to admit that from the start it was decided to let the tradespeople use their usual brands. I wouldn’t have insisted on using a different manufacturer since the plumber was experienced with these systems. That would have been too risky, and we didn’t really have a strong preference anyway. So we didn’t even know which manufacturer’s products were coming until they arrived still in their packaging. But we have a good relationship with the builder and trust he won’t install anything subpar. That might sound naive to some, and maybe it is, but we simply don’t have the financial reserves to take a construction company to court, so we chose to rely a lot on trust.

Because this time we’re building into a slope, we’ve seen a lot more waterproofing. The old house was built directly on a slab. Here, one side of the slab is against an earth wall. They had to dig out and do all kinds of things I frankly don’t know much about.

Ring beams were also used here. I don’t think we had nearly as many of those in the old house, if any at all.

The builder himself is a completely different type compared to the previous one. The old builder was a well-known company from northern Germany, with blogs sharing experiences, countless Google reviews, catalogs, sales consultants, and model displays – the usual.

Our current builder has no website, barely manages emails (I email first, then he calls me back), and if you Google his name, you find almost nothing. He sends slim, plain interim invoices from an accounting office in the neighboring town. He has no company name (just himself), no logo—no frills. But he’s definitely on site every day. When I arrive during the day, the windows are often open for ventilation; when I come back in the evening, they’re closed. He checks things very frequently on site and takes care of everything immediately.

That has its pros and cons. The scope of work description here is quite basic. When the electrician wants to start, he calls me on my cell phone – “The switch series is like this and that, square, practical, good – standard here, is that okay with you?” – I briefly googled, “Yeah, looks good, should be fine, we’ll look again at home.” At home, though, we forgot and never followed up. The next day the first of those switches were already installed. 🙂 If we hadn’t wanted them, we probably would have had to raise objections.