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Yep, I got myself involved in one. :)
Poor me is to become a loanslave before the end of the year.
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Is that your basement cell?
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Future living/kitchen space. Will be the largest room in the appartment.
Yes, we do live in smaller dwellings on my side of the Atlantic. At least, those with a typical labour income do.
View of the back of the building (has 9 appartments).
These are pictures taken last winter.
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It's a basement cell. Don't get sick eating fish heads out of a bucket...
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When will your 'cell' be tiled and walled?
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That would just absorb and retain the smell of the fish heads.
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Thoughts/reactions- a) Congratulations! b) Hey! how do you get to the pipes when you need to fix them? Tear up the floor? c) You don't know what winter is.
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You just said that last to a European.
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Yeah. That's just it. If the pipes don't freeze, or corrode, or get gnawed by rodents, or broken by the brute force of livestock, there's not much need to access them, unless you want to change something. Blows my mind.
In Pennsylvania the waterlines were always buried 3 feet deep, and they still froze and had to be dug up sometimes. In North Dakota they are buried 4 and 1/2 feet.
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Thoughts/reactions- a) Congratulations! b) Hey! how do you get to the pipes when you need to fix them? Tear up the floor? c) You don't know what winter is.
I only once in my life experienced -17° C night temperatures for a period around Christmas/New Year, back in I believe the winter of '96-97 in my country. Also, the appartment is not on the ground floor (its on the second floor in your terminology). Most common rodents here are rabbits, rats, and I guess mouses count as well. For fixing the pipes if there's a malfunction, I actually asked this very question at the notary. It appears that'd be a communal cost carried by all the residing owners in the building, and the wall would of course need to be broken out.
Oh, and thank you. :)
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So, you're just buying the cell?
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We have basically the same system here, but we call them condo's (short for condominium). The size and layout are more like apartments here, but they function like condo's as you are the owner of your space, the association is the owner of the community space which includes the insides of the walls and the lawn and other common areas, and you probably have association dues that go toward maintaining the common stuff along with a reserve for big ticket things like new roofs (every 20 years), water pipe breaks, etc. Just remember, that although the association would be responsible for fixing the broken pipe inside the wall - you are still the owner of the carpet, furniture, kitchen cabinets, art, etc and that any damage to them needs to be covered by you (or your insurance).
Be very careful with your insurance. My sister in law who lives in Cologne, Germany, got into a nasty dispute over a clogged sewer line that serviced the unit next to her, where the association came in and damaged her property to gain access and then refused to repair or replace. I don't know the details of how they work on that side of the pond, but on this side insurance people are generally helpful and get you the coverage you need only after you explain your circumstances - they want to help, but the variety of individual needs varies so much that you have to take the time to sit down with them.
Oh, and grats on being an adult!
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So, you're just buying the cell?
I've signed a contract to pay up once its finished (meaning being habitable). If either party doesn't deliver, penalties are in order.
We have basically the same system here, but we call them condo's (short for condominium). The size and layout are more like apartments here, but they function like condo's as you are the owner of your space, the association is the owner of the community space which includes the insides of the walls and the lawn and other common areas, and you probably have association dues that go toward maintaining the common stuff along with a reserve for big ticket things like new roofs (every 20 years), water pipe breaks, etc. Just remember, that although the association would be responsible for fixing the broken pipe inside the wall - you are still the owner of the carpet, furniture, kitchen cabinets, art, etc and that any damage to them needs to be covered by you (or your insurance).
There's a sort of communal 'building insurance' for the building itself, and the private parts will need to be covered by my own insurance.
Oh, and grats on being an adult!
You realise this could come over a bit wonky? ;)
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yep :D
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How about a construction/photo update?
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How about a construction/photo update?
Only when I have one. ;)
Belgian construction custom prescribes a 'building stop' of roughly 3 weeks to allow construction workers an uninterrupted vacation during summer, and the one in my region ran roughly between the second half of July/first week of August. So the entrance of the building was closed. Since then I haven't passed the site on an hour workers were present, so no 'inside' information.
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Well, next week the tiled parts of the floor are supposed to be placed...
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I'm glad to hear it!
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But I can show a picture of a nice concrete floor. :)
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Sure.
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Looks...short. How tall is the ceiling?
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Roughly 2,5 meters at least. Typical height for floor ceilings here. About 8 feet and a couple inches?
Version with better light, towards the future kitchen wall.
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Well, preliminary approval of the credit loan came through a couple days ago.
The credit loan foundation only need a couple more documents for final approvement. The wait is now on the constructor&architect to come up with one of the documents.
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nice
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:b
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Aaaaand... all the required documents are now sent to the credit loan foundation. Fingers crossed they're returning a quick final seal of approval now.
Tomorrow I should pass by the site. Will see if I can enter and take a couple more pictures.
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Welp, too busy on the site to take decent pictures. But at the very least the walls of the bedroom are plastered as well now. And I think the technical room and toilet as well.
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;b;
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Any progress to report?
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Why, yes, thank you for asking!
If I leave quick enough this noon, I might have time to go check on the progress since last Monday.
Dooredges, wall tiling, doors, kitchen -and sanitary furniture are the main tasks that need done atm. By contract the condo should be delivered in 3 weeks time, on the date I sign the credit loan papers at the notary.
The storage space in the yard is another story though. The entire interior still needs to be done there, but its a wooden structure so a quite straightforward job for one worker.
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Is that black thing in the last picture the electrical panel?
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Is that black thing in the last picture the electrical panel?
Yes, the fuses are in it.
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Nobody was working there. :(
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They're observing US Thanksgiving.
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They're observing US Thanksgiving.
Or simply Cyber Friday (yes, that appearantly broke through here).
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Broke is right...
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Why, yes, thank you for asking!
If I leave quick enough this noon, I might have time to go check on the progress since last Monday.
Dooredges, wall tiling, doors, kitchen -and sanitary furniture are the main tasks that need done atm. By contract the condo should be delivered in 3 weeks time, on the date I sign the credit loan papers at the notary.
The storage space in the yard is another story though. The entire interior still needs to be done there, but its a wooden structure so a quite straightforward job for one worker.
Looking nice.
Couple questions:
That real wood floor, or some fascimile? Similar question for the tile, is that the vynil glue down squares, or real tile?
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It's what we call here a parquet floor. To be honest, I don't know what kind of wood was used. Kinda last minute upgrade from what was original planned (a facsimile, but that couldn't go through because the concrete layer wasn't a bit higher then the other rooms.
And they're real tiles as well. :D
I got more recent pics, but took them on the short axis, and the forum software won't show them proper.
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Things are going oh so slow in construction land. :-\
Just had a phone talk with the owner and it sounds like the culprit is the firm placing the floor tiles. They simply don't sent enough people to do the job in a timely manner, or simply don't show up.
In my appartment and the other one that had a buyer things are more or less in order, but the ground floor appartments and the stair -and hallways haven't even been started on yet.
Oh well, in 2 weeks I sign the credit loan paperwork and then we'll see where we stand.
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one year ago, our house was in roughly the same state:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QI7-yZDkKSuEO8_JOM736-DAQgC9bjpDnmudZABpcmZ5RFGcpdtL5fEb4byc3NA2cAdAnFLs8MVByWkbollkbj0rbGpCvgWRt_9LpZbWg7D95Zg1ONGqoozASiUJofzmc8yUH8sAg01ef6-ox7ylTuJaXxEuJmMaSOrH6eBTs0OAoDIcp3BDRHRw7iLrDEIF-2J03IKchOBqWZ4lIXRTqZkCDdcj_uA-aBepmNoJq03cAaUDESyqCjrPD3THxSo4A05IFOyqm8Yh_M7qdHJ6mO5vXtfUvgofbas5BsQqIYHorcV3FUPpX485m_eEJSUgFFWeo-UKV358lxPWIAf0Ojo-_PLqXyRG_lZud6WOuGtk52EjqZ_bzjAMEN04aLje0HLIihipO-mGN8d8kcDxmNe5iCcw6CuPU_KqzWMs7gFfxYxMgkSTnYiTYPX3znDOAzKLLO8tHzdfe4mLaxIAmLUZpWkUJ60ChsdCJdnFbLbqgXbhT4SscexiQPrzmmh3Ky6g-j0sSh_AcYbeozbJl9_LcXa5o5GbNQ0PP0OYMi3KYm55qC-kIoJ92PoCtI1b8zDWBfloBmuv79O9gAGDNi-9v3CtiD87ZdfP4NfbRv0=w1222-h916-no)
It 'completed' Dec 23rd, with only minor things needing to be finished up after that.
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The 23th? Oh joy.
Luckily the Christmas family gathering happens at a brother's home (tradition in the family is the newest 'owner' of a residence opens his/her home for Christmas dinner).
But I'll be surprised I'll even have a front door this 23th...
Btw, I looked up the type of wooden floor. It has the 'Lindura' label. Seems to be a German innovation.
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! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dezBHwZEbFI&list=PLvslTART7IrsMkIxKKcFp7rvU0eoGW_ns&index=1#)
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Ah. We looked at a similar product before going with our 3d printer version.
Partially because that kind of stuff doesn't do so great in the desert here without a humidifier in the room.
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Starting to look habitable (besides for the lack of door of course).
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Sooo...
With the credit -and buyer papers signed last Monday I'm officially owner of a condo-under-construction. At least there's the clausule that states the building owner can't collect the whole amount of money before certain tasks are completed.
Which brings me to the next.
One of the tasks that still needed done was installing the entrance door of the condo. So that happened sometime during the week. One night after my shift I passed by to check on progress (I now have keys to the building entrance). To my surprise the entrance opens at a single touch. Some construction team forgot to lock the door after leaving. To add insult to injury some of the appartments had their own entrance installed as well, but the keys were left to the door lock. Including mine...
Needless to say, I collected my keys, went home and sent a mail to the building owner.
This noon, after two days, he calls me about the issue. It took him two days to open his email account to check.
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They'll be more careful once their tools and materials disappear.
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The 'funny' thing is I checked on the storage shack the day after, and found what looks suspiciously like stolen or copycat merchandise in it.
Didn't even bother telling that to the owner.
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Well, at long last construction of my condo/appartment seems to come at an end. the better part of half a year overdue, but its about habitable.
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:danc:
What's that Dutch word you told me for where you belong and you're rooted?
A thread title change is in order, I think - you can do that yourself...
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What's that Dutch word you told me for where you belong and you're rooted?
I kinda drew a blank here. Perhaps the Dutch word for "hearth" (fireplace in a house)? A 'haard'?
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Looks nice. Are the windows huge or is that a small kitchen?
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Haard might be it - the word in question means something more than just Home, but your proper place, where you belong, if not own - it owns you back. You said we kept talking about the concept showing you our home and our native land where some of our roots here go back 500 years, rather un-American of us.
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Looks nice. Are the windows huge or is that a small kitchen?
The former. ;)
It's a terrace window, its over 3 x 2 meter (roughly 10 x 7 feet).
That might be it - it means something more than just Home, but your proper place, where you belong, if not own - it owns you back. You said we kept talking about the concept showing you our home and our native land where some of our roots here go back 500 years, rather un-American of us.
I entirely forgot too much. :(
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Looks good.
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BTW? I did mean "Haard" or whatever term you explicated long ago for the title, Geo - but what you edited in is clever, twice over.
Wait - I bet I know what threw you; ISTR the word was German, actually, at least a neighboring lowland dialect, the concept sounding one hell of a lot more Bavarian than Prussian...
You did say hearth in that context, though. You either said, or I just thought, that it's cool how close Hearth and Heart are in English...
Heart/Hearth! ;nod ;nod ;nod I grok; in sit in my heart/hearth as I type this...
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BTW, Geo, I just arrogantly fiddled with your account again - check Planet Tales, PLEASE.
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A PM would have had faster results, you know... :P
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You found it within one minute of me adding you to the group -already looking as fast as I surfaced from posting- and I HATE PMs that aren't necessary.
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If Owen Glyndwr at CFC has never been on your radar, Geo, he's expert in Germanic linguistics and history thereof and been known to do epic thorough nuking from orbit of topics that fall into that specialty - so I passed the Heart/Hearth word question to him this evening, and got a fast response.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/history-questions-not-worth-their-own-thread-viii.609406/page-16#post-15088104
Not...entirely sure what you're asking here?
heart comes from *ḱḗr (long e; lengthened owing to the loss of -d in the nominative form, still present in the genitive form: *ḱr̥dés). This word is reflected in, e.g. Latin cor (gen. cordis). Grimm's law notes k -> x in the shift from PIE to PGmc, so the PGmc form is *ḱḗr(d) -> *hertô (d -> t is another part of Grimm's Law)
hearth comes from the PIE root *ker- (not the same as a noun; note also a straight velar /k/ rather than the palato-velar /ḱ/) which means "to burn", giving us the aforementioned hearth (via OE heorþ), but also: Goth haúri ("coal"), ON hyrr ("fire"), and via the ablaut PIE *kr-em- -> Lat. cremo ('burn')
Another word that sounds similar: hart (the original word for a male deer; reflected in German Hirsch, Dutch hert) which comes originally from PIE *ḱóru ("horn"), which went, again k -> in Germanic (PGmc. is *herutaz), and this PIE term also gives us Lat. cornu ("horn")
Similar sounding, yes, but not at all related.
To the second part of the post (the possibly-German word that means home and is related to hearth) - the German word for hearth is der Herd, although the reference to a hearth is archaic now. Other descendants of PGmc herþaz ("hearth") are Luxembourgish Häerd, Frisian Herde, Heet, and hurd, Low German Heerd.
There's also the word home, coming from PIE *ḱóymos ("village, home") -> PGmc *haimaz ("home") reflected in a butt-ton of assorted words, notably Heim and Heimat in German, heem and heim and Dutch, Heem and Heim in Low German, ham and home in English, hamm, Heem, and hiem in various Frisian dialects. Also French hameau, whose Old French ancestor hamelet gave us hamlet.
...I think I was asking for Heimat. That rings a bell as what you said, Geo...
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That would describe Heimat, yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimat
There's some stuff about Nazis, alas, 'cause Heimat is easily made nationalistic and political.
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Have you moved in? If not, when?
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Heimat is Where the Heart is, ;nod
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Have you moved in? If not, when?
Not yet. Its only almost done.
The connection to the watergrid looks temporary, mainly to connect and test the heating.
Shower walls are not yet installed, and the terrace floor needs to be fixed.
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The deed is done. Slept at my new home last night for the first time. The place is of course a shambles with alot of my stuff still laying around unpacked, but I live there now.
Most annoying issue atm is there's no internet connection between the building and my providers datagrid. The constructor told me the paper work for connecting is in the works though.
I'm actually now using the connection at my old place (plugged in my wifi modem on the dataplug there) since I haven't changed address with my provider yet, and nobody's going to live here for at least a couple weeks yet. Doing so gives me access to all my providers wifi hotspots in the country, which is basically half the residences in my region.
So if you don't see me posting the next couple weeks, there's why. ;roze;
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In celebration of your new heimat, sir, a 50-Lal post:
:danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
Mom will be very happy for you to hear...
Edit: She grinned with delight, and Mylochka will, too.
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I've been neglective in this thread.
The new 'backyard' view.
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:danc:
Happy for you. Trees are good to see out the window - very human-positive space, looks like.
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Beautiful.
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nice!
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;stupid
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;stupid
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Those are flat roofs? Is this common in your neck of the woods?
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Yeah, definitely positive forest vibes, BUncle. I know what I look at during mealtimes.
UnO, no, flat roofs are not common here except for flatbuildings (think 20+ levels). Its actually not a totally flat roof, but has a 10° angle towards my terrace. The roof of my building has the usual 40something angle.
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Yeah, finally back on a regular online connection.
In the end I signed up with another internet provider. My old one simply didn't come around to connect my condo to the grid.
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This thread needs-
1.) Copious pics of the space furnished, decorated and lived-in.
2.) A few words about hosting family Christmas dinner, and how you felt about it and all.
[1.b) Especially of any dolls.]
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Oh my...
And all that just as the desktop computer breaks down (typing this on the tablet).
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I expected bookshelves. Isn't that the point of concrete construction, to support the weight of your books?
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What is with the little mini sink next to the sink sink?
Brings back memories of living in our apartment when we first got married. Though I think the only furniture we had was a curbside couch we picked up, and put a tiny TV where the computer is. God, I wonder if/where those pictures might be...
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I expected bookshelves. Isn't that the point of concrete construction, to support the weight of your books?
You have to keep in mind that concrete/stone construction is the norm in my region of Europe. Its very rare to find an inhabited wooden house. Insurance rates for wooden/reed construction (roofs mostly) literally go off the roof in Belgium. Its not cost-effective.
And those two closets used to hold all books and comics I own.
Most of the books have moved to the top closets in the kitchen area (see picture).
The mini sink's purpose is to rinse cutlerly and such when doing a manual dish wash in the main sink. I do have a dish washer though.
Lots of things are still kinda temporary. For instance the two rotan seats were cheap buys meant as terrace seats, kept indoors in the off-seasons. At some stage I'll likely buy a couch which can transform in a bed. I kept my old singles mattress so that can be used for extra comfort by then.
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Is that a built in fridge next to the stove? I like the back splash as well.
I figured that was the idea behind the mini sink, but it looks so shallow that you'd end up splashing a big mess trying to use it.
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It looks nice.
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Is that a built in fridge next to the stove? I like the back splash as well.
I figured that was the idea behind the mini sink, but it looks so shallow that you'd end up splashing a big mess trying to use it.
Yep, that's an inbuild fridge. American-style huge fridges are not really a thing in my region.
And the backsplash is made of hexagon-shaped tiles.
I completely forgot to take a pic of the backyard -and storage sheds.
And to complete the picture, one of the street view as well. Yesterday I spotted a deer grazing in the pasture.
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That kitchen looks even better on the close-up.
We would struggle with the smaller fridge, or maybe we would need two of them. My new diet is mostly refrigerator food, and my wife thinks most of it is horrible. She eats frozen dinners, and leftovers from restaurants, and drinks lots of canned cokes. I still cook for her, but the few vegetables she does eat are the sweet ones that I' not supposed to eat, such as corn, beets, peas and glazed carrots.
On the bright side, I could see that I could grow my food outdoors over a longer season if I lived there and pick it daily.
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I think the small sink if for small veg prep (amongst other things)...
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We'd looked at a built in fridge when we remodeled and they were just SO DAMN EXPENSIVE. Part of me still wishes we'd have done it, and a few other real minor things.
That backsplash is almost exactly what we have in our master bath floors (though ours are really huge tiles).
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I so want to do a big industrial fridge some day, but they look industrial and that would just kill it for the Mrs's....
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I so want to do a big industrial fridge some day, but they look industrial and that would just kill it for the Mrs's....
So you need to glue some oak panels on it...
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