Diary of a house build near Munich

[Johnny English 3,071]

Following on from a previous thread question here: Building your own house in/near Munich

 

I am building a house over here, and work started yesterday. Thought I would just post any thoughts/problems/issues etc for others that might be considering this route.

 

PLOTS:

We were lucky that our in-laws purchased this plot back when dinosaurs still roamed freely. But seems that plot costs are much cheaper here in the "home counties" around Munich than back home in the UK. I would say maybe 30-40% of the equivalent plot back home, plus much easier to find. This makes building a more attractive proposition. In some villages you can buy cheaper if you have relatives already living there.

 

HOUSE DESIGNS:

You must go to http://www.bauzentrum-poing.de/ if even considering a self-build. It is a great place to see 60+ house designs all in one place. Even if you are building 100% your own designs you will get lots of information and ideas.

 

ARCHITECT:

We spoke to 3-4 architects, and finally selected a guy on recommendation. He also does lots of big commercial stuff, and has good builder contacts. They have too many architects in this country, so they are keen generally for work. We are using him to "project manage" as well as design. The idea is that we will still save money this way because he will get us better quotes, and ensure the builder does not cut corners or rip us off etc.

 

THE DESIGN:

As this is one of the last houses to be built in the road, we are restricted slightly on planning. There are rules that dictate we can build only a ground and 1st floor building to a certain height, angle of the roof, tile colours etc. So no funky inverted curved roof design on this one! But will still be modern looking hopefully. It got a bit tedious at some stages when they want to know EXACTLY where every plug and light switch is going etc.

 

BUILDERS:

The architect is doing each stage on a contract-by-contract basis. First part is the "Rohbau" which visually is the main part of the game up to roof level, although only actually accounts for about 1/3rd of the budget. And of course being in Germany we will have a big cellar floor which is more unusual back home. Based on the architect spec we got 3 quotes via the architect and 2 independently. The architect quotes were the best, so we have more confidence in him.

 

TIMINGS:

We only agreed the "Rohbau" builder about 2 weeks ago. I think my wife mentioned they would start this week, which I figured meant sometime in October. Drove past the plot this morning and they started yesterday!!! Not paid builders or architect a penny to date which is nice. We started on this in around February but has been a pretty relaxed pace, it could be done in 6-8 weeks for sure.

 

LOCAL PLANNING:

A pleasure to deal with but helps that we have family in the village probably. They have caused no issues, been helpful, approved all plans quickly etc. We needed to get neighbours to sign the plans, but that was also easy 'cos they would prefer a house on the plot (rather than the ponies they had before).

 

If anyone has any questions that I can help with then please PM. Otherwise I will post occasionally with any updates or dramas etc.

 

Photos from this morning, showing yesterdays start:

 

 

[egg 36]

just being nosy, but it would be interesting to know the costs of this project - your exectations now - and how it ends up :-)

[kitkat64 461]

Hey JE - where(what town) are you building in? We had planned to build something (once we found a nice chunk of land) but then we found the absolute perfect house (only 4 years old and not at all 'German' - open floor plan, all stainless steel kitchen with top of the line appliances (Poggenpohl and Gaggenau) plus 3.5 bathrooms - everything my boyfriend wanted - nothing that I cared too much about - I'd never heard of Poggenpohl or Gaggenau before). But, beforehand, we also went to the Bauzentrum in Poing and decided that we wanted a BauFritz 'fertig' house. They have a great reputation and good quality building materials. Plus, before we even committed to them, they sent a guy to us who looked at every piece of property that we considered and told us the pros and cons of each.

 

Since we've moved into our new place, the neighbors are starting to build their new house (on their current piece of property) and needed our signatures on their plan etc. The local authorities are very, very picky about stuff (roof angle, color of the roof, etc).

 

We are so happy that we didn't build (or we would probably be divorced by now!!).

 

But, good luck and keep us posted (with piccies).

[Johnny English 3,071]

I am not "expecting" any major marital dramas to be honest. We have decided that this is my wife's project. I always handled property stuff in the UK, but she has more time (and to be honest more interest) in this one, plus of course much better German skills. So she gets final say on any issues. Has been no dramas getting to this stage.

 

Budget? Looks around the €360,000 mark currently I think, but no doubt this will drift up 10% magically. I am quite relaxed about it 'cos the land cost us nothing, and it's still loads cheaper than living in the UK. We are building traditional bricks, and the 65sq metre garage (with cellar also under) bumps up the costs. You could do a "finished house" I think for €250,000 at the same basic size, with a smaller garage and cellar.

 

HEATING:

Nearly forgot! This was quite a subject. We wanted gas, but whilst this is in the village now they refused to run to the house as was gonna cost €38,000 for the pipe down the street. So we were close to going with the new Warmepumpe system that sucks heat out the ground and uses an exchanger. Not that much cheaper as the electricity bills to run the pump are there, not so controllable, and it costs a lot more to install. Did not want oil 'cos it stinks, and needs major storage space. Considered wood chips briefly. But then gas board suddenly agreed to lay the pipe last month! Plus we are getting some system that automatically exchanges all the air in the house every 4 hours for fresh (and also connected so we can cool the air in summer).

[Jimbo 1,269]

Sounds fantastic JE - I shall confidently look forward to an invite to your house warming so I can be sick in your €100,000 cellar

 

Good luck with it all.

[Johnny English 3,071]

Thanks Jimbo. The idea is indeed that it will be very welcome for guests, 'cos living out here in the sticks I rely on them!!!

 

As you can all guess my priorities on the project so far have been:

 

Garage big enough for 3 cars and 2 motorbikes - check

 

Huge boys room in the cellar for gym kit, pool table, plasma TV - check

 

House wired throughout for networked stereos and X-boxes - check

 

Study for me to surf porn and pretend to be working from home - check

 

Needless to say I am relying on our very own "Grinner" to advise and make sure I can watch telly, adjust the stereo, and nuke some aliens whilst having a dump.

 

I think the wife mentioned there might be a kitchen and bathrooms included but details are pretty sketchy from memory and I would need to check on the plans again.

[kitkat64 461]

We also have this Siemens Warme Pump thingie. I still don't know how it works - should I be concerned about that? It's supposed to be cheaper in the long run...

 

Too funny about your wife having final say. The couple that built our house - she controlled everything but he had the final say on the kitchen (he is the chef) - and the house just fit us because, like her, I wanted nothing to do with the kitchen!

[Elfenstar 1,676]

will you have much of a garden/yard?

you can't build a house with that kind of money in the u.k.? gee, how expensive is that island!

[Guest]

I think you should lblog it. Interesting. Put the pics on Flickr then reference them via the blog. Would follow it often

[Johnny English 3,071]

Plot is 1200 sq meters so will get enough "yard" I think. Footprint of the house and garage cannot be more than 180 sq metres I guess. I think build costs are indeed cheaper here, as well as the land. I am also rather hoping that the quality will be better!!! Most UK builders trade under the name "Bodgett & Leggett"

 

Jeremy - this is my blog!

[Scogs 20]

I see a TT house warming coming up in the cellar, which will add another 10% to the project costs at least,

 

good luck, keep us informed as to what goes on

[sarabyrd 18,767]

Best of luck, JE. Make sure your contractor doesn't go bust, and don't be too generous with down-payments. Have independent witnesses present at any Zwischenabnahme etc. taking down what everyone says, and ask all parties to sign the minutes.

[Jimbo 1,269]

*WOO WOO WOO DINNG BZZZZZZ*

 

Sorry, that was my lawyer alert going off there...

[sarabyrd 18,767]

Good guess, jimbo. But wrong.

[ajohnson 16]

@JE - Can we get a status update on the construction? Any new probems, situations or pics?

[Johnny English 3,071]

Well, it slowed down for about 10 days after they kinda did that drastic grass mowing! They needed some bit of non-issued paperwork from the Landrasamt. Kinda worried it might be like English builders - start the job and then shove off to another site.

 

However the digger started yesterday morning and we now have an enormous completed hole. Weather is good so I expect serious changes in the next week.

 

We are having the predicable mini-panics about the size of the house. When you see it pegged out in the ground it can seem too big from a distance, then when you stand inside the lines it all seems too small. I have been warned by the architect it gets deceiving. Currently with the big hole it looks like we are building a factory for zeppelins. Wife is flapping now about whether the dining area is big enough...she keeps measuring tables, and plotting out areas in our current house.

 

We also had a quick flap as to whether the house sits too far back or forwards on the plot. Although there is a building line, this is being dictated by the large garage that goes to the rear of the house. So it kinda sits in the middle of the plot. Direction of the plot is basically 100% wrong - front of the house faces South, but we should get sun over the roof and to the side hopefully. Garden privacy seems not such an issue as in the UK, so we can also use the front - it is a very quiet street.

 

Our current dull question - for which someone might have a valid opinion is:

 

Do we get one of these over-the-top-blow-the-doors-off €2,000 (what!!!) built-in coffee machines, or just one that sits on the kitchen surface for maybe €500?

 

€2,000 for a bleedin' coffee machine seems a bit toppish to me, and by not having it built-in we have space for a bigger American stylie fridge freezer. I like the idea of instant coffee, but do these new things make a proper "mug" of coffee or only those poxy little over-strong squirts - so you have to hit the button twice?

[kitkat64 461]

Hey, JE, we bought our house with the kitchen put in by the previous owners (one of the big selling points on the house). We have a big-ass American fridge with the ice/crushed ice/water dispenser in the door and one of those 500€ coffee machines on the counter. Personally, I would not build one in but then, I'm not a coffee drinker(nor cappucino, espresso or any of that crap). So, it's always a waste of money to me.

 

Go for the fridge - you have more use for it.

[Darkknight 2,305]

500 EUR is still way to much for a coffee machine.. 100-200 MAX

[Yeti 276]

Sir English of Augsburg,

 

If you get a top of the line espresso maker I will call into your gaff every morning on my way to work for a refreshing cuppa.

 

Moral of the story, get the cheaper one.

[Guest]

@JE:Where the hell is your house? Mine is located in Holzkirchen, although already built. It has an extension built 1985. I shall be beginning on the garden Arbeit when we get in. Hope we can compare notes there.