Besides work, quite a few things are keeping me busy at the moment: 1) building a wooden weekend house in a forest region up the Upper Middle Rhine Valley and 2) moving my houseboat away from Lathum (Netherlands) south through the canals. In both, I am learning quite a bit each day, and for those who may plan to do something similar, I thought I share some experience. It may sometimes be quite brief because the first lesson learned is: I am very, very busy.
Let’s start with the house. It’s an assembly kit made in Lithuania and provided by the company Pineca. The model is called “Adaline” and has 50 m² with a tilted roof. It’s an insulated version to make sure it can be used in winter. It also comes with an optional 24 m² Terrasse, which I had to shorten a little, as the land title only allows 70 m² max built surface.
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that the administrative process until construction could start was quite lengthy. First came a one-year legal battle with the seller of the land. I was not aware that the sales were in the context of an inheritance settlement between two daughters, one of which was a (very nasty) lawyer. What I learned here is that just by claiming nonsense and writing idiotic letters, people can slow you down forever. It does not matter to be right when somebody knows to play the game of throwing roadblocks into the process. Luckily, I was able to settle after a year. Then came the building permit. The first application was rejected because my architect filed for a “holiday house” (Ferienhaus) instead of a “weekend house” (Wochenendhaus). It’s the same house, but a “holiday house” is a “touristic installation” which can not be granted in that region. So, now you think: fust change the word. No, not in Germany. Here it would be best if you reapplied from the start. Another half year passed, including a necessary re-drawing of plans because the fond used was too small for the micro-fiche archiving. Yes, Germany in the year 2023 - micro-fiche. The lesson learned here was to take an architect who knows people at the local building administration (Bauamt) instead of the building. You may also ask why you need an architect to apply for building an assembly kit house, anyways. Well, you need.
Luckily the company Pineca was super tolerant, coping with these delays. At some point, they wanted to deliver quickly, after the suggested date when the building permit was expected. So, they started production and things needed to stay in the warehouse for over half a year. But finally, clearance came at the beginning of March, after over 2 years of paper pushing on my side.
The land is slightly tilted and my plan to build close to a small road, where sewage, fresh water and electricity is available had to be revised, due to some building regulations. So now, it’s getting a little more complicated with getting utilities connected. Also, the delivery was outsourced to a logistics company and they did not make any enquires on the conditions, turning up with a 40 ton truck and a stapler. The German driver was completely un-inspired and a rather rude fellow, refusing to even give it a try to deliver the last few 100 meters and unload. On top of that one hail storm after the next came down. So, I called a friend who luckily knew a friend about 1 hour drive away with a large timber company and space to unload and store material for a short time. If he would not have agreed to help me, I would have really been in a fix.
Now the material is at MS-Holz in Wiesbaden and the owner helped me to find a local logistics company called Pauly with a truck, having a crane mounted and a trailer. That should do. It’s about 9 m load and the heaviest pack is 1,8 tons. 4 large packages are each 6 m long.
Another chapter is the foundation. Here I had several offers, of which I decided for a local young entrepreneur contractor. It was by far not the cheapest offer, but fairly priced and competent.
The process is as follows: 1) the surveyor marks the building site roughly for the excavation, 2) the excavation is done and gravel to protect from frost is filled in. Then, 3) the surveyor marks the site precisely and the concrete is pored in and finished. The foundation itself is laid out by a static planning, including how much steel has to be in the concrete.
So, now things can really get started and I will continue sharing experiences. Of course, should you bump into this site online through a search engine, and have specific questions, please feel free getting in tough through the contact form.