Decor Planning Meeting

As planned, today we have been in Kaarst for the first of two days of planning. Today – the interior and exterior decoration…

Since Viebrockhaus kindly put us up in a hotel last night, we were able to have a relatively late start this morning after a nice breakfast, with only 5 minutes drive to Viebrockhaus for a 10am meeting.

When we arrived at 9.45, Mr G was already waiting for us, with our plans already open on the table in front of him. After bringing us a coffee, we were made a start!

We had been told in advance, that the meeting would last around five hours, but as we were very well prepared (and had already made decisions about many of the things), had expected it would not last that long.

The first thing we did was to go over the minor corrections to the plan that we had identified last week (the main one being the 15cm repositioning of the utility room internal door). These are now all marked on the plan with a red pen. Hopefully, the next printed version of the plan will be completely correct.

Next, we started our tour through the exhibition, deciding and documenting on all the fine details. After this, any further changes might not be free (as Viebrockhaus will start ordering the materials), so on some topics, we took some time to consider and try to make the decision that will be happy with for years to come.

For the topics where we had already made a decision back in August, it was just a case of Mr G writing them down.

In the end, the meeting lasted 4.5 hours. We have to wonder how long other people that haven't put in as much preparation as us would need (keep in mind we had already been through the exhibition in August – some people are probably there for the first time at this meeting).

The following things are now cast in stone…

• The direction that each door and window will open
• The colour of the…
  • bricks – as written some weeks ago Roeben Accum Blue-Brown
  • cement (standard grey 1.5)
  • roof tiles (black, to match the solar panels)
  • stairs (anthracite)
  • air vents (dark brown)
• The flooring
  • Villeroy & Boch ‘Lodge' in Greige for almost all of the ground floor
  • Villeroy & Boch ‘Upper Side' in Anthracite for the utility room
  • Villeroy & Boch ‘Bernina' Greige Matt for the bathroom
• The bathroom (and the downstairs loo)
  • Toilets (Villeroy & Boch ‘Avento' Direct Flush)
  • Sink (Villeroy & Boch ‘Avento' – 60cm wide upstairs / 45cm downstairs)
  • Bath (Villeroy & Boch ‘O.novo' Rectangular)
  • Shower tray (Villeroy & Boch Architectura Metal Rim 120cm x 90cm)
• The doors, inside and out
• And then a lot of very small but important things
  • The shape of the skirting boards
  • The colour of the roller shutters
  • The design of the light switches and sockets
  • Which door handles
  • Which taps and shower head
  • The height of the toilets / sinks
  • etc.

Thanks to Mr G's expertise, methodical approach and patience, it was a very enjoyable day, and we are very happy that Viebrockhaus can now proceed to order the materials to build our house. It's only about four weeks until they are planning to start.

Tomorrow – electrical planning….