Today we headed off early to the temple. We dropped the kids off at David’s sisters on
the way. The streets by the temple we
very windy and VERY narrow! There was no
parking at the temple so David dropped us off and we went inside to figure out
where to rent clothing. They told us we need
to pay at the distribution center that was just across the front walk way. After returning we checked out our clothing
and got dressed. The session was full to
capacity, all 40 seats! We were given headsets
to listen in English. It was delightful
to listen to the German backing the English words. I actually learned a lot because there is so
much repetition. The workers don’t all
speak English but I just waited for the appropriate pause and did just
fine. We spent some time in the
celestial room with David and Eva which was nice. We are so often in a hurry! Not having a deadline or somewhere to be was
a welcomed change.
We went back to David’s sisters to pick up the kids and they
gave us a tour of their home. They are building
a new home so it was fun to see German construction that is modern. About half way through I finally started to
get a few things. There is NO
WOOD!!!!! Wait???? What?
NO WALL BOARD? So here is how
they do it.
A foundation is poured from concrete, and then stones are
set for all of the walls and structure on the first floor. Then a cement slab is poured for the second
floor etc. This makes all of their walls
very thick….about 8-9 inches thick. She
didn’t want the typical German stairs that wrap (spiral staircase) so they
designed their home to have a straight stair case like we have in America. It was funny to hear her tell me how
difficult it was to design and have built this way. She also loved seeing the laundry room on the
main floor in America, so she had done this as well. I should mention here that her washer and
dryer would be considered the “big ones” here and they are VERY SMALL!!!!
To finish the walls inside they coat them with a very thin
coat of plaster, and sometimes use a version of what we would call wall paper,
but is really like a plaster product. I’m
amazed after knowing that none of what I have seen is wall board, just how
smooth they can get something.
Their bathrooms (except for 1) were still under construction
so we got the see the inside of the German toilet. The parts are all inside the wall, nothing is
free standing like in America. The bathrooms
are all so small that if you put a toilet in like ours you wouldn’t be able to
put in anything else. Just the seat
comes out of the wall, and then inset in the wall is a button to push to
flush. Because they are so “resource
conscious” they are very careful with their water usage and have two buttons,
one for “big” stuff and one for the little.
It is not common here to have children share a room, but
they use their space wisely and fit three lovely kids’ rooms into the upstairs
in addition to their master. I think we
figured out that each level of this home was less than 650 Sq. feet, but it was
so nicely organized that you didn’t feel like it was really that small. I guess when you put smaller furniture,
appliances etc. it makes a difference.
The land is very expensive here and in short supply so the “lots”
are very tiny. The yards (if they have
one at all) are only as wide as the home.
There are very few single homes.
Eva drove us around town to look at a few of them. Most are row houses or town houses with a few
twin homes here and there. David’s
sisters were building together and their twin homes shared the boiler and other
“guts” to save money. They don’t have
any forced air heated. In the basements
newer homes have radiant heat in the floors and the upstairs have radiators on
the walls. The windows all open wide
which I have never seen before. I really
like them. Not just slide open, OPEN
OPEN! The outsides have metal shades
which are shut from the inside. They not
only protect from theft, block out light and make their homes complete dark,
but also can be closed with any bad weather and protect their homes.
Because of the size of the walls (8-9 inches thick) the
doors are all different. They have a cut
out flange on them that has a rubber gasket around it that completely seals
every door in the home when closed. I’ve
only seen this in America on our outside doors.
This in addition with everything else, makes their homes extremely energy
efficient. It is pretty much un-heard of
to have air conditioning. But because the
windows open so large, the air can flow freely in the morning and evening to
cool off the home. The flooring is tile
or laminate. Eva’s home has cork floors
which are very nice to walk on. They are
softer under your feet than our hard wood and they are warm. Wood is not commonly used. Carpet is a big luxury here, and in this new
home it was only put in the children’s bedrooms. It’s not like American carpet; I don’t think
there was a pad? And it was more like a
very tight industrial carpet. They use
lots of throw rugs and bamboo mats. With all of these hard wood floors through,
they don’t really use brooms. They
vacuum them.
Monochromatic décor is popular here. And they use a lot of white. White walls, cabinets, even floors with just
a little splash of color. I quite like
it. It’s a very clean look, but with
small children would be difficult to keep clean. They don’t use typical base boards and door
casings because of the way they construct the home.
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