As an architect working in Germany: - the "Lieferung" with the tiles in the Essküche wasn't the transport costs, but the order/material itself. That was the price of the extra amount of tiles for that area, which at 70-80Eur/m2 seems possible but a bit pricey. Just like the extra cost of laying the larger tiles: possible, but a bit pricey. Sonderwünsche... that's where they make their money... - the electrician's bill seems pretty reasonable, considering they had to slice concrete, and they really don't like to do that; - the price difference of the bathroom fixtures is just totally bonkers! Were the black ones an expensive brand? I mean, sure, they had the standard stuff on stock, and got it in bulk really cheaply in the first place, but still, it's like they calculated with premium products, and wanted to scare you away with a ridiculous bill... Other than that: I really appreciate your transparency regarding the process and the costs. It gives us much needed insight. And don't despair, the house already is in a good shape, the end of the journey is in sight :)
One more idea would be, for standardised items, to source them in your own and just have the workers instal them. This way you have total control over the costs of material and don’t feel ripped off (especially on bathroom fixtures)
@@TypeAshton And to be fair with that: From that cost for tiles you have to subtract the cost for the original floor you have already in your contract (so it was a wood-floor?). Of course if the two subcontractors for these floors are two different companys in this tile bill it is a full to charge extra cost while the wood-company will have a floor less to do. If this cost estimate is already from your contractor you should look for another "Titel" where the wood floor is subtracted or at least ask where this is done, because in this priclist, we see, it isn't.
@@urlauburlaub2222 i think that is only half of the story. If you take for example villeroy & boch for the bathroom (as a high price quality brand) from house building company you pay way more then if you buy it regular as private customer in a DIY Store. The profit margin for this stuff is extreme and in a lot of cases non-transparent for the customer especially if you have a contract with a house building company that manages the whole projects with its own subcontractors...
One tip from the hobby electrician: Take photos of all walls, ceilings and floors as long as you can see where the electric cables and water pipes are running. Put a measuring stick next to the lines so you have exact dimensions! When the walls are finished it will be hard to find hidden cables even with those photos. One day you want to make a hole or add a cable and then you need to know. It appears that the cable for the island in the kitchen is not perpendicular to the wall. That is against the convention! So if you tried to located a power cable starting from where it appears of the surface you might be mistaken and hit it accidentially. Also take photos of the areas where the walls meet the windows and doors. (sides, top, bottom everything!) Inside and outside. Those are known problem spots where meticulous work is necessary. Also from the insulation! Those are areas where workers like to be sloppy.
Yes, that’s true. Same thing jumped into my mind. We have tons of photos from the building phase of our house, und it saved us often times! You will not remember these positions in 5 years ore so!
@@hkao6350 We had extra piping put in for the central vacuum as an add-on to be paid separately. The contractor wanted to bill us for parts which were actually not there. With my photos I could prove in court that he lied. He could prove nothing.
@@adrianguggisberg3656 Espacially in concrete walls with rebar i wish u good luck with a detector. And even if, having an detector AND photos makes it even better.
When the subcontracter did their first bid, they needed to offer prices that were attractive. Now it is just them and you and they expect you to have no choice. Ask another local company what a change would cost, once the house is ready. Take that price to your current subtractor and ask him if he wants to beat this price or leave the job to another company. That may help in some cases and in an y case it will give you insight into the calculation process.
True. The subcontractors offer their basic package to the main contractor for a price where they do not earn anything, just cover the costs, to get the contract awarded. And they KNOW that the buyers want to change some items. Thus the calculation is simple: standard faucet in chrome = 60 EUR, same faucet in black = 200 EUR. Pay for it or leave it.
Uh, you guys are brave. Most of my friends who decided to build their own nest have gone through quite a stressful experience (though succeeded at last). I cowardly just bought a pre-owned one above the Rhine :)
18:52 03.02 and 03.03 is not the price of delivery (shipment), but the price of the tiles! 03.01 Preparation of floor (mostly work) 03.02 + 03.03 Material (tiles) 03.04 Basic cost of work to set the tiles 03.05 Extra cost of work because of the large format 03.06 Extra cost of special material for the joints 03.07 Cost of work for the skirting 03.08 don't know ;) 03.09 silicone joints from the skirting to the wall
You hit the nail on the head, with changing fixtures yourself. We where lucky in Germany having our apartment built by a landlord, however, that was in 1990.
That's the normal way how the house building companies make money. They sell the house cheap and hope for changes so that the make can money because you are trapped in the contract. The only way to avoid this is to choose all the details you want before you sign the contract! It's a common trap for unexpirienced german buyers, too.
I started renovating an old timber-framed house in southern Germany three years ago, and I had a lot of "fun" with trying to get quotes from plumbers, tilers and so on. Some never sent a quote and some were so ridiculously expensive that it was obvious that they didn't really want to do this job. The whole experience was rather stressful...
First, you are wonderful people, courageous, intelligent, friendly and down-to.earth. Thank you for inviting us into your life. Now my 2 cents to the house. I think its most important to make changes now that affect the structure of the building. For instance, I would put LAN cables and sockets into all rooms as long as you can, because doing that later is a pain in the ass. I also thought about air flow and humidity. Concrete is impermeable to air and water, so you have to make sure you have a proper ventilation to avoid mould. Everything else, like doors, tapware etc. can be exchanged later if you like. P.S: concrete has iron reinforcements which make it almost impermeable for WLAN+phone signals, too.
Hi guys, fun videos to watch, btw. Keep it up! I am not in the construction business, but have some own experience. So here my 2 cents on your price hike: Looks like your house is one of a larger building project of identical houses. At least from 1:00 it looks that way. In this case the construction company puts out a call for tenders to contractors. Let's assume 10 houses with 100 sqm of tiling each (all my numbers are just for illustration purposes and bear no semblance to reality). The call specifies the type of tiles (type 1) to be used as "standard" for the project. List price of "type 1" tiles shall be 100 EUR/sqm. The tiling company then RFQs its supplier for 10 x 100 sqm = 1000 sqm tiles of "type 1". The supplier quotes 50 EUR/sqm for 1000 sqm of identical "type 1" tiles, a 50% discount on the list price due to the large volume. The tiling company adds its labor and overhead and then tenders for the contract. This means that this cost goes into the calculation for the bottom line price of the house in the sales prospectus. Now...one of the families, let's call them the "Forests" (see what I did there), asks the tiling company for a different tile, "type 2". The friendly salesman (I assume for now it's a "he") looks up the list price difference, and, lo and behold, "type 2" is 110 EUR/sqm, "just 10 EUR more than your old tiles"...the Forests are happy. Now, when doing the real quote he get's the original contract out of the dusty closet and finds that "type 1" has an actual price of 50 EUR/sqm, for which the project was calculated. Suddenly your "type 2" becomes +60 EUR/sqm more expensive. But that's not the end of it: The supplier of "type 1" now asks 60 EUR/sqm because the volume has gone down to 900 sqm total, not the originally promised 1000. The tiling company can't change the contracts with the other 9 families, because the Forests have jumped off the collective ship. So the +10 EUR/sqm price hike for the other 9 families also ends up on your bill, not theirs, because the tiling company cannot absorb that increase without making a loss and can't ask the others to now pay more. I think that's about what has happened, more or less. Same is true with the bathroom fixtures and I would not hold my breath for the doors, to be honest. So when wanting to change things in a fixed-price house, make a guesstimate first on what may have a massive discount due to collective buying power before you get too excited about it. The electrician is a different story. You did not ask for different switches or sockets. So here it just "more of the same".
@@TypeAshton De nada...I think it's important to understand that, while you have your own contract, you're still in a collective with all the other families in your new neighborhood. Greetings from Aix-la-Chapelle up in the "Midwest". :-)
From my experience the answer for your fixtures "update" can be quite simple. The contractor buys like 100 fixtures with min. 60% discount from his producer. They send you a bill for replacement fixtures with no discount (probably) +10% for them, hence the difference. Plus black fixtures can be very expensive in comparison to chrome so 3,9k is possible.
When I was choosing my door handles for my flat, the guy in the shop said a customer had come back in needing 1 extra door handle, so they were all: certainly, which one did you want. And they guy who had been using these door handles every day in his flat for six months, couldn't remember which ones they were. You soon become blind to the fixtures. So I looked at the normal priced handles, around 20, picked my faourite and called it a day (but actually whenever I look at them I do really love my door handles).
Well I must admit watching jack in the beginning of this video made my morning 😊 all and all it’s very gutsy of you two going about modeling transforming your new home! Nothing wrong with liking doors lol I love windows
Good quality ceramic wood effect floor tiles are very durable and worth a moderate increase, not €4.8k. It's great you got the electrical upgrades installed, they make a difference to living in a house. As for doors and door knobs, I hope you have negotiated hard, good doors make a difference. Make the house good, and start saving for your next house.
Unfortunately we had to decline upgrading the doors. We tried negotiating but the "upcharge" for the different doors and handles was 1,000 EUR PER DOOR. (And again, we only have to pay the difference in price...). So with 8 doors, it was going to be a huge expense plus they were asking us to sign a document saying that IF these doors caused a delay in construction, we had to pay the entire construction team to stay on site past the deadline. Ugh.
Fun fact: The KfW is a product of the Marshall Plan. Unlike for example France, which chose to directly spend their money, Germany chose to fund a bank - the KfW - with it. So Thanks. :D
Regarding the "they wouldn't give us a ballpark figure": German law says that the final bill may only be a certain amount (I think 30%) over the estimate (Kostenvoranschlag), and by giving you that estimate, they risk you later holding them accountable and disputing the bill if it turns out more expensive. Also, since you were building a Reihenhaus or Doppelhaus, if you deviate from the given design, you forfeit any scaling discounts the building company might have negotiated.
You probably did yourself a favour with the chrome fixtures, because the black ones might need a lot more effort to remove limescale to always look nice.
Don't worry about replacing fittings later. The used ones will find a home via a Flohmarkt. People are always looking for stuff cheap. I'd recommend against the black though. They don't keep so well. ( That chic refined look is impossible to maintain) There are other special finishes that keep well though... raw brass, enamel, that kind of thing
Jonathan with sparkling eyes inside the new house was so cute to watch. 😊 Now he only have to plant a tree and he will already be done with all the old traditions for guys. (build a house, get a son, plant a tree) Did you had a "Richtfest"? (another German party reason) 😉 "Häusle bauen, lässt dich ergrauen" 😂✌
@@christianhoock3926 Talking about German sayings about building a house: You have to built three houses. The first one for a foe, the second one for a friend and third one for yourself. ;-)
Wish you all the best for the new house. You gave me a remembering of building our house twelve years ago. We experienced exactly the same struggles with our „special“ wishes. Most of them are now made by ourselves. Which is in the end the more satisfying experience, because you can grow with your house over the years. One recommendation to the door-lover …. If it is possible yet, try to figure out if you can change to a higher measure of the doors (instead of standard measures).
Door frames come in standard Din sizes in Germany. Lift of and replace with the new door. Price up your doors and handles Hornbach can deliver and have an install service that you really do not need. Sell the new doors removed on Ebay.
I totally get what you say: How much joy do we get from that kind of money. The economist calls this alternative costs. Every one has all those fancy ideas. But having lived for some time with the standard you won't need the fancy items anymore. And colored appliances are more prone to damage. At the edges there will be chipping. Which does not happen with chrome items. Don't ask how I know. The home improvement DIY is what I would go for. Just wait until the appliances need repairs or replacement. You can do it then anyways. If you still feel the urge, that is. There are certain things which come with a large effort to change later which are more important. Like the outlet for the garage opener (I have one from day 1 and really like it not to get out in the rain to open that damn door.), the door from the garage to the house, additional outlets in the garage and outside (for working on your fancy car), enough outlets in the kitchen, towel warmers in the bathroom_s_ etc. The interior doors I would have sourced myself. There's no great effort attached to change them. They are all standard and you have a wide range of choices. Even the door handles I would always purchase myself.
You are very politely giving these contractors the benefit of the doubt but it is really their fault for being intransparent. Unfortunately this is standard practice nowadays because the demand for both materials and workers is peaking currently. They simply know that they can get away with it.
Out of own experience, it really pays to check what they would charge for certain changes. The building company we had charged rather low prices for most changes. Most times even lower than if I would have wanted to make the change or addition later, I could not even have got the material on my own for most prices. Some details (we then did not opt for) they just asked a ridiculous price for. We were lucky that all the subcontractors back then had been able to provide us with at least a rough estimate during the meeting (which was reasonably close to the final estimate we got). Also some changes we made, for example we have a basement and had them put better insulated windows in and additional insulation on the outside of the basement for a few hundred Euros. not bad for something which changing later would mean digging up around the whole house. For friends who had their house built, they got offered prices that had just been ridiculous overall.
(from Wiesbaden, Germany) Reminds me of doing this kind of video to document the proceedings on my 1st home 20 years ago (including the toddler part). Big laugh at min 22:00, I could have predicted that. I wish you good luck. As for the electrical plugs: You need more. Always. Jonathan is absolutely right.
An interesting topic to cover might be how homes are built in the US versus Europe - not in terms of construction techniques, but where the money comes from. I live in California and I’d say the majority of single family homes are built by major developers in planned communities, of 5 or so different models with limited customizing by the buyer. The developer can include parks, pools, community centers, etc. and a homeowners association manages it all. I’ve seen similar developments in Spain but not other parts of Europe, where it seems most houses are built as one-offs. But my impression may be wrong. It would be a good topic, however.
If you change things in the bathroom, prices can literally explode. You may think you just change a colour, but pricing on those things depends on the manufacturer and product and label. In the original contract often are good and solid standard pieces. Those pieces are normally on the cheap priced side and the are ordered by the subcontracor in masses with high discounts. So if you changed the colour you may have changed the manufacturer also (without noticing) and this black stuff for example is a design-line from a luxury brand with enormous prices per piece. A normal, good chrome standard faucet will perhaps cost 30 to 40€ but this one perhaps costs 150€ or even more. So this sums up fast. And if you take those cabinet and sink combinations from mostly 800 to 1200€ a piece that is an enormous difference to a standard sink from perhaps about 50€ to 75€.
I think this is once again a very good example of why German is perceived to be such a complicated language (as it obviously is): The problem in understanding these kinds of bills - not only but probably especially for non-native speakers - lies in the ambiguity of meaning of the word (Lieferung). It's just so commonly used to refer to delivery or shipping costs. But then in this case it's suddenly not shipping but the shipment meaning its contents itself (as pointed out by others). You just can't possibly know about this use of certain words in that context if you've never been in that particular situation before... But I think this might confuse some native Germans building their house just in the same way. Even more so since buying or building a house forces you to pay so many bills for things or services or taxes and fees you never even knew existed that eventually you will get confused by anything.
Yes, he is our special little guy. ❤️ We try to find a balance between showing our family (because after all we are a 'family' business) but not over exposing him.
While on the one hand I fully understand your wish (Jack is genuinely adorable), on the other hand my principles about privacy dictate: "No." It's a very fine balance that has to be found here. To explain: The probably worst thing parents could do once you are a teenager is showing photos of yourself as a baby/ youngster to your friends (in particular without your consent). That, for me, clearly would have been the moment when I'd have asked for a shovel in order to dig a tunnel down to Australia. So, since the Internet doesn't "forget", Jack's own rights of privacy are paramount. I think it's definitely not for us asking or nudging his parents to expose him any little bit more than what resonates well with them. Maybe I am stereotypical German here.
I love your videos I just stumbled over by fortune. We are also german house owners of a similar size house in southern Germany (Heidelberg area - around 2 hrs away from you) going through some of these experiences 15 years ago. Your videos are very well made and funny, nevertheless well knowledge-based and I can confirm almost all of your facts and conclusions. Good luck to all of you
@@TypeAshton b.t.w. your german language skills made me smile ☺ but it will certainly improve when getting more local native german contacts. Forget about courses and lessens....just speak it with locals...much more effective 👍
Looks like a nicely planned and configured house, seems it can become cosy and practical at once. Final costs will always be higher than planned, and I actually calculate with 120% of the estimates whenever I need a company and especially craftspeople to do things I can't or don't want to do on my own. And that has rarely turned out to be overcautious but rather in contrary. Especially now, when there's shortage on many goods needed to build a house, you might run into some additional cost. For the interior, maybe keep in mind that a room will look much bigger without the furniture - although I'm pretty sure you already know. One thing that came to my mind watching the tour through the rooms, I think I would have had some issues in a room like Jack's. It seems a little gloomy, and with that green wall right in front of your nose outside the window, no way to let your eyes (and with them, your mind) wander to distant places... however, that might just be my personal point of view. Pun intended.😁
We have similar experience when we looking for a house. We got an option to build a new house together with another family. But it starts with the price tag of the property where we want to build the house. There was still the old building which we would have had to demolish at our expense. Together with the price of the property a good portion of our budget was burn only for that cost. And the company offer for the new house with all the small costs and maybe extra stuff broke our budget plans so we quit the project. The other family tried it for while to continue the planning but they want so much extras that the price skyrocket for them so they also quit the project. On that property there stand now a similar house as we planned it... and it looks expensive...😅
I commend you on building your home. My German husband didn't want the hassles that accompany building a home, so we purchased an existing home in the Upper Harz and chose to complete the renovation ourselves. We are lucky in that we got a wonderful home at an affordable price. We will be renovating for the next three to five years, but we can control costs and ensure quality of work. The fees for buying a home were quite a shock to me as an American. We received bill after bill.
@@urlauburlaub2222, hmmm. My comment mentioned that many American homes are built very quickly when compared to German homes, and quality can be an issue. Likewise, building a home with wooden studs ensures the home will not last longer than seventy or eighty years, without extensive renovation. I agree that German homes last longer. We have not noticed any issue with homes moving slowly in our area. There were three other homes for sale aside from ours. All sold quickly. We live in a popular tourist area. Even the derelict home at the end of the village was purchased and is being fully renovated. We have no plans to ever sell our home though. It will go to our grown children when we are gone.
If you want to change anything to your house just wait a few years, do it yourself along with things you don't think of NOW and Jack will have the opportunity to learn how to do things. It always helps when a boy knows how to drill a hole (in a concrete wall), hold a hammer or mount some electric power sockets or switches.
Don't remembering how i found your videos, but after seeing some of the videos, i have to say, i love your content and how you see the European culture from a US perspective. Living near Basel in Switzerland, Freiburg is our favorite shopping and sushi destination and just a beautiful place. Although, that dropped in numbers since our son was born.
About reduction of living room and kitchen: It might be possible, that there are different contractors involved. If (don't know) there is a different firm doing wood floors and another doin tiles - then the reduction won't be on the bid of that tile firm. That will be another discussion - eventually the general contractor has to negotiate.
I bought a 16 years old house in an good area and was lucky to get it for the price. I did 2 month renovation with friends and family, added electric shutters, lan network in almost all rooms, wired access points, wired security cameras and window contacts for heating automatic and security, prepared wires for new ring bells and buttons, replaced broken tiles and many more stuff. Every week I try to spend some houres on unfinished business and guess I can start with the garden next year. Only had payed craftsman there for two smaller things. The house is still that good that I just got back 240€ of my heating bills. Of course I would have done 2-3 things differently if I build it from scratch. But iam happy we did it. Took us 5 years to find a fitting home. If you buy the land and than build the house you could have saved a lot of taxes and other additional, because than you only pay it for the land and not the finished house plus the land.
good video! We are also shocked about the price with the Sonderwünsche extra cost, especially the bathroom, even u want to make the tiles from the 1.6m to up till the ceiling or a mosaic line between the tiles, the extra cost will be rocket! If you upgrade the standard option, they usually not refund the standard and charge you the price difference!
You have to look at it from the other side of the table. As a seller you have a customer who is already fully committed with his money and with his/her heart. It gets easy to fleece you because you cannot go back. You might have a good building company but you cannot choose the sub contractors. You had a good experience with the wood floor contractor but you had some bad experience with others. You should look very closely into the contract. You might be able to get your sanitary appliances you want by buying them yourself and provide them once the work has to be done and exchange them for the standard chrome. You take possession of the chrome appliances and sell them later.
Congrats on getting your own home.... don't fret to much about the fixtures and fittings .... in 10 yrs time you may be renovating and then you can have your black ⚫ taps and faucets 🙂 Interesting your synopsis of the KfW. I am about to invest in a renovation project in Brandenburg and am also looking at finance.... perhaps I need to look at the KfW.
I can sympathize with your feeling about doors. I have book of photos of the old doors of our town. Living in a very small town in Greece, I was able to get a craftsman to make each one of our 12 by hand to my own design for a very reasonable price.
nice video. it helps to think of the houses that are being built as a special offer that is only valid in this configuration. if you deviate from this, it becomes significantly more expensive. the effort for the builder can be significant because, for example, the implementation planning has to be changed. or in the case of the floorboards: catalog price of the manufacturer 7o euro, the builder buys for all houses, price goes down to 30 euro. if you now think you can get the other wood planks that also cost 70 euros in the catalog at no extra charge, then that won't work if it wasn't planned as a possibility from the start. my experience is that builders, including myself, invest too much energy and money in special requests. in the end, it's not that important.
We just built a house in Emmendingen near Freiburg about 10 year’s ago. We learnt not to underestimate the costs around the house. In our calculation we had "ideas" for this costs. But they at least doubbled. Best wishes for your…. . Regards, Bernd
Welcome to the club! I had the same experience when my house was built in the Netherlands. I'm under the impression builders aren't that keen on special requests because it interferes with their planning, logistics, etc. So if you have any special request they're going to make you pay for it, heavily. You're being financially punished.
It is difficult to know the motivations for the cost and we try to be sympathetic that they are the experts, not us... but yes, especially when some of the quotes weren't even itemized and just provided abstract costs, it felt like they really were deterring us from making changes.
@@TypeAshton Those behavior is not a good style. I former worked for a house buliding company and if you made changes of standard there I would say you loose about 15 to 25% extra on top for that. That is not nice at first look but not as heavy as it could be. The subcontractors normally have contracts with the house seller which are very strict and very cheap or at least on the lowest possible side. So if you take standard, they can do just the work but not a little bit more. If you choose extras they more or less (depends!) try to make money out of that because there is not a lot of it from the standard contract. And this amount of "make money" adds to the 15 to 25%. So it sums up fast. My advice is: Try to do severe changes of the standard while contracting for the house in the first place. There they have to get you as a customer. Of course this results in knowing what to want in the first place which is quite a thing.
YOu missed to asked the guy with the tiles that they also got a compensation cause laying smaller tiles takes more time then 1 big one, you seem to have a factor of 4 to 1, which ends up in a lot less effort while laying those tiles. And guess what takes more time, the laying idea (having a guy who is doing it professionally with a huge experience it is not a big deal -- ask the tile layer how much longer it takes with small and big tiles or go to a master school for tile layers) or the laying of the tiles ? And even after that you have to do less work for the "fugen", filling the spaces between the tiles which is time consuming cause at the end you have to make sure that all "spaces are filled fully" and then you have to clean a lot more. You have become a victim of the sky rocket you ordered to fly a bit higher, but saved a lot laying the wooden floors.
You should also mention the quality difference between a German house and a US house. It is pretty much comparing a card board box to a bunker that will still be there in 300 years. Plus the quality of the materials used that you, of course, pay for and the way your contractors are trained to build to the highest standard. I live in the US and have several houses, but the US house is no match to a German house. What's your thought?
Yes! And in other circumstances we usually would, but here we asked if that was possible and was always told they wouldn't do it because they had to get it approved by the builder and contractor first. 🤷🏻♀️
@@TypeAshton that is a typical strategy. Because it works. The correct response to that kind of caviat is: "Yes, please do that then" The idea is that most people don't want to inconvenience others. And again. That works. However it really helps to keep in mind, that it is their job and they are being paid for to do this. It's not an inconvenience, it's part of the process :) EDIT: I don't want to demonize the German Subcontractor or housing market. I have not enough experience. It is sadly just the case that building a house is not a cooperative job with contractors, it's a tug of war.
The probability universal problem with some companies is that their sales, billing and installation teams behave as separate businesses. Sales has incentives to win over customers. Installation or building team has incentives to get jobs done quickly and have the customer to sign the delivery received. Billings seems to be directed to be innovative and find ways to come up with additional cost items and forget what was agreed earlier in the hope that the customer doesn't notice and will at least eventually pay. These businesses don't expect to have recurring business from the customer, so customer satisfaction etc isn't important for them. They also can be in such say tight competition with other businesses that their normal profit margins are too small, which kind of forces them to use all opportunities to get more money form these additional jobs or changes.
For a future Video, I would be interested to find out a bit more about the home heating system you are having installed. Presumably it is an energy efficient installation, is it a heat pump? Ground source/air source? Perhaps an explanation as to why these systems are energy efficient etc. Are you having a solar panel array installed? How does this integrate into house etc.
Hi there! Great idea! We would love to expand on this topic in a future video. Our home will have electric underfloor heating, where each room will be individually temperature controlled. Because our home is all electric we are also looking into solar panels.
Depending on the date of your contract or your permission you might be eligible for "Baukindergeld" after you have moved in. For most invoices you might be able to deduct a cash discount ("Skonto" - approx. 2-3%). If you have an architect handling the building process ("Baubetreuung"), which you should, he should have deducted it before sending you the invoices to pay.
I don't know if that will make you feel any better but I was looking at bathroom fixtures and I had a similar experience. The chrome fixtures totalled roughly $500 when I changed them to black stainless steel they shot up to $2700
Isn't the KfW that bank that had been funded by the US back when they where in need of strongest allies after WW 2 ? This is the money from the Marshall funds - it still has not gone , it is circling for ages. It was not burned, cause it was used as loans inside germany , quite a big difference to all the other recipients of those Marshall funds. And now you benefit from Marshall's program, 75 year later.
Yes, it's really incredible that these funds have been continually invested rather than being immediately spent. It has made some huge progress within Germany.
I can assure you that you are not alone in your experience of building a house. For that price, I would have transported the tiles myself ;) But in my experience, the tiler would have simply refused to lay the tiles. Whereas an extra price for laying 60x60 tiles is absolutely understandable. Laying such large tiles is a punishing job. Good luck and strong nerves! :)
you should always ask for a "Angebot" and there are all prices layed out on that "Angebot". If you then get a Bill that does not refelect the "Angebot" or "Auftragsbestätigung" which is what you orderd you can simply say im not paying that and you have something if thats going to court. Easy, in Germany always get i court relevant document so u cant get screwed and fight back super easy. Because you as a customer are in the Position of the company having to prove that what they did was approved by you. And if there is no signature or whatever than they have to pay that stuff themself =).
Well, I've never build a house but I can tell you from my experience that pretty much every craft with a lot of labor involved is reluctant to give you a ballpark estimate. That's my big issue with craftsmen in germany. Also never tell them to "Get it done and if it's more than X€ call me." They will never call. Most people don't like to make trouble and when it's done properly they just pay.
We've shared before that we wont be moving too far away from the Freiburg area, but we'll keep the exact location to ourselves because we don't want to compromise Jack's safety.
Just a few ideas: 1) Everybody can mount bathroom appliances. Why don't you simply tell the construction company, they should neither deliver any of these parts nor mount anything and return the calculated money for it to you? Take the money, buy whatever you like best, and mount all these items yourselves during a weekend. 2) You need more talent, of course, to lay tiles. An option might still be to deny delivery of the standard material completely, buy it yourselves and look for a talented crafts(wo)man who wants to earn some additional money "ohne Rechnung". (If you don't know the meaning of "ohne Rechnung" yet, ask some of your German friends about it. 😉) Ask your friends and neighbors if they know someone who has proven to work well and ask this expert if (s)he would be available for you. 3) Whatever source you choose for your tiles, make sure to get app. 5 % to 10 % spare material and store it in some corner of your basement. When you need to repair something, it will be difficult to procure something that looks *exactly* as the material you got already, even if it is the same brand and model.
All building prices have risen since the beginning of the year. The original costs were calculated beforehand and then would not have changed for you. But if you now express special requests then this will be charged at the current prices. In addition, the subcontractors earn more from special requests than from a tightly calculated initial installation. You have to think about what is firmly attached to the house and can only be changed with difficulty later and what can you later easily exchange for better ones. Maybe you will postpone the purchase of one or the other piece of furniture until later if you don't need it urgently. The design of the outdoor area is also a task that you will have a lot of fun with LATER. Do what you really need and take your time for everything else. But an electric car is worth considering, but it will take time because the car manufacturer is missing parts. I don't think the subsidies for that will go down anytime soon.
19:02 lieferung can not to be translated as delivery (fee) it is the higher price you have to pay for the tiles it self compared to the smaller ones cause bigger tiles are usually more expensive if you order same quality cause the production and quality assurance is a lot more expensive for the manufacturer. What they mean is the delivery of a higher quality tile. You have to pay 2000€ net and divide that on the amount of space like 150 qm then you get the price per squaremeter. Looks like you pay 13,5 € per qm for your taste and choice. 150 qm seems a lot, but a tiney 2x 2 m guest bathroom is not a 4 qm space if you add the 3,5 walls without the door. 3,5 walls each 2m long and 2,5 m high adds 30 qm and there they are: 34 qm. Another bathroom of 4 times the size like 3x3 you will get it , maybe 1 wall less there having a door and a window. But this looks like a scam cause usually you get the amount of space you will cover with tiles, then you get the price that is calculated in your building contract and then you get the amount of tiles for each room and its full price per qm or square meter. Then you can calculate your own if each room needs big tiles like the guest rest room would be quite expenisve this way due to its amount of tiles. You have to ask every detail before you order, ask, ask, write and let someone crossign if there are additional changes.
Thanks for helping us work through the bill. We are a bit relieved to hear most people agree with our reaction on the costs. As of today we are happy we rejected all of this special work.
So very happy and excited for you guys!!! One thing I want to let you guys in on… It is 💯 normal to ask for a Kostenvoranschlag/Angebot… you’re not wasting anybody’s time… don’t feel bad. It’s a normal day to day activity for a company to send out Angebote! It’s your hard earned money… and in order to get the most out of it, ask for Angebote left and right. 💗 Oh and yes! 💯 go with an EV! I have a VW ID.4 AWD on order and am waiting everyday to get the news that it’s on the ship. I’m a German , currently living in the US. We’re I to live in Germany, I would’ve probably went for the KIA EV6 or Hyundai Ioniq5… but those cats are not available here yet. So… I’ll start out with the VW and see where it takes me in the near future… if I’ll stick with it or if I’ll switch 💗
oh Wow! We haven't really begun the shopping process yet, but will certainly take a look at those as well. Really great looking cars - congrats on yours! Hopefully it ships to you soon. ❤️ Cheers from the Black Forest!
@@TypeAshton just start watching some YT videos on EVs for research purposes so you’re not completely in the dark about what’s new or coming on the market. Carmaniac, Nextmove, Electrifying (UK Channel) and Bjorn Nyland are good channels to begin with.
@@urlauburlaub2222 I don’t understand where your thinking comes from. Do you know the range of the average newer EV? Most EV owners charge at home. If you have a PV-system on the roof, even better… road tripping with an EV would also lead you out of the Schwarzwald and the European charging station network expands day by day. Is it perfect? No… but when the first automobile was introduced, people thought it to be a fluke and kept talking up the horse and buggy… and look where we are today in mobility. It’s very possible to travel throughout Europe with an EV. The daily commute to/from work is easily mastered by an EV. How many public chargers are available in the Schwarzwald region, specifically in Freiburg… the charging net is continuously being expanded. Even grocery stores are adding charging stations and most Hotels also offer charging. Tesla Destination Chargers at hotels are rapidly increasing too and there are adapters that can be purchased in order for a regular EV to use a Tesla destination charger (note: I’m not talking about a Tesla Supercharger). As you mention the “black market” for EVs… I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Germany is still subsidizing the purchase of a new EV as far as I know and the average German is known to drive a vehicle for YEEEEAAAAARRRRSSSS… because - you’re right - we take care of our vehicles and we hold onto our car for many many many years. Though EVs are still fairly new, there are already studies out about how well EV battery packs perform (charging capacity) after 100k-200k km of driving. Change has to start somewhere and when we continue to hold onto “old thinking”, we can’t evolve and develop a better future. I mean… that’s why people decide to build energy efficient homes now 🤷🏻♀️… invest into sustainably sourced energy etc etc etc. EVs today are already well developed there’s no reason to hold off on them, if they fit the personal driving profile. Even, if the commute is 1-1.5h one way. There are Germans already today, who do that kind of commute to/from work in an EV 🤷🏻♀️. I live by: ATTITUDE IS ALTITUDE. Where there is a will, there is a way. 💗
I hear you...have you ever imagined the size of house you could've gotten in Illinois for that money? Pheeew...but then again, you'll live in one of the most beautiful, safe and convenient areas in Germany.
You are lucky to have built in Bavaria regarding the real estate transfer tax. In Bavaria its 3,5 % of the purchase price of the house, in Northrhine Westfalia where I live I have to pay 6,5 %. Black faucets are currently in but crome faucets will always be acceptable. And if you want to change things lateron, go to a hard ware store, get any extras there and DIY.
Hello, I would be interested to know how long you have been looking for a house ? Did you want to rebuild or did you first look for a finished, brought house ? You are very lucky to be able to build a house near Freiburg. Many family have been looking for a house for years. My neighbors searched for four years directly in freiburg and then bought 17 km away.. Do you know the "local model"? Many can therefore not build themselves, but have to buy from a developer. We also built near Freiburg 7 years ago (hello neighbor) and have had the same experience with the extra charges. Ok, was from the building materials trade, but that's often normal. At the moment it is even more difficult and expensive because of delivery problems, the craftsmen often do not make any more offers because the material is sold at the daily price, you do not know what it will cost tomorrow. Yesterday I found the video about Healthcare and today I was shown your house building video and now i`m a now subscriber. Well done. I wish you very nice neighbor, a good neighborhood is worth its weight in gold.
Hi there! We had been just sort of "part-time" browsing the listings for quite a while, and then jumped when we saw this one listed. Initially we were mostly looking at older homes that had re-entered the market (in towns like Kirchzarten, Stegen, etc.). We ended up buying a house that is approximately 20km from the city center because we just couldn't afford a house of the same size (plus new with a garage and a yard) in the city proper. Nice to have you as a new subscriber and a neighbor! ❤️
Good luck on buying the car...we ordered an ID3 in June - for delivery in November. On calling to ask about delivery we found out it will be delayed until at least march.
😳😳😳 OH my. This is probably a very naive question - but I presume you had to pay a deposit when ordering the car. Was this just a flat rate or a percentage of the cost of the car?
@@TypeAshton Down payments are absolutely uncommon when buying a new car in DE, although the cars are only commissioned and produced from the manufacturer after the customer-specific order (applies to European brands). You usually pay the dealer at / immediately before delivery by bank transfer. Well-known customers pay afterwards when they receive the invoice. However, many vehicles are not bought at all, only leased.
@@TypeAshton No deposit needed. We have good credit, own 2 homes, have been here forever, and it was a lease with a pretty big payment due at delivery. The KFW subsidy for the wallbox ran out of funds yesterday, so those 900€ can no longer be applied for (you could apply without proof of a quote, or have placed an order to have it installed, so some may go unused) There also is a subsidy for electric cars at 6k€/car - but it only applies to the first 1 million applicable cars that are registered and apply. This can only be claimed after you have taken receipt of the car and paid. So in our case, a 15k payment on receipt of the car (which pushed the monthly lease rates down to 120€ - so pretty much a pre-pay) was calculated to only cost us 9k....Delivery today there is still money in the KFW subsidy pot - who knows what it will look like in March. I am told I have to wait until the contractually stated day or month of delivery to pass, then write a formal letter demanding delivery within 8 weeks, then 4 weeks later a follow-up letter, and a few more steps that only a lawyer can advise you on...and then we could vacate the contract. The thing is currently hardly anyone is able to deliver cars - which you see with escalating prices at the rental and leasing companies and even rising prices in the auto repair area as people are having to keep their current cars longer.
you mentioned warm and fuzzy feelings in your house, well, they are guaranteed because you have heated floors. You will never go back. My wife used to lay her clothes on the bathroom floor when we were in college in the 90s. We rented the bottom floor of a house. She still talks about the heated floors. Our house here in the US was built in the 70s, no fancy heated floors... but it is in the woods, on 2 acres (8000 m2), so we are good. And a 3 car garage with a totally private 100 yard driveway would have never happened in Germany.
To be completely honest and with the eyes of a four-time home builder (currently finishing #4), this all sounds rather normal for a typical house building project and not overly expensive. (Prices are high at the moment, period.) Did you ever find out what the credit amount for the wood flooring would have been? I could imagine that the actual difference for tiles vs wood is not that large. Other than that: Did you not have any other Sonderwünsche such as extra power outlets, extra lamp outlets, extra switches, maybe motion detectors for the outside? Just wondering ...
Unfortunately we never heard back on the wood flooring credit. We got fightened from the other quotes and pushed back on the changes. :( As for the electrical, we did add more sockets and switches and moved a few around. We've learned in our life you can never have too many :)
That's true, and once you're done, you'll notice which ones you forgot. 😄 And not to jinx it: The last apartment I rented many moons ago did have wood flooring in the kitchen (newly put in by the owner for whatever reason), and when the new (!) dishwasher ran for the first time, the whole room was flooded, so keep an eye on it during its maiden run. 😉
We built a house 3 years ago. Regarding the actual costs: our architect told us a price the finished house will cost. To give you an idea, we had to pay an extra 1/3 of the estimated cost on top. And we are not exactly done, but the money is gone. In numbers our house was about 90.000 € more expensive than the initial estimated costs.
Wow! That is incredible! Do you think the pandemic affected the cost or do you mean that the house build was finished 3 years ago? The increased cost of materials is something we are facing at the moment.
@@TypeAshton We started 3 years ago. Everything got more expensive during the building time, some things like concrete went up 2 times. Everything is going up, it is incredible. Extras cost a big extra, always. We learned the hard way too. I wish you all the best with your house.
BTW I just read that in NRW the costs of building a one family house went up in one year (they chose the timeframe from November 2020 to November 2021) by 13%! If you take a sum of say 400.000€ in 2020, you would have to pay more than 50.000 € more in 2021, exactly 452.000€! And inflation is going up in 2022 on top too!
Yes we actually reached out to the electrician again to make sure that it was executed correctly (it could be that we didn't explain it properly). From the looks of it they did some work behind the wall but we also want to make sure that there is a channel opening.
This being concrete you will most likely need a 2nd WiFi Access Point on the bedroom floor. Should be be a problem to put one, as you say all rooms are wired up with ethernet to connect one to.
Yes we often think about that too. Right now in our apartment we have a VERY thick brick wall separating our bedroom from the rest of the house (nearly .5 meter thick) and the wifi is terrible.
I absolutely feel with Ashton regarding the importance of doors. But should floor heating really be a cool feature ? I hope not.. I am somewhat surprised at the number of drywalls inside your house. Traditionally, Germans tend to prefer the brick&mortar version. Crossing fingers everything will work out as you hope and plan for.
Floor heating reduces the need of Energy for the same feeling of comfort. And that means less cost in the long run. Especially in the bathroom it is very nice.
@@RebellHAI There is no problem with dry walls. They are double planked and pretty durable and have good sound insulation. On top of that, if you want to reshape your floor plan, its more easy, or actual possible to tear them out again. Not to mention, that they are cheaper than brick walls.
You certainly got taken for a ride. Sorry for your experience. A reminder to get everything in writing ... and if they do not want to do it, walk. Your attitude though is admirable ... Thank You!
10:44 You lucky ones ..... the KfW55 program was just suspended this day. No more new people will get confirmations for their applies. Reason: it costed the government too much - and the KfW 55 standard should be a "standard" now, which does not need a subsidy.
Why do you say “raising a family abroad “ in your intro? If you are building your dream house, you are at home in Germany aren’t you? Wishing you a good life in Germany.
Nun , in allen, ob gut oder schlechten folgen wir den USA, dort wirst du seit Jahrzehnten von Handwerkern und Firmen gnadenlos über den Tisch gezogen, wer jemals in USA gebaut, oder umgebaut hat, oder einen Handwerker kommen lies, sollte einen sehr guten Anwalt haben ( die meistens auch Verbrecher sind ) Dazu kommt, das die Qualität der Arbeit durchaus niedriger ist. Und warum Handwerker das so machen ? weil sie es können, du must es ja nicht machen.
@@TypeAshton : Kann man wenn man Leerrohre oder Kabel gleich einbaut vorbeugen und zum späteren Zeitpunkt nachrüsten .Alles das entlastet erstmal die Geldbörse .
@@TypeAshton Ich glaube es zwar nicht, aber vielleicht wird VW auch mal so zukunftsicher wie Tesla. Eine gute Wallbox braucht auch einen Netzwerkanschluß.
you can always make your changes later. in 5-10 years you might want to renovate regardless, so you got much time to save money for high-end extras. we are building a house on our own (without any contractors, thanks to my dad who knows just about everything around handywork). But money is tight and we had to build some things on the cheap (not bad, but just cheaper options). we will in some years add windows to the roof, solar on top and some other stuff. But we decided to go all out in places that are hard to fix later on. We got really good tiles for our bath and floor heating throughout the house. having a house means you got the opportunity to make big changes later on. Just use that kind of power. Also, there is a barn full of old doors one village over from us. They sell vintage house fixings and stuff. Maybe someone like this is around you, too? you can always buy them one by one or just one single special one somewhere in your home. If we got the money some day, i might buy one for our main entrance :D
What a steep hillside - spectacular, but may be a bit dangerous. Avalanche, landslide all possible. But you decided to live im Schwarzwald, not in the norddeutsche Tiefebene.
Remove the things from the contract, which you don't like, or which are too expensive if you change them. Use the saved money and buy the things on your own. This is the only chance to escape from the bad situation, when you are in a contract where they want to make a lot of extra money with your individual wishes.
Beim Neubau , die Subunternehmer bieten ihr Standard bei der Ausschreibung des Investor an, um den Auftrag zu gewinnen. Bei Änderrungen sind Subunternehmer nicht an die angebotenen Ausstattung gebunden und bieten die Änderung mit höheren Preisen an. Außerdem fällt der Mengenrabat beim Grosshändler weg. Bei der Elekrotechnik ist es besser die Änderungen, zusätzliche Steckdosen, gleich zu machen. Später kostet es mehr. Arbeit und Geld.
Do you mean on the interior partition walls? They are installing metal studs and drywall - and then I presume they will plaster over to have the same texture as the exterior.
@@TypeAshton Yes, they look the same, but these walls are nowhere near as stable as a brick wall. Therefore you have to be careful if you want to hang or fasten something.
Noone was expecting and empty unfinished build house Tour to be eccho free There are other youtubers who film in the same empty room for years with horrible microphone and echo ignoring coments thst say to decorate the walls and put more fabric and deco in to the room to brake the echo This would be a feason to apologize But your sitution is compleatly understandable
Tiles seam scam Just look up tile prices and calculate it your self As a german i would pressure them to give me every cost or else i go to an otver ompany or do it my self Just as a tip. Because thsts not cood buisness Strategie its shady what the tile company was not giving you a prize round about. Pls dont think its normal
Simply put, you have to have a resourceful craftsman like a carpenter as a friend and advisor who will tell you what is better for your needs! Then it won't cost so much money or money will be lost. There are namely some things where you can save money and still take your wishes into account. So having more knowledge about certain things has an advantage over the sellers of products and materials. Remember German Skilled workers are very well educated and trained people, so you have to be just as well informed strategically when facing them. And here more information about the KfW Bank:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KfW
Really great advice. Funny enough, my Dad used to be a contractor and he was the first person I called to see if my expectations were out of sync with the bills. But also, I (Ashton) used to work in a mini-job position for another turn-key construction company in Freiburg in the past. Thankfully, if we need any help in the future I feel like I can turn to them. And thank you so much for the additional information on the KFW.❤️
@@TypeAshton : Just asked me if your dad knows the costs in Germany? But then came your information about Ashton and his experience working in a construction company. It's good to hear that someone knows what he is doing and has alternatives up his sleeve such as using the hardware store, laughs .....😅😉
As an architect working in Germany:
- the "Lieferung" with the tiles in the Essküche wasn't the transport costs, but the order/material itself. That was the price of the extra amount of tiles for that area, which at 70-80Eur/m2 seems possible but a bit pricey. Just like the extra cost of laying the larger tiles: possible, but a bit pricey. Sonderwünsche... that's where they make their money...
- the electrician's bill seems pretty reasonable, considering they had to slice concrete, and they really don't like to do that;
- the price difference of the bathroom fixtures is just totally bonkers! Were the black ones an expensive brand? I mean, sure, they had the standard stuff on stock, and got it in bulk really cheaply in the first place, but still, it's like they calculated with premium products, and wanted to scare you away with a ridiculous bill...
Other than that: I really appreciate your transparency regarding the process and the costs. It gives us much needed insight.
And don't despair, the house already is in a good shape, the end of the journey is in sight :)
Thank you so much for the added perspective and information. This really has been such a great learning experience. ❤️ Cheers from the Black Froest!
One more idea would be, for standardised items, to source them in your own and just have the workers instal them. This way you have total control over the costs of material and don’t feel ripped off (especially on bathroom fixtures)
@@mortusanteportas86 the worker will not install it. I tried:), they say the can't install it because of liability of the installation.
@@TypeAshton And to be fair with that: From that cost for tiles you have to subtract the cost for the original floor you have already in your contract (so it was a wood-floor?). Of course if the two subcontractors for these floors are two different companys in this tile bill it is a full to charge extra cost while the wood-company will have a floor less to do. If this cost estimate is already from your contractor you should look for another "Titel" where the wood floor is subtracted or at least ask where this is done, because in this priclist, we see, it isn't.
@@urlauburlaub2222 i think that is only half of the story. If you take for example villeroy & boch for the bathroom (as a high price quality brand) from house building company you pay way more then if you buy it regular as private customer in a DIY Store.
The profit margin for this stuff is extreme and in a lot of cases non-transparent for the customer especially if you have a contract with a house building company that manages the whole projects with its own subcontractors...
One tip from the hobby electrician: Take photos of all walls, ceilings and floors as long as you can see where the electric cables and water pipes are running. Put a measuring stick next to the lines so you have exact dimensions! When the walls are finished it will be hard to find hidden cables even with those photos. One day you want to make a hole or add a cable and then you need to know. It appears that the cable for the island in the kitchen is not perpendicular to the wall. That is against the convention! So if you tried to located a power cable starting from where it appears of the surface you might be mistaken and hit it accidentially.
Also take photos of the areas where the walls meet the windows and doors. (sides, top, bottom everything!) Inside and outside. Those are known problem spots where meticulous work is necessary. Also from the insulation! Those are areas where workers like to be sloppy.
Yes, that’s true. Same thing jumped into my mind. We have tons of photos from the building phase of our house, und it saved us often times! You will not remember these positions in 5 years ore so!
Yes, that’s what we did, too!
@@hkao6350 We had extra piping put in for the central vacuum as an add-on to be paid separately. The contractor wanted to bill us for parts which were actually not there. With my photos I could prove in court that he lied. He could prove nothing.
You can find pipes and cables in walls and floors easily with a cable detector. That's much more reliable than photos.
@@adrianguggisberg3656 Espacially in concrete walls with rebar i wish u good luck with a detector. And even if, having an detector AND photos makes it even better.
When the subcontracter did their first bid, they needed to offer prices that were attractive. Now it is just them and you and they expect you to have no choice. Ask another local company what a change would cost, once the house is ready. Take that price to your current subtractor and ask him if he wants to beat this price or leave the job to another company. That may help in some cases and in an y case it will give you insight into the calculation process.
True. The subcontractors offer their basic package to the main contractor for a price where they do not earn anything, just cover the costs, to get the contract awarded. And they KNOW that the buyers want to change some items. Thus the calculation is simple: standard faucet in chrome = 60 EUR, same faucet in black = 200 EUR. Pay for it or leave it.
As a German I am learning so much about our country on your channel.
I am glad you said this, because as an American I find it all so daunting. Geteiltes Leid ist halbes Leid.
Uh, you guys are brave. Most of my friends who decided to build their own nest have gone through quite a stressful experience (though succeeded at last). I cowardly just bought a pre-owned one above the Rhine :)
18:52 03.02 and 03.03 is not the price of delivery (shipment), but the price of the tiles!
03.01 Preparation of floor (mostly work)
03.02 + 03.03 Material (tiles)
03.04 Basic cost of work to set the tiles
03.05 Extra cost of work because of the large format
03.06 Extra cost of special material for the joints
03.07 Cost of work for the skirting
03.08 don't know ;)
03.09 silicone joints from the skirting to the wall
You hit the nail on the head, with changing fixtures yourself. We where lucky in Germany having our apartment built by a landlord, however, that was in 1990.
That's the normal way how the house building companies make money. They sell the house cheap and hope for changes so that the make can money because you are trapped in the contract. The only way to avoid this is to choose all the details you want before you sign the contract! It's a common trap for unexpirienced german buyers, too.
I started renovating an old timber-framed house in southern Germany three years ago, and I had a lot of "fun" with trying to get quotes from plumbers, tilers and so on. Some never sent a quote and some were so ridiculously expensive that it was obvious that they didn't really want to do this job. The whole experience was rather stressful...
First, you are wonderful people, courageous, intelligent, friendly and down-to.earth. Thank you for inviting us into your life.
Now my 2 cents to the house. I think its most important to make changes now that affect the structure of the building. For instance, I would put LAN cables and sockets into all rooms as long as you can, because doing that later is a pain in the ass.
I also thought about air flow and humidity. Concrete is impermeable to air and water, so you have to make sure you have a proper ventilation to avoid mould.
Everything else, like doors, tapware etc. can be exchanged later if you like.
P.S: concrete has iron reinforcements which make it almost impermeable for WLAN+phone signals, too.
Hi guys, fun videos to watch, btw. Keep it up!
I am not in the construction business, but have some own experience. So here my 2 cents on your price hike:
Looks like your house is one of a larger building project of identical houses. At least from 1:00 it looks that way. In this case the construction company puts out a call for tenders to contractors. Let's assume 10 houses with 100 sqm of tiling each (all my numbers are just for illustration purposes and bear no semblance to reality). The call specifies the type of tiles (type 1) to be used as "standard" for the project. List price of "type 1" tiles shall be 100 EUR/sqm.
The tiling company then RFQs its supplier for 10 x 100 sqm = 1000 sqm tiles of "type 1". The supplier quotes 50 EUR/sqm for 1000 sqm of identical "type 1" tiles, a 50% discount on the list price due to the large volume. The tiling company adds its labor and overhead and then tenders for the contract. This means that this cost goes into the calculation for the bottom line price of the house in the sales prospectus.
Now...one of the families, let's call them the "Forests" (see what I did there), asks the tiling company for a different tile, "type 2". The friendly salesman (I assume for now it's a "he") looks up the list price difference, and, lo and behold, "type 2" is 110 EUR/sqm, "just 10 EUR more than your old tiles"...the Forests are happy.
Now, when doing the real quote he get's the original contract out of the dusty closet and finds that "type 1" has an actual price of 50 EUR/sqm, for which the project was calculated. Suddenly your "type 2" becomes +60 EUR/sqm more expensive. But that's not the end of it: The supplier of "type 1" now asks 60 EUR/sqm because the volume has gone down to 900 sqm total, not the originally promised 1000. The tiling company can't change the contracts with the other 9 families, because the Forests have jumped off the collective ship. So the +10 EUR/sqm price hike for the other 9 families also ends up on your bill, not theirs, because the tiling company cannot absorb that increase without making a loss and can't ask the others to now pay more.
I think that's about what has happened, more or less. Same is true with the bathroom fixtures and I would not hold my breath for the doors, to be honest. So when wanting to change things in a fixed-price house, make a guesstimate first on what may have a massive discount due to collective buying power before you get too excited about it.
The electrician is a different story. You did not ask for different switches or sockets. So here it just "more of the same".
You make a REALLY good point. Thank you so much for this comment.
@@TypeAshton De nada...I think it's important to understand that, while you have your own contract, you're still in a collective with all the other families in your new neighborhood. Greetings from Aix-la-Chapelle up in the "Midwest". :-)
From my experience the answer for your fixtures "update" can be quite simple. The contractor buys like 100 fixtures with min. 60% discount from his producer. They send you a bill for replacement fixtures with no discount (probably) +10% for them, hence the difference. Plus black fixtures can be very expensive in comparison to chrome so 3,9k is possible.
When I was choosing my door handles for my flat, the guy in the shop said a customer had come back in needing 1 extra door handle, so they were all: certainly, which one did you want. And they guy who had been using these door handles every day in his flat for six months, couldn't remember which ones they were. You soon become blind to the fixtures. So I looked at the normal priced handles, around 20, picked my faourite and called it a day (but actually whenever I look at them I do really love my door handles).
Well I must admit watching jack in the beginning of this video made my morning 😊 all and all it’s very gutsy of you two going about modeling transforming your new home! Nothing wrong with liking doors lol I love windows
Good quality ceramic wood effect floor tiles are very durable and worth a moderate increase, not €4.8k. It's great you got the electrical upgrades installed, they make a difference to living in a house. As for doors and door knobs, I hope you have negotiated hard, good doors make a difference.
Make the house good, and start saving for your next house.
Unfortunately we had to decline upgrading the doors. We tried negotiating but the "upcharge" for the different doors and handles was 1,000 EUR PER DOOR. (And again, we only have to pay the difference in price...). So with 8 doors, it was going to be a huge expense plus they were asking us to sign a document saying that IF these doors caused a delay in construction, we had to pay the entire construction team to stay on site past the deadline. Ugh.
Fun fact: The KfW is a product of the Marshall Plan. Unlike for example France, which chose to directly spend their money, Germany chose to fund a bank - the KfW - with it. So Thanks. :D
Regarding the "they wouldn't give us a ballpark figure": German law says that the final bill may only be a certain amount (I think 30%) over the estimate (Kostenvoranschlag), and by giving you that estimate, they risk you later holding them accountable and disputing the bill if it turns out more expensive.
Also, since you were building a Reihenhaus or Doppelhaus, if you deviate from the given design, you forfeit any scaling discounts the building company might have negotiated.
Love your story! We have had three homes built and one major remodel over the years and can relate to the costs.
You probably did yourself a favour with the chrome fixtures, because the black ones might need a lot more effort to remove limescale to always look nice.
That is a great point.
@@TypeAshton and chrome is probably a bit more timeless, which is also good from a sustainability standpoint :)
Don't worry about replacing fittings later. The used ones will find a home via a Flohmarkt. People are always looking for stuff cheap.
I'd recommend against the black though. They don't keep so well. ( That chic refined look is impossible to maintain) There are other special finishes that keep well though... raw brass, enamel, that kind of thing
Jonathan with sparkling eyes inside the new house was so cute to watch. 😊
Now he only have to plant a tree and he will already be done with all the old traditions for guys. (build a house, get a son, plant a tree)
Did you had a "Richtfest"? (another German party reason) 😉
"Häusle bauen, lässt dich ergrauen" 😂✌
Another German saying is: "In dem Wort "Bau" steckt das Wort "Au"."
@@christianhoock3926 Talking about German sayings about building a house: You have to built three houses. The first one for a foe, the second one for a friend and third one for yourself. ;-)
Wish you all the best for the new house. You gave me a remembering of building our house twelve years ago. We experienced exactly the same struggles with our „special“ wishes. Most of them are now made by ourselves. Which is in the end the more satisfying experience, because you can grow with your house over the years. One recommendation to the door-lover …. If it is possible yet, try to figure out if you can change to a higher measure of the doors (instead of standard measures).
Unfortunately the door requests turned out to be wayyyyy above our budget. :(
@@TypeAshton Never mind, at the end, you will made it to a wonderful and warmhearted home with open doors for your friends 👍
Door frames come in standard Din sizes in Germany. Lift of and replace with the new door. Price up your doors and handles Hornbach can deliver and have an install service that you really do not need. Sell the new doors removed on Ebay.
I totally get what you say: How much joy do we get from that kind of money. The economist calls this alternative costs. Every one has all those fancy ideas. But having lived for some time with the standard you won't need the fancy items anymore. And colored appliances are more prone to damage. At the edges there will be chipping. Which does not happen with chrome items. Don't ask how I know. The home improvement DIY is what I would go for. Just wait until the appliances need repairs or replacement. You can do it then anyways. If you still feel the urge, that is.
There are certain things which come with a large effort to change later which are more important. Like the outlet for the garage opener (I have one from day 1 and really like it not to get out in the rain to open that damn door.), the door from the garage to the house, additional outlets in the garage and outside (for working on your fancy car), enough outlets in the kitchen, towel warmers in the bathroom_s_ etc. The interior doors I would have sourced myself. There's no great effort attached to change them. They are all standard and you have a wide range of choices. Even the door handles I would always purchase myself.
You are very politely giving these contractors the benefit of the doubt but it is really their fault for being intransparent. Unfortunately this is standard practice nowadays because the demand for both materials and workers is peaking currently. They simply know that they can get away with it.
Out of own experience, it really pays to check what they would charge for certain changes. The building company we had charged rather low prices for most changes. Most times even lower than if I would have wanted to make the change or addition later, I could not even have got the material on my own for most prices. Some details (we then did not opt for) they just asked a ridiculous price for.
We were lucky that all the subcontractors back then had been able to provide us with at least a rough estimate during the meeting (which was reasonably close to the final estimate we got).
Also some changes we made, for example we have a basement and had them put better insulated windows in and additional insulation on the outside of the basement for a few hundred Euros. not bad for something which changing later would mean digging up around the whole house.
For friends who had their house built, they got offered prices that had just been ridiculous overall.
(from Wiesbaden, Germany) Reminds me of doing this kind of video to document the proceedings on my 1st home 20 years ago (including the toddler part). Big laugh at min 22:00, I could have predicted that. I wish you good luck. As for the electrical plugs: You need more. Always. Jonathan is absolutely right.
An interesting topic to cover might be how homes are built in the US versus Europe - not in terms of construction techniques, but where the money comes from. I live in California and I’d say the majority of single family homes are built by major developers in planned communities, of 5 or so different models with limited customizing by the buyer. The developer can include parks, pools, community centers, etc. and a homeowners association manages it all. I’ve seen similar developments in Spain but not other parts of Europe, where it seems most houses are built as one-offs. But my impression may be wrong. It would be a good topic, however.
If you change things in the bathroom, prices can literally explode. You may think you just change a colour, but pricing on those things depends on the manufacturer and product and label. In the original contract often are good and solid standard pieces. Those pieces are normally on the cheap priced side and the are ordered by the subcontracor in masses with high discounts. So if you changed the colour you may have changed the manufacturer also (without noticing) and this black stuff for example is a design-line from a luxury brand with enormous prices per piece. A normal, good chrome standard faucet will perhaps cost 30 to 40€ but this one perhaps costs 150€ or even more. So this sums up fast. And if you take those cabinet and sink combinations from mostly 800 to 1200€ a piece that is an enormous difference to a standard sink from perhaps about 50€ to 75€.
I think this is once again a very good example of why German is perceived to be such a complicated language (as it obviously is):
The problem in understanding these kinds of bills - not only but probably especially for non-native speakers - lies in the ambiguity of meaning of the word (Lieferung). It's just so commonly used to refer to delivery or shipping costs. But then in this case it's suddenly not shipping but the shipment meaning its contents itself (as pointed out by others).
You just can't possibly know about this use of certain words in that context if you've never been in that particular situation before... But I think this might confuse some native Germans building their house just in the same way. Even more so since buying or building a house forces you to pay so many bills for things or services or taxes and fees you never even knew existed that eventually you will get confused by anything.
Jack is adorable! I wish for more shots with Jack through your video.
Yes, he is our special little guy. ❤️ We try to find a balance between showing our family (because after all we are a 'family' business) but not over exposing him.
While on the one hand I fully understand your wish (Jack is genuinely adorable), on the other hand my principles about privacy dictate: "No." It's a very fine balance that has to be found here.
To explain: The probably worst thing parents could do once you are a teenager is showing photos of yourself as a baby/ youngster to your friends (in particular without your consent). That, for me, clearly would have been the moment when I'd have asked for a shovel in order to dig a tunnel down to Australia.
So, since the Internet doesn't "forget", Jack's own rights of privacy are paramount. I think it's definitely not for us asking or nudging his parents to expose him any little bit more than what resonates well with them. Maybe I am stereotypical German here.
I love your videos I just stumbled over by fortune. We are also german house owners of a similar size house in southern Germany (Heidelberg area - around 2 hrs away from you) going through some of these experiences 15 years ago. Your videos are very well made and funny, nevertheless well knowledge-based and I can confirm almost all of your facts and conclusions. Good luck to all of you
Thank you so much for watching! Comments like these keep us going and we will continue to improve. :)
@@TypeAshton b.t.w. your german language skills made me smile ☺ but it will certainly improve when getting more local native german contacts. Forget about courses and lessens....just speak it with locals...much more effective 👍
Looks like a nicely planned and configured house, seems it can become cosy and practical at once. Final costs will always be higher than planned, and I actually calculate with 120% of the estimates whenever I need a company and especially craftspeople to do things I can't or don't want to do on my own. And that has rarely turned out to be overcautious but rather in contrary. Especially now, when there's shortage on many goods needed to build a house, you might run into some additional cost.
For the interior, maybe keep in mind that a room will look much bigger without the furniture - although I'm pretty sure you already know.
One thing that came to my mind watching the tour through the rooms, I think I would have had some issues in a room like Jack's. It seems a little gloomy, and with that green wall right in front of your nose outside the window, no way to let your eyes (and with them, your mind) wander to distant places... however, that might just be my personal point of view. Pun intended.😁
We have similar experience when we looking for a house. We got an option to build a new house together with another family. But it starts with the price tag of the property where we want to build the house. There was still the old building which we would have had to demolish at our expense. Together with the price of the property a good portion of our budget was burn only for that cost. And the company offer for the new house with all the small costs and maybe extra stuff broke our budget plans so we quit the project. The other family tried it for while to continue the planning but they want so much extras that the price skyrocket for them so they also quit the project.
On that property there stand now a similar house as we planned it... and it looks expensive...😅
I commend you on building your home. My German husband didn't want the hassles that accompany building a home, so we purchased an existing home in the Upper Harz and chose to complete the renovation ourselves. We are lucky in that we got a wonderful home at an affordable price. We will be renovating for the next three to five years, but we can control costs and ensure quality of work. The fees for buying a home were quite a shock to me as an American. We received bill after bill.
@@urlauburlaub2222, hmmm. My comment mentioned that many American homes are built very quickly when compared to German homes, and quality can be an issue. Likewise, building a home with wooden studs ensures the home will not last longer than seventy or eighty years, without extensive renovation. I agree that German homes last longer. We have not noticed any issue with homes moving slowly in our area. There were three other homes for sale aside from ours. All sold quickly. We live in a popular tourist area. Even the derelict home at the end of the village was purchased and is being fully renovated. We have no plans to ever sell our home though. It will go to our grown children when we are gone.
If you want to change anything to your house just wait a few years, do it yourself along with things you don't think of NOW and Jack will have the opportunity to learn how to do things. It always helps when a boy knows how to drill a hole (in a concrete wall), hold a hammer or mount some electric power sockets or switches.
We will have plenty of fun projects in our future. :)
Don't remembering how i found your videos, but after seeing some of the videos, i have to say, i love your content and how you see the European culture from a US perspective.
Living near Basel in Switzerland, Freiburg is our favorite shopping and sushi destination and just a beautiful place. Although, that dropped in numbers since our son was born.
Thank you so much for watching, that comment means a lot to us. We hope you are having a great start to the new year.
About reduction of living room and kitchen: It might be possible, that there are different contractors involved. If (don't know) there is a different firm doing wood floors and another doin tiles - then the reduction won't be on the bid of that tile firm. That will be another discussion - eventually the general contractor has to negotiate.
I bought a 16 years old house in an good area and was lucky to get it for the price.
I did 2 month renovation with friends and family, added electric shutters, lan network in almost all rooms, wired access points, wired security cameras and window contacts for heating automatic and security, prepared wires for new ring bells and buttons, replaced broken tiles and many more stuff.
Every week I try to spend some houres on unfinished business and guess I can start with the garden next year.
Only had payed craftsman there for two smaller things.
The house is still that good that I just got back 240€ of my heating bills.
Of course I would have done 2-3 things differently if I build it from scratch.
But iam happy we did it.
Took us 5 years to find a fitting home.
If you buy the land and than build the house you could have saved a lot of taxes and other additional, because than you only pay it for the land and not the finished house plus the land.
Building a house in a foreign country.. My great respekt. Brave people 🙂
good video! We are also shocked about the price with the Sonderwünsche extra cost, especially the bathroom, even u want to make the tiles from the 1.6m to up till the ceiling or a mosaic line between the tiles, the extra cost will be rocket! If you upgrade the standard option, they usually not refund the standard and charge you the price difference!
You have to look at it from the other side of the table. As a seller you have a customer who is already fully committed with his money and with his/her heart. It gets easy to fleece you because you cannot go back. You might have a good building company but you cannot choose the sub contractors. You had a good experience with the wood floor contractor but you had some bad experience with others. You should look very closely into the contract. You might be able to get your sanitary appliances you want by buying them yourself and provide them once the work has to be done and exchange them for the standard chrome. You take possession of the chrome appliances and sell them later.
Congrats on getting your own home.... don't fret to much about the fixtures and fittings .... in 10 yrs time you may be renovating and then you can have your black ⚫ taps and faucets 🙂
Interesting your synopsis of the KfW. I am about to invest in a renovation project in Brandenburg and am also looking at finance.... perhaps I need to look at the KfW.
I would really look into the KfW. They have options for renovation projects! Thanks so much for watching ❤️ Cheers from the Black Forest!
I can sympathize with your feeling about doors. I have book of photos of the old doors of our town. Living in a very small town in Greece, I was able to get a craftsman to make each one of our 12 by hand to my own design for a very reasonable price.
Fun video! Thanks for sharing!
nice video.
it helps to think of the houses that are being built as a special offer that is only valid in this configuration. if you deviate from this, it becomes significantly more expensive. the effort for the builder can be significant because, for example, the implementation planning has to be changed. or in the case of the floorboards: catalog price of the manufacturer 7o euro, the builder buys for all houses, price goes down to 30 euro. if you now think you can get the other wood planks that also cost 70 euros in the catalog at no extra charge, then that won't work if it wasn't planned as a possibility from the start. my experience is that builders, including myself, invest too much energy and money in special requests. in the end, it's not that important.
This is a great point!
We just built a house in Emmendingen near Freiburg about 10 year’s ago. We learnt not to underestimate the costs around the house. In our calculation we had "ideas" for this costs. But they at least doubbled. Best wishes for your…. . Regards, Bernd
I believe we have fiber connection, but I need to double check this.
Welcome to the club! I had the same experience when my house was built in the Netherlands. I'm under the impression builders aren't that keen on special requests because it interferes with their planning, logistics, etc. So if you have any special request they're going to make you pay for it, heavily. You're being financially punished.
It is difficult to know the motivations for the cost and we try to be sympathetic that they are the experts, not us... but yes, especially when some of the quotes weren't even itemized and just provided abstract costs, it felt like they really were deterring us from making changes.
@@TypeAshton Those behavior is not a good style. I former worked for a house buliding company and if you made changes of standard there I would say you loose about 15 to 25% extra on top for that. That is not nice at first look but not as heavy as it could be. The subcontractors normally have contracts with the house seller which are very strict and very cheap or at least on the lowest possible side. So if you take standard, they can do just the work but not a little bit more. If you choose extras they more or less (depends!) try to make money out of that because there is not a lot of it from the standard contract. And this amount of "make money" adds to the 15 to 25%. So it sums up fast. My advice is: Try to do severe changes of the standard while contracting for the house in the first place. There they have to get you as a customer. Of course this results in knowing what to want in the first place which is quite a thing.
28:20 Door subcontractor watching the video goes 💰🤑💵💰💵🤑💰
Oh gosh we are holding out hope. 🤞🤞
YOu missed to asked the guy with the tiles that they also got a compensation cause laying smaller tiles takes more time then 1 big one, you seem to have a factor of 4 to 1, which ends up in a lot less effort while laying those tiles.
And guess what takes more time, the laying idea (having a guy who is doing it professionally with a huge experience it is not a big deal -- ask the tile layer how much longer it takes with small and big tiles or go to a master school for tile layers) or the laying of the tiles ?
And even after that you have to do less work for the "fugen", filling the spaces between the tiles which is time consuming cause at the end you have to make sure that all "spaces are filled fully" and then you have to clean a lot more.
You have become a victim of the sky rocket you ordered to fly a bit higher, but saved a lot laying the wooden floors.
You should also mention the quality difference between a German house and a US house. It is pretty much comparing a card board box to a bunker that will still be there in 300 years. Plus the quality of the materials used that you, of course, pay for and the way your contractors are trained to build to the highest standard. I live in the US and have several houses, but the US house is no match to a German house. What's your thought?
In germany, always ask for a written cost estimate. If the company deviates too far from this, you have something in your hand.
Yes! And in other circumstances we usually would, but here we asked if that was possible and was always told they wouldn't do it because they had to get it approved by the builder and contractor first. 🤷🏻♀️
@@TypeAshton that is a typical strategy. Because it works.
The correct response to that kind of caviat is: "Yes, please do that then"
The idea is that most people don't want to inconvenience others.
And again. That works. However it really helps to keep in mind, that it is their job and they are being paid for to do this.
It's not an inconvenience, it's part of the process :)
EDIT: I don't want to demonize the German Subcontractor or housing market. I have not enough experience. It is sadly just the case that building a house is not a cooperative job with contractors, it's a tug of war.
The magical word is called "Kostenvoranschlag".
The probability universal problem with some companies is that their sales, billing and installation teams behave as separate businesses. Sales has incentives to win over customers. Installation or building team has incentives to get jobs done quickly and have the customer to sign the delivery received. Billings seems to be directed to be innovative and find ways to come up with additional cost items and forget what was agreed earlier in the hope that the customer doesn't notice and will at least eventually pay. These businesses don't expect to have recurring business from the customer, so customer satisfaction etc isn't important for them. They also can be in such say tight competition with other businesses that their normal profit margins are too small, which kind of forces them to use all opportunities to get more money form these additional jobs or changes.
For a future Video, I would be interested to find out a bit more about the home heating system you are having installed. Presumably it is an energy efficient installation, is it a heat pump? Ground source/air source? Perhaps an explanation as to why these systems are energy efficient etc. Are you having a solar panel array installed? How does this integrate into house etc.
Hi there! Great idea! We would love to expand on this topic in a future video. Our home will have electric underfloor heating, where each room will be individually temperature controlled. Because our home is all electric we are also looking into solar panels.
The Danube or BLUE DONAU is start from the Black forest Germany and ends at the Black sea
Depending on the date of your contract or your permission you might be eligible for "Baukindergeld" after you have moved in.
For most invoices you might be able to deduct a cash discount ("Skonto" - approx. 2-3%).
If you have an architect handling the building process ("Baubetreuung"), which you should, he should have deducted it before sending you the invoices to pay.
I don't know if that will make you feel any better but I was looking at bathroom fixtures and I had a similar experience. The chrome fixtures totalled roughly $500 when I changed them to black stainless steel they shot up to $2700
Holy cow! Yeah it seems as though that was what happened to us as well.
Very sympathetic couple 😀
Thank you. ❤️❤️
Isn't the KfW that bank that had been funded by the US back when they where in need of strongest allies after WW 2 ?
This is the money from the Marshall funds - it still has not gone , it is circling for ages. It was not burned, cause it was used as loans inside germany , quite a big difference to all the other recipients of those Marshall funds.
And now you benefit from Marshall's program, 75 year later.
Yes, it's really incredible that these funds have been continually invested rather than being immediately spent. It has made some huge progress within Germany.
I can assure you that you are not alone in your experience of building a house. For that price, I would have transported the tiles myself ;) But in my experience, the tiler would have simply refused to lay the tiles. Whereas an extra price for laying 60x60 tiles is absolutely understandable. Laying such large tiles is a punishing job. Good luck and strong nerves! :)
It is not the price of transport, but the price of the tiles.
you should always ask for a "Angebot" and there are all prices layed out on that "Angebot". If you then get a Bill that does not refelect the "Angebot" or "Auftragsbestätigung" which is what you orderd you can simply say im not paying that and you have something if thats going to court. Easy, in Germany always get i court relevant document so u cant get screwed and fight back super easy. Because you as a customer are in the Position of the company having to prove that what they did was approved by you. And if there is no signature or whatever than they have to pay that stuff themself =).
Well, I've never build a house but I can tell you from my experience that pretty much every craft with a lot of labor involved is reluctant to give you a ballpark estimate.
That's my big issue with craftsmen in germany. Also never tell them to "Get it done and if it's more than X€ call me." They will never call. Most people don't like to make trouble and when it's done properly they just pay.
Ich baue auch im Schwarzwald. Evtl. sehen wir uns mal beim wandern ;)
Wow cool! Ja, wenn Sie uns auf den Trails sehen, sagen Sie Hallo!
changing door handles for my house was ~800€ extra already with rebate from the not used handles...
Wow, it is amazing. Can you please tell more about the location where you are building your dream house, the Black Forest is a pretty huge :)
We've shared before that we wont be moving too far away from the Freiburg area, but we'll keep the exact location to ourselves because we don't want to compromise Jack's safety.
Just a few ideas:
1) Everybody can mount bathroom appliances. Why don't you simply tell the construction company, they should neither deliver any of these parts nor mount anything and return the calculated money for it to you? Take the money, buy whatever you like best, and mount all these items yourselves during a weekend.
2) You need more talent, of course, to lay tiles. An option might still be to deny delivery of the standard material completely, buy it yourselves and look for a talented crafts(wo)man who wants to earn some additional money "ohne Rechnung". (If you don't know the meaning of "ohne Rechnung" yet, ask some of your German friends about it. 😉) Ask your friends and neighbors if they know someone who has proven to work well and ask this expert if (s)he would be available for you.
3) Whatever source you choose for your tiles, make sure to get app. 5 % to 10 % spare material and store it in some corner of your basement. When you need to repair something, it will be difficult to procure something that looks *exactly* as the material you got already, even if it is the same brand and model.
All building prices have risen since the beginning of the year.
The original costs were calculated beforehand and then would not have changed for you. But if you now express special requests then this will be charged at the current prices. In addition, the subcontractors earn more from special requests than from a tightly calculated initial installation.
You have to think about what is firmly attached to the house and can only be changed with difficulty later
and what can you later easily exchange for better ones.
Maybe you will postpone the purchase of one or the other piece of furniture until later if you don't need it urgently. The design of the outdoor area is also a task that you will have a lot of fun with LATER.
Do what you really need and take your time for everything else.
But an electric car is worth considering, but it will take time because the car manufacturer is missing parts. I don't think the subsidies for that will go down anytime soon.
I had the same experience. For changes I asked for an exact calculation. So I finaly got a lot of standard ;-)
Es war schon immer etwas teurer, einen besonderen Geschmack zu haben. 😉
Perhaps you could consider cutting the music out when you are talking?
19:02 lieferung can not to be translated as delivery (fee) it is the higher price you have to pay for the tiles it self compared to the smaller ones cause bigger tiles are usually more expensive if you order same quality cause the production and quality assurance is a lot more expensive for the manufacturer. What they mean is the delivery of a higher quality tile.
You have to pay 2000€ net and divide that on the amount of space like 150 qm then you get the price per squaremeter. Looks like you pay 13,5 € per qm for your taste and choice. 150 qm seems a lot, but a tiney 2x 2 m guest bathroom is not a 4 qm space if you add the 3,5 walls without the door. 3,5 walls each 2m long and 2,5 m high adds 30 qm and there they are: 34 qm. Another bathroom of 4 times the size like 3x3 you will get it , maybe 1 wall less there having a door and a window.
But this looks like a scam cause usually you get the amount of space you will cover with tiles, then you get the price that is calculated in your building contract and then you get the amount of tiles for each room and its full price per qm or square meter. Then you can calculate your own if each room needs big tiles like the guest rest room would be quite expenisve this way due to its amount of tiles.
You have to ask every detail before you order, ask, ask, write and let someone crossign if there are additional changes.
Thanks for helping us work through the bill. We are a bit relieved to hear most people agree with our reaction on the costs. As of today we are happy we rejected all of this special work.
So very happy and excited for you guys!!!
One thing I want to let you guys in on… It is 💯 normal to ask for a Kostenvoranschlag/Angebot… you’re not wasting anybody’s time… don’t feel bad. It’s a normal day to day activity for a company to send out Angebote! It’s your hard earned money… and in order to get the most out of it, ask for Angebote left and right. 💗
Oh and yes! 💯 go with an EV! I have a VW ID.4 AWD on order and am waiting everyday to get the news that it’s on the ship. I’m a German , currently living in the US. We’re I to live in Germany, I would’ve probably went for the KIA EV6 or Hyundai Ioniq5… but those cats are not available here yet. So… I’ll start out with the VW and see where it takes me in the near future… if I’ll stick with it or if I’ll switch 💗
oh Wow! We haven't really begun the shopping process yet, but will certainly take a look at those as well. Really great looking cars - congrats on yours! Hopefully it ships to you soon.
❤️ Cheers from the Black Forest!
@@urlauburlaub2222 I respectfully 💯 disagree.
@@TypeAshton just start watching some YT videos on EVs for research purposes so you’re not completely in the dark about what’s new or coming on the market. Carmaniac, Nextmove, Electrifying (UK Channel) and Bjorn Nyland are good channels to begin with.
@@urlauburlaub2222 I don’t understand where your thinking comes from. Do you know the range of the average newer EV? Most EV owners charge at home. If you have a PV-system on the roof, even better… road tripping with an EV would also lead you out of the Schwarzwald and the European charging station network expands day by day. Is it perfect? No… but when the first automobile was introduced, people thought it to be a fluke and kept talking up the horse and buggy… and look where we are today in mobility. It’s very possible to travel throughout Europe with an EV. The daily commute to/from work is easily mastered by an EV.
How many public chargers are available in the Schwarzwald region, specifically in Freiburg… the charging net is continuously being expanded. Even grocery stores are adding charging stations and most Hotels also offer charging. Tesla Destination Chargers at hotels are rapidly increasing too and there are adapters that can be purchased in order for a regular EV to use a Tesla destination charger (note: I’m not talking about a Tesla Supercharger).
As you mention the “black market” for EVs… I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Germany is still subsidizing the purchase of a new EV as far as I know and the average German is known to drive a vehicle for YEEEEAAAAARRRRSSSS… because - you’re right - we take care of our vehicles and we hold onto our car for many many many years. Though EVs are still fairly new, there are already studies out about how well EV battery packs perform (charging capacity) after 100k-200k km of driving.
Change has to start somewhere and when we continue to hold onto “old thinking”, we can’t evolve and develop a better future. I mean… that’s why people decide to build energy efficient homes now 🤷🏻♀️… invest into sustainably sourced energy etc etc etc.
EVs today are already well developed there’s no reason to hold off on them, if they fit the personal driving profile. Even, if the commute is 1-1.5h one way. There are Germans already today, who do that kind of commute to/from work in an EV 🤷🏻♀️.
I live by: ATTITUDE IS ALTITUDE. Where there is a will, there is a way. 💗
@@TypeAshton another option is the Skoda Enyaq
I hear you...have you ever imagined the size of house you could've gotten in Illinois for that money? Pheeew...but then again, you'll live in one of the most beautiful, safe and convenient areas in Germany.
You are lucky to have built in Bavaria regarding the real estate transfer tax. In Bavaria its 3,5 % of the purchase price of the house, in Northrhine Westfalia where I live I have to pay 6,5 %. Black faucets are currently in but crome faucets will always be acceptable. And if you want to change things lateron, go to a hard ware store, get any extras there and DIY.
Bayern? No, Baden-Württemberg
@@arnodobler1096 Well, 5 % in Baden-Württemberg is still cheaper than in NRW.
@@indiramichaelahealey5156 👍
Hello, I would be interested to know how long you have been looking for a house ? Did you want to rebuild or did you first look for a finished, brought house ?
You are very lucky to be able to build a house near Freiburg. Many family have been looking for a house for years. My neighbors searched for four years directly in freiburg and then bought 17 km away.. Do you know the "local model"? Many can therefore not build themselves, but have to buy from a developer.
We also built near Freiburg 7 years ago (hello neighbor) and have had the same experience with the extra charges. Ok, was from the building materials trade, but that's often normal. At the moment it is even more difficult and expensive because of delivery problems, the craftsmen often do not make any more offers because the material is sold at the daily price, you do not know what it will cost tomorrow.
Yesterday I found the video about Healthcare and today I was shown your house building video and now i`m a now subscriber. Well done.
I wish you very nice neighbor, a good neighborhood is worth its weight in gold.
Hi there! We had been just sort of "part-time" browsing the listings for quite a while, and then jumped when we saw this one listed. Initially we were mostly looking at older homes that had re-entered the market (in towns like Kirchzarten, Stegen, etc.). We ended up buying a house that is approximately 20km from the city center because we just couldn't afford a house of the same size (plus new with a garage and a yard) in the city proper.
Nice to have you as a new subscriber and a neighbor! ❤️
Good luck on buying the car...we ordered an ID3 in June - for delivery in November.
On calling to ask about delivery we found out it will be delayed until at least march.
😳😳😳
OH my. This is probably a very naive question - but I presume you had to pay a deposit when ordering the car. Was this just a flat rate or a percentage of the cost of the car?
@@TypeAshton Down payments are absolutely uncommon when buying a new car in DE, although the cars are only commissioned and produced from the manufacturer after the customer-specific order (applies to European brands). You usually pay the dealer at / immediately before delivery by bank transfer. Well-known customers pay afterwards when they receive the invoice. However, many vehicles are not bought at all, only leased.
@@TypeAshton
No deposit needed. We have good credit, own 2 homes, have been here forever, and it was a lease with a pretty big payment due at delivery.
The KFW subsidy for the wallbox ran out of funds yesterday, so those 900€ can no longer be applied for (you could apply without proof of a quote, or have placed an order to have it installed, so some may go unused)
There also is a subsidy for electric cars at 6k€/car - but it only applies to the first 1 million applicable cars that are registered and apply. This can only be claimed after you have taken receipt of the car and paid.
So in our case, a 15k payment on receipt of the car (which pushed the monthly lease rates down to 120€ - so pretty much a pre-pay) was calculated to only cost us 9k....Delivery today there is still money in the KFW subsidy pot - who knows what it will look like in March.
I am told I have to wait until the contractually stated day or month of delivery to pass, then write a formal letter demanding delivery within 8 weeks, then 4 weeks later a follow-up letter, and a few more steps that only a lawyer can advise you on...and then we could vacate the contract.
The thing is currently hardly anyone is able to deliver cars - which you see with escalating prices at the rental and leasing companies and even rising prices in the auto repair area as people are having to keep their current cars longer.
yes you are right, all craftsmen are all overworked and only work if you pay them extra or wait a long time
you mentioned warm and fuzzy feelings in your house, well, they are guaranteed because you have heated floors. You will never go back. My wife used to lay her clothes on the bathroom floor when we were in college in the 90s. We rented the bottom floor of a house. She still talks about the heated floors. Our house here in the US was built in the 70s, no fancy heated floors... but it is in the woods, on 2 acres (8000 m2), so we are good. And a 3 car garage with a totally private 100 yard driveway would have never happened in Germany.
Large tiles are hard to lay. I’ve tried it myself in flat it’s much harder then smaller tiles. But not having price in advance is bad I think.
this is highly interesting. thanks for sharing this experience so openly. we are thinking about buying or building a house. not sure which way to go
Glad we could help! Good luck with your future house ❤️ We can't wait to finally move into ours.
Cheers from the Black Forest!
To be completely honest and with the eyes of a four-time home builder (currently finishing #4), this all sounds rather normal for a typical house building project and not overly expensive. (Prices are high at the moment, period.)
Did you ever find out what the credit amount for the wood flooring would have been? I could imagine that the actual difference for tiles vs wood is not that large.
Other than that: Did you not have any other Sonderwünsche such as extra power outlets, extra lamp outlets, extra switches, maybe motion detectors for the outside? Just wondering ...
Unfortunately we never heard back on the wood flooring credit. We got fightened from the other quotes and pushed back on the changes. :(
As for the electrical, we did add more sockets and switches and moved a few around. We've learned in our life you can never have too many :)
That's true, and once you're done, you'll notice which ones you forgot. 😄 And not to jinx it: The last apartment I rented many moons ago did have wood flooring in the kitchen (newly put in by the owner for whatever reason), and when the new (!) dishwasher ran for the first time, the whole room was flooded, so keep an eye on it during its maiden run. 😉
We built a house 3 years ago. Regarding the actual costs: our architect told us a price the finished house will cost. To give you an idea, we had to pay an extra 1/3 of the estimated cost on top. And we are not exactly done, but the money is gone. In numbers our house was about 90.000 € more expensive than the initial estimated costs.
Wow! That is incredible! Do you think the pandemic affected the cost or do you mean that the house build was finished 3 years ago? The increased cost of materials is something we are facing at the moment.
@@TypeAshton We started 3 years ago. Everything got more expensive during the building time, some things like concrete went up 2 times. Everything is going up, it is incredible. Extras cost a big extra, always. We learned the hard way too. I wish you all the best with your house.
BTW I just read that in NRW the costs of building a one family house went up in one year (they chose the timeframe from November 2020 to November 2021) by 13%! If you take a sum of say 400.000€ in 2020, you would have to pay more than 50.000 € more in 2021, exactly 452.000€! And inflation is going up in 2022 on top too!
After the sentence with the new eCar has Ashton red ears. Auweia Jonathan, a happy wife means a happy life. Don't forget this.
The proposal for the pluming (Bath) looks wrong... always get a listing of all costs involved.
We wish they would have done this. But, it wasn't an option so it was best to just reject it.
If you need the outlet for the TV higher then the plugs you should tell them now, they fogot. Otherwise the wall wouldn’t be closed already!
Yes we actually reached out to the electrician again to make sure that it was executed correctly (it could be that we didn't explain it properly). From the looks of it they did some work behind the wall but we also want to make sure that there is a channel opening.
This being concrete you will most likely need a 2nd WiFi Access Point on the bedroom floor. Should be be a problem to put one, as you say all rooms are wired up with ethernet to connect one to.
Yes we often think about that too. Right now in our apartment we have a VERY thick brick wall separating our bedroom from the rest of the house (nearly .5 meter thick) and the wifi is terrible.
I absolutely feel with Ashton regarding the importance of doors. But should floor heating really be a cool feature ? I hope not..
I am somewhat surprised at the number of drywalls inside your house. Traditionally, Germans tend to prefer the brick&mortar version.
Crossing fingers everything will work out as you hope and plan for.
In many new buildings, especially in new apartment houses, there is a lot of drywall work going on. I really hate it.
Floor heating reduces the need of Energy for the same feeling of comfort. And that means less cost in the long run. Especially in the bathroom it is very nice.
Floor heating has basically only advantages apart from being more expensive to build.
@@RebellHAI There is no problem with dry walls. They are double planked and pretty durable and have good sound insulation. On top of that, if you want to reshape your floor plan, its more easy, or actual possible to tear them out again. Not to mention, that they are cheaper than brick walls.
@@oh0stv Unless the pipes start leaking, that is...
You certainly got taken for a ride. Sorry for your experience. A reminder to get everything in writing ... and if they do not want to do it, walk. Your attitude though is admirable ... Thank You!
10:44 You lucky ones ..... the KfW55 program was just suspended this day.
No more new people will get confirmations for their applies.
Reason: it costed the government too much - and the KfW 55 standard should be a "standard" now, which does not need a subsidy.
We feel very lucky about this!
However we did miss the KfW program for at home electric car chargers. But, I'd prefer to have the KfW55. :)
Why do you say “raising a family abroad “ in your intro? If you are building your dream house, you are at home in Germany aren’t you? Wishing you a good life in Germany.
Those upgrade prices are almost a fraud. Very unreasonable and frustrating. Welcome to Germany.
Nun , in allen, ob gut oder schlechten folgen wir den USA, dort wirst du seit Jahrzehnten von Handwerkern und Firmen gnadenlos über den Tisch gezogen, wer jemals in USA gebaut, oder umgebaut hat, oder einen Handwerker kommen lies, sollte einen sehr guten Anwalt haben ( die meistens auch Verbrecher sind ) Dazu kommt, das die Qualität der Arbeit durchaus niedriger ist. Und warum Handwerker das so machen ? weil sie es können, du must es ja nicht machen.
I bought a new kitchen 6 years ago and still have not installed it.
Denkt an eine Wallbox in der Garage, vielleicht kann die gefördert werden. Für einen Tesla, wäre WLAN in der Garage auch zu empfehlen.
ah ok danke für die tipps! Ich denke, wir werden wahrscheinlich die WV in Betracht ziehen, aber es ist wichtig, dies "zukunftssicher" zu machen.
@@TypeAshton : Kann man wenn man Leerrohre oder Kabel gleich einbaut vorbeugen und zum späteren Zeitpunkt nachrüsten .Alles das entlastet erstmal die Geldbörse .
@@TypeAshton Ich glaube es zwar nicht, aber vielleicht wird VW auch mal so zukunftsicher wie Tesla. Eine gute Wallbox braucht auch einen Netzwerkanschluß.
Angeblich wird durch eine Wallbox in der Garage die (Feuer-) Versicherung fürs Haus teurer!? Sollte man vielleicht vorab klären.
@@nordwestbeiwest1899 Ja wäre auch in Ordnung. Ich musste es aufwändig nachrüsten, wäre in einem neuen Haus ärgerlich.
you can always make your changes later. in 5-10 years you might want to renovate regardless, so you got much time to save money for high-end extras. we are building a house on our own (without any contractors, thanks to my dad who knows just about everything around handywork). But money is tight and we had to build some things on the cheap (not bad, but just cheaper options). we will in some years add windows to the roof, solar on top and some other stuff. But we decided to go all out in places that are hard to fix later on. We got really good tiles for our bath and floor heating throughout the house. having a house means you got the opportunity to make big changes later on. Just use that kind of power.
Also, there is a barn full of old doors one village over from us. They sell vintage house fixings and stuff. Maybe someone like this is around you, too? you can always buy them one by one or just one single special one somewhere in your home. If we got the money some day, i might buy one for our main entrance :D
What a steep hillside - spectacular, but may be a bit dangerous. Avalanche, landslide all possible. But you decided to live im Schwarzwald, not in the norddeutsche Tiefebene.
Remove the things from the contract, which you don't like, or which are too expensive if you change them. Use the saved money and buy the things on your own. This is the only chance to escape from the bad situation, when you are in a contract where they want to make a lot of extra money with your individual wishes.
Handwerker... 🤣 Der Kostenvoranschlag und die finale Rechnung weichen immer stark voneinander ab.
Beim Neubau , die Subunternehmer bieten ihr Standard bei der Ausschreibung des Investor an, um den Auftrag zu gewinnen. Bei Änderrungen sind Subunternehmer nicht an die angebotenen Ausstattung gebunden und bieten die Änderung mit höheren Preisen an. Außerdem fällt der Mengenrabat beim Grosshändler weg. Bei der Elekrotechnik ist es besser die Änderungen, zusätzliche Steckdosen, gleich zu machen. Später kostet es mehr. Arbeit und Geld.
Happy for you my salutations
Do you really only have drywall in the interior? Or does it only look like this in the video?
Do you mean on the interior partition walls? They are installing metal studs and drywall - and then I presume they will plaster over to have the same texture as the exterior.
@@TypeAshton Yes, they look the same, but these walls are nowhere near as stable as a brick wall. Therefore you have to be careful if you want to hang or fasten something.
Noone was expecting and empty unfinished build house Tour to be eccho free
There are other youtubers who film in the same empty room for years with horrible microphone and echo ignoring coments thst say to decorate the walls and put more fabric and deco in to the room to brake the echo
This would be a feason to apologize
But your sitution is compleatly understandable
Tiles seam scam
Just look up tile prices and calculate it your self
As a german i would pressure them to give me every cost or else i go to an otver ompany or do it my self
Just as a tip. Because thsts not cood buisness Strategie its shady what the tile company was not giving you a prize round about. Pls dont think its normal
Simply put, you have to have a resourceful craftsman like a carpenter as a friend and advisor who will tell you what is better for your needs! Then it won't cost so much money or money will be lost. There are namely some things where you can save money and still take your wishes into account. So having more knowledge about certain things has an advantage over the sellers of products and materials. Remember German Skilled workers are very well educated and trained people, so you have to be just as well informed strategically when facing them.
And here more information about the KfW Bank:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KfW
Really great advice. Funny enough, my Dad used to be a contractor and he was the first person I called to see if my expectations were out of sync with the bills.
But also, I (Ashton) used to work in a mini-job position for another turn-key construction company in Freiburg in the past. Thankfully, if we need any help in the future I feel like I can turn to them.
And thank you so much for the additional information on the KFW.❤️
@@TypeAshton : Just asked me if your dad knows the costs in Germany? But then came your information about Ashton and his experience working in a construction company. It's good to hear that someone knows what he is doing and has alternatives up his sleeve such as using the hardware store, laughs .....😅😉
@@TypeAshton your connection with the construction company is worth gold !!!
@@nordwestbeiwest1899 Ashton is the mom here.
@@grandmak. : I already understood the hint of the fence post. (Do you understand the German saying?)"Den Wink mit dem Zaunpfahl !"