Our Biggest Mistakes Building a House in Germany

You live... You learn... and then, you make a Youtube Video about it. In this video, we sit down and discuss the top 8 mistakes we made when building a house in Germany and what we would have done differently.

If you are interested in building a home in Germany, buying a house in Germany, are interested in German residential construction, or simply curious what a German hoise looks like.... we hope you enjoy this personal look into our experience.

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Episode 112 | #germany #usa #family #construction #fertigbau #homeconstruction #homebuildingjourney #homebuilding #homebuilder #residential #residentialproperty #homebuying #germanhouse #culturalcomparison #urbandesign #expatlife #movingabroad #americaningermany #america #livingabroad #sprint202307 | Filmed June 29th, 2023

Jump to Your Favorite Part 👌:
00:00 Intro
01:15 Skeletons in our Closet
05:33 Don't be Shocked
08:07 A Hack Job
09:34 They Ran Into Our House
11:37 Jonathan Hates This the Most
13:45 Ashton Hates This the Most
15:54 This is the Funniest Mistake
18:26 The Cultural Mistake
21:43 Your Feedback
22:46 Bloopers

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The DISASTER that RADICALLY Changed American Cities (and created a Giant Public Housing Industry)

German Neighborhoods are ILLEGAL IN AMERICA | Zoning & NIMBY-ism

Germany vs. USA: The Affordable Housing Crisis

German Houses vs. American Houses: Construction, Design & Scale

COST: German vs. American Houses | Purchasing Trends & Regional Differences

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[asmodon]

When our electrician showed us the plan for the outlets I said „ok, now triple the number and we‘re good.“ Everybody said „Why would you need 24 outlets in the living room and 15 in the kitchen?“ Never regretted this decision and I don’t use a single extension cord in the hole house.

[MyRS]

Hallo Ashton, hallo Jonathan, ihr könnt beide sehr stolz sein, auf das, was ihr hier erreicht habt. In schwierigen Zeiten ein Haus zu bauen, ihr beide in Vollzeit berufstätig, mit Kleinkind, schwanger - das ist schon echt eine tolle Leistung. Für viele Deutsche wäre das schon eine enorme Herausforderung, um so mehr für euch!
Ist das Haus perfekt geworden? Mit Sicherheit nicht, aber das gibt es so gut wie nie. Ich würde heute auch viele Dinge an unserem Haus anders machen, aber es ist nun mal so, wie es ist, wie der Kölner so sagt. Ich finde die "Mängel" nicht wirklich von Bedeutung, ist so ein bisschen "meckern" auf sehr hohen Niveau. Vielleicht seid ihr hier schon ein bisschen zu deutsch geworden. :) Was ihr nicht berichtet habt, sind all die vielen unzähligen guten Entscheidungen, die ihr getroffen habt. Well done!

[clairebinder]

I had a meeting with the electrician yesterday. He asked 3X why do you need 50 network plugs in the house and fiber down to the cellar 😂This is the 2nd home we build and never regreted any network plug or electrical outlet

[MarkusWitthaut]

"You can never have too much storage" = First law of logistics: Every warehouse gets full.
So if you would have more storage you'd still run out of space ;)

[jarnar]

Regarding the water outlet in the front of the house: how about running a water hose from your utility(Technik) room through the garage or installing a spigot inside the garage (making the connection to the existing water lines inside the utility room, that's "just" one hole and very few pipes needed) and run the hose from your garage outside?

[cobba]

There's that saying: "Das erste Haus baust du für deinen Feind, das zweite für deinen Freund und das dritte für dich selbst."
As you found out there's a certain learning curve.
Edit: seems my dad wasn't the only one to impart that particular bit of wisdom.

[JakobFischer]

What I have learned after buying an old house and renovationg it: you cannot decide beforehand where outlets are needed and you want to have your furniture. We had a clear opinion how everything should be arranged but half a year later we decided to move the TV and the couch and so on. Same in the kids rooms. The only thing you can do is to place outlets in a way that you can place furniture in different ways. And yes, there are always not enough outlets outside. But if you need more outlets there are some solutions where you can put cables in on the wall.
And after living more then 10 years in that house my advice is: there is no eternal solution and you are changing (kids grow up), the world is changing (no more phone lines, no more cable TV, all LAN now, no more gas heating? EVs out of a sudden?), the only thing you can do: prepare for the change.
Or how my electrician said when we were planning the new power system 12 years ago: I will give you a 50Amp main fuse, perhaps there will be electric cars in the future. I thought that will never happen. But now we have two of them. And a PV. Battery is planned.

[Bobrogers]

When I built my retirement home, I gave my builder my hand-drawn floor plan, and when he showed me the computerized version I made little footprints of all the pieces of furniture that I was bringing from the old house to make sure that they would fit. This changed the dimensions of one bedroom and the location of a couple of doors and windows - and yes, the location of outlets!

[Bladel]

The garage door you got is the cheap option. Upgrading to a segmented door would not only solve the annoyances but could also save on heating in winter because they are insulated instead of this large piece of thin metal that puts your indoor garage in direct contact with the elements outside.

[henrischutte]

In the past decades more and more household appliances got electrified but the building codes didn't really keep up with this trend resulting in a shortage of electrical outlets, not only in existing but also in new homes. But now most of these appliances are moving towards wireless (battery operated) so this problem will solve itself. And regarding the missing water outlet on the front I would probably opt for a small sink in the garage. Then you would not only be able to connect a small hose from there but also have water available while tinkering in the garage and to wash your hands afterwards. It looks like your utilities room is next to your garage, so making an extra connection there doesn't seem that complicated.

[sergeleon]

While I'm from the Netherlands we have much similarities with building here. For me I wanted to change and add like 12 electric outlets and while it being my first home I was on budget and per outlet it would cost me like €150 if it was done by the builder, I ended up doing the Labour etc. myself afterward cutting in the concrete and putting in new pvc ducts, new cables etc. and in the end besides my own time it did cost me like €150 in materials. I did more projects myself on my home and learned many things, I also would do some different if building a second time. If you want to change the garage door, you could also offset the costs for a new one by selling your current door 2nd hand to someone else and this way it also won't be wasteful.

[kreativuntermdach]

About the wooden bannister: use different kinds of wood in your interior and/or decorations. This way you are free to add whatever in wooden form and it just looks intentionally chaotic. We did that with our house because we could not possibly pay for the good stuff all throughout. And we had to incorporate a lot of used furniture because new was out of the question. Everything is now wooden or white and it makes for a good warm mix although everything is different.

[Muscles_McGee]

It's easy to run conduit on the ceiling or walls and put in more electric outlets. I prefer conduit over hidden in the wall utilities for safety and putting in more outlets.

[o]

My advice: replace the garage door. Now! If you hate it, imagine how happy you'll be every time you see the new one - at least for quite a while. Life is too short to be constantly annoyed about something like that.
The problem with the different wood might be solved best, by adding more different wood.
My house was bought by my parents when I was a kid. This is where i grew up. The house was built with literally hundreds of almost identical ones in 1964 and by today's standards it has a lot of imperfections. Nevertheless, I like it, it's my home. I think your house will change a lot over time and little by little you will adapt it and it will fit you more and more. As all these cloned houses in my neighborhood from the mid 60's, that now look pretty individual.
Unless ... if your American roots break through. Americans have less problems parting with "their" home and move to another place than, e.g. we Germans do.

[AlBfR]

Perhaps pantries aren‘t that common anymore in Germany. But I remember that almost every house build in the fifties in the neighborhood where I lived had at least a small pantry. We had a freezer in it and sometimes sausages were hanging from the ceiling. To be fair, the house of my grandparents that was also built in the fifties didn‘t have a pantry. They had their storage mainly in the basement.

[geneviere]

In German houses the cellars are often used as storage rooms or extra pantries. Even if my grandparents put in a pantry into their kitchen, too. But we had a room in the cellar in which we had a shelf with all the glasses of fruits and jellies my Granny cooked in to preserve for the winter and the big freezer. And how somebody else pointed out in the commentaries - the more storage possibility you have the more things you put in that you might not ever use again - there is never enough storage... What I would change first would be to alter the electrical system around your garage. Working with different extension cord and multiple sockets actually can be dangerous, too - as people tend to "overload" that. And maybe put gummi bumpers outside onto your garage door. Might prevent some damage.

[lindacollins]

Congratulations on building and furnishing a beautiful home for your American family in Germany. As an American also living in Germany, I have a sense of just how huge an undertaking this was! Gut gemacht!! I enjoy your channel and look forward to following your Black Forest family adventures. May you and your boys have years of happiness and good health in your new home.

[hansmolders]

Advice for the shelf underneath the staircase, drawers! The full extension kind! You will hate getting on your knees just to get to the thing you'll use all the time.

[richard--s]

There are Garage doors that don't move out but still tilt up to the ceiling in one piece. But of course it takes up more space in the garage...

Well, they could have asked you.

You might have chosen a segmented one like you said. That takes up the least amount of space.