Our New Home

The 9th move

This this the 9th time I moved so far and I hope it will stay at this number for a while now. With the help of our friends we moved to our new place on the 17th of April 2004. I guess they will miss the bi-yearly ritual of moving, at least somehow :-)

Europeans would say it has 4 1/2 rooms, two bathrooms and 118 square meters, located on the first floor. Americans would call it a 3 bedroom on the second floor.

Minergy

It is a certified "minergy" house. This means it requires very little energy to heat. We also do not us fossil energy, we use a air-air heat exchanger to heat the house.

Pictures

The following picture are made right before we moved in. It shows the kitchen and the big balcony that has about 33 square meter. The kids play football (soccer) on it.
Part of the living room and the kitchen:

Balcony:

Would you build it again?

Beware: all you hear about the hassle when you build a house or apartment is true! At least more or less. In our case I was not too disappointed on how it was done. Things like, rip the floor out three times and get a new one, leaking this-and-that, etc should not shock you if you intend to do (let it) build a house or apartment. Even now, (August 2005) we still have a few issues that are not resolved yet.
You will also learn a lot about extortion.. "of course we can do that, but....". They are going to try to rip you off for every minor change. My advise: be PERSISTENT!

Another major issues was, that about four months after we moved in, the constructor filed for chapter 11. What did this mean for us? Who will finish the surrounding work and who has to pay for it? When will it be done (still not done in August 2005)? Do we have to pay the bills from the various craftsman even though we already fully paid for it? This WILL happen in an event you have have moved in less than 3 months ago. This (Swiss?) law is (Handwerkerpfand) made to protect the craftsman but can ruin you. But we were lucky as it happened in the fourth month after we moved in.

Can you save taxes now? Who told you that? I actually pay MORE taxes now!

And? Would you do it again? Even though it costs a lot, means a lot of trouble and takes away flexability (location wise)?
Hmm, YES!

My ADVISE!

Just a few of the most important ones. Some of the following may not apply to you. Some of them could save you a lot of money!

• Sign EVERY page in the contract with your initials, you as the buyer AND the seller. Do IT!
• Do NOT pay the full amount direct to the seller. Keep 10% on a blocked account until the 3 month are over.
• While building, be PERSISTENT and stubborn. Don't let them talk you into some "crap".
• When done, use an expert for the acceptance. E.g. join the http://www.hev-schweiz.ch/ and ask there for 'help'.