Monday, December 13, 2010

Calling on all of you France lovers out there...and home builders

This post calls for an apology and asks for some advice. First, I am so sorry for being MIA the last couple of months. Life has become incredibly busy, at times overwhelming, mostly good but incredibly challenging...and unfortunately, this blog and building our house have become the casualties.

Now for that advice...

I have good news and bad news.

Good news first: my family and I are going to Germany and France for Christmas! We are spending a week with his sister's family in Orscholz, Germany, which is a small town in Germany, on the border of Luxembourg and France. We are then going to take almost a week for ourselves to visit the Alsace Lorraine region for ourselves.

We are looking for recommendations for the Alsace Lorraine area. Have any of you been? Any good recommendations for hotels? restaurants? things to do or see? We have the Michelin Guide, but I always prefer your advice truthfully. I promise to take pictures!

Bad news second: Update on the house: we were not on the same page as our architect, and so we decided to part ways amicably. In the meantime, we've decided to get approvals for the land and determine without an architect exactly where we want to build on the ten acres. Once we determine that, I think we are going to see if we can find a stock plan that we can tweak to our desires. If not, we will start the search again for an architect. Ugh. Any words of wisdom for those of you who have been through it would be much appreciated.

15 comments:

  1. We are looking at Shelter Kit. You can adjust the basic designs to meet your needs and put up the house yourself. Actually, we are planning to visit the main office in Tilton, NH, over the holiday break. They have a nice website and have been in business 40+ years. You could also have someone build it for you, if you aren't interested in doing it yourself. Good luck!

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  2. Welcome back... Have a fantastic time in Europe. It's amazing at this time of year! Lx

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  3. Hi Anne!
    Welcome back, it always is funny to see how real life can come between blogging, indeed time is passing by so quick lately! I was also busy but you haven't missed my house pics, it isn't finished to show pics yet.
    Hope your holiday will be great, enjoy and perhaps some of the french inspired blogs will know more about that area.
    Bye! Maureen

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  4. Any recommendations for French blogs? I have a couple, but no one who writes from that region...

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  5. Oh, we have so been there - getting rid of the architect not France. We worked for 9 months with one and when he was finally done we looked at them and said to ourselves, is this big house really what we want? The answer was no. We drew up plans ourselves after studying some on the internet. Then a friend who teaches CAD at a local vo-tech drew them up on the computer. We found a lumber company that would help us with load calucations and they even paid the engineer to figure it so they would get the job. Don't think you have to go through the regular channels of building to get it done. Life was put on hold, but we contracted our own house and got it done in 5 1/2 months. Everyone was amazed! The hard work paid off. We love our farmhouse!

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  6. I didn't get to the Alsace Lorraine region but I've heard it's beautiful! You must share photos of your trip. I'm sorry to hear about your architect — what a tough situation! Everything happens for a reason though and I'm sure it will work out for the best!

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  7. I hope the new year brings lots of happiness to you. Building a home can be (usually is) a stressful endeavor...it sounds like you are heading in the right direction with starting anew.

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  8. Hi Anne,
    All the best for 2011!
    Maureen x

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  9. I have just found you from googling swedish clocks and your picture of a whole bunch of them was one of the things that came up. It was with a blog from 2008 so I was thrilled to see that yo are still writing and I am bookmarking you right away. I will be reading through your archives over the next few days. Looking forward to getting to know you. Annette

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  10. Hi Anne, just checking how things are going with you, take care! Mxx

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  12. I would love to see some photos of your trip. And also the built house.

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