Jan 9, 2008
Guest house photos – finally
I will start by emphasizing that I don’t think these photos even remotely do the room justice…but I’m no professional photographer and I was waiting on the repairman so I apologize. I’ll start you off with a view into the bedroom, when you first open the door. We’re really thrilled with the color on the walls in here and although it’s not a huge space, it’s very... read more
Jan 2, 2008
How’s the guest house?
We certainly should have written about this already but with all the chaos of the holidays, we just haven’t found the time. But Stefan is back to work now and so am I so perhaps the blogs will become a bit more frequent again You may be wondering how things turned out with the guest house – well it’s not perfect yet but at least livable. We had some major issues with attaching the... read more
Dec 16, 2007
We’re nearing the end!!
Once again it has been very quiet from our side from a while, but mostly that’s only because we have been working so hard on the guesthouse. Friday we took a run to IKEA for the first part of the furniture (we are going back tomorrow for the rest) and the electrician returned with the lackie to put in the shower drain and surprisingly also a bill from Macky. Too sick to call, but not sick enough to... read more
Dec 13, 2007
The saga of the shower drain…..
While planning our guesthouse bathroom, Macky came up with the idea of using a shower grate, rather than a normal drain. A good idea, given that we have three rainwater showerheads in there. He has been meaning to bring it by for weeks now, and when the screed was poured last week he said he would be back wednesday of last week, and then again delayed ultimately saying he would come Monday of this week. He... read more
Dec 9, 2007
Playing with colors
The main reason to Hagebau last night (besides getting grout for the tile) was to pick up paint for the guesthouse. We originally inteded to go with white, but that just ended up being too much. Especially walking into the guest house it felt like the white was overpowering. Since we are not usually fans of walls being painted other than white we took a good amount of time playing with color samples. For... read more
Dec 9, 2007
The tile is (almost) finished
This morning we finally started on the last leg tiling the shower. We had to run to Hagebau yesterday before it closed for the weekend. When we returned, we where just too tired to go on. So, fresh and rested we finished the last few rows of tiles and planned on placing the tiles over the pipes. Finishing the tile was a simple task. Unfortunately we where not so lucky when it came to cutting the holes of... read more
Dec 7, 2007
Another step closer…..
Today was another huge day on the guest house. Not only did the electrician hook up the water heater but we also went to IKEA this morning to make sure there was not back ordering needed for the bedroom furniture we had picked out – all good so far! At home we finished the last of the sanding and beautifying the walls but we also got started on the wall tile in the shower. Neither of us has ever... read more
Dec 7, 2007
It’s slowly starting to come together…
We got quite a bit done yesterday and were both quite tired when we called it quits in the evening. But our hard work has really started to pay off and the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting closer. Stefan focused adding a few more corner profiles and spackling some of the holes Covey left behind. Then he switched over to sealing the corners of the rooms with acrylic which seems like a... read more
Dec 3, 2007
A major milestone
After weeks of delays from contractor and other mishaps we have finally reached the end of the rough build out. This morning at 8.30h Macky arrived with a helper in tow and promptly set out the fix the piping. It turns out they had to replace a pipe and now we should be 100% dry.At 9.06h the big truck with the Screed arrived. To say we where excited was an understatement. Here you can see the concrete... read more
Dec 2, 2007
Tomorrow is finally THE day
In our last post, we were going on about potentially putting in the screed on Friday which is basically one of last big step before we start the finishing touches on the guest house (paint, floor, tile, bathroom fixtures, etc.). BUT we had a rather unpleasant find on Thursday after Macky left when we turned the water back on to the house…one of hot water pipes connected to the heater Macky had just... read more











Tiffany is an American who has been living in Germany with her husband since 2001. The two are self-proclaimed "Self-Reliant Yuppies" who are in their early-30's and bought an 1830's farmhouse several years ago, which they have been turning into a more sustainable and green dream house. Two cats, a Newfie and their 2 year old daughter enjoy the adventure with them. Tiffany enjoys cooking, rock climbing, lux-camping trying to turn her black thumbs green and taking road trips. Visit the