It Won’t Be Long Now November 21, 2010

By popular request (okay, just from Linz =) ) I thought I’d post a few photos of the flat in its current state. As I’m sure I’ve said a million times, it’s by no means finished, but there has been some progress since the orginal photos I posted. I’ll focus just on the back part of the flat for this entry, and will try to take some photos of the front in the next week.

The kitchen, I think, will come together fairly nicely once we get cabinets, etc. And I have pink and gray orchid blossom decals that will go into the bathroom once we’ve determined whether or not we’re able to install another cabinet. But I’m feeling a little stumped on how to make the loo more interesting. I could go the decal route like I’m planning to do throughout much of the flat, but I’m not quite sure what sort of decal and style would make sense. At the moment, all I have for inspiration is a duck bar of soap and a papier-mâché fish. So any ideas, throw them my way!

Here we go….

The view when you walk into the kitchen. New island, sink and to the left a stove/oven unit.

Sink and "tea nook"

Close-up of "tea nook"

Kitchen island

Rose from our garden

Fridge =)

The loo. It's sort of long and skinny, so I'm not sure how to decorate it.

Notice the water heater under the sink. If we hadn't complained and asked for one, we would have only cold water with which to wash our hands. Yuck.

Bathroom. The only room that's just about finished except for a possible cabinet and decals that will go above the tiles.

The big projects for me at the moment are trying to decide which decals to get for our bedroom, guest room/office and the lounge, as well as deciding on a storage unit for the lounge. I love vinyl decals as they really add character to a room, but I am concerned about the fact that we won’t be able to take them with us when we move. Most are removable, but not reusable, and the ones I’m interested in range in cost from about $60 to $150. What do you think? Would you invest, say, $300 in decorations you know you can’t take with you?

P.S. I’ve decided I’m crap at coming with up titles for entries, so see if you can guess my inspiration….

The Secret Science of a Seat Upgrade & Fun While Fighting Jetlag July 14, 2010

I arrived back in Germany on Sunday morning, one day later than originally planned. Ah, the joy frustrations of travel. Here’s a recap of what happened:

I got to the Indianapolis Airport on Friday a little after 6pm, and had plenty of time to hang out in the food court area with my mom and dad before flying at 8.16 pm. We said our farewells, I went through security with no problems, and decided to try to speak to someone at the gate about my seat assignment for the trans-Atlantic flight. When I got to the gate, there were already two longish lines at both my gate and the one directly next to it. I figured out that the flight going to Washington Dulles had been delayed by two hours due to weather, so that meant quite a few people were going to miss their connecting flights. The agent at the desk I was waiting in line for appeared to be having a very, very bad day. She kept putting her head down on the desk and rubbing her temples. By the time I finally got up to the desk to speak to her, I had heard murmurings of “Chicago” and “delay”from people around me, and my question changed from “Can I have an aisle seat?” to “Is there a problem with the Chicago flight?” Her eyes got big and wild and she asked her colleague next to her if there was a problem with the Chicago flight, too? He goes, “Oh, yeah….mechanical failure. It hasn’t even left Chicago yet and will probably end up delayed by a couple of hours.” It was then determined that there was no way in you-know-what that I was going to make my connecting flight to Frankfurt. I felt badly I just had made her day worse, and offered her some ibuprofen. It was the least I could do. After a 10-minute break to “get some air,” she re-booked both my flights for the next day and I phoned my mom and dad to come and get me. My dad’s first words were, “Wow, honey…the time really flew by in between visits this time!” Har har.

Both flights on Saturday went smoothly. I had sort of hoped, however, that I might be able to angle for a seat upgrade on the trans-Atlantic flight given that I had been delayed for an entire day due to the mechanical failure.

First-class on a United 747: it probably looked something like this, but I wouldn't really know.

The gate agent in Chicago told me, however, that United would only be responsible to compensate in me in some way if I had been stranded in a city other than my city of origin (i.e. if I had been stuck in Chicago instead). I just accepted what she told me without any kind of fuss, but I still find it a little surprising that I wasn’t entitled to anything after being delayed for a full day due to circumstances within United’s control (i.e. not weather-related). Since I’ve never – ever – been given any kind of seat upgrade, and just about everybody else under the sun and their brother has at some point, I keep wondering what the secret formula for success is?  I know airline reward programmes offer upgrades, but I’m talking about all the people I hear about who get seemingly random ones. Is it sheer luck? Pushiness? Calamity? When the Mr. and I flew to Vegas to get married with my wedding dress in tow, I thought, “Maybe, just maybe….” Nada. Of course I’ve had flights cancelled, delayed, etc. but never an upgrade to show for it. And on numerous occasions I’ve graciously been the volunteer to swap seats to accommodate a family, or to balance out the plane…zip. I wonder, if I were struck by lightning on the tarmac walking out to the plane, perhaps then I’d get a seat upgrade? Even a teensy one?? Nah, probably not. Anyhow, I did manage to get an aisle seat and some sleep, so I’m thankful for both of those things. And of course thankful that the plane didn’t go down. Always a satisfied customer when that doesn’t happen.

The Mr. met me at the airport and I was VERY delighted to discover he had rented a car. I had warned him numerous times that my luggage was going to be very heavy and cumbersome, so it might be in our best interest to just rent a car instead of trying to take the train back. He was holding firm, though, that the train was more convenient and a better option (for him. See, this is key. Trying to lug around luggage on a train is never the convenient and “better” option for me.) When I saw him at the airport he explained that the train times on Sunday morning hadn’t really been ideal, so he decided at the last minute it might make more sense to just go ahead and rent something. He got a Volkswagen Scirocco, a little car with a whole heck of a lot of vroooom.

It goes real, real fast.

Since he had rented a car, we figured “why not make use of it?” and do a little sightseeing. Keeping me up on my feet would also reduce the chances of falling asleep on my bed in the middle of the day and turning into a snarling bear when wakened. So from the airport, we decided to go check out Darmstadt, a city that the Mr. had once studied in. Darmstadt town center is, well, kind of depressing. It was flattened during WWII and was rebuilt quickly and without character. I really found myself why we were bothering to visit at all. But then The Mr. took me to an area of Darmstadt that wasn’t destroyed and is full of gorgeous art nouveau houses and buildings. Count me impressed.

Darmstadt in all its glory.

After Darmstadt, we headed to a little village with a castle called Burg Stettenfels where we met the Mr.’s parents and his sister and her family for dinner.

Burg Stettenfels

We had dinner outside on the grounds of a castle overlooking the town. It was a beautiful evening; warm, but not too buggy or humid. I think I like summer in Germany, as long as it doesn’t get too hot. We’ll get to that in a minute.

In general I had trouble staying awake in the car for very long, but the good thing was that for some reason I would only need a power nap of 20 minutes or so, and then I would be awake for a while. Then I’d need a nap again, but I’d wake up. (Unfortunately the napping began a couple of times while the Mr. was in the middle of telling me something. Oopsy.) Somehow driving around and cat-napping in between destinations seems to be the ideal solution for jet-lag as you’re never allowing yourself to fall into a deep sleep but you are recharging the batteries a bit. (And at one point I woke up to find us driving 100 mph on the autobahn, so this is also an effective cure for jet-lag, causing instant alertness. Not that I’d recommend it, though.)

By the time we got home that night, I was pretty tired but still managed to stay up until about 11.30pm. Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep very well as Germany’s having a bit of a heat wave at the moment, and no one has air conditioning at home. Or on public buses. It’s just plain wrong, people. Today the temperature got up to 95 degrees, and I nearly died from a heat stroke walking into town, but that’s a story for another day.

Out with the old, in with the new May 19, 2010

After a long and at times stressful journey yesterday, I finally arrived in Indiana late last night. I don’t even have the energy to go into describing everything that went wrong, but I was pretty cranky with Frankfurt Intl’ Airport, United Airlines AND Washington Dulles Intl’ Airport by the end of the day. That’s right, you’re all on my poo-poo list now. So watch out.

But I am happy to report that the move back in Germany went smoothly on Friday. I went through some of the kitchen boxes on Sunday to help the Mr. get a little more organized before I left, so now I feel slightly less guilty about abandoning him to the “no kitchen” situation. However, he did write today to tell me about the challenges of eating chicken soup with a knife. Yep, I never managed to find any silverware for him, poor guy.

It took the movers a couple of hours to bring everything inside, and reminded us of exactly how much crap we have. Seriously. We never did the usual “moving purge” of stuff because we didn’t really have the time, plus the moving company did all the packing for us which is when this type of purge would normally happen. I’ve told the Mr. that this doesn’t let us off the hook from still doing a purge as we unpack, however.

The flat was cold the first night, but eventually heated up to a reasonable level. We were a little concerned since it is an old building, but we think it will be okay. The sitting shower is…interesting.

The "sitting shower" prior to its installation

We were relieved to find that the water pressure is nice and strong, and there’s plenty of hot water – whew. But still, it’s a chilly experience to have to turn off the water to suds up given that the room never really gets all that warm. So we definitely have to convert it a regular shower, but the Mr. has nearly two months to do this before I’m back ; )

Then on Saturday we went to Ikea and bought lamps for three rooms, as well as a large gray rug for the lounge. We went on a bit of a buying spree as the Mr. handed Baby Merc back over to the rental car company today, and we’ve decided we’re going to hold off on buying a car for now. Makes me a little sad that we’re going to lose the convenience of hopping into it for bigger shopping trips and the luxury of being able to easily travel around on the weekends, but I know we’ll save heaps of money.

In the meantime, I happily have a car to use here in Indiana. My mom recently bought a new car, so that leaves me her old one to drive while I’m here. I drove up to my brother’s house today where I’ll be staying for the next few days with my mom as she’s taking care of my niece & nephew while my brother and his wife are in Japan. Then I head back to my parents’ house and will begin working on clearing out all the things they’ve been storing for me. The plan is to put together a big yard sale, and hopefully my old will become somebody else’s new.

Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind May 11, 2010

We signed the lease on Friday for the art nouveau flat, and the movers will deliver our things on Friday at noon. It’s a relief to finally have a place of our own, and to know that we’ll soon be reunited with all of our cherished (and now probably dusty) belongings. I am slightly worried about a couple of things, however, which puts a bit of a damper on the move-in joy:

1. We saw the newly installed tub\shower combo on Friday. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but one of the drawbacks to this flat and what would have resulted in an instantaneous veto from me had the Mr. said we couldn’t change it is the “sitting shower” in the bathroom. On our first viewing, the agent explained that a combination bathtub\sitting shower (basically a tub with a seat moulded into the back) would be installed. “Sitting shower?” I asked the Mr. with trepidation. He whispered that it wouldn’t be a problem to change it if we took the place. In the days following, the Mr.’s attitude shifted slightly from “we can change it, no problem” to “I think we can change it.” In the end, I decided just to trust his initial inclination and we agreed to take the place. He’s not as concerned about it as I am, but says he will do his best to try to fix it to a more normal shower setup. (I mean, what idiot came up with the idea of a “sitting shower,” anyway, in any other setting apart from a nursing home?) Then on Friday, we saw the shower nozzle for the “sitting shower” for the first time and entirely new fears (shared by both of us) have surfaced. It’s really, really small. I mean, we’re wondering how much water can actually come out of this thing since it’s so small. And because they chose an incredibly small nozzle, maybe that means there’s no good water pressure and we’re going to have a warm trickle of water with which to bathe every day? We’re probably just being paranoid, but I fear we may need to learn how to love being dirty.

2. The kitchen situation. I feel really, really badly abandoning the super-busy Mr. to a flat with absolutely no kitchen for 1 1/2 months. The poor guy won’t even have a freakin’ kitchen sink. He says he’s not concerned about it only because he has a million other things on his plate right now and having no kitchen is the least of his worries. This doesn’t exactly alleviate my guilt. On Saturday, we actually found a range from Ikea that we both like:

Ikea's Abstrakt kitchen range in gray

The problem, however, is that the Mr. says he just doesn’t have the energy to delve into planning a kitchen right now, which is fair enough given his work. After much discussion we’ve decided that although it’s inconvenient for him, it makes sense for me to go now and to wait on planning and ordering the kitchen until July when I’m back. Alternatively, kitchen-planning faeries might show up and take care of everything for us, but I guess I won’t hold my breath waiting for them.

The Housing Gods Have Finally Smiled Down On Us April 27, 2010

It’s been nearly two months to the day since we arrived in Würzburg, so it seems fitting that to mark this two-month anniversary something momentous is happening: we’re signing preliminary paperwork for a flat.

About 2 ½ weeks ago, the Mr. saw an advertisement in the paper for a flat in an art nouveau-style house. It’s in a nice residential area close to the city center, and within walking distance to the Mr.’s job. It was on a day where several other properties had popped up that were of interest, so the Mr. made several phone calls to try to set up viewings. Unfortunately, he never got through to the agent handling this flat, so we ended up going out and viewing something else that day. The Mr. later wrote a message expressing our interest to the agent when we got home.

Two weeks go by, and we hear nothing. We assume it’s gone.

Then, out of the blue on Wednesday of last week, the Mr. got a phone call. It’s the agent for the art nouveau flat, and he wants to know if we’re still interested. Apparently they had someone take it on the first day it was advertised, but that person later decided he wouldn’t be moving to Würzburg after all. We quickly set up a viewing for that afternoon.

My first impression driving up: jackpot. It’s an absolutely beautiful old house, with large bay windows on each floor and art nouveau flourishes in abundance. It’s on the same street of the hideous (from the outside) flat we viewed last week, only this time it’s one of the lovely houses.*

The flat is on the first floor of the house, but it’s actually more like a level between an American first and second floor. When you open the front door to the flat, you walk into a spacious entry room with the doors of all the rooms connecting to it. This room is the central hub of the flat. The two doors directly in front of you lead to the lounge on the left, and an office/guest room on the right. The lounge is very large with bay windows, and the office/guest room is also spacious with huge windows. Both rooms are very bright.

The lounge

The office/guest room

To the left in the entry room is a room that is a bit darker, but is ideal for a bedroom. To the right is the bathroom and a separate WC next to it. More on this in a minute. And then the last door to the right leads to a fairly large and bright kitchen with a small walk-in pantry and a door that leads directly to a balcony and steps down into the shared back garden.

The kitchen

With the exception of the bathroom, the WC and the kitchen, all the rooms have painted crown molding on the ceilings.

I fell in love.

It’s not perfect, though. In terms of the number of rooms, it’s not really an improvement on our flat in Edinburgh. We will still have just our bedroom and an office/guest room, but the advantage is that the Mr. will now be within walking distance to work, so if he does need to work while we have guests it won’t be inconvenient for him to go to his office. And although we won’t have an additional guest WC, the bathroom and the toilet are in two separate rooms which is obviously better than just one combined room.

It is much larger than what we had in Edinburgh, however, as all the rooms are bigger (except maybe for the kitchen…our kitchen in Edinburgh was actually pretty spacious) and we have a room in the basement for storage, too, which is great. I’m also excited about the garden. There’s a nice rose garden in the front, but honestly all of the garden areas around the house could use some sprucing up so I’m eager to dig in (ha ha…forgive the bad pun).

In the back garden

It’s not 100% ours yet as we don’t have the lease, but it’s been promised to us and we handed over pre-contract paperwork today. We can potentially move in as early as May 10. The next thing to worry about will be ordering the kitchen, but the Mr. says we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves and first get the lease signed by the owner.**

The finish line is in sight, and we’re almost there. Hallelujah.

*With pretty much all of the flats and houses we’ve viewed so far, we’d go along the street looking for the one for rent and would see lots of lovely looking buildings and houses along the way. I’d get excited. Then we’d come to the one for rent, and it seemed like every time it would end up being the ugliest building on the street. No joke.

**See my first entry “Hell Might Be Freezing Over” for details of the super fun stuff that can happen when you’ve signed a lease and you’re waiting on the owner to countersign.