Final post in this house

This will be my last post for a little while. I'm not sure how quickly we'll be set up with phone and Internet in our new place. I'm hoping it won't take long, but you never know. The phone company is coming out on Monday, but it's probably too optimistic to think we'll be all set up that day.

We've been so incredibly busy these past couple of weeks. I've been packing boxes here at the house and any chance we had we were working at the new house to get things in order. Thankfully, Sam has gotten all of the lights installed except for the dining room light which I haven't decided on yet. I still haven't given the house it's first good cleaning. Several days I started, but then realized how pointless it was while we were continually working there which was just causing more dirt.

Now I'm down to the wire. I went over today and started on the floors. There's a fine white dust covering everything and I just discovered that the vacuum picks most of it up. So, I broom swept then vacuumed, now I need to mop it a couple of times. I know it won't be perfectly clean for awhile, but it's a start.

Saturday we have several of Sam's co-workers coming over to help move. I'm a little stressed about that because I still have packing to do. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to the house to finish cleaning, then I'll be back here to finish packing. I'm really thankful that they are coming to help.

Something else that didn't help this week was being without heat or hot water for 4 days. Sunday morning Sam was showering and yelled for me. His water had turned cold. We called the furnace guy several times, but it always quit working again. Finally, yesterday a different repairman came and spent several hours working on it. The end result was that we finally had heat and hot water again. What a blessing! We truly take those things for granted and don't even think about it most of the time.

In the back of my mind starting a new job has been weighing on me. I don't mind working and I really do want to get back into a job. This March I'll have 10 years with the Federal system and I want to continue to gain time for retirement. However, I just feel heavy about starting. It's probably a combination of being right in the middle of our move and things I've heard about the boss. I don't want to go into it with a negative attitude though. I'm really thankful to have the job, especially right now when we're having to get so much for the house.

There is an ongoing situation with the driveway at our new place. The neighbors (the grumpy elderly couple I mentioned before) are fighting with our contractor about what access we have. From what I understand we have the legal right to use part of their drive to get to our garage (where I park), but they are keeping a chain up and making it difficult for us. At this point, our contractor has contacted his lawyer and they'll be fighting it out in court. Oh joy! I just want to be able to easily get to my garage without having the neighbors stare out their windows or yell at us. Is that too much to ask???

I think I've mentioned it before, but our garage has two parking spaces right on top of each other - you just lift or lower it to access the spaces. Anyhow, Sam's truck is too long and heavy to fit, so we've been using that space for storage. I didn't want boxes in the house until I had a chance to clean, so whatever we've taken over has been stored in the garage. I think we'll probably continue to use it as storage and I'll use the other space to park. The picture to the right is Sam with one of the loads we took over to store in the garage.


Quick update - I wrote the above entry Thursday night, but didn't get it posted. Now it's Friday evening and I'm exhausted. I spent a good 5 hours over at the house today scrubbing those dirty floors. My knees, shoulders and hands are talking to me from spending so much time on my hands and knees. It's such a reward though to see the finished product of a clean house.

Sam and I took a load over tonight. It's going to come together, but I still have a lot of packing to do. I'll be up early tomorrow morning trying to get it done before everyone arrives.

Our neighbor didn't disappoint. Right on cue, as I was putting the chain back up, he was walking out his door - I guess to let me know he saw that I moved the chain. I don't want issues with our neighbors. I just want to be left alone and able to park my car in the garage. I really hope that situation gets settled before too long. On a bright note though, we have a really nice neighbor in the multi-family home in front of us. He's from Bosnia and owns the house. He made it into 4 apartments. He and his family will live in one. Anyhow, he's been very nice.

Well, wish us luck with our move tomorrow. We want to get everything out this weekend, so I can clean and be out of here by Thursday.

Lights, closets and a new job

I need to learn to spread life events out over time. I always manage to either have absolutely nothing going on or the complete opposite where everything seems to happen at once. The past 9 months I've been jobless with plenty of time on my hands and wouldn't you know it, now that we're in the middle of a move I get a job offer. That's the way my life goes.

In all honesty I'm not terribly excited about the job. I have some reservations about where I'll be working, but I did accept the offer on Tuesday. I start on February 4th. They wanted me to start on January 28th, but there was no way I could with having to be out of our current house by the 31st. I'll be working in NAF Human Resources, which is what I did at Ft. Wainwright, so it should come back to me pretty quickly.

I really do need this job with everything we're having to buy for the new house. I love how many windows it has because it lets in a lot of light, but with that come lots of curtains. Then there's the kitchen, light fixtures, shower stalls, closets.....and the list seems to keep growing.

We've been having some frustrations with the new house. We had the final walk through 3 weeks ago and as of yesterday none of the repairs had been done yet. Meanwhile, we're waiting for them to get done and change the locks so that we can start moving in. Last weekend we were able to get in to put up some lights and start assembling our bedroom closet.

As I've mentioned before, they do things a lot different here than in the states. One thing that's very different is they don't leave you with a clean house - at all. Inside it's covered from top to bottom with white dust and the contractors have left trash and cigarette butts all over the house and grounds. Isn't that nice?

Since the house is so dirty it needs to have a complete cleaning before anything can be moved in. I'm sure it'll probably need to be mopped several times to get all the powder up. We had planned for some of Sam's co-workers to come over on Saturday to help move furniture, but that will have to be postponed since I haven't been able to clean yet.

A few nights ago Sam emailed the contractor and told him that we absolutely needed them to get done and out of the house so we can start to move. We have two weeks as of today, which is cutting it just a little too close for comfort. This morning we met the contractor, painter and electrician at the house to go over everything that still needs to be finished. Sam set up for them to change out the locks tomorrow and after that if anything still needs done they'll have to make appointments with us. I felt much better after meeting with them. At least we know that this weekend we can start the cleaning process and moving boxes over.

Thankfully, Monday is a holiday so Sam will be off work. We have a delivery for the washer, dryer and refrigerator set up for that day too. Also, the electrician and painter will be back in to finish up some projects that we requested. So....it's been a slow process, but it seems like we're finally getting somewhere.

I just can't wait for about 3 months down the road when we're finally settled and have our phone, Internet, satellite and kitchen installed and working properly. My poor, sweet husband has to set up most of those appointments since we're dealing with German companies. We're so thankful for Sam's secretary, Huri, who helps decipher our bills and even calls these companies for us. She's wonderful and really should get paid extra for all the help she gives on the side.

Back to last weekend - We had about 12 lights that Sam was going to install on Saturday, but his drill wasn't up to the job. These houses are built out of concrete and the drill just couldn't make any headway. So, Sam called James, who is the Asst. Director at SAS, to see if he could help out on Sunday. Sam works with some really nice people. James came out on Sunday with his hammer drill and they got all the lights up that day. We still have around 7 lights to buy and install, but it's amazing how much easier a job is when you have the right tools.

We lucked out on the closets. We thought they would fit with our ceiling height, but when we started putting them together we noticed there was only about 1/4 inch leeway between it and the ceiling. It'll be great once they're complete because it'll look like they were built into the room. If they ever have to be moved though we'll have to take them apart somehow.

Oh, one more thing...on top of everything we've have to buy for the house we can add one more thing - a door that fell over and broke in half. Technically it was my fault, but I was actually very frustrated with that situation because if the door had been on the hinges like it's suppose to be it wouldn't have been knocked over in the first place. I was mopping a floor on my hands and knees and bumped it with my foot. I didn't hit it hard, but it was enough to make it fall and split right in half. This morning the contractor told us they would be charging us for that door. No surprise there....

Well, that's what we've been up to lately. Once we move, we may be without Internet for awhile. I hope not, but I don't know how quickly things get done here. Here are a few pictures from last weekend.

Sam working on our closets Saturday evening.

The partially finished closets. We have to go back to Ikea for pieces they had to special order.

James helping Sam install the lights on Sunday.

The dirty living room cluttered with boxes that the closet came in.

Getting ready to move

I don't have any new pictures to post, but thought I'd refresh the page since it's getting a little boring seeing the same blog for more than a week now.

Last Thursday we had the final walk through with the contractor. There were a few things that needed to be finished, so he said we would probably get the keys this coming weekend. I'm very excited for it to be "ours" and be able to start moving in. We've had two families come look at the place we're in to see about renting it. The family that came yesterday said they definitely want it, so we're going to try to be out by the end of January. That would save us a month's rent and we're ready to be done with it anyhow.

During the walk through we found one more thing that's not included in the price of the home - shower walls. Go figure! The two bathrooms that have shower stalls have all the plumbing, shower head and floor in place, but we were told that we have to buy the shower walls. It's really unbelievable that after paying what we did for the house we still have so much to get. The entire kitchen, closets (there is absolutely no storage at all in the house, we have to buy it all), light fixtures and now showers. All I can say is I'm so thankful we sold our house in Hawaii. I just feel bad for people who buy a house here expecting to get it complete, then to find out all they still have to buy.

We're hoping to get the key by tomorrow so we can be in there early Saturday morning. Last weekend we bought quite a few lights, so Sam can start installing them. We're going to get a closet at Ikea and I'll start putting that together, then I'll clean the floors. There's white dust covering them, so they'll need to be mopped several times I'm sure.

Tuesday I had an interview for a job. It's not one that I'm terribly excited about, but my Leave Without Pay will be expiring in a couple of months, so I'd probably take it if offered. Although I'm in no hurry to start because now we're in the middle of this move. I had eight months without a job and now the month we're moving I get an interview. Isn't that the way it goes??

Well, I need to get busy. I have lots of packing to do and several errands to run. So, until next time...

Happy New Year - 2008!

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's already 2008...seems like it was just the other day when we were hearing all of the concerns about Y2K. Remembering how scared some people were about changing to the new millennium and everything we were being told could go wrong makes me want to trust a known God to an unknown future all the more. Things like that teach me not to worry or get too concerned about the future....God has it all in control.

Time sure does fly. I'm looking forward to great things this year. We're at a wonderful time in our lives. We'll be moving into our new home, we're looking forward to both of our parents coming for visits though out the year, we're happy, healthy and in love. I say that, not to boast in the least, but just because I know it has nothing to do with our goodness, but the blessings of God. There are times I struggle with feeling lonely and separated from everyone (and everything) I know and love, but I try to focus on what a wonderful time in our lives we're at. I really miss my family, but it's such a blessing to have a family to miss. It's because I have such a wonderful family and we love each other that I miss them so much. Sometimes I still can't believe we're living in Germany. What an awesome opportunity though! I will always love the States and that will forever be my home, but while we're here I want to experience everything that we can.

New Year's resolutions always come to mind this time of year. I don't think I've ever sat down at the beginning of a year and truly thought about things that I wanted to focus on changing. It's always in the back of my mind because that's part of the tradition...making New Year's resolutions just to abandon them a few weeks into the new year. Well, this year there are a few things that I want to focus on. Nothing I want to write about, just a few things in my life that could be better and with God's help they will be.

We didn't do much for New Year's Eve, which was kind of sad. Back home, I knew Mom and Dad were planning for their annual New Year's Eve party. I love standing around the bon fire behind the house as we watch the fireworks display. Well...maybe next year. But for this year we just watched a couple of movies and then at midnight stood on our bedroom balcony and watched fireworks going off all across Filderstadt. It was probably one of the nicest fireworks displays I've seen because we're up on a hill and can see the entire area. The Germans really go all out with the fireworks. It was loud and went on for quite awhile. So, when it was all said and done we felt like we had taken part in a celebration of the new year.

Here are the latest updates on our house -

Today at 3:00 we were going to have the final walk though at our new place, but just as I was heading out the door Sam called and said it's been postponed until tomorrow. There are a few things that the contractor was not satisfied with, so he wanted to make sure everything was in order before we met.

There's been a delay in ordering our kitchen, but I think we're back on track now. Since we're Americans living here covered by the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA), we are not obligated to pay the 19% tax that the Germans do. This is a huge benefit, but has been the reason our kitchen hasn't been ordered yet. After the fact, we found out that the VAT office will only approve a kitchen up to $15,000 because more than that is not considered removable and if we decide to sell down the road and a German buys it they will not have paid tax on the kitchen. Thankfully, Someone was looking out for us and we were able to break it down to have two separate payments. One for the cabinetry and the other for the appliances. All of this had to be approved and with the holidays it's taken quite awhile. I just took the first VAT form to the kitchen store today, so I think it will now be ordered and we should have a kitchen in the house in 6-8 weeks. We'll do just fine with a microwave until that time.

Friday morning we have an American family coming to look at the house we're renting. Basically, we're required to pay rent through February. If, however, we get someone to rent it -say the beginning of February - then we would only have to pay through January. That would be wonderful since the rent for these next two months is coming out of pocket because we have the house payments now too. Of course if they want to rent this house we'll have to kick it up a notch and get moving into the other house as quickly as we can.

I am amazed at the bureaucratic red tape we've gone through with buying this house. We've been getting bills from the Notary almost every other day it seems. If I understand it correctly, each house here in Germany has its own book, called a "Grünbuch". This book will be in the house records - down at city hall....forever. Each person that owns it must pay to get their name written in as the new owner. So, for our new place the contractors name has been written as the owner. Part of the fees, taxes and registration we've paid was to get our name in that book. Not only have we paid to get our name in the book, but we first had to pay to reserve a place for our name. It seems like we pay for every single step in the process. The way they do things here seems so ancient and hard for me to understand, but they certainly do keep good records. We will be so glad when it's over and I'll breath a long sigh of relief when I realize it has all worked out and we're settled. Until then I'm a little uneasy.


In closing...this is just one of the many things I absolutely love about living here. We were driving home last night and along side the road was a shepherd with his flock of sheep. I love watching a shepherd with his sheep, it's such a beautiful, peaceful scene. I could sit and watch them for hours. The sheep dogs are amazing to watch. This one kept his eyes on us and kept himself between us and "his herd" the entire time. As we drove by he kept moving so he was between us and the sheep. I would have liked to get a better close up, but I didn't want to bother them.

That's about it from here, so I want to wish you all a wonderful, happy new year. Until next time...