We Have a House!!

Isn't it cute?

We don't move in until Sept. 1 and on that day, we have a small shipment of household goods arriving -- not furniture -- but enough to live on until our furniture and everything else arrives!!

We have signed a contract and received our keys but there are still a few repairs and painting to be done which is why we can't get into it TOMORROW!!  I'm dying here.  Two more weeks, two more weeks . . . .

So a few details (pictures inside to come when we move in):

The house is 2 stories liveable and an unfinished attic.  But even the attic has stairs that go up and flooring so it is completely useable space once it's done, right now it will just be storage. 

The ground floor has a really great kitchen (unusual because most German kitchens I've seen are tiny), living and dining room, spare room (ahem, sewing room), and 2 half baths -- half bath number one is a toilet and sink, half bath number two is a shower and sink.  It is kind've weird.

Go up the twisty wooden stairs (every German has them -- so glad I don't have a crawling or walking baby!) and the second floor has 3 big bedrooms and a huge full bath with separate shower, tub, toilet and sink.  One bedroom actually has a small walk-in closet, the others do not (which is more normal).  The house has high ceilings with wooden beams and is all painted white.  There are roulladens on the windows (metal shades that lower down to keep the light out in the summer nights and the sun since there's no air-conditioning) and the windows of course do the awesome thing that they all do here.  Close fully, swing inward to open, or point the handle up and they lean in slightly at the top.  German houses have to be aired on a regular basis and heated like 2/3 of the year to prevent the growth of mold.  No screens on any of the windows, fortunately the upstairs windows all have grates over the lower half so the kids won't fall out!

There is a front yard (seen here) and a back garden (not yard, sorry) that are both pretty small but I think it will be ok.  We have a 2 car garage and can plant if we want to although there are a whole bunch of grapes already on an arbor on the side that the kids are excited to pick and eat!

We're right in the middle of town so it will be easy to walk when I want to (and am not dragging 3 kids around).  I can't wait to explore!!

The family that owns the house currently lives in Austria.  She built it in 2003 on property owned by her family (and now her), and then life changed.  But she didn't want to sell it because literally across the street is property she and her family owns and behind us lives her parents and her brother who are potato farmers (but started out 40 years ago as cow farmers).  We met her parents and they are wonderful and then they all took us to a festival for Assumption Day -- a Catholic holiday that commemorates Mary being taken bodily into heaven.  There is a small church that is completely dedicated to Mary and so 4 times a year they have religious holidays where everything is closed and they do food and services up at Mary's church (that I don't yet know the name of and didn't take any pictures of -- they'll come).  Anyway we all went up and they treated us to lunch of traditional German foods -- bratwurst, bread, cheese with salt and pepper on it and the most awesome Camembert cheese spread that I cannot remember for the life of me what it was called but it was sooooo good!  We had to explain that we don't drink -- not even a little bit (for religious reasons) and took a look inside the church.

I have a feeling that this family is going to take us in and I'm kind've excited about that -- although they speak no English (our land lady does though thank goodness!).  But that's all the more reason to do the best we can with learning German -- or at least the Bavarian dialect of it!!