4 More Weeks

We have been quietly working away on making this Germany thing happen but after last year’s experience where we talked about it all the time to basically everybody – and then it did not happen –  I felt a little freaked about talking about it too much too early.

Well, I guess I can safely say it is not too early anymore: the house is rented out, the rental agreement for the apartment there is in the works, our son has his spot at school and the flights are booked.

Much remains to be done, a hell of a lot in fact, and I am getting a bit dizzy when thinking about emptying everything out here (we are renting furnished but still there are so many things to put away) and then starting over there.

It isn’t just putting stuff away when we get there – that’d be easy – not all that much will fit into those three or four suitcases we are allowed to take – but somehow furnishing an apartment on the cheap and fixing up whatever the previous renter left to make it fit my style (my style is really the family style, my husband does not feel too strongly about colors and things like round vs. square tables and my 10 year old doesn’t get a say in it – just to keep me sane).

My ambition is to spend very little on new stuff.  First and foremost I am cheap, buying new furniture is expensive and after a year I have to be happy if somebody pays me a few dollars to take it off my hands.  Secondly, I like the idea of reuse and upcycling, in fact I have read about it obsessively over the last months, magazines, websites, blogs, etc. Thirdly I am a tree-hugger and proud of it.  If I can keep something out of the landfill I am all for it.  The whole buy-and-toss in ever faster cycles does not make sense to me.  Finally, I am a hunter-gatherer, I truly appreciate the experience of going to a flea market or garage sale and finding something, a gem that others overlooked, seeing the potential in an ugly lamp with a new lamp shade, that wooden chair stripped of that awful fabric and reupholstered.  Really fun!

Now, I have never reupholstered a thing in my life so we’ll see whether reality lives up to my glossy-DIY magazine inspired dreams.

I keep telling myself that it will be fun and halfway believe it – then I have visions of myself staple gun in hand, glue all over my face fighting with some stubborn piece of furniture or fabric bleary-eyed some time after midnight – and I wonder whether I am a bit naive.

I probably am but then naivety might not the worst frame of mind to tackle this.

It’s getting real again

We tried last year and failed to make the temporary move to Germany. Many things conspired but this years the stars seem aligned, well, at least more aligned than last year.
The biggest hurdle was to find an apartment in our town of choice, Konstanz, my home town. I kid you not, finding an apartment here makes finding one in Manhattan seem like a walk in the park. Seriously.
It is one of those situations where there is hardly any inventory, even throwing money at the problem is only partially useful, if there ar only 5 apartments to be had in the appropriate size at any given time chances are that somebody else has more money to throw.
It does not help that Germans openly discriminate against families with children. Even my one, quiet, well-behaved almost 10 year old geek boy who wouldn’t dream of ever kicking a soccer ball unless forced by his cruel mother, was appartently unacceptable. Replies just stopped coming after the question “do you have kids?” was answered with “yes” even the quick “but he is sweet and quiet and likes reading and abhors soccer” did not help. Middle- aged couples, no kids are in demand. Pets are more acceptable than kids, it seems.
After an prolonged and very taxing process I did manage to secure an apartment, even a very affordable one. Let’s not, for now, speak about the furniture that I stand to “inherit” from the previous occupant, a 94 year old lady. Let’s not, for now, speak of moving back even temporarily to my home town close to my parents after living 6000 miles away for the last 15 years.
Right now I am tiered and happy to have a place, half the size of our house in California, but who is measuring? I have some furniture although from the looks of it a serious amount of spray paint, glue, wall paint, fabric, creativity and tons of determination will be needed to make this place even remotly fit my idea of design.
Its going to be an adventure for sure – you are welcome to come along.