Moving Day!

Hi all!  We're back from an internet hiatus while we moved into our new house.  We were very comfortable at the Marriott hotel (Drew loved his pancake breakfast!), but happy to get settled into our new house--and not have to share one room anymore!

The poor movers carted our  9,000 pounds of belongings up a flight of stairs to get to the house, then up our spiral staircase of four different levels.  Those guys were so fit but I did not envy their job.  What hard work!  They were really nice and did it with a smile.  A little trick of moving: we labeled each of our rooms with a number.  As each box came off the truck, Jim checked it off the master list and wrote the number of the room it needed to go to on the box.  I was upstairs directing them more specifically where to place each piece of furniture in each room.  It went really smoothly!

All of our furniture fit well except for our massive couch.  It was just not going to fit up that spiral staircase!  We were not too attached to it and had been looking for a new one before we left.  We are trying to sell in on a craigslist type website and have had some interest.  Here's hoping we can get rid of it!  We have been on the hunt for a new couch and will likely order it this weekend.

We LOVE our new place!  It is bright and open, with a beautiful terrace off the kitchen and a balcony off the living room.  We have a gorgeous view of a church tower from both our balcony and bedroom and can hear the church bells pealing throughout the day.  

We wondered if we would miss having a big lawn/backyard for Drew to play in, but I think the terrace is going to be perfect.  It is enclosed and small enough that I can let Drew play out there while I make lunch or dinner and he is safe and happy!

We are within walking distance of a grocery store, bakery, kindergarten, and town center with pretty lake and playgrounds.  One of the best things about our place is that it has tons of built in storage, a rarity in Germany.  We have one bedroom with a wall of built in closets with organizers, etc., a built in linen closet in the hall, tons of storage in the bathroom, and a built in desk, shelves, and cabinets in the office!  It is so nice to have a place for everything and not have to buy extra cabinets/storage solutions.  Jim really picked a wonderful place!!

All of the neighbors we have met so far have been very friendly and welcoming.  In fact, our neighbors two doors down already had us over for dinner!  They have a 12 year old and a 17 year old and were excited to be able to practice English in a more conversational setting.  We had such a nice evening with them.  They had a trampoline with netting on which Drew had a blast.  We felt right at home with them and look forward to getting to know them even better!  It is amazing what a difference it can make to be welcomed into a new neighborhood right away.  I hope to "pay it forward" for someone else!  The wife, Andrea, offered to take me with her to the recycling center to show me how to sort our plastics, etc.  (More on that in another post!)  

We have almost everything put away in the house now and just need to hang our paintings/frames and put together our office.  I will be sending photos soon in a flickr email so you can see what our place looks like!

Keep in touch!!