house o' rama (pt 1)

In honor of our recent housewarming party I have decided to post some post-move picts.  I finally had everything hung, vacuumed, swept and straightened to a point where I was happy enough to take pictures.

So, here we go. Enter the foyer:

My poor vase didn't make it 24 hours in the foyer, as "husband who forgot there is now a table in the foyer" ran into it on his way up to bed last night, sending water, flowers and glass shards everywhere.  Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted.  

Take a left at the end of the foyer and you get to the hall:

To the left is a giant hall closet, the square on the wall is a laundry chute (!!).  

Go straight ahead and you get to the kitchen

 Didn't think I'd ever be able to match the size of the NOLA kitchen, but alas, I've been proven wrong.

do a 180 turn and then you're in the dining "room."

To the right of the dining room table is the bar.  I pretty much copied the design I had back at the old house (seen here) b/c it is so perfect for above the bar. 

Keep turn to the right and you are in the living "room."

This is probably the most incomplete area of the house, mainly b/c we NEED a 3-seater couch.  Right now we just have the love seat Mr. Bama bought before we were married (seen in the very foreground of the picture).  If we were in states we'd have this badboy sitting in our living room. However, I refuse to spend money that could go to the above couch in order to buy a cheap European sofa (they are SO uncomfortable!). So love seat and oddly unfinished living room it is for now.

Tomorrow: onto the upstairs.

The irony of the party was that none of it actually took part inside the house, hence it should have been properly called a yard-warming party by the sheer fact that so much time was spend in our yard. We're so lucky that we do have such a wonderful and large yard. And someone worked incredibly hard to make sure all of the libations and food was top notch!  Thanks Babe!

kitchen slicing surprise?

So as of today we're still moving, but this morning I had to meet some workers at the house super early to help with some last minute things to prep for the furniture being moved today.  To kill time, I was poking around the kitchen and noticed something in the drawer next to the sink.  At first i thought "darn it, the last people in the house left something behind!" What the heck is this?

Upon further inspection, I realized the contraption was bolted down and actually pops up.  The end result was THIS!

I'm going to be cutting things paper thin to no end with my new, electric SLICER!! Bye bye Mandolin, I've got this bad boy in my drawer! 1/8" potato slices for some scalloping? You got it. 1/2" tomato slices for a sandwich?  Done.  Paper thin slices of bologna? Eww, but no problem, I've got you covered... with my super awesome German meat (and other things) slicer.

Seriously though, who has this pre-installed, of all things, in their kitchen?

so it begins

The gubment took away this beauty Tuesday.

Oh how I will sorely miss the Purple-People-Eater.  Or not.  Despite its obviously interesting* (that's nice speak for ugly, bless it's heart) looks, a number of guests, including my very picky father, said it was incredibly comfy for naps. I guess you can't judge a couch by it's cover... never mind, that won't keep me from continuing to judge away ugly furniture in the future.

This means that moving has officially begun.  Mainly because the movers also moved our washer and dryer to the new house.  Therefore, there's no turning back - we have to move.  Either that or from here on out I just drive 30 mins one way to do laundry.  Ask me in a day or two and I may say "I'll take the 30 min drive over moving."

on the agenda

So heres what we have for the month of July:

1. Host and throw BBQ for hub's company.  Yeah.
2. Move.  By ourselves.  I really hope this goes smoothly, b/c moving usually brings out "ugly, mean, irritated" Mrs. Bama.  Must remember to breathe, that I love our new house and my husband is here and can help. That is until one of us throws our backs out trying to haul the monstrosity that is our desk down three flights of stairs and up one.
3. Pack for our cruise while moving.  Yes, you heard that correctly.
4. Go on said cruise. Massive house move followed up by a Greek cruise.  This is either a GREAT idea or a terrible idea.  It could go either way.
5. Did I mention our new car that was paid for in April is being delivered while we're gone? They say anticipation is half the fun, but after Bruno's driver side window has broken for the second time in 6 months (at $500 a pop to fix) and we're borrowing a VERY generous friend's car so Mr. Bama can drive, that anticipation has definitely lost its luster.  Three months from placing your downpayment to actually obtaining the car is slightly irritating, but c'est la vie.

In 10 days I'll be sitting on a boat drinking some kind of alcoholic drink.  My only job til then: remaining sane and remembering that if all else fails, this is why God invented wine.

A Bathroom for Guidos

We have an interesting half bath in the new house.

This just makes me want to fistpump upon entering.  The best part: to the right of this picture you see a toilet.  Next to that toilet is a designated urinal.  Just took the classiness up a notch.

Back from the Dead

I've got a lot of  'splaining to do.  It's been a busy few months - getting back to Germany from the states, running around Bavaria with Misa (and her hubs) from Park & Belmont, and then playing webmaster filling in for a friend at her job while she vacationed.

Oh, and did I mention we're moving again?

The 40 minute drive is killing our budget and I can only imagine the damage it will do once Mr. Bama gets back (which will happen in a matter of weeks!!!).  That being the case, I sucked it up and started looking for a new home to move to that was less than 20 mins from his work.  After the terrible time we had trying to find a house this time last year, I was just dreading the whole process.  Every house I found either was against having pets, housing Americans or was already rented out. It seemed like it was to be a repeat from last year.

And then by total divine intervention, we stumbled upon this beauty:

This house doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's wonderful.  A bit smaller than where we're living now, but it has two huge things:

number one:

A HUGE yard.  The building on a left is the outdoor kitchen for
  outdoor entertaining.  Yup we have 2 kitchens

number two:

this kitchen is amazing and has everything.

Also not shown in the pictures: the laundry chute and the CENTRAL vacuum.  What WHAT!?  Yup you heard it right. We do NOT deserve this house, but it actually found us (a friend of a friend needed someone to rent it...) The style of the house is a little too "Italianate" for me, as I like things a bit more simple and streamlined, but beggars cannot be choosers in the German real estate game.  I feel like my life has been a bit Househunters International of late, but at least I can look forward to moving into this place come July.

Oh July, how crazy and insane of a month you will be.  Since we've already been moved by Mr. Bama's "company"once, we'll have to do the move ourselves.  Did I also mention how much I HATE moving? I may have mentioned it here and here. So not only will I be planning the company-wide Barbecue come the last weekend of June, but we'll also be doing a self-move that the first weekend of July, mere weeks after Mr. Bama is back from being away for a year.  Then a week or so later, we're packing up and going on a Eastern Mediterranean cruise, for relaxation.  We will most definitely need the relaxation by this point. Phew - I'm exhausted after just typing all of that! There's actually much more I haven't even touched on coming down the pipe, so stay tuned for one heck of a ride...

The Bear has Landed

Today my second favorite boy finally joined me in Germany...

After an arduous 8 hour flight over the Atlantic, he met me after my hour and 1/2 drive with my friend Ana to Frankfurt.  Two hours (and 137 euro later) my baby boy was in my possession, cruising down the Autobahn towards home.  He was in wonderful condition, just a little dehydrated and hungry, but in great spirits.  I cannot say enough about Lufthansa and the manner in which they handle their animal cargo, even their Animal "lounge" is stellar and exceed EU standards (which are strict enough as is).  After a little downtime (and LOTS of sniffing) at the house, I didn't want him to full out sleep too early, so I hooked on his leash and we went for a walk along my normal running route in the vineyards outside of my village.

Nice little info signs about each grape dot the vineyards. 
Too bad I can't understand them (yet)

Dornfelder grapes - my fave German wine

Our little town from the vineyards

Bear says "I give my new home and its awesome 
vineyards (where I can run leash-less) a thumbs up!

So let the hund-friendly German adventures begin!

There's a Change in the Haus

And now for some pictoral goodies showcasing what's been going on w/ the state of the house post move-in.  I'm far from done, but we're getting there.

Dining Room:

Our Bar Right after we moved in:

Our Bar Now... almost done

THIS clock goes in the void.  come on amazon

Dining Room table

Kitchen:

Our new "counter space" via Ikea right after I finished assembling it:

Two people for assembly?  Pshh, please Ikea.

The counter now:

spices and knives to be wall hung once I'm not scared
of drilling into concrete.

The Kitchen wall sans pictures:

Voila!  Pictures:

our kitchen stove, etc right before me moved in:

Kitchen now (i feel though as if it is lacking bikes hanging from rafters above):

View from the Kitchen into the Dining Room:

Heading Upstairs

The family wall. Yeah. Needs "something"

Hard at work on that 'Something":

The Family wall now.  Love me some bunting.

Office (Das Buro):

Yeah, it's messy.  But I'm getting there 

(and no, that is not my desk.  That is Mr Bama's I've been relegated to use)

Yippee I have a place to "do stuff"

view from the desk

So that's all well and dandy, and theres a whole lot more of the house that I have barely touched yet, for example:
The Living Room:

hide yo eyes.  

And of course, there have been some aesthetic bumps in the road:

Like this beauty that was hanging in the dining room

flock of seagulls anyone?

and this AWESOME government-issued couch in a shade that goes with everything:

I have always wanted a purple multicolored uncomfortable couch!  Finally!!!

I guess the name of the game is just improvisation.  Take this as an example.

Need a side table but all you have is an unnecessary amount of architecture & engineering books?  No problem!

no, we did not pick out the chairs.  They were "issued" to us.  sigh.

So much more to do with the house (and pictures to come), but at least for now I have my side table of knowledge!  I am unstoppable.

Hurricane Europa

Goodness it has been a while, and quite a whirlwind -- which explains my absence.  A week after moving into our new home, I flew back to the US for my best friend's wedding, which was an absolute blast.  When I returned on July 21, Mr. Bama had already left for his year of being gone for work. While I have missed him terribly, I haven't had too much time to dwell on his absence -- our household goods arrived a week after I got back to Germany, and a day later I finally had internet set up (after a week of dealing with German T-Mobile and being hung up on 9 out of the 10 times I called them).  The very next day one of my best friends from home flew into Germany with a friend from business school and we began a 10-day  breakneck-speed tour of Eastern Europe. So the next few blog posts, combined with my upcoming guest posts for Trashy Diva, will be a recap of our adventures in Salzburg, Budapest, Prague and Munich.  So stay tuned for some European goodness!

With my friend Laura on the Charles Bridge in Prague

My Newest German Obsession

It may help to have Google Chrome to read this, but I'm in love with this wonderful grocery (Bio) chain Tegut .

Small, but a ton of local bio chicken, beef and pork.  I'm slightly discouraged by the amount and price of grapeseed oil (Traubenkornöl) so Ill have to find a new high temp cooking oil, but alas, such is the challenges of a new country.

We've also found a wonderful home that rents to American's w/ dogs (a BIG deal).   It's perfect, as it has 3 bathrooms, four bedrooms AND a fitted kitchen - something that is VERY hard to find in a German rental.

our new kitchen -  stove, fridge, oven, sink AND dishwasher!

This is all dependent on an inspection this week, but if all goes well, we have an new home come July 1st.

On another note, out new village is lovely, with 2 hotels, a Tavern around the corner, a grocery and a bank.  Can a girl ask for anything more?

German Lessons

We've been in Germany for a week so far and it has been a definite adventure. We've moved into an actual hotel now with internet, and we've met so many amazing people who have been gracious enough to show us around the area (as well as drive our car-less selves around.)  Here are some fun observations from just a week of living in beautiful Bavaria

• Get off work late? Want to go for a run around the block before it gets dark?  No worries, it doesn't get dark til around 9:30.  It is truly weird for us southerners, but a nice change.
• German wine is wein-derful (haha).  We went to a Wein Fest this weekend in the neighboring city of Wurtzburg and it was an absolute blast!  We ate a ton of potatoes and Bretzels (pretzels in German) and drank a good amount of wonderful German wine (I even tried the weisswein- white wine, which is a big deal for this died in the wool red wine drinker).   

With new friends Eleanor & Memree enjoying Erdbeere Bowle  (Strawberry Punch)

• The yogurt is AMAZING here.  Same goes for the bread and the coffee.  You need less here because its so rich, but the quality is top notch.  Another plus - no preservatives, minimally processed and very fresh!

vanilla & strawberry yogurt.  So yummy

• They like pork here.  Lots and lots of pork in all forms (filet, sausage, etc)...  This may take a while to get used to, as in I never ate pork back in the states.
• EVERYTHING closes on Sunday.  New Orleans did a pretty good job of prepping us for this, but it does take some adjusting.

Theres far more to discover here, and unfortunately we're going to have to wait to get a car to really check out everything Germany  has to offer.  But we are absolutely in love with our new country!

48+ Hours Later

and we've survived!  We don't have internet from our "hotel," but I've been able to find places with internet.  It was an incredibly long journey that included:

- starting at 4am from Virginia --> Atlanta --> NOLA --> Dulles.

Then once we were in Dulles, our flight to Frankfurt was delayed 3 excruciating hours.  We were able to sleep a little on the flight, but then once we arrived (8:30am in Germany, so 6:30am in Virginia -- a whooping 26hrs, 30 mins later) we ended up waiting until 2pm for a bus.  By 5:30pm we had finally made it to our new town.  So we're here after our long adventure.  Once we get a sense of the place as well as a car (Guess who is going to be taking the German drivers test this week!) we will be able to really explore our new city!

Adventures in Life Changes

To say things have been hectic lately would be a definite understatement.  As I write this I realize that the sheer amount of things that have changed over the past 3 weeks is amazing and I'll be the first to admit that it all hasn't really hit me yet. 

Example: I am, for the first time in my life, homeless. 

Ok yes, that sounds extreme, as in-between Alabama and Virginia I will always have a home either at my parent's or my in-law's houses.  But honestly, a location that is "ours" and full of our "stuff" does not currently exist.  As we walked away May 11th from our very empty, beautiful home on the corner of State & Laurel in New Orleans an overwhelming sense of sadness and anxiety overcame me.

the tiled road markers that graced our little corner of new orleans

Just some more of the many changes occuring over the past few weeks:

• Everything that we own has been packed up (it took two whole days to wrap and pack up everything in a 950 sq ft house... me thinks we may need to do some uncluttering once we unpack) and it all is sitting in a shipping container on a slow boat to Europe either now or in the near future.  Mr. Bama and I each have 2 suitcases of clothes & shoes to choose from until July.   My daily clothing options definitely demand creativity.

I've gone from a huge closet to this.  Not an easy task.

• You're looking at Alabama's newest resident. Due to tax reasons, we both have to be residents of the same state, so alas, new license.  It was actually the most pleasant DMV experience, but it resulted in the worst license picture I've ever had.   Less than a 30 min wait at the DMV + very pleasant employees = unattractive license picture.  Oh well.

• As of tomorrow, when we fly to our new home, we will be without a vehicle.  It's amazing how you can go from 2 cars to no cars in less than a month.  Also we are leaving our bundle of fur behind for the foreseeable future, until we can figure out where we will be calling home for the next three years.  It pains me to leave him behind, but it's not fair to him to be moved oversees unless it is to a place that is established and won't change drastically over the next few years.  He's already a little shell shocked from coming home to an empty New Orleans house, I can only imagine how drastic a change it will be to him to put up with an 8 hour flight overseas, in cargo, and then be moved from hotel to apartment to house.
  

  

  you have no idea how much I'm going to miss this face

• iPhone's do not work in Germany.  This makes me very sad

• Did I also mention that Mr. Bama is leaving in July for work.  For an entire year?  So I'm going from cozy home in a city I adore with an amazing husband and a fabulous (albeit awkward) dog  to no home (hopefully temporary), an absent husband and no dog all in the course of a month.  No complaints, it is just truly crazy how change can come so quickly.

So many changes in such a small amount of time.  In all seriousness, the one constant is that my companion and best friend will be by my sida the whole time, thus making the adventure that much more exciting.  Who knew a year & 1/2 ago when we started our lives together, that it would take us on this whirlwind of a journey.  The exciting (and slightly harrowing) thing:  It's only just begun!

My Life in Boxes

Multiply the above picture by 20 and then you will have a mental picture of the state of my house.  The appliances that are of no use to us in Europe are getting picked up tomorrow by my father-in-law to be stored in Alabama and then everything else is prepped and moved onto a shipping container next Tuesday, safe and sound for its 2-3 month trek across the Atlantic.  That means Mr. Bama, Bear and I will be living out of a suitcase for 2-3 months, something that is definitely going to put me outside of my comfort zone.  That all being said, I'm probably not going to be able to post as frequently as I have been.  But I assure you I'm still here!