House hunting

Moving to Germany has been nothing less than cleverly controlled chaos. Amidst the well implemented in-processing schedule, we have had many errands and other necessary tasks to complete on our own time. After successfully completing the driver’s training course and passing the driver’s test Andrew and I both now own USAEUR licenses which greatly frees our ability to traverse as needed. Now that we are mobile, we have started the process of looking at housing, setting up cell phones, registering and inspecting our vehicle, searching for a second vehicle and other assorted moving related tasks.

Searching for houses in Germany is both easy and difficult at the same time. The process of house hunting is made incredibly simple and pain free by the housing office. Finding a house that is suitable for your needs however, is not always as easy. We have looked at 6 houses during our housing quest and I must admit none are as horrible as I had prepared myself for.
Upon finding out we were moving to Germany we had been told to prepare for tiny quarters and to put a great deal of our stuff into storage to ensure that all of our belongings fit accordingly. And in fairness if we had appropriate housing quarters available on post, we would likely find ourselves quite squished. However, all of the houses we have found off post have been quite large and suitable. Out of the six houses we have toured, 4 our livable and I’d say that 66% is not nearly as bad as I had expected!

Let me start by telling you about the 2 that were well, not so livable! The first was in a decent sized village, Idar-Oberstein (really 2 combined villages, Idar & Oberstein, that everybody rather cleverly refers to as: Idar-Oberstein) the house was weird to put it best. The description of the house stated that it was a 1400 sq. feet, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. But I am here to tell you that no third bedroom was anywhere to be found! Essentially the house was 2 identical floor laid on top of one another. The bottom floor had only 1 livable room-perhaps a living room (though I am not truly sure what this one space downstairs would be used for), the other space was a garage (yet, with no garage door), a utility room, a room for the oil tanks (which is how most houses in Germany are heated, the tanks are quite large, picture 2-3 GIANT gasoline tanks), and an absolutely disgusting bathroom! The 2nd floor, had one large room living area off of space that Germans like to commonly refer to as a kitchen, I think of it more of a closet with a stove and a tiny, tiny, tiny refrigerator. I am not quite sure how or why Germans have not jumped on the full size refrigerator thing, but they haven’t! Picture a fridge the size a college student would have in their dorm. Off the living area was a small room, Germans always say it’s a nursery or a dressing room, and off the small dressing/nursery room was a decent sized bedroom…honestly, the only bedroom in the whole house! On the other side of the stairs was a bathroom, not great, but not as nasty as the bathroom downstairs. The only redeeming quality of this house was that it had a fenced in backyard, even though it was a disgustingly filthy backyard and patio! Oh, did I mention it had blue carpet, counters and tile?

The 2nd unlivable house was a house that was built in 1573. Yes, the 1500s!!! It was an old watermill that was used and is still used to create electricity. The inside had been renovated, but not quite to our standards. The house was situated in Offenbach, a quaint village nestled amidst fur covered hills with a glorious view and a picturesque creek that runs through the property (that creek is what runs the mill). The house itself was rich in history and had a historical marker to maintain the integrity and history of the house/property. Outside the house was adorable; inside however, it left much to be desired. Let’s just say the kitchen had nothing more than a sink (really, that is all it had a giant room with a sink). This is not terribly uncommon for German houses for some reason they expect tenants to bring their own appliances and kitchen cabinets…sorry, but I don’t actually have any kitchen cabinets in my household goods, so that house was immediately scratched off the list, even though we stayed and talked with the landlord for an hour as he explained the history/property/architecture of the house. The landlord was a walking encyclopedia of facts and figures and even though the house was a bust I am still happy we toured that house simply for the history…I wish I had brought my camera!
Also, I should probably mention that exactly zero of the houses had any semblance of a closet, fortunately the Army issues you wardrobes to hang your clothes, but I am still bumfuzzled by where the Germans hang their clothes!