Sunday, June 7, 2009

Week 15

Well, I finally made a little progress unpacking this week. There is still a lot to do though. The problem is that we didn't bring enough furniture because we assumed we would be in a small flat in the city. Turns out that we found a large home in the country... go figure! We ended up leaving a lot of furniture in our home in Kansas that the renters are using and a lot of it went into storage in the States. Luckily for us there is an Ikea just 10 minutes from our house! :)

So here is the virtual tour of our home....

This is the street we live on. Our house is on the left.
You can't miss it... it's the bright yellow one!

This is the entrance. There are 3 homes attached here in a U shape with a common courtyard. Our landlord lives in one and his daughter in the other.

Front doorWhitney looks out this window every day around 5pm looking for Daddy.
This is across the courtyard. The door on the right is where we take our garbage.
Have I mentioned how confusing and labor intensive the garbage is here?
Well, I'm going to have to save that for another post.

The entrance.
If you go straight there is the bathroom and a door next to the bathroom that leads to the basement (the boys call it the dungeon... pics to follow).

If you turn right at the front door you are in the kitchen. This was the only house we looked at that had a kitchen included. This is because the tenants before us were also American and the landlords did this for them. Most German houses don't even have kitchen counters, sinks, cupboards, anything!!! We put the washer and dryer up here so we didn't have to go up and down from the "dungeon".

If you turn left from the entrance you will go into the living room area.
Our current, awesome entertainment center
Haven't really decided what to do with this half of the room yet.

The dungeon

Sooo much work left to do.

Downstairs bathroom

Ok... now we're ready to go upstairs
At the top of the stairs is our current solution for towels, linens etc...
You will also see baby gates everywhere. All the stairs makes us crazy with Whitney around!
Once you're on the 2nd floor (or 3rd if you count the basement - but I'm not),
if you turn right you see 3 doors
The first door on the left is a small bathroom with a shower and toilet
The second door is another bathroom... yes, right next to the first bathroom. Weird, huh?
The door to the right is the boys room.


Now... if you had turned left when you came up the stairs there are 2 doors.
The first door is our room.

Next to our room is Whitney's
Going up the spiral staircase to the top floor.
There are also 3 bedrooms up here.
The first door on the left is the playroom.



This room is a total mess. We've pretty much just thrown all the toys up there for now. We need a system to organize it. However, this will probably be the last room we fix up. The kids like it just the way it is. If you turn right at the top of the stairs this is the first room. We plan to use this room for our German speaking Au Pair when we find the right one. Still looking....
She has a small bathroom in her room.

This is the Guest bedroom. We've already been able to use it once already!
Hoping to use it LOTS more. :)

5 comments:

Cami said...

You know that song... The one that NEVER ends!? Well that was your house!!! Room after room, picture after picture! I am sooo jealous!! Your house is sooo big. You have SO many rooms, that you guys don't even know what to do with all of them! I think I could fit 3 of my houses in yours! Why don't German homes have couters though!? How do they cook and where do they keep their appliances? Plus where is the other half of the toilets? And what is that button above them? Is that how you flush?!? Does your house not have any screens on the windows?! Scary! No wonder you were freaking out the other day from not cleaning it one night. It's so big, that you have to start cleaning it all over again once you've finished! I like the picture of Whitney with her pig-tails!!! She has such a cute, big, & girly room! And the boys' room is super cute too. Do none of the bedrooms have closets? Did you have to buy those standing closets for everyone?! Good Post! I love pictures! Speaking of pictures! Check out my blog. We changed it. We are still changing it, but Mike is almost done updating it. www.deanphotographs.com

Love & Miss you!

~ Cami

Jeremy and Amy said...

LOL! You are funny. Germans BUY their kitchens. You can buy a complete kitchen with counters, sinks, cupboards, stove, etc... we've looked at some before we got this house and they were really expensive so we saved A LOT of money by living here and not having to pay for that now. The button above the toilet is how you flush. ha ha!!! No... there aren't any screens. We usually only open the tops of the windows instead of opening them all the way since there are no screens. Whitney would be dead in a week if we opened them all the time. The Germans do not build closets in their homes either. Weird, huh? Those wardrobes or shrunks is what everyone uses here. You know Cami.... I think you are just going to have to come out and see it first hand!!!

Cami said...

How did you put that cool picture of you and Whitney on your blog?! I LOVE IT!!!!!

~ Cami

Rachel said...

Wow! the house looks amazing! The kids look happy and are so cute. Y'all look great. I hope you get settled in easily and that you enjoy your time there.

Mandy said...

What a Cute place! With TONS of rooms! My sister's place also has a lot of stairs, so she also has a lot of kiddy gates. :) And just think of how much calories you will burn going up and down those stairs! LOL! I bet the kids LOVE their new place compared to your old place. :) I love the picture of Whitney looking out the window! She is a DOLL!