The joys of House Hunting

Let's face it.

Amy and I are really picky (well, I'm picky and whiny about it...and Amy might just placate me).  It took a really long time (months and months) to find our place in Frederick, and that was only after we had given up looking.

Now, we don't have that kind of time here (we probably have until the end of next week).  And while "military style" house hunting is something that I am familiar with, Amy, certainly is not.

All of this is complicated by the German real estate agent method of doing business, which is, to say the least, laid back.  Germans, by nature, are an exacting, slow, process oriented bunch, so when they look for homes, they look for homes that they will spend the rest of their lives in.  The process can take years, and the market has adapted to this.  I guess I should not be surprised that all the real estate agents that we've contacted have been extremely slow to respond to us, and some of them haven't responded at all.

This totally flies in the face of my philosophy as a customer. If you, as a business, don't make an effort to earn my money, then, I'm pretty happy to not give it to you.

Anyway...

We went out the other evening to take a look at some places.  We're still undecided when it comes to renting vs. buying, but that's a whole other topic.

The first place we went to was way, way, way out in the country.  I think it was in, or near the town of Schneckenhausen.  Yes, this is a real place name.

The drive was adorable, and so were the towns we had to drive through to get there.  There would be pictures, but...uh...I was driving.

Regardless, the house had a nice view (it was on the top of a hill overlooking some farm fields ... and a chicken farm, which is nice for those sunday morning sleep-ins. However, the place was just too small.  The kitchen was literally the size of the island from our Frederick house.  This included cabinets and counter space. Also, there was no fence, or really, no yard to speak of.  Both things we need.

We were all set to see another place, but we never ended up finding it.  This place was in Ramstein (the town of, not the base).  I think we are going to try to see this place again sometime today, but we're relying on one of these really aggressive German real estate agents to take the time to get back in touch with us.

Oh well.

Hey,  for those wondering, Ari is doing just fine in his new daycare.  It's a much smaller class than the one he left at Ft Detrick, but from what I've seen, there is only one girl in his class...which must be a shock to him.

Also, driving on the Autobahn has been a learning experience. While I don't think we've been on any part of it that has no speed restriction, the max limit around here is 130 KMH, which is about 80 MPH, some folks just sorta tend to ignore the limit.

And while we're on the topic of the Autobahn, Einfhart means "on ramp" and Ausfhart (yes, it is pronounced the way you want to say it) means "exit ramp".

Now you're educated.  Go do some damage.