Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Southern Hospitality pays off

Last weekend, we went to further narrow down the list of houses we were interested in. We stopped looking at houses further than 30 minutes away from base because there's no point in moving to a great house if you can't afford the cost of gas to get to base. On the packet of listings, there was a phone number listed for either the point of contact, which is the person living in the house now, the landlord, and sometimes both.

We started with the houses that we were most interested in, with the intention of narrowing down the field further to 1o or less houses and then calling to make appointments to see them. We were having trouble finding one of the houses, so we called the landlord to ask where it was exactly (side note- we were trusting the GPS, which put the house on the wrong side of the street). That landlord ended up asking if we wanted to come and see the house that afternoon, and we said yes. Since it was about 12:30, and the appointment wasn't until 4 pm, we decided to take our chances and see if we could make appointments to see the other houses we liked. We were able to make two other appointments to see our top three favorite houses. Luck!

The first house we saw was older, and the landlord had some expensive and breakable furniture in the house. The yard was amazing, though, but in my mind all I could see was potential damage the kids could do to the house. Plus, the bedrooms were all upstairs, and every bedroom had a slanted ceiling, which was going to make placing furniture very tricky. The stairs in German houses tend to be narrow, small, and twisty, so let one of us be in a hurry and boom! Broken bones and damaged plaster abound. The garage looked like you could lean against it and push it over, which I'm sure wasn't true, but the landlord didn't offer to open the door, either. Ummmhmmm. The kitchen was my least favorite part. I am not at all certain that I could fit in there and also open a drawer or cabinet door.

Onto house number two at 2:30. We stopped for a quick lunch and to change poopy diapers. The fun never ends. T is now so tall that trying to put him on one of those wall mounted changing tables is hilarious. He's too big for it from the mid thigh down, so there's a lot of dangle off the table and when he starts to wiggle, he wiggles himself off. Plus, he's lying there calling out, "Hi! Hello!" as women come in to use the bathroom too. I find this endlessly amusing, but am grateful that he no longer tries to peek under the door of the stalls.

When we arrived at house number two, we were really excited because this was the #1 house on our list. The landlords are a nice older couple who love kids. They live three houses up the street, and their backyard backs up to the houses backyard. This house was different inside than we expected, but we loved it. The living room has a huge balcony, the kitchen was nice and roomy. We have the option of having our bedroom being upstairs with the kids or downstairs by ourselves. The room beside the downstairs bedroom we like used to be a kitchen and the former tennants used it as a walk-in closet/exercise room. Hmm...I like that idea or using it as an office. It also has a covered patio and a regular patio, plus a garage. So rain or shine, the kids have a nice place to play. We loved this house. Other people had looked at it, though, and the landlords were not thrilled that we would only be here for another year and some change. So, they told us they'd let us know that night.

Onto the third house at 4. I was sure that nothing would impress me as much as the last house, but this one had used every inch of space well, and didn't have twisty staircases at all. The living room was large and so was the kitchen, and there was a built in schrank with a window that opened to pass things back and forth. This was a three level house, and in the basement was an incredible room with a built in bar and shelving. Perfect for entertaining or a great playroom. Unfortunately, this landlord did not care for kids, which she made pretty apparent and the there was very little yard. And, they were ripping out the area next to the house because there was a leak. So, we knew right away that we weren't going to get this house. And honestly, I would live in fear that the kids would be too loud or mess something up. The landlords lived the the adjoining house, so we shared a wall and a yard. That just seemed like a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.

Dejected, we headed home. When we didn't get called on house number two, I figured it was just meant to be. It's going to be expensive to move anyway and this is totally a case more of "I want" rather than "I need". We really, really did want, though. :(

The next morning, I had a brilliant idea as I was taking a shower - baked goods and thank you notes. Even if we didn't get the house, perhaps they would know of another place that would work. Better yet, if they were on the fence, maybe they would reconsider. So, the kids and I baked cookies, put them in a fancy little basket, and I struggled my way through a thank you note mostly in German. We took it over only to discover that R had left a digit off our phone number and they had been trying to call us. If they were on the fence, the note and cookies nudged them in our favor, and they agreed to rent to us. Not only do you get more flies with honey than vinegar, you can also get a rental house with amazing landlords.

Moving should be quite the experience, so stay tuned for more antics.

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