I can haz duck?
Yesterday, I was too busy wallowing in self-pity to post about the houses we went to look at in the morning. We looked at two houses in a town I absolutely loved. It had a large stadt-mitte with bakery after bakery, eis (ice cream) cafes, tons of stores, and charm to spare. It was much bigger than the villages we had looked at previously, connected by bike paths to the next city over and The Man's work and really, just perfect.
The first house we looked at in the town had so much going for it. This playground was directly across the barely traveled street from the house. I mean, I could see it from the kitchen window!
The views from the master bedroom were amazing!
The layout of the house was great with a second entrance on the very bottom floor, to make bringing in the bikes very easy. Lots of storage, plenty of bedrooms and slightly less perilous stairs than we'd seen previously.
In fact, the only problem with the place was the flooring. I can't believe I didn't manage to catch a single picture of the carpets, especially with the realtor urging me to "make a picture" every third step (and I was worried she wouldn't let me take pictures!) It wasn't dirty or anything, but it was carpet. And some rooms were blue and some were reddish. It wasn't good. Every other house we've looked at had the light colored wood flooring and very modern (Ikea) fixtures and appliances we've come to associate with the area. This one just hadn't been updated in a while. I asked the realtor if the landlord would consider replacing the flooring and working the cost of it into our monthly rent, but it doesn't sound good. Is it stupid to hold back from a place that's perfect in every other way just because it isn't my style inside?
The second house we looked at had been thoroughly updated, had a rooftop terrace and a yard. That's practically unheard of here. The bedrooms were very small, but that's fairly common here. It had the coolest wine cellar EVAH.
Them's some pretty big bottles of wine.
The house was built in the 20's. Hence, the awesome wine cellar. But, also it sported the cut off and disjointed layout and teeny tiny rooms somewhat typical to the period. All in all, though, it was a fantastic house, very close to the city center and the landlord - though he speaks even less English than we speak German - was very, very nice.
I wish I had taken some pictures of the third house. It looked like it belonged on the set of the first half of Casino. If only I were into 70's retro. It would have been perfect! It was also in a smaller (MUCH less charming) village, slightly farther away from the cities than we would prefer.
If there's any chance either of the first two houses are still available when Housing approves our request, I think I could be happy with either. Neither is exactly perfect, but I keep telling the realtors that the location is much more important to us than the design and I need to follow my own pronouncement.
Technorati tags: Germany, house hunting, dog
2 comments:
Seems reasonable that if everything works but the flooring and you're renting, not buying, that it would serve you well for living day to day. Hope you hear affirmatively from housing soon.
You don't see wall-to-wall carpeting in very many European homes these days. But I'm sure once you have all your things moved in you will hardly notice it.
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