Today also marks the day that Ted had to turn in the EOS. While he is sad that he lost not only his convertible but his sun roof as well, he recognizes that it was a gift from God. A way for us to research whether we would want to actually buy the car since it was the one we were talking about getting if we ever got a "newer" car. We think that the convertible is overkill but we'd like to have a sunroof. That would be ideal! So they drop off the new car and it's VW Golf. I'm sort of happy that we have this car in light of the fact that we will be moving shortly and need all the space we can get to get our eight bags, plus food into it to transport to the new location, where ever that may be.
I spent the day doing some research for an upcoming trip and cleaning and blogging. Since we have an appointment to see an apartment in Plieningen, this evening and it's our anniversary, we are going out to dinner. I get to choose! I settled on the Amalfi Restaurant not far from where we live. But it's on an incredibly "chewed up" road. We have a wonderful dinner and toast with Schwepps Bitter Lemon (me) and a mixture of Fanta Orange and Coca Cola (Ted) - it didn't sound good to me AT all, but he seemed to like it. We also toasted with a bottle of Acqua Panna - my favorite Italian bottled water. The meal was excellent as it always is there and we had the place to ourselves since it was so early. The owner is from Naples and she said I have a "Napolitano" accent. No kidding! LOL! I got to speak Italian for a bit and that made me happy.
When we completed our dinner, it was early so we decided to go over to where the apartment was and check out the neighborhood. We rode around awhile and then parked the car. We walked around a bit and saw that there are several hotels along with restaurants and cafes all within a few blocks of the apartment. There are also quite a few stores for shopping, also within a few blocks. This will be nice in the winter time. I wouldn't have to walk one or two kilometers to get bread and other basic necessities. There are also doctor's offices, hair dressers and various other small boutique like places. The architecture is unbelievable and there's a gorgeous church right around the corner. (In all of the excitement, I forgot to take out my camera!)
We pull into the public parking in front of the apartment. We have about 15 minutes before Mr. Drascher gets here. There's a gentleman standing around and we think it is him (we don't know what he looks like, so we guess it is he). We ask him if he's the tenant and he doesn't speak any English. What? In my broken German, I try to ask about him writing in English. He just shook his head. Maybe this guy is an assistant to Mr. Drascher. He finally pulls out his card and it looks like he's an insurance agent. His name is Andreas Fuchs. What a name, huh? OK, maybe they have insurance agents come to the property. How the heck would I know what their procedure is.
Within in minutes another guy shows up. It turns out, he's the tenant and he speaks English. I ask him why he's moving out. It's a legitimate question. He tells me his wife's grandfather died and they were moving in with his grandmother so she wouldn't have to be alone. He said, "Family comes first". I told him I totally agree with that and applaud his decision. The next thing you know, Mr. Drascher shows up. There was a little bit of a conversation between him and Andreas. The tenant asks if we want to go in and we all amble up the walkway to the apartment entrance. It faces a piece of vacant land where a house will be built this summer. I ask how long he thinks it will be (not that it matters, I was just curious). He tells me the bathroom and the smallest of the three bedrooms face this area so it shouldn't disrupt with the sound. That's OK, I tell him, I'm used to construction.
It turns out there's doctor's offices to the left of the apartment building and a library opposite the living room. It should be quiet in the evenings. Perfect!
We go inside and the floors (and steps) are a speckled marble and the hand rails are polished aluminum. It is very clean and very nice. OK! He opens the door to a long hallway (keep in mind the tenant has not yet moved everything out and he apologized profusely for the mess. I told him to not even to worry about it. I look past all of that and I did. Mr. Drascher shows us the living room which is pretty small but then, this tenant has a TON of furniture in it. I don't think we will be having that much furniture in that room. We look at the kitchen and Mr. Drascher tells us it belongs to the tenant and that we could buy it from the tenant for 2200 Euro. YIKES! But, it has a pantry (which they curiously call "medicine cabinet" after the cabinets in the Apotheke), refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, cabinets (of course) sink, hood and a high work table that comes with the kitchen. OK. I'll have to do some figuring to see how this expense figures into the grander scheme of things in the long run. The floors in the kitchen are tiled but the rest of the apartment with the exception of the baths are laminate floors. Easy to care for!
It turns out the light fixtures do not stay either but we can buy them from the tenant for 250 Euro. Another expense that I wasn't counting on BUT it sure beats trying to go out, buy fixtures, install them. It has to be more expensive than the 250 Euro!
I ask the tenant about the electricity bill. It's curious how they do the utilities in Germany. He pays a flat fee of 80 Euro a month. At the end of the year, he will get a final bill. If he hasn't used the 80 Euro a month, he gets a refund. If he's gone over, he has to pay the excess and then the electric company will then bump up the payment for the following year. That's pretty cool, except if you really use a lot of electricity, then at the end of the year, it can be a real downer! :)
The heating is gas central heating and is included in the utility portion of the bill to the landlord. That's good. The windows have plastic shutters and some of them are electric rather than with the usual European straps. That's pretty cool. There is a glass sliding door out of the living room looking down into a very small garden which is taken care of by a gardener and is included in the utilities paid to the landlord.
He takes us into see the two bedrooms and the baths. The medicine cabinet in the half bath will stay but not the one in the full bath. OK, another expense. But we could probably pick one up rather cheaply somewhere. How will that figure into the equation? I'll check Toom to see what their prices are and plug it into my handy dandy spreadsheet!
The full bath has both a shower and a tub. The smallest of the three bedrooms will make a perfect home office for my work and/or storage area. That's the extent of the tour of the apartment. We go down into the basement and he shows us a nice-sized additional locked storage area! Great, that third bedroom can be an office or small bedroom for guests. There's a room where bicycles are kept and they put their "gelbes sacs" (yellow bags) in the that storage area for the cleaning company to remove. The cleaning company cleans the common areas. He shows us the laundry room and it's doable. It looks like everyone leaves their laundry soaps and stuff in there and I ask him if he worries about anyone using his machine. He says it doesn't happen and he even keeps a hamper there right by the washer and dryer. These are stackable units and the room is quite small but it is clean.
We turn around and go to the opposite end of the corridor where the garage is. Here's where it gets interesting. It turns out there's two garages for each unit. But they are on hydraulic lifts to put one car in one garage, then it's hydraulically lowered to put the second car. The tenant said, if you have a pick-up truck, forget it. I told him we only have one car so it doesn't matter! It's pretty cool how they really conserved space. The parking garage is ALSO used by the doctors in the nearby building. There's a clicker to get into the garage and more than enough room to back out and go out front ways onto the street. Very cool, indeed. Leave it to the Germans to be very efficient with their space!
While I was speaking with the tenant about the distance to Ted's office and what the road conditions are like in the winter time, Mr. Drascher was speaking to Andreas. Keep in mind that Andreas didn't say too much while Mr. Drascher was showing the property to us, he pretty much talked to the tenant, which I didn't think a thing of...until now. I politely ask Mr. Drascher if Andreas is learning the business. To which he replies no, he's here to see the apartment. Great! I wish I would have known. I wouldn't have been so free with my speech and it would have been nice if Mr. Drascher disclosed that little bit of information. Oh well, if it's meant to be that we get this place, then we will.
I ask him if that's standard procedure and he says he normally does not do that but Andreas showed up early for his appointment. He usually leaves 15 minutes between appointments. I didn't understand that comment but I wasn't going to make a big deal of it. It is what it is.
He said that we would have to complete a questionnaire and I said sure, I have no problem with that. I asked him how it works when there are two interested parties. He told me both of us will have to complete the questionnaire and will be presented to the landlord. At which time, the landlord will decide who he wants to meet with. Apparently, he wants to see who he is renting the unit to and if he likes the family. If our paperwork is in order (which it will be), we have just as good as a chance as Andreas. (Ted seems to think we have a better chance based on Andreas' teeth. Go figure?)
At any rate, we left it that Mr. Drascher would send us the questionnaire later this evening and we would fill it out and get it along with a copy of the lease agreement from the housing office which is in English and in German.
We had to go back to Amalfi because I left my sweater in the booth and I really like my sweater! After stopping there, we headed home.
I sat down with my spreadsheet and did the calculations based on the electricity estimate the tenant gave me and all of the additional costs minus the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and in the long run we'll be further ahead with our monthly housing allowance!
The only drawback is that all of the money has to be paid for up front and it will be a tight squeeze until we get reimbursed for our shipping and expenses. After that we can breathe a little.
Now more than ever, we are depending on God to show us the way. We want to live where He wants us to live because ultimately, He has a MUCH better plan than we ever could have!
That's it for today. Happy Anniversary, Ted!
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