Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Year, New Country.

So we started looking for houses in Germany.

...with all the kids. That was super fun. (Remember I have dibs on the sarcasm font?) In every house they argued over which room would be theirs. :) I guess they did pretty well though and I think looking at new houses made them more excited.

- Scotty would prefer that we leave whatever house we get empty because there is more room to run.
- Seriously. Andrea would plop down and crawl on any carpet we came across. She would rub her head and face on it. I PROMISE... the next house we live in will have fuzzy carpet in at least one room... "the-fuzzy-carpet-room". There will be NO chairs in it. In the "the-fuzzy-carpet-room" you sit and lay on the floor.
- Michaela and Sierra want the expensive houses. :) Happy, get ready to fork over 4100 euros a month!

HA, YAH RIGHT! 4100 euros? That is... hold on, let me google it....

5872.00 US Dollars!!!??!
...A MONTH!!!! I don't care how nice the house is. It can be across the street from the school. There is no way on earth that I will pay that much money!!! I have "upgraded" many things in my life but spending that much on a house I am NOT ready to do. I'm pretty sure I could feed a small country for a day for that much money! ...needless to say, we are expanding our search to some cities outside Hamburg to keep the cost down. :)

...and honestly the expensive houses aren't even nice. They are old... just in the "yuppie" part of town.

- I don't want to live in a rich neighborhood. I want to live with normal people. I think "normal people" are nicer and more accepting of others.
- I don't like the people who think they need to have the best of everything and who end up thinking they are better than those who don't have the best of everything. I want to kick these people... hard... in the shins.

Anyways, we found a great house outside of Hamburg 20 minutes.... just like we are now here in Denmark... a little outside of the "city". It's such a perfect house.... but it's kinda in a weird location. I want to go back this week and see how traffic is and see what it is like during the day. It's near a bunch of apartments and across from a kindergarten/park, there just seems to be a lot "going on"... it's a bit crowded. But the house is GREAT! Two HUGE rooms on the 4th floor. Three MORE bedrooms on the 3rd floor. Big kitchen and living room on the 2nd floor. ...and the Basement/1st floor is totally finished and heated and has three more rooms! :) Its a newer house. Rooms were painted colors... I just want to check out the commute and check out the area. :) But we need to do it during the week, not on a weekend...

Aside from this WONDERFUL HOUSE we found.... We found many houses where the kitchen was the size of our bathroom now and a space to eat is found down the hall. People tell us the kitchen is not a "living space", that you cook the food and take it else where to eat. Yah, well what if you forgot the ketchup or lemon juice? Walk... all. the. way. down. the. hall... sounds dumb to me. I've always had a huge kitchen. Luck I guess, but I've gotten used to it.

All the houses have basements too. Some are finished and liveable. Some are cold. Some look like bomb shelters with big metal doors and no windows. :)

Basements remind me of living in Georgia. We finished a room in the basement of the house we lived in in Georgia. My dad spraypainted, "Tara loves Brian" on the wall before he put sheetrock up. Brian was my boyfriend in 5th grade. :) We were voted cutest couple in school. :) Really, an elementary school has a vote for "cutest couple"?? I remember holding his hand during a movie at school and on the field trip to the planetarium. I even remember going to his baseball game to watch him play and I had crimped my hair!!! :) The crimper. It was like a curling iron, but it made your hair zig zaggy. HA!! Great, Michaela is in fifth grade... boyfriends? AHHHHH!!!

Michaela did go to the mall with a friend last week. They wandered around aimlessly and then watched a movie. I guess she's getting older. I'm happy she's doing regular 11 year old things... even here in Denmark.

12 comments:

Michaela said...

I am in 6th grade.

Tara said...

:) oh. sixth grade. :) that's right. :)

Just don't go getting a boyfriend and everything will be okay.

:)

MoMo 2.0 said...

sounds like another Happy Adventure has begun! Cannot wait to see pics of the new place once you decide.

honeypiehorse said...

How nice you made it to Germany. It is kind of expensive but that sounds REALLY expensive. Let me know if you come to Munich.

Pete said...

Maybe houses are expensive in Hamburg. But most other things are cheaper than Denmark, especially cars that are very heavy taxated. But also food, electronics etc. is cheaper in Germany than Denmark.
Just compare German prices to Danish prices instead of comparing them to US prices, then it seems cheaper.

Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin, so it's probably also among the most expensive places in Germany to live as most big cities tend to be.

Pete said...

Have you heard of the America clubs in Hamburg, like these:

The American Club of Hamburg: http://americanclub.de

The American Women's Club of Hamburg: http://awchamburg.org

Tara said...

Things are much cheaper in Germany that's for sure! We had fun buying ice creams and eating out and not spending hundreds of dollars. Feeding six is expensive!

ouuuhh... and did I mention? I'll get a car!!! My VERY own! :)

C and H Romenesko said...

and will it be a German car? One of those nice station wagon beemers?

Tara said...

Thanks Pete. Actually I had already contacted them and found a few women to help answer questions about areas and schools and even shopping. :) Very helpful...

I wish I knew about these clubs before I moved here to Denmark!

DreaminginDanish said...

This sounds really exciting, Hamburg is a really pretty city. I love the water at the center of the city. In the summertime it is really lovely. Plus they have real Chinese food over there! Oh, I miss real Chinese food. Ok, i'll stop thinking about food right now ;)

Tara said...

Dreaming... Do you know WHERE the Chinese places are? Our family likes Chinese food. We actually ate at a Chinese food place while we were there... I thought it was really good so did the kids. Sorry to say the words "Chinese Food" so many times. :)

Ingrid said...

Michaela is actually joining grade 7-9 so... :-)) .
I have never heard about a competition like that "cutese 5th grade couple". Wow. But I am not surprised about that you won that one. And you are still that cute! Maybe we should have a cutest Mum at ISAa competition...
Anyway, that house sounds good to me and the noisy environment wouldn't bother me to much if it is a nice and safe area.
Do you want the children to stay with us when you go there?? As many as you want to leave. No problem for us!
I agree with you regarding the kitchen. In Sweden they are actually not building any house without building the kitchen together with the living room in some way. Like in your house here, since people like to get together for cooking and mingle around. We actually think it would be good if there was any houses where you could close a door between the kitchen and the living room sometimes, but that is hard to find in new houses.
Good to hear that all of you are positive to the move, but we will miss you here!

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