The Search For Housing

No posts for several days! I have a queue of things to write about but have been too busy to sit at the computer. Today I will write about our search for housing, since hopefully this will be the one of the last days that our housing will be in question!

Our ideas for what kind of house we will live in keep changing. When we first thought of moving to Germany, we thought we would be in a small euro apartment: very sleek, modern, and sparse. Then we discovered that if we lived in the southwest part of town we could have a townhome or small actual house with a small yard for the kids and Diablo (they call that a garden here). But the homes in the southwest of town are much older and not modern or "euro" at all. So we adjusted to picturing ourselves in an older house with a tiny yard. And then we found some houses that were large and open and spacious and have large yards! So now we see what is possible and it makes us think that if we just keep looking we will find it all! But of course the perfect house doesn't exist...

When we came to visit in June we saw a small house that we dubbed "the shoe box house", which had a postage stamp-sized yard with an apple tree in the middle of it and we were thrilled to find it.

Apple tree in tiny yard

We didn't rent the house because at the time we didn't have a timeline for when we would be moving to Germany, and someone else snapped up the house. Then Dan came for the month of September and tried to find us housing at the same time he was starting his new job. That proved to be too time-consuming and difficult for him to do both at once, and the relocation service that was hired by his company to help us find a place to live did a very poor job. Dan visited several places, none of which were very interesting. Just before he came home to help us move he found one that we decided to apply for, even though it was far from ideal. We didn't get chosen to live there, and thank goodness! Dan's company hired a new relocation service that is much better, and if we had had this company from the beginning we would surely be living in a nice home by now. Oh well.

Our new relocation agent has found us several nice places. Last Thursday I went to see four or five of them in different parts of town. Looking for a home here is no different than looking for a home anywhere else, in that each house has its pros and cons and it is impossible to find everything in one house. Everything I saw on Thursday had a major drawback: too small, not ready to live in yet, too far from public transportation, etc. The agents that show the houses seem to use the "bait and switch" technique a lot. We arrived at one new development and were viewing the very nice showroom home. We walked around for at least 10 minutes with me taking pictures of the unit before the agent told us"0h by the way this one is not available but I will show you one that is." Of course the one that was actually available was too small for us and we had driven all the way out to Teltow before learning that this place wasn't even an option. Another place we went to look at was under construction. We had thought that it was going to be done January 1 and ready for move-in, but when we got there it was far from complete and the agent told us it would not be ready until February. Of course construction is often behind schedule so there's no telling if that place might not be ready until March or even later. Finally at the end of the day we walked into a house and for the first time I thought "we could live here!" It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but it had plenty of space inside, a nice sitting room, and a pretty large backyard that even had have a small pool! I pictured us out in the yard splashing around in the summertime, or Dan and me lazily reading a book in the living room looking out the big glass windows at the kids playing in the yard.

The house had a "winter garden" like some German homes do, to fill with plants and flowers. The downsides to the house were a very small closed kitchen, an old and probably expensive heating system, and a very small and cramped bathroom. My agent, Karla, was hopeful and told me that the best houses were yet to come.

And she was right. Friday night she called us and asked if we could meet on Saturday morning at a home that belongs to a diplomat who is currently living in Belgium. This house isn't listed on the general market and was only advertised in a diplomatic magazine. The house isn't fancy at all but is in a very central location that would make it easy for Dan to get to work. Plusses are the large kitchen, a more modern and energy efficient design, and the master suite on the top floor with its own bathroom. That would allow the kids to have their own bathroom on their floor and Dan and I could have our own bathroom on the top floor. That's unusual - most floor plans have one bathroom for all the bedrooms, and then a small guest bathroom on the main floor.  Downsides here are a small yard with no privacy from the neighbors and thin ugly carpet in some of the rooms instead of the beautiful old hardwood that is in many of the homes, The house's location is both a plus and a minus: being closer to the city center allows us to live more of a city life, but....it also forces us to live more of a city life! Noisier, more densely populated, etc. Back in September we would have jumped at the chance to live in this house. But now, having seen more options, we are struggling with the problem of more than one choice!

Because yesterday I saw two houses that were both wonderful. One was a beautiful old house with dark wood flooring and a gorgeous back yard with a cherry tree, an apple tree, and a walnut tree in the neighbor's yard that would drop nuts in our yard. It had a lot of character, lots of windows and light, and was on a dead end street that ends in a playground/park. Really neat attic rooms on the top floor for the kids. Downsides are we would all have to share one bathroom (there is a very small guest bathroom on the ground level, but the kids would have to come down two flights of stairs to use it), small closed kitchen, and distance from public transportation.

A bit choppy, but beautiful wood and lots of light

Cool loft bedroom with wooden beams for
climbing

The other house was in a quiet suburb (Nikolassee) close to forests and lakes. It also had a nice yard (although no fruit trees). Its layout was more traditional with living room and kitchen on the main floor and all 4 bedrooms and a bath upstairs. Again we would all have to share the bathroom, and this one is smaller than the one in the other house. But it has a larger living room and larger kitchen, and the floor plan is less choppy than the other house. The question mark at this house is around the renovations that are going on. They are ripping out the floor in the main level, which should be finished in about 2 weeks, but they also want to update the kitchen. It would be great to have a brand new kitchen, but if it delays our move-in by a month or two then this house would be a no-go. Information like that is very hard to pull out of the rental agents.

Today I saw the last two places. One was a townhome, also in Nikolassee. It was nice but expensive and not a contender, I think. The other is an interesting dark horse. It's a flat, not a detached house. We would live in the bottom floor of a 3 story building. The obvious downside here is having people tromping around above us, but there are some upsides that I didn't think about at first: 1) It's all on one level, so there are no stairs to go up and down. This wouldn't be good for a family with older children where everyone wants their space, but for us it would work well to have us all spread out on the same level, where I could be in the kitchen, Dan in the study and the kids playing in a play area without feeling like we're so far away from each other. 2) It has a shared yard area. I saw this as a downside at first, and it isn't ideal that I couldn't let Diablo into the yard by himself to use the bathroom. But it's also a positive because the landlord manages all the yard space (no leaf raking, grass mowing, weeding, etc). They have playground equipment, soccer goals, a sandbox and a trampoline that all the kids in the building use. That means the kids would always be able to find someone to play with. It's very American to want our own space and to prefer our own private yard, but it's more communal to think about meeting neighbors and playmates in a common yard. This place is very close to the kids' school and is cheaper than the suburban houses. And it's very pretty, has lots of character. It's from the 1920's and has ceiling decorations, big tall French doors, large bathrooms (all on one floor!) and plenty of space. More downsides: near a busy street so there is traffic noise if you open the windows (pretty well muffled when they are closed), and much darker than the other homes (although we did visit on a very grey day).

So, what is more important to us? To live closer to town and all the things that Berlin has to offer, but sacrifice privacy and peace and quiet and level of furnishings? Or live farther from town where we can have a bit of our own space, further from work and school but closer to lakes and forests?  Should we live in the city with the hustle and bustle and pay more for it, or live in the suburbs where your money goes further but you commute? Should we share our home and garden and save money and use it to travel, eat and play? These are the same questions every househunter in the US has to answer!

Tomorrow we've arranged to go back to the 2 suburban homes and the dark horse so that Dan and the kids can see them (the kids are out of school the next 3 days). Hopefully we will feel strongly pulled to one of them and our application will be accepted!!!