shovelling snow

German law says that he who owns house has to clear a path a meter wide outside said house should it snow.
Last night it snowed. Quite a lot. The good news is that Werner was prepared - he had been to the DIY store last week and bought 40kg of grit and a snazzy Finnish made snow shovel. This morning he had the chance to use both. The bad news is he will probably be able to use them again tomorrow and the next day and the next day ..... too.

Cold cat walk

Now that she seems to feel at home inside the house, Ella is keen to take a look outside. So, yesterday we went on a cold cat walk. For now, until she knows her territory she gets to be on the lead. Maybe next week she can go out without it - although the frozen ground and occasional snow doesn't make for very comfortable cat walking conditions at the moment (for either of us).

Visitors in the cherry tree

Now that the cherry tree has been pruned and has lost all its leaves we can see the birds that visit it.
Yesterday a large green woodpecker sat halfway up the trunk watching us watching him.

Empty flat

Today is Handover Day. The day that Frau B gets the keys to our old flat. Yesterday we took away the very last bits of our stuff and cleaned and scrubbed and wiped and hoovered.

Saving the trees

Looking out the first floor window on Monday I noticed that there was a large branch hangng off the cherry tree. Having already arranged that the tree surgeon would come and professionally tend our magnolia tree and cherry tree in either December or January I called them up and asked them to come a little bit earlier.
The magnolia now has a proper shape to it, and the brokencherry branch has been removed (along with other endangered extremities) . Chain saws and safety gear were in action, and a huge trailer full of branches were driven away.

Moving day 5 - postscript

While we were moving, Zoe and Florian kept Ella shut in upstairs in the house. After everyone had left, she was allowed to come down and discover her new surroundings. She seems to be settling in well.



This photo was taken on Sunday morning.

Moving day 4 - at the house again

Although there are no photos, we can safely say that all the young men worked brilliantly the whole day long. After 8 hours of hard work all our possessions were in the house. Both sofas and the sideboard which was collected on a detour to my mother in law's flat, are now up on the first floor. And there are no scratches on the floors or wall.
A job extremely well done!

Moving day 3 - back at the flat

After lunch we emptied out the truck and went back to the flat where the real work of moving the sofas and the washing machine began.

Moving day 2 - lunch break

When the van was full for the first time, we drove to the house where Zoe took the order for 11 pizzas.

Moving day 1 - at the flat

Moving out day was on Saturday 5th December. At 10am prompt Gregor Goll turned up with his truck. He was closely followed by Sinan, Cengizhan, Metehan, Manuel, Manhal and Woldemar (not sure if I got all the spellings right there). And they all set to work.
Gregor organised the rest into a chain so that they could pass the boxes and smaller stuff from one to another down the stairs.

The first few hours were easy enough.

Office in the making

By now we are probably able to put up Ikea Billy shelves in our sleep. Luckily the desks were easy to put together too. The rolling chest of drawers was another matter entirely.
The office will no doubt grow as time goes on but happily the basics are appearing slowly but surely. I've tried sitting at the desk with the curtains drawn looking out at the garden. Nice and soothing and a good place to write.

Curtains

Finally, after having cost an arm (but not a leg), the ground floor now has curtains at all the windows. This will hopefully stop people staring in and asking if the house is for sale or rent.
Only the front windows have nets - they blue curtains at that window are lined too to reduce the light from the lamp post outside.
The first floor curtains and blinds will have to go up after we've moved in.

Carpenters' work

Around the back of the house, things are looking better. The terrace is down and the shed is up.
The terrace steps will get sides to them and something will go aound the edges of the terrace to stop mice building a mice city underneath it.
The shed has got two doors - the locks are going to come this week - and a nice beaver-tail (Biberschwanz) roof. Sometime soon the wood's going to get treated and stained and what-not.The shed also has a light and a socket in it, and a path leading up to it so we don't have to get too muddy walking from the house to the shed. And it's already full of shed stuff.
Tomorrow we are going to buy some grass seed to repair the garden.

In the photo you can also see that the fence to next door has been removed. Our carpenters have been clearing out the yard for our neighbour and she has promised to put up a proper fence soon.

Carpenters at work

On Friday the Zimmermänner were still working hard. Here they are doing something or other with the beams at the front of the house. The balcony is lying in the garden once again...

Pink toliet

I had to fight for it but we now have a beautiful pink toilet.
"Pink!" all the men said. "It will look good", said I (stamping my feet like Rumplestiltskin). And it is. And they all agree too :-)

Place to eat

The new dining table has arrived. One day we'll buy some lovely new chairs too. In the meantime we'll have to make do with these not very strong but very useful 12 euro foldable things from Ikea. At least, until we bring the metal ones from the flat next week.

New home for the bookshelves

And here the bookshelves are in their new position.

Boxes

Back at the flat, we've started packing the books and bits.
Some see it as boxes of books; others see it as a cat adventure playground.
The book shelves have already gone (note the empty white wall behind the sofa where the wall to wall bookshelves once were). They had to go to the house with the carpenter who cut them to fit - taking a bit off the top as the ceiling is lower, and a bit off the bottom as the skirting board would have been in the way.

Fall (fell, fallen)

Autumn has struck and almost all of the remaining leaves have blown, fluttered, and fallen off the trees giving the garden a slightly bare appearance. We do have two lovely piles of leaves though for the hedgehogs to rustle about in.

Former door

The funny pink office door went (via eBay) a while back. Then the door space was walled up and plastered. Now it has been painted pink to roughly match the other side of the front of the house - or at least so it doesn't stick out too much.

The scaffolding has gone from the front of the house and the balconies have been reattached. The outside wooden beams are getting wood cladding sometime this week too.

Today I swept, hoovered and mopped the first floor and cleaned all the windows on that floor too.
Just as I was starting on the monster windows downstairs Christa next door took pity on me, waved, and asked me over for a very welcome cup of coffee.

We're getting there.
Lovely weather for November.

Woodwormius eviction

We evicted the beastie but had to replace the wood he had made into his home and consequently turned into mushy splinters. Luckily the carpenters know how to do this without tearing down the whole house. It's a bit like an amputation - you cut away until you hit healthy tissue/wood and then replace the rotten bit with something new using bits of metal to hold it together.

Hidden Sunday work

In Germany it is highly frowned upon if you even consider working on a Sunday. The only way you can get away with working on your house is to spend the whole afternoon in the cellar with Ikea packages and instructions with pictures but no words.
At first the shelves were very wobbly, but then we found an extra little plastic packet containing anti-wobble devices (AWDs). So we dismantled the wobbly bits, inserted the AWDs and now they no longer wobble. Shame there aren't AWDs available for other aspects of our daily lives.

Sheds and hats

The carpenters have made themselves an open-air workshop in our back garden.



Yesterday they built the frame of our shed - which almost looks too noble to be a shed.


Essential head gear for your fashionable carpenter about town this autumn: Grey woolly hats a-go-go.

Windows

Making the most of the mild autumnal weather, lots was going on at the house on Saturday.
Sinan is sanding his final windows - starting at the top of the house, he's been working his way down slowly but surely to the double doors onto the garden.


His uncle is working behind him, varnishing, treating and filling gaps in the frames.

Shiny stairs

Two men from Stahlbau Nägele came today and put in our new shiny cellar stairs.



I'm quite proud of the stairs as I arranged everything to do with them, from start to finish, all by myself (Werner was at work; Veit was on holiday).



Now we have to work out how to put together the metal cellar shelves from Ikea. They're half up at the moment, but wobbling all over the place.

Woodworm update

A couple of people have asked what happened when the Worm-buster came on Friday afternoon.
Well, he took a look at the beastie (which Werner had creepily kept in a bottle for the pest man to see and identify) and said, yes, definitely "Hausbock"(Hylotrupes bajulus - in real Latin, and Old-house borer in English). The good news is that the work the carpenters did cutting and chiselling away the wood was adequate and we don't have to fumigate or otherwise spread poison about. The bad news is we have to check and possibly replace the beams at the front of the house too. And, in order to check them, we have to hack into the plaster on the front of the house.
The saga continues.
The other good news was that the pest-control man didn't charge us a call-out fee. Instead he asked that we spread the word that he's a jolly nice chap and the person to call should you need any pests controlling. So, thank you Mr Thomas Gunst, Staatl. anerkannter Desinfektor und Schädlingsbekämpfer, here's a link to your website.

Finished kitchen #2

Best to have a look at it now as it is unlikely to ever be this clean and tidy again.
Now we have to work out where everything is going to go. We have more storage space in the new kitchen than we do now at the flat - which is a big relief - but there doesn't seem to be a place to hang a tea towel out of sight.



Note the new window too - cleverly made so that the bit that opens does so without hitting the tap.
The fridge and freezer are off to the right of this second photo.

Beasties

And the bad news is that because the wrongly fitted metal cladding over the outside beams (see previous posts) has been letting the water in for so long, nasty beasties of the species Woodwormius uglios hugeos mungus have made themselves at home in the damp mushy woody remains. Said damp mushy remains have been hacked out so that the beasties can be dealt with in an inhumanely way.



If you're squeamish look away... now!

Bathroom floor

The beautiful blue glass tiles have been laid in the bathroom.
The sinks and other useful bathroom things are coming next week.

Hole in wall

So that the kitchen men can install the extractor hood over the new cooker, Mr Baun (who is quickly becoming our Man Friday) had to knock a hole in the wall.
He (unlike certain other people) didn't fall off his ladder. Maybe someone was watching over him...?

"Custom kitchen delivery...."

... we got to move these refridgerators, (etc etc)"

Two men who do not get their "money for nothing and their chicks for free"