Well, tomorrow marks one week since we moved. We’re settling in pretty well. We started with 57 moving boxes of stuff to unpack and are down to less than 15 at this point. The moving company is going to come pick up all the boxes sometime in February, after we return from our vacation in the U.S. A friend who is moving herself soon scooped up our vast collection of packing paper — we had been wondering how we were going to throw all that stuff out without monopolizing the house’s paper garbage bins. Sarah bought a shelf unit for additional bathroom storage and we set that up yesterday.
Pretty much all that remain to do at this point are
- getting more kitchen storage in the form of shelves, cabinets, and counter space (think dessert cart)
- that will allow us to finish unpacking the boxes fully
- get one remaining shelf set up here in the new living room
- plan out and hang up our pictures on the walls in the new place (because WE CAN)
- take advantage of our attic cage with some seasonal storage boxes (IKEA was out…grrrr)
- move some paperwork and remaining trash out of the old place
- get an estimate on the painting required at the old place, get that done
- haggle over lighting at the old place (it belongs to us but is mostly ill-suited for the new place)
- get our security deposit back
- observe the mail at the old place and inform all senders of our new address
- wait out the lack of phone/internet service at the new place until early February (vacation coming up will make that pretty easy) — if you need to get ahold of us the next 3 days, our mobile phones are your best bet
- report our move to the local authorities
OK, that list looks longer on-screen than it felt in my head. Hmm, still a fair amount to take care of, I guess.
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who offered to help us with our move — before and after the big day, there are tons of errands to be done and we are grateful. Also, I heartily recommend Zitzelsberger Internationale Möbelspedition for a move into, out of, or within the Regensburg area (ours of course was within). These guys were fast, friendly, reliable, and a pleasure to deal with at all stages of the move (online inquiries, follow-up pre-move consultation, packing, loading, unloading, even the billing). And the bill from them came in at 8€ under estimate for our move. Love that.
Weird things I’ve noticed in the past week:
- Looking out the window and seeing people walk by (still) makes my eyebrows rise. After spending the last 5 years at 4th story levels and higher, I’ve forgotten what pedestrians look like from inside the house.
- Our new places has windows with those nifty German shutters that roll down outside the building based on pulleys inside the building. I dig those, but am utterly helpless in the absolute darkness they create, and apparently unable to orient my bodily clock without the natural light we used to get from our skylights. Gone, at least temporarily, are the days of getting up with the sun — it’s back to artificial delineation of sleep periods.
- Streetside-traffic doesn’t bother me in the least here. I thought I’d at least notice it, but so far I haven’t. I also don’t miss the drunk kids horfing and hollering at 3:45 in the morning. Not that I thought I would, really, but I expected to at least notice street traffic instead of pedestrian noise.
I have to leave the Rolladen open just a little bit or I get really disoriented – it’s just way too dark!! Plus I don’t like feeling trapped in my house. (Can you tell I’m an American raised on fire safety? I can’t imagine sitting there trying to roll the Rolladen up so I can get out in case of fire.)
Total darkness at night is better for your health – perhaps timers on the lights can help with the disorientation. Clair seems to go by the clock in her stomach, so I get to wake up around 5 no matter what’s happening with the blinds.
Is it truly ground level, or a Hochparterre? We have a Hochparterre, but it still feels a bit odd and uncomfortable to be so close to the rest of the world. No biggie, though.
We just discovered that trick — works well!
That’s pretty much what we had at the old place with drapeless/blindless windows and skylights — barring the moonlight on clear nights, which I rather liked.
I had to look that one up. I suppose it’s not truly ground level, since it’s about 3 steps up off the street level, and we live on an island (not, repeat not, thinking about spring thaws and flooding possibilities).
Question… Do you have to report your move to the authorities because of your non-citizen status, or is that a regular “thing” that people have to do? This is interesting.
That’s a regular thing that people have to do.
Germans (the dumber ones) sometimes gave me guff about “voter registration” laws and how that interferes with the fairness of the election process and is an intrusion of privacy and all that. But here, you have to report where you live when that changes. I guess it’s the same thing as getting your DL amended when you move; it’s not valid if you don’t live at the address on the front or a sticker on the back, right?
Nice to see an update. I can imagine the shutters giving me the creeps; I believe windows are for emergency exits, even though I have never made use of one for that purpose. Complete darkness really does help with sound sleep. I’ve convinced Dad that all those LEDs keep me awake, so he took the battery chargers out of our room and we’ve reduced the bedroom clocks to one and shut off the microwave display, but his computer still puts out enough light to make your way through the front hall. And the neighbors’ lights require that we completely close the blinds every night, which I hate. I’m a moonlight person too. Only a power failure gives us complete darkness.
Good luck with the progress on setting up and organizing. I spent today dealing with the counter under the microwave. UUUUGGGHHHH!
Love.
Mom