Adventure Girls and Ferd

It has been a busy week. On Tuesday the photographer came to photograph the house for the real estate listing. On Wednesday the house went on the market. On Thursday I had a MS Teams interview for a nursing position in Germany. On Friday I worked and we had two house showings. Saturday we rested and on Sunday we had two more house showings.   Now we wait for an offer. A good offer. An above listing offer. We hope. While we would like the best and highest offer possible, I will just be happy when the whole ordeal is over. I don't know how many times I can scrub the kitchen floor and polish the door knobs. Poor B. hasn't been able to play with most of her toys for fear of making a mess.  This entire relocation process has been a hurry-up-and-wait game. It is a challenge to try to live in the present when you there are so many life-changing decisions out there. Where to live, sell the house, sell the car, get a job, school for B. Relocating across the globe is not for the fa...

T. went to look at a house today. It has lots of great features and only one or two negatives. The deciding factor maybe whether or not hedgehogs make visits to the yard. T. kindly humors me when I make such declarations.  For almost as long as I can remember I have been a fan of hedgehogs. Mrs. Tiggywinkle was my introduction to hedgies and I have been enamored since. Being in the US the only chance I have had to interact with them has been at some petting zoo or what.  In Germany the European Hedgehog is a wild animal. So while I won't be having any as a pet, the fact that I could have a wild one in my backyard is thrilling!  I think I found a way to spend my days: hedgehog observing! Perhaps I'll build them a little town to inhabit in our back garden. Maybe sew them some little hats and provide boots for the wet weather.  Here is our potential backyard. I think Hedgehog Hollow or Hedgehog Hill? Tiggy's Town? Winkle Woods? would look quite nice here.  ...

How many is too many? 5? 10? 20? I have a tote crammed full of reusable shopping bags and I need to decide how many to keep. Help! I love them all. 

With this move we find ourselves in the fortunate position where I do not have to work. And honestly, it is freaking me out a bit. Before B. (and S. and E.) I was convinced that I would always be a career woman who chose to have children.  My mom instilled in me the need to have a career. So much so I ended up with two - Urban Planner and Nurse! I believe her wise words were something like, "If you ever get divorced you want to be able to take care of yourself." Luckily, I am not divorced and ended up with two satisfying careers.  After working so hard for my Masters in Urban and Regional Planning and then going back to nursing school and somehow surviving and thriving in an accelerated BSN program, the thought of not working or not having a career goal is a bit terrifying.  What would I do all day? Chauffeur B. around Stuttgart? I do want a Volvo. Clean the house? HAH! That would never happen and if I start debating the best mixture for lime removal someone p...

Still so much to do. This is one of the many to-do lists I have going. Unfortunately the rest are in my head! Not a good place for them with all the '80s music lyrics, # of square feet in an acre, the name of the baby in Willow, and other random information.  In hopes of enticing offers once listed, we did opt to get a home inspection. It went really well and there were just a few things, some of which actually made it on this list, that needed attention. Our painter suggested that we don't get a home inspection because the potential buyers will want one of their own. We opted to get one anyway just to.make sure there were no huge surprises. Would you get a home inspection of your own or did we just waste money? Speaking of the painters, I have another thing to add to the list: -Attempt to touch up a portion of my beautiful, freshly painted walls where B. thought it would be fun to do some painting of her own. Seriously. 

I wrote a long post about difficulty choosing between the urban lifestyle with an apartment in the city or a single-family home out in the suburbs. Then I remembered that I have a dog that loves to bark and a child that loves to scream.  Stuttgart suburbs here we come. I do hope we can be close to some type of public transportation.  Stuttgart has the U-bahn (underground) and Stadtbahn Stuttgart (light rail), which gives us lots of options. There is also a bus system. I need to spend some time figuring out how it all connects but I am up to the challenge! Here is a map of the U-bahn. B.'s potential school will be in Sindelfingen so we hope to focus our housing search there. 

Thank goodness they picked a good radio station. We are on Day 2 of painters here. Originally they were just going to repair the ceiling in the dining room and bedroom and paint the bedroom walls. Then we thought they could do the front room ceiling too. Since they're at it might as well have them do the walls in the front room. The stairway. And the downstairs bathroom. $$$. We are hoping that the extra cost will result in better showing and a quicker sale.  I am not good at picking colors. The painter suggested Sherwin Williams "Accessible Beige". It is a nice neutral in the greige family of colors. Looks good to me. And it matches our drapes! What do you think of our work in progress?