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19: Our duplex (one year later)

November 19, 2019 filed under: home, NaBloPoMo

Remember when I announced last year that we had sold our house ? I also told you that I’d share more about our new place once I had wrapped my head around the move, but then I never did. So, I hope late is better than never.

One year ago today, we moved from our two-bedroom house to a one-bedroom duplex. Yes, we lost some space and an extra bedroom, but there were some more important things on our priority list: location (we’re in a nice neighborhood, much closer to my work now), central heat and air (you can’t survive the Sacramento summers without central air), a private patio or backyard (we got so used to having our own outdoor space!), an off-street parking spot (even better a garage with a driveway), and a washer and dryer (I really didn’t want to go back to using the laundromat).

The duplex has what I would call 1.5 stories. The bedroom and bathroom are on the second floor above the garage, the rest of the rooms is downstairs, so it’s not a true 2-story building, but I like that it feels a little different from a one-story apartment. We were lucky enough that we found something affordable that had most of our must-haves before the close of Escrow. Our timeline for the house sale was very short (just four weeks) and we had to find something quickly.

Without further ado, a little duplex tour just for you. (This rhymes and what rhymes is good – who recognizes this quote?).

Our front porch + front yard

I love that we have a gate and that the front entrance is set back from the street a bit.

Our living room

The living room can be a little dark at times, but I love the big corner window by the front door. During the summer month, we can keep the front door open quite a bit, because of the gated front yard area and get some extra light.

Our bedroom

I love sleeping on the second floor and having a window to the street. The bedroom has a nice-size closet as well. The cool thing about older apartments/houses is that there is often a lot of built-in storage space, like this big closet (+ drawers) in the hall way.

Our kitchen

I traded my beautiful kitchen for a small, older kitchen with much less counter and storage space (sad face) and old, squeaky cabinets, but I am not trying to think about that too much. Jon will tell you that I regularly throw in a “I miss my kitchen” for good measure, but I am mostly really okay with it. The apartment otherwise almost ticked all the boxes on our list. And as a wise friend said to me: a kitchen is just a kitchen.

(No it’s not!! Haha.)

Our backyard

Our backyard is relatively small, but it has enough space for our patio set and I have really enjoyed sitting out there this summer. Most apartments don’t have a patio space at all or, if they do, you have share it with other tenants. I feel very lucky that we found a place where we have a private outdoor space all to ourselves, where we can barbecue and have people over.

That’s it. This is our not-so-new home. As we say in German, “klein, aber fein” (small, but nice) – another rhyme :)

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2019

6: My parents’ Oktoberfest-themed birthday bash

November 6, 2019 filed under: birthday, family, Germany, home, NaBloPoMo

I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2019

My family

Contrary to popular belief, Germans do not run around in Dirndls and Lederhosen on a daily basis, not even in Bavaria. So this is not a picture of how we usually dress. However, as it has become popular in other countries, September and October are the months of Oktoberfest-themed parties everywhere.

So my parents got with the program and organized their birthday party Oktoberfest-style. I mean, the food alone is reason enough, but my parents also asked guests to dress up in Bavarian-style clothing.

I personally don’t own a Dirndl, but I got lucky as my sister had bought a new one and said that I would probably fit into her old one. (True. It’s nice to be able to share a closet with your sister.) I was also surprised to see how many of the guest also follow suit and showed up in Dirndls and Lederhosen.

The party was on October 3, which is a public holiday in Germany, so we started the celebrations at 11 in the morning. As you do.

We were super-lucky with the weather, as it rained most days when we were in Germany. My parents had set up a pop-up canopy tent in the backyard, hoping we could make use of the extra space and luckily, it was mostly dry and sunny on the day of the party.

My parents didn’t want any gifts, as they’re planning to come visit us here in California again next year with my sister, BIL, and the kids. But nevertheless, my sister and I organized a little “presentation” that included a few games and gifts pertaining to the US-trip that they’re planning for next summer. (Honestly, I cannot wait to have them back here in California.)

The whole day was a lot of fun, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Brothers

Sisters

Friends

We were about 35 people and the whole day was full of good food, conversation, love and laughter. We had a blast and Jon and I were so happy we could be part of it.

Recap | My nephew’s first communion

July 15, 2019 filed under: family, home, recap

Just a heads up, this post will be photo-heavy.

Just like I did two years ago for my niece’s communion, I planned my visit back home this year, so that I could attend my nephew’s first communion. It’s one of these once-in-a-lifetime events for which I had to try and be there. I miss out on too many events as it is.

We had an amazing day that started at 9 a.m. and went late into the night. Germans know how to party, is all I am saying. If there is something big to celebrate, we make it an all-day event.

First thing in the morning, we headed over to the local church for the church service. When Greta had her first communion two years ago, multiple congregations had to share one pastor and the service was held in one of the bigger churches in the city. It was crowded and we couldn’t really see or follow what was going on at the altar.

Luckily for Tom’s communion, the service was held at a much smaller, neighborhood-church which meant that less first communion goers and less people overall were in attendance, which in turn made for a much more pleasant ceremony.

After the service, our family (and friends) gathered in front of the church for some pictures and then we headed over to my sister’s place for a reception.

My aunt, my uncle, and cousin.

My aunt and cousin.

My cousin and his girlfriend.

My aunt and uncle.

My Mom and I.

My cousin, my sister, and my cousin’s girlfriend.

Lunch was catered from our favorite Italian restaurant in town, Alla Scala.

… but my sister made the beef bouillon herself. Including bone marrow dumplings and custard royale (I had to google that and hope it’s the right translation). She used my great-aunt’s recipe and so it felt like she was there somehow.

Lunch seamlessly morphed into afternoon “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and cake). The cakes were homemade by different people and one was more delicious than the next. I almost tried them all.

We were super-lucky with the weather, as it had been raining a lot during my visit, but the day of the communion was dry and the sun came out a few times! All the kids were able to play in the backyard for most of the day and as you can see from the pictures, we had to squint quite a bit.

Father and son.

Just as for Greta’s communion, the dinner buffet was prepared mostly by my parents: a variety of pickled antipasti, salads, pickled salmon, turkey and pork, bread and herb butter. Delicious!

My sister’s beautiful family.

#proudaunt

My parents and my nephew.

Tom and his two godfathers.

Germans know how to party and we preferably use any occasion to make a whole day out of it. The celebration went late into the night.

Haha. Not sure what’s going on here.

Sisters. ♥

It was a wonderful day and I am so grateful that I was able to be there and spend precious time with most of my extended family.

26: A little life update

November 26, 2018 filed under: daily life, home, NaBloPoMo, news

A week ago, J and I moved. We are no longer homeowners.

I know, this announcement just came out of left field for you guys. In all honesty, I didn’t feel like discussing it and I also didn’t want to “blog through the process”. I had mixed feelings about the decision and I just didn’t feel like sharing the whys and hows while going through it. Because you know, people have opinions. So many opinions. I just didn’t want to deal with it.

Fact is, almost 3 years to the day when we closed Escrow to buy the house, we signed the documents to release it ~~back to the world~~ to a new owner.

Am I sad? Yes. Make no mistake, I loved our house (and THAT KITCHEN!), and there was still so much I wanted to do with this place. I guess that is the plight of homeownership. You’re never finished, and now we won’t ever be.

Do I feel good about the decision? Also yes. We’ve gone months and months hemming and hawing (mostly me) and weighing the pros and cons and our options, but in the end, this seemed to be the best decision for us.

Are we moving out of town? Am I switching jobs? No and no. Everything stays the same for now. Living in that house was a wonderful and exciting experience in some ways, but in other ways, it was also harder than we thought. Owning a home is a huge responsibility – emotionally and financially – and we just felt that it wasn’t quite right for us (at this time at least).

We’re now busy settling into a duplex in a great neighborhood, closer to my work. It’s been a blessing to find the place and I’ll share more about it when I had the mental capacity to process everything that has been going on the last few weeks. The home (buying and) selling process is so incredibly fast in this country that you barely have time to wrap your head around what’s happening.

I just thought it was time to let you all know, with the holidays approaching and all.

Our Christmas

January 3, 2018 filed under: holidays, home

I know, I know, here we are in 2018 already and I am talking about Christmas. Who wants to talk about a Christmas that is over a week old now?

Well, I do. Because I have written a Christmas recap every year for years and if nothing else, this will be a post just for me to remind me of our Christmas 2017. Feel free to skip this entry.

To be honest: our Christmas was not what I thought it would be.

I was looking forward to a long holiday weekend, I had planned to watch a ton of holiday movies, to set our table, to cook a delicious three-course meal on Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas Day at our friend Susi’s house with her and her family.

But then I caught a bad cold (or it probably was the flu, come to think of it) the week before Christmas and was bedridden for most of the holiday weekend. I never get sick! At least, not like that. Not quite what I had in mind for the holidays. I might or might not have moped around quite a bit because if we weren’t traveling to spend Christmas with family, I had hoped to at least enjoy the heck out of the holiday weekend.

I wanted to go for runs, read, eat good food and focus on the positive things of being “home” for the holidays. Instead, I pretty much slept for four days straight and then it took me another 4 days to feel like an actual human being again.

J caught whatever I had from me a couple of days later and so we were both not in the best constitution over the holidays, but were still trying to make the best of it.

I ended up cooking a one-pan spätzle dish for Christmas Eve (and we had leftovers for Christmas Day), which basically was the only physical activity I could muster and which cost me all my non-existent energy, but it was delicious and the first time we actually had – and could taste – real food in days! By then, I knew we were slowly on the upswing.

I did get to open a few boxes that were sent from friends and I really enjoyed all the Christmas cards that we received in the mail this year. Honestly, Christmas mail is my favorite thing!

(Quite a few cards arrived after the holidays, so if you don’t see your card in this picture, it doesn’t mean I didn’t get it!)

Silver lining of being sick over the holidays: I lost 3 lbs instead of gaining any. (Not that I was trying to lose weight or was worried of gaining some. Just stating a fact here.)

I hope your holiday weekend was more exciting than ours and that you were able to unplug (from social media) and connect with family and friends. Thanks for being – in one way or another – part of our holidays. I always appreciate how many people think of us every year!