From Traunstein to Anger

Dear Family and Friends,

It has only taken us 6 weeks to reach this point. The point of no return. We no longer live in Traunstein and the apartment we have called home together for 6 years now (and Thomas for 20) has a new occupant.

We now live together in Anger. And we love it! We are officially country-suburbanites (who are not attempting homesteading).

For those of you wondering how we can live happily in Anger, check out this post on our “About Us” page.

Let’s Rewind

But let’s back up here. My last letter ended with us just having the kitchen and garage to finish with the end in sight. That was last Monday evening. Things were looking so good. Then life happened.

Nothing major happened, but the week just slipped away with us doing one of a hundred chores, errands and projects.

My Moment of Truth

At one point, we each had our little melt-down. Mine came Wednesday night after fighting the kitchen for the better part of a day. I had a great strategy but the kitchen most definitely had the upper hand and had won several rounds.

Thomas’ son had just returned from his Kung Fu class. Before he had left, I had asked him to clear the tops of the shelves for me—he stands a head taller and I knew that he would do it in 5 minutes instead of my 15. It took him 3 minutes.

During the almost 3 hours he had been gone, I had spent every minute in the kitchen as its contents seemed to magically multiply. It was not a productive feeling despite the boxes piled up to take to the garage.

When he came home, I asked him if he was hungry. Stupid question to ask an 18-year-old after he had worked out for 2 hours, but I will never learn. Of course he was. Unfortunately, instinctively helping is no one’s strength when the kitchen looks like a warzone, so he sat gingerly on the couch and watched me cooking spaghetti on the only burner free of pots and pans.

I asked him how his class went and what they had done. He answered with that teenage “nothing much” and then, trying to make conversation, responded by asking: “And what have you been doing while I was gone?”

THAT, my friends, was my moment.

The moment of desperation everyone reaches when battling a room and losing. It was not the most lady-like moment I have ever had. And we will leave it at that.

Needless to say, Thomas rescued me by joining in and brought new life to the project. I am proud to say that we won the battle (and the war) and the kitchen was cleared out by the next morning.

Parental Aid

Thomas’ parents tried to support us as much as possible. Being retired, I think they are looking for things to keep them busy. Twice they showed up almost spontaneously with the hatchback and trailer to take a load over to the house.

They also helped us take stuff to the recycling center in multiple loads and sort them into the correct dumpsters and containers.

It threw me out of my concept, but it really did help us see progress in our packing.

A few weeks ago, Thomas’ sister had provided us with boxes and packing material from her work, so we thankfully only had to spend $10 on our packing needs—tape and packing wrap.

With all of that, when the weekend rolled around we were still taking care of the “little things”. Bits and pieces just kept popping up and I never knew how much stuff Thomas had managed to pack into that attic.

The Day Before

On Friday, we headed back to the house to prepare for moving day, taking over a load of stuff we knew we wanted to take separately. Then, we picked up the 3.5T truck we had rented and went home.

Thomas, with his son’s help, loaded it with the pallets of boxes Thomas had carefully prepared and wrapped. 45 minutes later, we were on the road to the house.

That packing method saved us and our moving team so much! It is one of the tips I will give to everyone moving a home of stuff: Pack like the pros. There is a reason they do things the way they do.

They unloaded the pallets in half the time it took to fill the truck and we were headed back to Traunstein for our last night in our home.

Our Last Night

I had wanted us to have a romantic last night… to make it special.

This is reality here, folks. I had a headache from not drinking and eating enough and then Thomas had a fire alarm. When he returned, we worked out details until late in the night and then fell into bed together knowing we had a lot to do for the next day.

What can I say? We have all moved and helped other people move.

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Moving Day

The move in numbers:

• 11 Adults
• 1 4-year-old
• 3 cars
• 1 bus
• 1 3.5T truck
• 5 hours
• 1 lunch (homemade sandwiches, pasta salad, and potato salad)
• 2 coffee breaks (coffee, tea, 2 different cakes and fruit)
• 50 ½ liter bottles of juice and soda (we still have ½ left over)

Most importantly, though:

• Lots of laughter
• 0 tears
• 0 injuries
• 0 broken items

Good Morning Sunshine!

We woke up at 7 am to a torrential downpour in Traunstein. I made us coffee as Thomas checked the weather report.

The entire week the prognosis had been pouring rain and a sudden drop in temperature for the weekend. We had been praying that this would be the one time that every weather person in Germany and Austria would be wrong.

Obviously, it wasn’t.

Our helpers were coming at 9 am, so we wanted to be ready. Thomas’ cell phone didn’t stop beeping as everyone decided to write on Whatsapp to let us know that it was raining.

These are the times we resent modern communication.

Promptly at 8:45, everyone showed up. What can I say, better early than not at all?

One of our friends looked at me and said: “See, even Traunstein is sad you are leaving and is crying.”

At 9:05 the rains stopped in Traunstein and held off until after we had left.

Upstairs, Downstairs

One thing I will not miss about living in an apartment is narrow staircases and single-entry living spaces.

Our house was built in ca. 1870 and the staircase is a “neck-breaker” as they say in German: steep, long and narrow. Only one person can go either up or down the staircase at once. Stopping is not an option. And there is no landing or real entryway for people to wait for the other person to exit the staircase—just a long hallway.

That is challenging on a normal day (but really no big deal). Moving a full-size freezer, washer, dryer and various pieces of furniture make it quite… adventurous.

Some of our furniture we knew would be more than a little challenging. Our sectional had fit up those stairs when the pros brought it in, but we knew that getting it out would be much more difficult.

Thomas’ solution was to lower it (in pieces) over the balcony. I wish I had taken pictures (I was holding the sofa from the top, so it really wasn’t an option). Actually, no. I am glad there aren’t any pictures. I think I would be scared to look at them.

But it all worked out.

When they were finishing loading the truck, I went filled up our car and I headed over to the house with Thomas’ mom and sister. We unloaded the boxes in front of the house and prepared for the truck with all our furniture to arrive.

Moving In

Arriving in Anger, I was greeted with blue sky.

“Traunstein cries and Anger laughs,” I thought. Thomas’ sister came up and said very much the same thing.

15 minutes later, it started pouring rain—just to prove its point. 5 minutes later, the skies cleared up. Just in time for us to finish preparing the house for the moving truck.

Before moving in, we had a buffet lunch (it was the very least we could do for our helpers).

Then, the work began. Moving everything we owned into the basement rooms we had designated as our “storage area” took a grand total of 3 hours start to finish.

It would have gone faster, but we just had to stop for coffee and cake (the Bavarian version of tea time). Thomas’ mom is a wonderful baker and she had made two cakes for the occasion. I was responsible for preparing the tea and coffee and ensuring that everyone had more than enough to keep them happy.

After finishing moving boxes and furniture into the house, Thomas and his dad returned the truck and we sat around chatting, eating cake and drinking coffee as everyone waited for them to return.

The first helpers left, as Thomas and his dad managed to get the freezer and washing machine up and running.

In Conclusion:

Later that evening, after everyone was gone, Thomas and I celebrated by doing a load of laundry and crashing in bed.

And that, dear friends, is “The Adventures of Moving in the Most Uneventful Way Possible”.

Now to finish our house and unpack.

Will the excitement ever come to an end? Can we stand the suspense?

Stay tuned as we figure out living in a house under renovation.