Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Pimp my Flat - Volume IX



We made it!!!!

After 1 1/2 weeks of working like crazy, we are in and happy as happy could be!

The closing was last Wednesday. This was the first time we saw the whole apartment and the rooftop deck finished. It was an amazing, but unreal feeling. No major problems occurred. After the seller was gone, we made a little dance through the flat - the "we-are-officially-pimped dance!"

We had our first meal that evening on the deck: we ordered Sushi and drank Chimay Bleu. (The delivery boy didn't find it to funny to go up to the sixth floor.) The views from the deck are gorgeous. There is a great panorama of Hamburg up there and it really gives you the feeling of being on vacation.







The next two days (Thursday and Friday) were horrible: packing, driving back and forth to buy stuff for the new apartment, putting up shelves, trying to deal with the nasty landlord of the old apartment, and...did I mention PACKING!!! Every time we opened a cupboard there was more. It never stopped.





On top of all this is the standard in Germany that when you rent an apartment, there is nothing in it but a sink and sometimes a stove. This means if you move you have to take everything out: the whole kitchen, lamp fixtures...EVERYTHING! Friday we spent the whole day with Thomas and Birgit to do so. Thomas also assembled our new shower stall in the new apartment. Nat and Jim were up late doing last minute packing. Didn't get much sleep that night.






Saturday was moving day. The movers came at 8.30 a.m., and it took them till 3 p.m. to get everything into the new apartment. There were five of them initially, but they had to call another two guys to help out. Turned out to be more work than they originally estimated. It was a terrible move up to the sixth floor. They were unbelievable!







While they were moving our stuff, several friends gathered in the new place: Thomas and Birgit (again), Circe and Carsten, Martin, and Christian. Together we were able put up a few lamps and get the kitchen in by late night. Thomas was a real trooper - he hooked up the sink, stove, dish washer and washing machine. We really appreciated all the help and without the above heroes we wouldn't have been able to do anything! Love you all!









Niles came later. After spending the whole night sniffing every box and looking in every corner, he finally rolled together like a scallop and slept the whole Sunday through. By Sunday evening he was as fresh as usual.



On Sunday, Martin came early morning and stayed until late evening to help with lamps and other stuff. We three cooked the first meal in the apartment: pasta!



Monday the telephone company hooked up the telephone and got us back on the internet. We spent the whole day putting in shelves in our closets and unpacking some things.

Finally, yesterday (Tuesday) we had a couple of guests over for Nat's birthday. We spent some time on the rooftop deck and had a small BBQ. It was a lot of fun and we started to actually realized that this is not just a vacation flat, but one we own.









We love it!

3 Comments:

At 3:42 AM, Blogger aaron said...

Congrats on the move! Everything looks great in the new place -- hope we get a chance to visit Hamburg someday and see it in person.

 
At 10:00 AM, Blogger arianered said...

hallo ihr süssen,
wir freuen uns sehr für euch - sieht super und sehr edel aus. alles gute für euch.

ps. schön auch die küche wieder zu sehen :)

 
At 12:37 AM, Blogger Nathalie Kalbach said...

Joe, yeah was a fixture, but you have to take the fixtures with ya. So we screwed Niles down on the spiral case - I think it looks quite good ;-)

Nat

 

Post a Comment

<< Home