Right now our home is pretty empty. We have the same 7 suitcases of stuff that we have been living in for, oh, 2 months now, a small shipment of kitchenware, and the rental furniture from the military base... and that is it.
Nick and I talk about this often, but things are very similar to the US, but yet everything is different, if that makes any sense at all.
Here is a brief tour of the differences in our home here, compared to what we were used to in our US homes in the past.
Pictures below:
On left: When you ring our doorbell, this "phone" rings inside and there is an intercom system.
On the right is our spiral staircase. Spiral staircases are extremely common here. Every home that WE have been in have had them. ( I can't help but think the movers LOVE this :) )
below left:
There are no closets. Instead you use shrunks. The military issued our family 5 for our time here.
below right:
Random kitchen pic. The homes here have no circulation, so we have to open our windows regularly (especially in the bathroom and kitchen) to air out our home and prevent mold. Tile is common in kitchens and bathrooms. Infact, when showering and cooking you are to keep your doors shut. Afterwards you are to open your windows so that all moisture may leave the room instead of entering the rest of the home.
Below left:
Our oven is taking some getting used to. The coils are on the top. The left knob shows all the options for how the oven disperses heat. Options include: a heated fan, upper and lower heat, just upper heat with a heated fan etc... The right knob is in celcius.
Below right:
I have mentioned this before, but Germans are extremely waste conscious: waste, heat, water, electricity, etc. It is an underlying theme we have noticed pretty much everywhere we go. Our kitchen sink is small, and garbage disposals are illegal.
The Bathroom
on left:
The plumbing for the toilet is all inside the wall. They designed it this way so it is easier to clean the bathroom. That big button above is the flusher. Some flushers can flush different amounts of water for "light loads" and "heavy loads" .
On the right:
Our urinal. Which, considering the fact that we have 3 boys in the house and that water costs as much as it does, we like it.
On Energy:
Left picture: an outlet and light switch. The outlets here look different than compared to the US. You can purchase adapters for very cheap. HOWEVER, one must be careful when doing this because the voltage in Europe is twice that of in the US. If you are not careful you will fry things you try to plug in. We had no problems with our laptops, but we had to buy European chargers for hand-held video gaming systems. We have heard some FUNNY stories, and scary stories, about this happening to people. Our neighbor was shaving his head before his first day of work when the clippers died half way through. He had to go to work with a half shaved head. ACK!
When planning a vacay to come visit us, check all your video game systems, laptops, hair dryers etc if you are hoping to use them here. Europe runs on 240 Voltage; the US runs on 120.
Right picture: You CAN however use a transformer to reduce the voltage so you are still able to use your US appliances. We rarely do this. Transformers waste energy (and energy, heat and water bills are extremely pricey here- told you this was a common theme). They also are big, ugly, and pricey. Not really something you want all around your home. For cheaper, every day items like coffee makers and blow dryers we have just bought new ones.
On heating our German home:
on left:
Most of the homes WE have seen, have had a combination of a thermostat in some rooms and radiators in other rooms. All our upstairs rooms and all bathrooms, including the downstairs one, have their own radiator. Like i have said many times, heat, electricity and water cost a lot here and so we are CONSTANTLY monitoring our radiators and thermostats. Our radiators have symbols on them, which we believe to be a "suggested" heat for certain circumstances. The "moon" is for nighttime. Want to guess what tempurature your room is when set it to the "moon" setting?..... 58 degrees F! This is something that has taken getting used to, but we now always sleep with the radiator on the "moon" setting. We sleep in layers, and have invested in warm blankets and sheets for our beds, similar to German lifestyle. During the day, all radiators are off upstairs. Honestly, it doesn't bother us at all anymore.
On the right:
There are three differect types of heating options here: gas, oil, and electric (in order from least expensive to most expensive). This is the oil that we use to heat our home. It is in a small closet off to the side that no one goes in. To show you the size of it however i had Gavin stand next to it really quick. (Yes he is STILL wearing that costume regularly) We don't pay our heat monthly, instead we use this oil until it is gone and pay to have it filled back up. WE have been told that it will cost about $800 to fill up. YIKES. And that is why we are, and have to be, careful with our heat..... We are mindful of our showers, we do all laundry in cold water only... etc. The base has been a wonderful resource with providing tips on how to monitor our heat, electric, and water usage. And honestly, it has made us MUCH more mindful and I am sure we have been changed forever in some ways.
On trash and recycling:
Left picture: Different villages vary in recycling systems. Our villages use these bags.
Right picture: It is hard to show just how small these are, but they are small. AND the trash ONLY gets picked up EVERY OTHER week! The dumpsters really are only big enough to fit one full trash bag.
The windows:
Left picture: The windows, and some doors, have Rolladens on the outside. Rolladens are metal shutters that help regulate your homes temperature. Most of our windows have an indoor pulley-type system to open and shut them, but our back door rolladens are electric.
Right picture: The windows, and some doors, work differently. If the handle is horizontal with the ground you can open and shut the window/door. But if you pull the handle upward, as shown below, the window/door opens up at the top to ventilate- pretty shnazzy! There also are no screens on our windows.
And finally just more random pictures from our backyard. We continue to spend time just staring at how beautiful our view is. Part of it may be that we came from a place that didn't even have green grass... regardless... the whole family really loves our home. Some mornings there are cows grazing on the hills behind us. Gavin loves this. We really feel very blessed to be in this home.
