A 180 degree turn around in lives and attitudes.

OK, maybe it's sleep, maybe it's just being told to chill the heck out... maybe it was the LONG walk to and from dinner?  Who knows?  Better yet, who cares.

I got up and decided to take pictures of the reality of our living situation...

See that tower on the far side, just to the right?  That is where we walked to last night... this is the typical skies here right now.  it's not horrible, but it's raining a little today.

 I have NO idea what this is next door, but they aren't loud.

Nice panorama of our room.  that is a king size bed, to that is nice... and my suitcases on the far left... mostly they are closed.  Two clothing baskets under the TV... then Butch's suitcase.  Why on earth do we have suitcases in the room all over?  Well, this is why:

 THIS is literally the ONLY drawer in the joint... no really.  The. Only. Drawer.  I have stuffed some bra's in there and some undies, but it's rather small and useless.

 THIS is what is in the mirrored cabinet... a minifridge with a coffee maker above (we haven't used it to date), the safe and Butch's camera bag.

The next cabinet over (skinny little thing) is an ironing board... then the hanging area... with all of 10 hangers... so I have been alternating what clothing I have out for me to wear :)

So...

The reality of my bedside station... the one I have pulled over to the bed to work on my blog from - yeah... tons of JUNK everywhere and a suitcase and computer bag behind the softa in the corner.  Ah, the joys of living out of suitcases.

So, while I was taking pictures and getting ready Butch and I were talking about what we wanted to do for the day...

I was wanting to do the Pig Museum today... you laugh, but it's a real thing - check it out here: 

https://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/en/a-pig-museum

Honestly just reading the name made me giggle and want to see it.  Butch was less than thrilled with my plans even though it was supposed to be my day to plan as I saw fit... BUT I went along with the changes and relented and chose to go to the other bases around the area... but first I decided I wanted to go by the house that we missed yesterday.  Really?  torture myself a bit more?  Sure, why not... I missed the drive the first time through as it's really just a tiny one way alley to the house... and as we were driving by there was a man walking from the garage into the house.  I pulled over of course and asked him if he was moving IN or OUT... he answered out and then OFFERED to let us come in and see the place?  He didn't have to ask twice, we pulled up the road and parked and walked back to check it out!

So this is the one that we were looking at:

 This is apparently in 2013 when it was being built.  it is a stand alone house with a single garage - the garage is well big enough for my little Reba... and it has cobble stones on the front stoop.  It has the Rolodans (metal shutters) that they had in Italy and it's fairly modern.  Yes, that is a three story house.  It's also got a basement.

 THIS is the basement room that is used as a den/family room - to the other side of the stairs to the left is a laundry room and a storage room of sorts down there.  These stairs are what are throughout the other house - the other pictures show them as solid stairs but the ones in the house we toured was not solid, they were open - I like them!  This also has floor heating down here... nice!!

 This is the view from the opening to the kitchen looking into the dining/living room on the main level.  There is a VERY tiny yard out back, but well big enough for us to do what we need... just grill out - so it's like 15' deep with a hedge that is growing in.  There is limited grass out there as they have a dog (Rottweiler) that has been rough on the yard to say the least.

 this is the view from the far corner of the picture above looking back at the kitchen and the entry (just past the column in the entry hall).  The kitche in tiny, but, really?  Who cares, it has a good kitchen to do what needs to be done, nothing more.

 This is the bathroom on the 1st floor (aka 2nd floor) where the master and a 2nd bedroom is... the bathroom is shared which is OK as it's quite large.  The shower is big enough you can wash your feet without having to rub your butt too much on the tiles - ha!

 This is the opposite side of the bath above - two sinks and a little bit of storage... works for me!

 THIS is one of the upstairs bedrooms that will become a guest room I'm sure - as there is a bath up there as well.  So, if you're keeping count that is a large living room/laundry/storage in the basement.  main floor has a 1/2 bath (not mentioned), living room and kitchen.  The next floor has two bedrooms and a bath, the same for the floor above but with sloped ceilings.  and the added bonus of the balcony and that in indeed the view it has - or close enough by a few houses one way or the other...

it's a 19 minute walk from the house to the train station... so really close all things considered.  We're walking that much to go to the bus stop to catch it to the train and still walking that much... here it's around the corner to the bus, then to the train if you so desire.

So, the folks living in the house (Tanya and her husband) called the landlord and then we had the number for her... and tried to call a few times and even sent a text at one point.  Anyway, she never called us back, so we had thoughts of showing up at the house at 4pm when the next people were going to look at it and having the contract with us... but opted to not be THAT pushy... and came back to hotel and slept.. but not before driving the town and trying to figure out how on earth to call a german number from an american phone as they want a + sign in the number.  No, really, there is a +49 at the beginning of the number.  Weird and the only way to do this is to add that person to your contacts so you can actually contact them.... either way, she left me a text that said she would call us at 6pm... so we settled down in the hotel and I took a LONG nap... zzzzz  That helps with attitudes as well :)

6pm came around and she called and we told her we would like to initiate the base housing contract with her... she is going to meet us at 9:30am here at our hotel.  YAY!

SO... we have chosen and we will be getting the contract signed by the landlord tomorrow and have a scheduled contract review on Friday with the housing office.  This is all fine and good as the folks who are in there won't be out until the 5th and we're not in that much of a hurry to move out there just yet.  They did warn us that traffic is horrible at school times... but I"m typically earlier than school times.  They stated that if I was on the road before 7am I would be just fine and have a 15 minute drive into base... sweet.  They have school aged kids and the drive at 8am was more like an hour than 15 to 20 minutes.  I'm good with that!  I can be an early bird, that doesn't bother me and is actually prefered.  :)

AND the other house that we had been toying with, we really looked at what was available around that house and it's more like a true residential area.  It's not in a little town and there are no shops and bakeries nearby or anything.  This one that we're going to sign on has all sorts of stuff within a 5 minute walk and the trains within 19.  NOT bad, not bad!!!  And a Milchautomat just to the west of the house (milk vending machine) no, I'm not kidding... it's not that far from us at a farm and you can drive by with a few euro and get fresh milk on demand from a vending machine - as in NON pasturized milk.  WOW - talk about fresh!  They said when it's open they have cheese and other products there as well.  Looking forward to using that market to get stuff!!

So, the mood had already improved this morning and I was determined to be flexible and not stress.  And look we found a house.  I have only had one second doubt but only until I looked at the surrounding area of the other place to find that there were no shops and it was really just residential and not at all what we were looking for in our experience here (walking to town for the bakery and restaurants).  So... that decision is made and we can slow roll the rest of this as long as it takes as I know I have a house lined up and ready to go and it's somewhere I think we'll be quite happy!

I don't think I'll announce we have a house until after we confirm with the housing offices that this is a firm "go" on the contract, but I don't see any issues as they rented to america prior and they were simply moving closer to their base (Patch) and where they wouldn't have to fight so much traffic with later arrivals to work.

And with that we had dinner at the steak place downstairs tonight but when i saw a dessert walking by I planned ahead and only had a chicken caesar salad instead of something heavy. 

 The wine and the olive oil with spices... with the yummy bread to dip in there...

This break was SO good - that was grains in there... not sure what they were, but goodness it was good bread!

AND this was why I ate lighter tonight and this brownie was fudgy and it was WARM!!!  OMG it was so good... and I already ate the blackberry from the middle of the strawberry decoration with the cute jam smear.  Decadent... I mentioned the AugieDog move... flapping ears in happiness

I do believe that is a percemion of types as the decorations as well.. very interesting... and quite good!!!  this is the first dessert we have had since eating here and it was well worth waiting the week to have it :)  Actually it wasn't planned as most nights we're too stuffed to think about eating anything more!!  ha!