April, 2005

April saw us go all the way from "no way" to "still interested" to "signed".

Late March Through Early April

We just couldn't shake the idea that our dream house in Pommersfelden was meant to be. Marianne's job situation got clarified when DoDDS (Army schools) offered orders for a new job -- in Korea. Fortunately, the process continued and she asked for reconsideration within her current school district and the offer shifted to Giessen, about an hour north of Frankfurt. This clarified our financial situation. We figured we could take on the house as a year-long project, during which time we'd split our time between two work locations, Marianne's and mine. So we continued showing the house to relatives and negotiating with the owner and with our architect.

April 15

Geoff and Suzanne visited us over Spring Break and one of the stops on their tour had to be Pommersfelden. (Click here for the whole trip.) Naturally, we showed them our dream house, but only from the outside as I recall. I tried to solicit comments, like "Boy, dad, are you ... " ("nuts?", "brave?" , "kidding?" etc.) but the two of them were reserved and noncommittal. Actually, we've come to understand that no matter what people say ("You are brave." or "You are courageous" etc.) they always mean the same thing: "You have lost your mind." So far, I'm not sure I'd disagree.

April 16

We squeezed in a planning meeting with Axel. We discussed the house price and worked out an agreement that had Axel helping us with negotiations with Mr. Werner, serving as both our language interpreter and our cultural bridge. I suppose this goes beyond normal architectural services, but it was what we needed in order to go ahead with an interesting project.

April 20

Today I had a telecon with Axel and Mr. Werner, negotiating the price mostly. It seemed hard on all three of us, as we sought out a fair price. In the end, Mr. Werner made an offer and I said I'd need to check with the boss. Marianne and I thought it over and decided to take Werner's offer, without trying to reduce it another few thousand euros. In the overall scheme, we believe in building a project where everyone is comfortable in the outcome of negotiations.

April 29

We learned about the process of buying property in Germany today. Mr. Werner, his son Stefan, Marianne , and I had a meeting with the Notar (~Notary Public), Dr. Eue. In Germany, the Notar is the unbiased drafter of the actual sales contract. It is a standard form and, in our case at least, the Notar is most reluctant to deviate from anything standard. (He refused Mr. Werner's request for a special clause governing found treasures on the grounds.) The standard nature of the document was reassuring, even though it is a bit unsettling signing such an important document written entirely in legalese of a foreign language.

We had expected a process that took weeks. However, when Dr. Eue asked when we could come back to sign the final papers, Mr. Werner had nothing convenient, nor did we. Instead, the Notar simply finished everything then and there! This covered the title search, the modification of the book of titles, and the final contract. In under two hours, it was all done and legal, the only missing part was payment, which was dealt with by wire transfer a week later.

April 30

After leaving the Notar, we had gone to a cute little Italian restaurant, near Axel's office. Afterwards we went over plans with the architect and then left for a overnight stay at the Dorn Gasthaus.

That evening, and all the next day, I was deathly ill from food poisoning. I hadn't had a case like this since the days of living in Brazil, but that experience had taught me that the silver lining to food poisoning is weight loss. No eating for three days plus reduced eating for a week both cures the effects of food poisoning and is a good start to a new diet!