Endlich

Well guys, it's been a big week here in the De Longhi/Powers (still haven't changed my name) household. We finally got an apartment!!!! I was really beginning to think we might be homeless in a few weeks, so this is a huge relief. How is it possible to be homeless when you have a family and a steady income, you may ask? Let me tell you how things work here in Stuttgart, Germany...

First of all, most apartments are privately owned, not corporate apartments and whatnot. Secondly, there are far more people looking for apartments/houses than there are places available. Which also means that the prices are very high here. Not London high, but relatively high. So what this all means is that the apartment owners have basically all the power in the situation. They can price things how they want, choose who they want, discriminate how they want. Where else can you actually get someone to live in a totally empty (no kitchen, no light fixtures), run down, apartment for double the market price except in a place where people are desperate?

We began our search in April, and started off being picky and thinking we could negotiate with owners. That attitude quickly changed, and by July I was emailing every 2 bedroom apartment I could find within a reasonable distance of Paolo's office. Some wrote back that we could visit, some wrote that due to an unreasonable amount of people applying (300+), we weren't eligible, and most didn't answer. The search began to consume my life, until we finally thought we had one. I felt comfortable enough about it that I went to Italy on vacation.. then we found out we weren't chosen, for reasons that are still unclear. So my vacation was cut from a month to a week, and I came back to continue. The past couple weeks have been grueling, with apartment visits almost every night. We've been to a 300 year old house with ceilings so low we could touch the ceilings with our heads. We've seen showers in the kitchen. We also saw several decent ones that we applied for and were unceremoniously rejected from

I really couldn't tell you why exactly we were rejected, except maybe the other candidates were somehow better. I'm not sure how someone can tell solely from an application who is better, so I'm going to assume it's because we're foreign, young, with a 2 year old, and only one income. It sucks because we couldn't help or change those circumstances. I did my very best managing and keeping track of all appointments, all in German, mind you. So by last weekend, we were kind of at a breaking point. I had lined up 7 appointments over the period of 3 days, none in the same area. The first one went really well; the owners talked with us for a long time and seemed to like us. The next ones were ok, there was one AJ totally destroyed all of our chances of, and the last apartment was truly horrifying in every way possible. And then, finally, we got this magical phone call from the first of the weekend that they chose us!!! I was so shocked, I almost asked them why they would choose us :)

So we are incredibly relieved and grateful. We have already signed the contract and have the keys. I'm going today to take measurements so we can start furniture shopping (yay!). In the end, the one we got is probably my favorite one that we saw. It is in a quiet little village, with a train straight to the city; it has a nice kitchen, and bonus: a garden! I was dreading having to give up my little garden, but now we will still have one, and they told me I could do what I want with it. So, I guess you could say that good things come to those who wait (and frantically check their email/voicemail every 5 minutes).

Ciao for now,

Kathleen