So here I sit, in the wee hours of Valentine's Day, having just returned from Switzerland (you have to love jet lag!). I had been there for the last four weeks for work, and Eric and the boys joined me for a week to find a home and get our bearings on Basel and what is to come. At the same time, Eric has been managing our remodel in California, getting our dream house even dreamier so we can leave it for someone else to enjoy (where is the logic in that? don't ask). Here are some of the highlights:
Basel, Switzerland
Basel is an amazing city. It only has 188,000 people, but has a big city's worth of museums, theaters, and apparently was voted somewhere the best opera in Europe (I can't find a citation, so don't quote me). It is clean, safe, charming, and has a tram system that will take you anywhere in about 10 minutes give or take a few. The Rhine river cuts right through town, so there are charming bridges as well as a river side promenade that just makes you want to get out and walk. And unlike a lot of other European cities I have been to, there is a lot of great international cuisine (we couldn't even keep count of the Thai restaurants) that really is good - probably due to the high percentage of international inhabitants.
So the last four weeks have been cold cold cold - apparently the coldest winter they have seen in a long time. The city itself must have gotten snow at least four or five times, and luckily I remembered to bring hats, scarves, and gloves which were all put to good use. Eric and the boys arrived the second week prepared as well, so the complaining was at a minimum.
Eric had come so we could find a place to live. We had been prepared that living in Europe is different than living in the US - we had low expectations for a free standing house or large garden, but our stress was still high that we would find something suitable for our loud and high energy boys (and loud and high energy us!). We spent two days looking at accommodations - ranging from apartments to row houses, to even the unexpected free standing house with a yard. The first apartment was so dreary that I almost started crying - Eric was thinking the same: whose dumb idea was this anyway to move to Europe?. There was nothing wrong with it - it just had no character, no charm, no yard, no light, and on and on... In retrospect, I was wondering if this is a strategy: that they take you somewhere first that is really miserable so your expectations get so low that you would take just about anything.
The next place boosted our spirits - the ever elusive freestanding house, with a yard and an actual swimming pool (with 4 inches of ice - brrrr!). It had some charm, though lacked a good guest room (we would have to put people in the basement), the kitchen was small, and the area was a mix of large apartment buildings which took away from a neighborhood feel. We then proceeded to see at least 6 other places -I can barely remember them all. One that stood out was an amazing row house in town. It was old with nice character, a huge garden and huge rooms- the dining room table of the current tenants must have been at least 15 feet long! The only draw back here is that the owner was going to subdivide the building and put in an elevator in the front of the house - by our estimates ruining the space. The whole idea really fell through when Eric returned the second day to find out the walking / squeaking of the upstairs unit would wake the dead below, and that the landlord would have to put an unlocked door at the top of the stairs as a fire escape. Access to my home from some other tenants? We didn't think so.
We started to feel like one of those couples on "House Hunters" - where they show you three places, and nothing is perfect, but you make the trade offs and they finally pick a winner. However, Eric started to question if we hold off until we get here in April and then find a place we really like. My stress shot through the roof - not knowing where you were going to live meant you didn't know what to bring, and what extra furniture you needed to buy. This was getting miserable again...
Then, as always seems to happen in our lives, we had some incredible luck come our way. One of my coworkers, Aslam, had a friend from another company in Basel who was going to leave in June - did we want to look at his place? Eric went over - turns out it was just around the corner from the great big row house that was to be subdivided. Eric came back that night raving - it wasn't as big, but the finishes were nice, the rooms a good size, and it felt like home. So sight unseen by me, we made the arrangements to lease it. I got a chance to go last week and finally see it - Eric was right - it just felt like home. We will have great space for guests, an easy walk or tram ride into town and work, and a school across the street for kicking a soccer ball or playing on the playground. As it is not available until July 1st (and we need to move in April -both for my work and to get the boys in school), we will start in some temporary housing. However as it takes 6 weeks for your stuff to ship over, we will look at is as a first adventure until we really settle down in July.
Corte Madera, California
So the action here at home has been even more intense, as we are working our way through the remodel we had planned since last July. Eric has been the hero here, arranging all the necessary decisions, and making sure that nothing is missed. Eric alone was responsible for making sure the driveway and it's associated walls all pass inspection for their height and position - no easy feet, with only one or two inches of play across the whole thing!
So as our garage was going up, Eric coordinated our inside moves so the office was empty when they needed to come in there, and the boys rooms were empty when they needed to start work there. And if that wasn't enough, we also tackled our decrepit pool - all new surface, all new tile, all new equipment - we finally got our skimmer back! Makes me want to go swimming!
These moves facilitated the "purge" for moving - lots of Goodwill runs along with Big Trash pickups - though there is still a lot of stuff to do, I feel we have a handle on all of it. With 7 weeks to go, we should be able to get through with minimal last minute rushes (at least don't break my optimistic illusion).
The new additional burden is prospective renters coming through. Though we are not yet ready to "show" the house, we have had a parade of folks already coming through to look at it. This has kept Eric on his toes to keep the house relatively clean, and it appears at this point that renting it should be easy - keep your fingers crossed for us!
When this gets done it will be the last piece in place to really sink in that our next plane tickets really will be one way. Switzerland, here we come!
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