Hello Everyone! As promised, we have a bit of internet now, so I thought I would take a moment to blog about the House. It's a bit of a long story, sorry. :)
Originally, Justin and I had planned to meet with Housing Representative, Michael and the Caretaker of the House, Thomas on June 6th so that the representative from Housing could inspect the house and get meter readings for the Electricity, Oil, and so forth...Justin's sponsor Katie was running a bit late, so we met the Housing representative 10 minutes after the hour. Luckily for us, Michael didn't seem to mind too much. He said was having a case of the Mondays and as if to emphasize his point, his car was sitting in our driveway with a rapidly flattening tire.
We waited on the driveway for awhile chatting until the Housing representative asked Justin if he had the number of the Caretaker of the house, Thomas who was expected to meet us nearly 20 minutes earlier. Justin called Thomas and we found out that Thomas had had an emergency and had tried to call the Housing Department all morning to advise that he wasn't going to make it after all. This was unpleasant news, seeing as how we had just checked out of the Army Lodging room in Vilseck that we had been staying in up until then, and it had already been given to someone else. We were later informed that the Army Lodging Hotel on post in Grafenwoehr also had no vacancies either.
The representative from Housing spoke with Thomas and it was agreed that we would reschedule to meet again in two days. They exchanged numbers just in case of any other emergencies. Justin and I were amazed to see Michael get into his car and drive away flat and all down the road and back on post 7 KM away. We found out later, it was just a loaner car from the Housing Department.
Katie was kind enough to find us a Hotel off post in Grafenwoehr. She had been to the restaurant portion of the inn before and said that they had a very nice patio in back, and great beer, haha. After Justin paid for the room, Katie drove us back to Vilseck so we could get rental car until our own car arrived. Those two days in the Hotel room were pretty exciting, we waited patiently and bought a few things that we thought we would need in order to get by until our first set of boxes were delivered. We bought some inflatable mattresses, they were out of Queen size ones, so we bought two twin sized beds instead.
Wednesday finally arrived and Justin and I arrived on time in Eschenbach to meet with everyone again and hopefully get the keys to the House. We were joined shortly by a very apologetic Thomas, who arrived in German Military uniform and explained that he was unable to leave the Monday past due to work. With that explanation, of course we understood. Michael from Housing arrived about 10 minutes later and we were finally able to get into the house for the inspection! Justin and I grinned at each other in anticipation as we followed Thomas and the Housing representative, Michael into the Basement.
I saw, to my dismay that the floors were filthy down there. We had to step carefully to walk through the thick layer of leaves and dirt. Thomas said that this area serves as the laundry room, and showed us the appropriate hookups for each machine. I shot a look at Justin and he nodded at me reassuringly: we would clean that room before even considering leaving our clothes down there. The two men checked the Boiler while we stood aside talking and we were informed that a part was missing, and it needed to be ordered and installed before everything would work properly. We were surprised, because Thomas of course had not mentioned this during our first walk through a couple of weeks prior. I wondered silently how long this part had been missing and what other surprises were in store for us. The Housing representative, Michael and Thomas began a very lively dialogue in German and Thomas hurriedly assured us that the following morning a workman would show up to install the missing part in question. That seemed to mollify Michael for the time being and he quickly jotted a series of notes on his clipboard. Justin and I nodded and we continued back outside to begin our inspection of the house itself.
Thomas unlocked the front door and Justin and I again smiled at each other anxiously. We had seen these parts of the house before and although it was kind of dirty at the time, we dismissed it due to the fact that the previous tenants were in the process of packing. We were sure that everything would be cleaned and ready for us, as per typical German Lease Agreement terms. We were wrong.
The smell is what hit me first. Like walking into the middle of an ashtray. We four walked into the main walkway and while the two men continued their inspection in their native tongue, Justin and I did one of our own.
We peeked into the kitchen and were appalled to find that it had not even been wiped down. Remnants from the last few meals eaten were on the counter tops and in the sink, the oven looked as though it had never been cleaned. The floors were sticky and the walls were a nasty Salmon orange although Lease terms indicate any paint on the walls is to be covered with white paint upon vacating the premises. There were splash marks of sauce on the walls near the sink, and the refrigerator smelled like rancid meat. There were hairs in the freezer and it had a thick layer of ice so hardly anything seemed like it could fit into it.
In the interests of being polite, I don't think I need to elaborate when I describe the restrooms as "gag inducing"...use your imagination, with the state of the kitchen as a basis.
The wood floors throughout the house, much like the concrete in the basement were covered in a thick layer of filth. There were crumbs, dirt, and hairballs everywhere.
There was what looked like spaghetti sauce on the walls and radiator of what used to be the previous tenants living room.
The one carpeted room upstairs was stained and had been in need of vacuuming way before we arrived.
Electric sockets had been ripped out, stuffed with cardboard and covered with masking tape, there were exposed wires in the Master bedroom, haphazardly spliced wires downstairs.
In short, we had signed, paid for, and were standing in the midst of a nightmare with no way out.
- - -
Upon completion of his inspection, Michael from Housing told us that he could not in good faith sign his approval for the house until a few major things get fixed. He said that the condition that the previous tenants had turned over the house was unacceptable. Thomas agreed, and pulled out his cell phone with the intent to contact a cleaning agency. He requested that they send someone over right away, at his cost.
Michael went on to say that there were multiple fire code violations that needed to be addressed immediately and Justin said he would contact the Landlord at once. (I am glad to say, that an electrician fixed these issues within the same week.)
Understandably, both Justin and I were very upset with the condition of the House, and the way in which it was turned over to us. I dreaded the idea of having to actually spend the night here that first night.
The lady that the cleaning agency sent over was very amiable though she seemed to regard both Justin and I with mild disapproval. At my insistence, Justin successfully explained to her that we had only just moved here that morning and that the house was in this wretched state when we arrived. She immediately warmed to us, laughing, shaking her head and emphatically repeating that this had to be the nastiest house she had ever had to clean. We agreed with her that the previous tenants were real pieces of work to turn over a rental this way. We were very grateful to have her help.
Justin and I agreed to spend the first night entirely upstairs in the cleaned parts of the house. The filth was so extensive that it took the Cleaning lady two full days to get to all of it, she said she would be back first thing in the morning for everything downstairs. Justin and I drove to the PX and bought sheets and towels for our first night in the house. We took showers and set up our beds in what will eventually become our bedroom. Justin kept saying that his shins ached and he couldn't understand what had caused it. I was concerned and offered him some Advil. A few minutes passed and while I was sitting on my thin air mattress pad combing the tangles out of my hair and watching Justin play games on his phone that I happened to see a fair sized spider darting in the direction of our beds. I shrieked and smashed it with a water bottle laying nearby, Justin was kind and flushed it for me. I felt terrible that he got up with his hurt legs. I was very unhappy with the prospect of spending the night on the floor, but I told myself that I would just have to tough things out for awhile since I was not the only one who was uncomfortable. I laid there and tried to sleep, but I awoke about an hour later and found that I still felt like creepy crawlies were in bed with me. Everything felt wrong. I was scared there in the dark. I didn't like the house and I wished that I could have snuggled closer to Justin but he was a foot away on his own air mattress sleeping soundly, or so I thought. I noticed a sudden itch on my lower leg, near my ankle. I bent my leg to scratch at it absentmindedly fretting about the fact that we left the window open while we showered and must have let some mosquitoes in. Immediately, I noticed two other bumps higher up and side by side. Then another on my thigh. I reached over and shook Justin's shoulder lightly and told him that I was getting bitten by something. He woke up immediately and said he couldn't sleep anyway, that his shins were still aching. We flicked on the lights and I cowered by the door while Justin checked my sheets and blanket for any bugs and the room for any flying pests. I stood there cold and itchy and noticed that my other leg itched as well, I became frustrated and shook my leg while standing in place and was horrified to see a large spider fly out of the pant leg of my pajamas and scramble toward the corner of the room behind the door. I called to Justin who had looked in time to see the spider scramble away and he promptly smashed and disposed of it. He asked me where it had come from and was nearly as upset as I was when I told him. He knows how much I hate spiders and how scary that was for me. He gave me a hug and assured me that we would figure out a better sleeping situation in the morning, I just needed to be tough for a few more hours. We tried to go back to sleep until I noticed two more spider bites and began to cry. Justin and I agreed to sleep in the car. I was so relieved that as soon as we locked the doors and the dome light faded off I was sleeping soundly, unfortunately Justin's discomfort continued, his shins had been aching all evening. He said that the pain faded away as suddenly as it had arrived and he finally fell asleep. He woke up the next morning completely fine and has remained that way since, I was so relieved.
My twin mattress turned out to be defective and slowly deflated in the night while we were in the car. When we trudged back upstairs at 5 AM to sleep for the two remaining hours we had left until the cleaning lady and repair man for the boiler were expected to arrive, I was pretty much on the floor by the time the doorbell rang although we had just aired it up.
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