We’ve Moved! A Tour of Our New Home in Germany

(March 2021 update: whew, I read back over this post and realize I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I’m not going to delete things out of this post, because I think it’s important for me to remember what I liked about Kaltenbrunn at first. But, this place was terrible. The dog park backyard turned into nothing but piles of poop, the small playground was nothing but a spot for dogs to pee on, and the small rooms developed mold quickly. There was drama, baby mama drama, and even more drama! We were fortunate enough to move to a bigger government house in the neighborhood called Netzaberg, located in Eschenbach. The homes are much more modern, well taken care of, and most have 4 floors with a great fenced in back yard. Again, Germany is NOTHING like life in Italy.)

For so long, I was anxious and stressed about finding our new home in Germany. I had read too many negative posts and started down the rabbit hole of believing everything said about the homes and their conditions. I mean, I know it’s not Italy. We could tell immediately when we visited the housing office and were told that we wouldn’t be granted private rental. In short, private rental is when you rent from a landlord who is a resident of the country and you have to pay utilities and bills just like a normal renter/homeowner. That’s the way we were set up in Italy. We paid our rent to our Italian landlord, lived in an Italian community, and had Italian neighbors.

However, this isn’t the way it works for the majority of people stationed in Grafenwoehr, Germany. I say majority because, of course, there are always exceptions. For a few years, there has been a mandatory housing policy that requires a certain percentage of families to live in government quarters – either literally on the base or in communities off base. We were upset and afraid that we would have to live on base and not amongst Germans. Again, we chose to continue living in Europe because we like the lifestyle and living amongst the community and the locals are important to us.

I don’t know how it happened, but it was a true miracle that we were offered a 3-bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house in a small community about 10 minutes from the base. And while it definitely isn’t Italy, I never realized that this was exactly what I needed.

Our very first day in our new home, we were welcomed by several neighbors who almost all have dogs. We made instant friends and have already had some great times hanging out. I never realized how nice it is to be living side by side other people who know what it’s like to have crazy military schedules and lives – driving your husband to work at 5:30 am and being apart for weeks at a time. I don’t fear being alone and I know that I have great neighbors if I ever need anything. That has made me the happiest so far!

Related Post: The Final Tour of Our Italian Home

Welcome to the Neighborhood

The town we moved to is called Kaltenbrunn, located in the state of Bavaria (Bayern in German). Kaltenbrunn is quaint but so lovely. We live in an American community of sorts, so most of the neighbors around us are all Americans working for the military in one way or another. The homes are duplexes and they all have the same interior layout. We have a German house meister, Eddie, who lives in the middle of everyone and supposedly his job is to take care of maintenance and make sure people are following the rules.

Our backyard leads directly into a playground. We were worried at first that it would be run over with kids, but to our delight, there aren’t actually any children on our side of the neighborhood. It’s more of a hangout spot for couples and their dogs. Basically, it’s one big dog park and I am not complaining about it at all!

(Below is a photo of what it looks like around our neighborhood…fields, fields, and more fields. Welcome to Germany!)

Tour of the Downstairs

Enough about the neighborhood – let’s get started with the tour of our new home in Germany! As you walk in the front door, there is an entrance hallway with a built-in coat closet. To the left are a small half bath and utility room where the water heater and other electrical things are stored. Across from the utility room is our kitchen with a big window that looks out onto the street.

The kitchen has an American sized fridge, oven, stove top, and dishwasher (although I’m still used to washing things by hand). I say these things are “American sized” because when we lived in our Italian duplex, everything was European size (aka very very small). I’ve already managed to burn a few things on the stove, not being used to the size and the way it heats up so quickly. It’s also weird going back to Farenheit after having an oven that showed Celcius temps.

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If you walk down the entryway, you’ll arrive at the dining and living room. They are basically big open areas. The living room is a rectangular room with a door going out onto the patio and two large windows – one which can be opened.

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Tour of the Upstairs

Following the spiral staircase upstairs, the master bedroom with a built-in closet and a bathroom with a small shower is off to the left. I don’t love our bedroom yet, mainly because it’s so restricted in where you can place your bed with the closet and outlet locations. But, I’ll find a way to love it over the next three years!

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Across the hall are the two extra bedrooms which we have turned into our offices. The bigger one went to Stephen for his office/work area and will be where he stores some of his military gear. The other is for my workspace and more storage. Between the offices and our bedroom is a spacious laundry room with an American sized washer and dryer. There is also a bathroom through the laundry room with a full bathtub. Additionally, we have an attic upstairs reached via pull-down ladder with a ton of room for storage.

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Tour of the Outside

To the left of our house is a detached garage where we had planned to put our car, but our adventure equipment took up too much room (bicycles, kayaks, climbing gear, etc.). The detached garage has two parts to it with a concrete wall that separates the backside. I’m going to store gardening tools and other miscellaneous items there. We have a cute little half-fenced in patio behind the house where I’m excited to hang plants and decorate with outdoor furniture. The previous tenants had planted the perfect yellow rose bush and it is in full bloom right now!

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So that’s our new home in Germany in a nutshell! We have been living here for about a week now and have already made great friends, planned cookouts together, and had many laughs. I truly believe we ended up in a wonderful spot and that we’re going to love Germany!

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Check out my favorite post from our first time in Germany:

Füssen, Germany: Suspension Bridges and Fairytale Castles

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