It took longer than we had planned. There were obstacles that we hadn’t anticipated. The Covid-19 pandemic, for one, and all the restrictions that came with it, made it next to impossible to go house-shopping. Persistence paid off, though.

This was only the second house we had looked at since moving to Germany in September last year. It offered everything that we wanted: plenty of space, close enough to where my parents live, not too close to the big city, but still within reach of it.

The owners, a young couple with two small children, were planning a third child – and wanted a house which would better meet their needs. I understand the reasoning – our house has plenty of space, divided into large open areas, with only three bedrooms. The master bedroom is reasonably sized, but the two children’s rooms (now our guest room and office) are just 97 and 130 square feet, respectively.

Now, I thought there would have been ways to modify the setup to accomodate a third child, but of course I didn’t share my ideas. Especially after I realized that the wife was reluctant to sell. She must have loved the place and grown attached to it over the roughly six years that the family lived there.

Today was the first night we spent in our own house. There is a lot of empty space to fill between the partially finished basement and the third floor. We have no furniture, no refrigerator, no washer or dryer. We slept in our bedroom right under the roof, on air mattresses. Breakfast the next morning – champagne and smoked salmon – came out of our electric camping cooler.

Life is good!