Germany house

This was our week in Germany, we worked !!!!, had lots of sunshine !!!, saw exiting animals !!!!!!, eat outside !!!!!!!

Excuse the exclamation marks but it was so so nice :-)

I started with painting the floor in the little entrance :

 I hung up some candle-holders I bought in a second hand shop for 3 Euro

And framed my Alice cards and well, this is the perfect place, next to my own home-made clock :-)
The cards are from Wonderland Shop : http://www.etsy.com/listing/67976617/alice-in-wonderland-wallets-curiouser

Erik and Arthur ( my son ) painted all of the window frames on the outside,

These are the front windows

And these are the bedroom windows, we put some iron fence in front to hang some flower boxes and to keep us from falling out of the window ( the windows are on the same level as the floor)

Pheeew, small break :-) the white ball is Pinky's little bum

After the break I went through my back !!! :-0

Maybe it was the beer :-(, I had just one but the bottles are muuuuch larger in Germany

I read about and bought  some Magnesium oil before we left and wonder oh wonder after rubbing it a couple of times on my back, next day it was gone.

 The weather was so delicious, we ate outside every night and this is what visited us the very first night : EMBRACE FOR IMPACT

Arthur filmed her !

I thought my heart would stop, I lived in the country-side for over ten years and just once caught a glimpse of a fox.

It was a female fox judging by her boobies and I gave her a little piece of raw leftover steak,  I threw it about a meter away from me ( if I want to throw something 3 meters to the left, it ends up a meter behind my back ) and thought she would never go up that close but yes, she took it and ran off .

This was something so magical, I could just shake my head, next morning I got up and shook my head, Erik asked what's the shaking and I could only say: fox. . . . . :-)

Next day I started with the shutters, they had to be restored and painted but it was a lot of work and I finished just one pair.

Here they are after repair. . . . ( I will take pics from the "before"next time )

And here they are ♫ Blue blue electric blue ♫ noooo they are a beautiful shade of pale blue and off white, I am sooo pleased !

Oh you can see the little pond beneath the window, watch this :

 A ZILLION  tadpoles !!!!

Pinky didn't see them I guess, she began slurping out of the pond and I never saw a Bull Terrier with eyes like dishes but that was the time ! She made strange gargle noises and shook her head and ran away! Poor tadpoles :-( there are now just a zillion minus 40.

In the meantime, while I was sawing, sanding ,sawing, sanding

Erik and Arthur and our friendly neighbour were cutting down some trees. 

They say these sandstone houses must breath and there were some trees suffocating  the house so the nasty job has to be done.

I thought there were maybe 3 trees ( they were standing so close together I had no idea ) and told Erik it would be nice if he cut the tree a meter above the ground so I could do something crafty with them.( put a gnome on it or . . .)

This is what happened :

AAAAAAH !!! Oh my I had no idea ! It looked like a battlefield !

Our neighbour thought I was really crazy he thought it was super ugly and so did I. . . 

He promised to cut them down :-)

But. . . it revealed the little attached house, the one who was suffocated and in need of lots of TLC. 

I hope Marcus isn't too sad when he sees this :-(

Quick snap of Pinky in the morning sun

 She was such a good, sweet honey. Forgot to mention, she was sitting on the terrace while the fox visited us, Erik hold her collar and except for some standing hairs on her back she didn't move a muscle :-)

 She also wasn't the least interested in this :

 Okay, don't be scared it was a Slow-worm !

It did resemble a snake and I at first thought it was a snake but Arthur knows a lot about snakes etc and he immediately recognized it.

You can't blame me if you see it's head:

( this photo is from Wikipedia, the above is made by Arthur)

A Slow-worm is a limbless reptile and a adult is about 50 centimetres long, so no worries.

So, that was about it and even tho we worked hard it didn't felt like working, it was more like giving someone you love love :-)

Helen XXX

Lizards, Checkers and Shutters

We are back ! We had a great time , lots of things done and the weather was surprisingly fine. 

A bit freezing at night but during the day the sun was so nice the lizards ( never seen lizards in real !!!! ) came out to take a sun bath. Came out from where ?! I suppose they live between the sandstone walls.?!

Little Komodo Dragons !

I painted a Checker board on the table, we have a TV with build-in DVD player but no cable yet, so besides watching movies or read in the evening we also like to play games.
Painting it on the table is practical and it looks nice ( according to me:-)
I asked our neighbour for some logs, I didn't know yet what to do with them but I love to use wood. They were the perfect size for stools.
 So I made a comfortable cushion , chequered fabric,a handy string handle ( you can't just pick them up, they are very heavy) et Voila !
They have become our Checker-stools :-)

 Pinky likes to watch us play and keeping an eye on the Salami and beer ;-)

We both didn't play Checkers for years so there is a mistake in this picture . . . . 
I thought playing Checkers is like riding a bike, you will never forget how to do it. Well, after an hour we suddenly remembered !

Am I a "checker" addict ? 
YES ! 
I bought chequered fabric for the curtains as well, I couldn't remember the measurements and took a gamble. They are a bit short. . . .but I will sew a nice border onto it the next time we are there.

 Aaaaw don't that look cute?


Erik went treasure hunting in the little attached "old-men-house" and TADAA : treasure !

 Look at those shutters !!! A good cleaning and a nice colour of paint and then. . . . . . .

What do you think ? I especially like the hinges ;-)

Pinky watching Erik . . . . . .



With this nice weather we wanted to be outside and we decided to give the house some air. It seems to be sandstone houses need to breathe .
 Well, this house couldn't breathe :  trees, blackberry bushes, brushwoods,ivy, you name it.

 Before. . . . 

After :-)

Oh and a pond appeared ! 

Well, the last day Erik decided to experiment with some plaster, we are not sure if it's the right stuff he put on but it looked nice and when we come back by the end of April, we will find out if it's still on the wall or if it's still white :-)

Pheeew, some week !

Of course we did go for long walks, Pinky isn't the usual "let-me-sleep-in-front-of-the-fireplace- Bully" while we are there.

She was busy all day, sniffing, barking, chasing invisible things, drinking mud from the smelly pond. 

By the end of the day she was dog-tired and so were we.

We visited Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, drank coffee on this beautiful square

I was trying to find a store where they sell wool and felt, there are more shops in Germany where they sell felting necessities then over here in the Netherlands.I promised to look for a wooden felting "mouse" for Katharine but no luck :-(
 
 


Didn't had time to play with my wool but decorating and taking care of the house is so satisfying and my wool is waiting patiently.

Happy New Year !!!!!!!!

Hello again! I was in Germany a little sooner then expected. Didn't have time to wish you a wonderful New-years eve and all the best you can think of for 2012 ! Well, hereby I wish you everything you want for everyone you love including yourself !

The reason for our speedy departure was this :

I was looking for a wood stove  for our house in Germany. I've heard the electrical power can be off so every now and then due to storms or something and because we were planning on spending new years eve there I thought well, if the power goes down I can still cook and be warm if I have a wood stove. 

I was looking on the internet and there it was : a 1920s coal/wood oven/stove , Art Deco style, enamel, chrome, perfect condition for a bargain. The seller lives in the southern parts of the Netherlands and we practically passes his village when we go to Germany. We were planning on leaving December the 28th but the seller told us there was a lot of people interested so we decided to go immediately. 

We packed our bags and Pinky and went on our way to see this beauty.

It was beautiful !! And it weighs 160 Kilograms :-( . . . . . cast iron .. . . .

We managed to get the monster into the car and while we were driving to the house we really were worried how to get the thing in the basement.

 We had to go through the garden and that's steep and curvy and slippery :-(

Well, we arrived at the house at 6 in the afternoon and it was already dark so we left it for the next morning.

Thank goodness, our supersweet neighbour heard us the next morning and came to say hello. He was so kind to offer his help and after a frightening hour of dragging and pushing and heavy breathing and some curses the thing was in the basement !!!

Boy, we were soooo glad !! 

We couldn't install it properly because the stove pipe was from a total different kind then usual and I have to search the internet for a fitting pipe but it is standing proud and shiny !!!

Next thing to do was making a dining table, we really wanted to have a fancy dinner on the eve and we didn't had a table yet.

I bought a little desk in Holland for 25 Euro , I didn't need the desk but I needed the legs :-), we don't have enough room in the car to take a table with us so we had to make one in Germany .

I think I have explained our house is actually 2 houses, a good proper house and a attached house that needs a lot of TLC.

We call the TLC house the old-men's house, the last inhabitants were 2 old men.

This old-men's house has 2 basements and it's full of usable stuff like wood, beams, isolation things etc. 

We found some great pieces of timber and tadaaaaa: DINING TABLE !

The tabletop is painted and drying on my sewing machine table and on the floor is the frame with the desk legs.

And this is how it looks finished :-)

I also didn't have nice lamps to hang above the table so I bought 2 white iron rings, wrapped some fake ivy and red berries around it and a string of Christmas lights. 

I cut of the plugs and connected new electrical flexes and plugs and Voila ! 

We were ready for a nice meal with local wine ;-)

See the felted bowl on the table? With the acorns and balls ? Beautiful Christmas present from Kim :-)

Here is a nice pic from our mantle which I decorated with shadow puppets, I love them !

And to complement the hole assemble : 

Pinky !!!!!

We did some work on the little entrance but I still want to paint the floor in a chequered pattern.

Hehehehe the polar bear was a Christmas present to myself. . . . 

Okidoki, tomorrow I will get back to work, there is this donkey calling me and the Sandman is getting a little impatient !

 Helen X

Some weekend !!!!

About 4 weeks ago, me and Erik went to Germany to see a house.

We wanted to buy a house in Germany since we were there on a holiday 4 years ago.

Our dream location  : I quote Wiki :

The Palatinate Forest (German: Pfälzerwald) is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park (German: Naturpark Pfälzerwald), equivalent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), covering 1,771 km² 

The house was magical, the area is unbelievable beautiful and it is a 4 1/2 hour drive from our home here in Holland.

The first couple of years we will use it as a vacation home and when my son is on his own 2 feet we will move to Germany.

The house is from about 1777 and build of red sandstone with timber frame and in a really good condition !

There is another house attached that needs a lot of TLC ( the toilet is outside ! )

It is surrounded by woods and low mountains and a little stream runs through the garden.

The water in the house comes from a mountain well !!!! I can't wait to drink that, water is my favourite drink ( and coffee) !

When we were there 4 weeks ago this lovely man ;-) Marcus showed us the garden and pointed out the Wild Boar tracks.

Well, that is why I made the litter of little piggies ! 

We made an offer, they accepted and last weekend we talked about the final details.

If all goes well we will be the official owners in a few weeks !

And now the pics :

Erik and I are still in a slightly state of shock, we  can hardly believe we will spend our free time in such a magical place and my goodness what inspiration this is : Can you imagine the animals and gnomes being created here ?