There's No Place Like Home! (More Pics)

[Ann]

I'm currently spending some time in Oberaudorf, a village right on the border between Germany and Austria. I've just bought a small flat there, but at the moment it's 4 bare walls. (If you've read the "Interesting Conversation" thread, that's why I had the saucepan and frying pan in my hand luggage.)

Some structural changes are being made and I arrived to find a large hole in the wall that separates bathroom from kitchen. This pic was taken standing in what will eventually be the kitchen.



To say I'm camping out is no exaggeration. The only habitable room is the living room, everywhere else is covered in dust and there's no point in trying to shift it whilst the work is ongoing. One corner of the living room is my sleeping area.



Another corner is my temporary kitchen.



My fridge is an outside windowsill in the shade and my clothes are draped over a clothes drier.

On the plus side, when I look out of the kitchen window, this is the view I have.



My "living room" arrives in a couple of days, but as it's all in flat packs, there won't be a great deal I can do with most of it until a retired joiner friend arrives on a "working holiday". I'm hoping by then the cooker, fridge and dishwasher will all be here and working, even if there's still some way to go with the rest of the kitchen!

[SaffiandJasmin]

Looks as though it's all coming together Ann! Love that view. Is it sunrise or sunset that comes behind those mountains? xx

[Ann]

Things are improving! All the furniture I had on order from Ikea arrived yesterday afternoon. One delivery guy was Turkish, the other Eastern European. Their German was worse than mine so when I discovered 2 shelves were damaged it got interesting. They wanted me to phone Ikea, I said I thought there should be a place on the delivery note to report damaged goods. There was, but I don't think their German ran to being able to translate what was on the delivery note. We got there in the end.

I'd woken up to discover the air bed had sprung a leak so first priority was the sofa bed. Luckily the parts were reasonably light, so for the first time since I got here I was able to sleep on a proper mattress. This is it all folded up in its daytime state. It'll eventually go into the hall.



Today I tackled 2 storage units. First one took me about 4 hours to put together.



The second was a lot quicker as I had a much better idea of what I was doing.



I'm now working on the television stand that goes between them, but I think I may have met my Waterloo. The instructions for the drawers could be in double dutch as far as I'm concerned!

[Ann]

I don't like being beaten, so I persevered and the television stand is now finished, drawers and all.



I started on the sideboard, but my screwdriver gave up the ghost part way through. I've had an enforced 2 day lay off as most of the shops here close at noon or 12.30 on a Saturday and don't open again until Monday. I'm hoping I'll be able to get another at one of the shops in the village.

In the meantime I've been hanging curtains. The system is quite different from the UK; there are channels in the ceiling into which the hooks, which have little rollers on them fit. It's looking so much cosier now.

[SaffiandJasmin]

Looks great.....must be very satisfying seeing it coming into existence! xx

[Ann]

It is, but it's getting a bit wearing living in one room with only a hot plate on which to cook. The electrician was here last week, so all the connections I need for various appliances are in place in the kitchen. There's still a long way to go before it'll be ready though.







The builder and plumber will be back tomorrow, to fit a sliding door to the bathroom, take out a now obsolete door in the bedroom, fill in the wall and plaster over all the holes. When that's all done, the electrician will come back and I'll finally get my cooker plugged in.

This is how the bedroom looks at the moment!

[Ann]

I picked up a new screwdriver yesterday and this is the result.



I think I've pretty much finished everything I can put together single handedly - I opened up the box containing one of the settees and hastily shut it again when I saw the size of the stuff inside - so I'll have to find something else to keep me occupied now!

[SaffiandJasmin]

Brilliant work.....well done! Really getting to look like home! x

[Ann]

Things are moving! The kitchen walls have all been made good and replastered, the door between kitchen and bedroom has been bricked up and replastered and it's all finally beginning to take shape.

This is how the bedroom looked on Monday. I was standing in the doorway that isn't there any longer when I took the pic.



There's still a lot of stuff in the room, but the blocks have vanished and so has the doorway. It was in the far left corner.



3 of the kitchen walls have been replastered and one of the bedroom walls, plus some other bits and pieces. It looks like I finished my furniture assembly just in time to start emulsioning!

[SaffiandJasmin]

Things are moving! All that will kepp you out of mischief for while! x

[Ann]

I've been meaning to add some extra pics for a long time, but what with one thing and another am only just getting around to it.

The living room is now finished apart from the table which has been on order from Ikea since late September and a large rug, which wasn't a priority in the autumn, but will be on the shopping list next trip.





The kitchen is also finished and when I was there over New Year, I had a working kitchen sink and a working dishwasher for the first time. (There are high units all along the wall with the appliances and drawers, but I don't seem to have taken a picture of them.

 



I'm also very happy to say that there's now a bed in the bedroom!



It's really starting to look like a home now.

[SaffiandJasmin]

Looks brilliant, Ann - a lovely place to spend time in and relax now. You've got the nice weather coming up too. Love the fact that you've still got the cat in there! xx

[Ann]

It didn't take him long to realise that I was a cat friendly human. He's a cat who enjoys company and his humans both work, so he wanders around looking for people he can "visit". We spent one afternoon curled up on the settee together, me watching television and him fast asleep next to me.

[Ann]

At long last I have a table! Thanks to some crass imcompetence at the Munich Ikea, it's taken 6 months to get here. My living room is finally complete!

[SaffiandJasmin]

LOL at last! You can really call it 2nd home now! Just looking at the transformation of the place is inspiration Ann!! Enjoy it! xx