PCS'ing to Germany (Part 5/ Finding a House)...

I love this one :). I did tons of research before I got here looking for living arrangements. Quite honestly... none of that research needed to be done. People told me to hire a real estate agent, but there really wasn't a point (especially when there was an extra fee involved). I also searched far and wide on all the Classified websites. I found a few that were adorable, but you really can't KNOW until you get here.

Anyways... we had an incredible sponsor. Probably the best. I keep hearing bad reviews about sponsors, but Jason was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! He really prepared us and put us on the right track to what needed to get done. The day after we arrived here in Germany, he drove around with us looking at available houses. We were told to do a search on AHRN.com to see what our options were. We printed off several homes that met our requirements and we were off! There was one house that stood out to me on our drivebys. It was the one I had my heart set on. I hadn't even seen the inside yet... but it was PERFECT for our family. Just PERFECT! It was a little out of our price range, but we figured out that we could make it work with what we were alloted for OHA and our utility supplement. Seriously... the army pays you EXTRA for utilities in Germany???? How easy!!

On Monday morning I went to the housing office and they gave me the letter of exception to allow us to live off post. But they would only allow us to make appointments to view 2 homes. I immediately told them I wanted to see this ONE. And we were off again. We went to the second one first but it did not make me happy one bit. Next we landed at our cute little cottage... the one I had my heart set on. The landlord was friendly and even made an exception to their pet policy. We smiled every time we entered a new room. I felt at home. We had to have it. And we did. We signed for it 2 days later and it was ours.

I am still in love with it. We have a yard! A garden! A 2 car garage! And no backyard neighbors... just open fields. I keep begging them to let us stay here longer than 3 years... but we will see where life takes us when the time is right. Until then, I am happy in my little corner of the world :)