Penthouse Home

We moved!!!  Again!!!  Because we love to carry our belongings up and down the stairs!  Hooray!!  

Luckily this was an easy move from the 5th floor up to the 6th floor of the same apartment building and we like the new place much better for a plethora of reasons: it doesn't smell like smoke, there isn't a blood stain on the bedroom floor (unfortunately, I am mostly serious about that), it has a sky light, the couch doesn't slide apart every 6 minutes, we get more exercise everyday thanks to the additional flight of stairs, and so on.  

Why did we move up one flight of stairs?  An excellent question.  The answer is kind of long and meandering, but the short explanation is that we were supposed to be in this unit from the start; however, the Bulgarian couple living in the apartment at the time got sick the weekend we were coming and asked to hang out on the 6th floor a little longer.  They were moving down to the 5th floor since that unit is a little bit larger and they wanted more space.  Instead, we temporarily moved to the 5th floor and awaited word for the date when an apartment swap could take place.  

After about 2 weeks, the date was set, but three days before the scheduled move, our property manager, Matzi*, reported that he had contracted the chicken pox and therefore would need to postpone yet again.  The Bulgarian couple wanted him to be present for the move because they had arranged to keep the bed from the 6th floor unit.  This seemed a little silly to me.  Both of these apartments are fully furnished.  Usually when you move out of a furnished apartment, you don't get to take the furniture with you.  It didn't seem like it would be such a big deal though, and Fritz and I were trying to be low maintenance.  Besides, our bed is quite light and German mattresses are half the size of American mattresses so I didn't think it would be too tricky to switch.  Plus, Fritz and I are basically expert movers at this point so one bed up one flight sounded like a cake walk.  

Anyway, we had to reset the move date to give Matzi time to recover from the chicken pox.  Saturday was the new date, but Friday night, Matzi once again, sent another interesting text message.  

"Hey you all!  Tomorrow comes fast. I will give my best to be there around 10-10:30. Don't be [mad] with me if I look a little wasted as a friend of mine is celebrating tonight :) bed switch shouldn't take much longer than 1 hour and it fits quite well as I need to be at central station at 12 in order to support my soccer team in Hoffenheim."  Five emojis followed his words.  

No problem.  Again, I really didn't expect it to be a complicated move.  Fritz and I only had 2 suit cases so if it took more than 20 minutes I would have been shocked.  Well, Saturday morning arrived and we hit the ground running at 9:30.  Fritz and I were completely moved in by 10:30 with our clothes neatly hung in the closet.  Matzi, however, was no where to be seen.  At 10:45 I texted him to make sure he was still coming.  

His response began with an F-bomb followed by some scattered texts that indicated he had forgotten about helping us and was indeed quite hungover.  Fritz and I waited around for an additional hour so we'd be able to help carry the beds, but when Matzi was still absent by noon, we decided that a sunny Saturday was a terrible thing to waste and headed out to enjoy the day.  As we were descending into the subway, another text from Matzi came through.  The general gist was "Ooops!  I fell asleep on the bus and when I woke up I was at the soccer game."  Incredible how that happened Matzi.  He said he would be back around 8pm if we still needed his support with the bed move.  He proceeded to send us pictures  throughout the day of himself partying at the soccer match.  Not too classy, but at least he's honest!

Well the Bulgarians weren't too keen on hanging in limbo until 8pm, so at 5pm, Fritz and I returned home to finish the job without Matzi's help.  As expected, the beds really were not very heavy.  They were however, too big to fit through the doorway.  It became clear that they were each assembled in their respective rooms by someone who had a drill, and that someone did a very good job of securing those screws.   

Out with one and in with the other.  Or so we had hoped.

Stuck.  That kitchen leads right into our bedroom, but the headboard on the bed just wasn't going to make it through the door with the feet still attached.  At this point, I had to question again why we were doing this.  But where there is a will, there is a way, and the Bulgarians had an iron will!  They obtained a screw driver and with some serious elbow grease, they were able to disconnect two of the legs.  We made it through, and putting the beds back together was far easier than taking them apart. 

 With the bed assembled, I went to work scrubbing the floors as is my custom when moving into a new apartment.  Mikko and Inna, our favorite Frankfurt friends from Finland, had brought us a very thoughtful moving gift when they came over for dinner earlier in the week: a mop, sponges, rubber gloves, and various cleaning products!   I was well equipped.  

By sun down we had a sparkling and organized new home!  And as if the Heavens were giving us a housewarming gift, we looked out our penthouse window to witness a most beautiful German sunset over the Frankfurt skyline!

*Matzi is a fictional name used to protect the privacy of our property manager.