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Posts Tagged ‘house’

No Heat This Morning

06 Dec

I got home from a weekend trip late last night to find my apartment a bit too cold for my liking.  It seems that cranking the radiators up didn’t do any good.  Even this morning the radiators are stone cold.

Looks like I’ll have to call the landlord again for our yearly tussle over the heating going out.  I hope this doesn’t last much longer than today because it is really starting to get cold.

We have a small space heater but even if it runs all day it doesn’t do much more than provide a local hot spot in the living room.

 
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Posted in Daily Life

 

Dinner & New Computer

09 Jul

Tonight we have plans to visit our neighbor for dinner.  What was originally an invitation to have us over to enjoy her balcony with a drink has turned into a dinner occasion.

Our neighbor absolutely loves to spend time in her Garden.  You can tell when you visit.  Her plants are amazingly well cared for.  Everything is properly trimmed and watered and everything seems to be in some perpetual state of bloom.  Sometimes I feel like I should reach out and touch the plants to check that they are not plastic.  This is the difference between a proper Swiss gardener and a hack green thumb like me.

I’m sure we will also get a demo of her brand new laptop computer.  Being in her 70′s and never owning a computer before I think making the purchase was a big step.  When I asked her about it she said it would be one more thing that could keep her busy, and she figured she would learn how to use it while she is still working.  Her intention is to use Excel to track her inventory for her business.

I was very happy to see that she was looking to learn something new and diving into the digital age.  She has already arranged to get access to the internet.

The first time she showed me the computer she was telling me how she was trying to find some games but couldn’t get them to work.  Today everything seems to required internet connections, it is amazing.  So, I sat down with there and showed her how to play some classics.  We spent 20 minutes together and I taught her Minesweeper and Majong.  I figured you can’t go wrong with those.

She is a fan of the casino and it is a tradition to bring a housewarming gift when you visit someone in Switzerland.  For tonight I might try to stop my the local department store and see if I can find a Casino game for her.  I think she might enjoy that.

 
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Battling The Bush: Day 2

10 May

I have been fighting a bush for 2 days.  A dead bush.  Such an inanimate object should by it’s virtue not put up such a fight.  Yet it humbles me every time I step out the door to do battle.

Last weekend I made the decision to dig out 3 dead, ugly, or generally obnoxious looking bushes from the several of the coffin sized concrete planters around my balcony.  I spent 3 hours last saturday, hacking, sawing, tugging, spitting, and cursing at the root ball.

All that effort, and I all I got out of it was a small pile or dirt and a 6 inch hole dug in the planter. All three bushes still strongly rooted and going nowhere.

Today I came home from work and thought, “should I go on a bike ride for exercise, or fight The Bush?”  The challenge of The Bush prevailed.  I spent another hour, passing time listening to NPR podcasts while wailing away on the stump with a  razor back shovel like a full fledged member of a chain gang along some southern highway.

Progress, little.  Humiliation, complete.

 
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Moving to Switzerland and Finding A Place

16 Jan

I was talking to a friend this past week who is looking for a new place to stay. The discussion we had took the usual route for those that are looking to move. The back and forth about where he was looking, how big of a place he was looking for, and on and on.

Then came the common final sentence uttered with a depressed tone, “yeah, but there is nothing available.”

This is a common theme when looking for housing in some of the bigger markets in Switzerland. The fact that new building is greatly restricted means there are a lot less places to live. People that find a place to live typically stay put as well unless there is a really good reason to move. Case in point, my neighbor has been in the same apartment for over 30 years.

So if you are moving to Switzerland or just looking for a new place let me share some ideas to get you started.

1.) Homegate

Check out the homegate.ch website to look for a place to live. Your best place to start is always the web and this will at least give you an idea of the prices you might expect for your target area.

2.) Talk to Your HR Department

If you are working at a larger international company and people are coming and going all the time talk to your HR department to see if anyone is moving in the near future. If you can find someone that is leaving in a hurry you might find a nice place before it goes on the market.

3.) Find a Relocation Service

Again, your HR department might be able to help. You can also just stop my a local real estate shop and ask one of the office staff for help. If your German isn’t up to speed yet try a search for ‘immobilien schweiz’

4.) Ask Your Friends

If you are already in the country and looking to move or know people already in Switzerland tell them you are looking. Spread the word, the more people that know you are looking and know what you are looking for the more help you will get.

Do you have any other secrets to finding a place? leave a comment to share with the rest of us.

 
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Posted in Moving

 

Sold!

01 Jun

I can’t believe it. Our house, which has only been on the market a little over a week has a contract on it. It looks like we have sold it. Thank God we don’t have to keep the house unhumanly clean anymore. Luckliy the scheduled inspection is after we move out so I can throw my dirty clothes anywhere I like.

I’m sad on one hand, but pleased that this will be one less thing we have to deal with.

I can’t believe the movers will be here in a few days. It all seems sureal. Buying a ‘one-way’ ticket to switzerland the other day also really hit home. Time to pack my suitcases, here we go!

 
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Can You Spare a Toaster Oven?

13 May

I arrived home yesterday to see a for sale sign in our front yard. That really made me feel funny. The first publicly visible notice to my neighbors that yes in fact I am moving. Since this was our first house I was a little sad when the reality of selling the house settled in my stomach.

So with the sign in the yard we now feel motivated to step up our cleaning efforts and get the house cleaned up and staged for selling. Some friends of ours stopped by this morning with their truck to help me take a whole payload to junk over to the salvation army for donation. What they wouldn’t take joined us on the second leg of the mornings journey to the junk yard. Surprisingly the only thing the didn’t take was an old love seat that looked as if it had been around since 1972. I was actually quite satisfied to throw that ugly thing into the pile of junk at the transfer station.

After returning home from the dump I saw a young couple standing across the street from our house with a child and stroller. I didn’t think much of it until I noticed that the husband was on his cell phone and looking at our place. I was sure he was calling our agent to get more information. I felt like telling them, hey, get off the phone, this is my house and you can’t buy it. But then I realized that I should actually probably walk over and cheer them on. “Go, Call, Buy My House! Yeah Team.”

 
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Posted in Moving