The container is now history

With only a few casualties, like Georg's elbow and my camera, the container is now history!
With everything tentatively worked out in Hamburg with customs, the container arrived at Joern's parents storage warehouse yesterday at 12:30 pm. I wish I could find my camera, so you could see the picture of how the truck was loaded. Two 20 ft. containers were loaded on the trailer, with someone elses container behind ours. Our first question: How on earth were we going to access our container? Once the driver maneuvered the truck around to the loading bay (yes, there is a loading bay, not like the experience poor Joern had loading the container,) we realized that our container had been loaded on backwards, so the driver just angled the trailer, and we could open the container from the front.
After a little pomp and circumstance, Joern's father popped open the seal, and we got to work offloading. Joern's two friends Georg and Marc came to help. I can't even begin to describe how different the offloading experience was from loading in Connecticut.
In all, it took about 3 hours to offload the container, and then another 2 hours to get everything into the two rooms for storage. The loading bay is in the back of the warehouse, and Joern's parents' storage is in the front on the other end. It was a lot of work, and a lot of planning, but it worked quite well.
We also started unpacking all of our furniture in preparation for customs to visit this morning. Let me start out by saying that I am in love with our furniture! The china hutch is like something out of my dreams! It is HUGE, and matches the table exactly! It is so very beautiful! The chair from Crate and Barrel is so grandma-y, and beautiful. It did suffer a little mishap, and some of the material popped out from under the piping at the bottom right corner, but I'm sure that can be remedied. The living room couch is a beautiful medium brown, buttery leather. It is so soft and comfortable. Not too soft, but not Germanly hard either. Our barstools are beautiful too. We unpacked the two bathroom vanities, they're both perfect. The medicine cabinets all made it with no scratches. Our bedroom dresser did get one nick in the front, but it also has some big damage on the side, but that happened when we bought it. Good news, is that this damage showed to customs today that it was used and not newly bought :) We had everyone sniff our cedar lined dresser drawers, and Georg even said that he could fix the damage!
The only item that broke was the lid of our beverage dispenser. But all in all, everything weathered the voyage just fine.
This morning, it was back to the warehouse at 9 am, to meet with someone from customs. She wanted to inspect the items to ensure that they were indeed inherited. It was pretty nervewracking, especially when she asked to look in a bunch of boxes. Not that there was anything bad, I just didn't enjoy having someone thumb through all of my things to determine if they should or shouldn't be taxed.
In the end, it worked out fine. She was with us for about 30 minutes, and everything was fine.
We are just waiting for a bill from the shipping company, for the time the container was detained in Hamburg, but it is mostly history.
After the customs agent left, Joern, Joern's father, and myself drove two SUVs and one station wagon, all completely full with packing materials to the waste center. We filled up two bags that were about 5 ft. long and 4 ft. high with styrofoam. They had us put the packing foil into a special bin, because they like to store it for people who come and ask for packing matierials. We had at least 50 boxes. It was insane. But again, now its all done.
No more worrying about the container. Now, we can focus on the house!

The container story, an update

URGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The container that we shipped from America with all of my personal items that I never moved, and all our beautiful new furniture. It has been stuck in Hamburg for exactly one week now. Why? I don't qualify for the one time, tax free, move. Why? I've been here too long. This one makes me sooooo angry. Although there is a lot of stuff in the container that is new, there is also tons of stuff in the container that I have been keeping at my father's house for the past 10 or so years. I have my books from school, all my old posters and items from traveling, old prom dresses, even mom's second wedding dress. Just because I've lived here so long simply does not mean that I am not moving my personal items now. Don't they realize that people can, and do, put things in storage for extended periods of time, when they are living abroad. You can't bring everything over at once in a suitcase.
So, the new approach- my mom and stepfather died, and I inherited 1/2 of all their household goods. I have good reason to belive that I should be entitled to bring my mother's items to Germany. But, we need death certificates, and copies of both wills. I have one stamped copy of my stepfather's death certificate, but only a photocopy of my mom's (my fault, I know.) And, I only have a signed version of my mom's will.
Sheesh!
So, they wanted to hold the container in Hamburg until we got everything worked out. This could take a reeally long time! Joern told his father the story, and to my very happy surprise, he contacted his friends at Nuertingen customs. They discussed the situation, and they agreed to take over the job of the container from Hamburg customs. The positive in this is that our furniture will be delivered to us on MONDAY!! We need to unpack the container, and then wait for a few weeks until customs arrives to check through the contents.
This is the best news. Joern and I are off to organized the Joern's parents' storage warehouse, so that we can store all of our very beautiful, very going to live in our new home furniture!
Thank you so very much Wolfgang!

The container story

We booked our container about a month prior to our trip home. We went with a company out of New York. We chose to self-load the container, and signed a contract sometime in June. Before leaving for America, I needed to provide my passport information as well as a copy of my residency permit. The container was set to arrive at my father's house at 8 am on Thursday the 15th for us, and we had two hours during which to book the container.
Once we arrived in the States, we got to work looking for last minute items for the house, as well as prepare to receive some deliveries and to pick up some furniture in Long Island. Here are some of our final purchases for the container:

Napoleon barstool from Pottery Barn

Malika rug from Pottery Barn for the dining room

Clara rug from Pottery Barn for the guest bedroom

We bought five of these medicine cabinets, not all white, from the Restoration Hardware outlet.

This is the vanity for the children's bathroom from the Restoration Hardware outlet too.
We also bought a wonderful set of pots and pans at the Williams Sonoma outlet. We've been going for 9 years with Ikea pots, I can't wait to have a real set of pots and pans to cook with.
What shook us was the message when we came home from Long Island, it was from someone from the shipping company. It turns out that they intentionally always overbook ships, okay not their fault, as we were working with a forwarding agent and not the actual shipping company. But, as the ship was overbooked, our forwarding agent would either need to store our container at their port, at their expense, or push forward the day we would load our container. Joern was pretty angry about this, but it turned out to be the final shove we needed to extend our stay at home for a week. It also gave Joern an excellent bargaining position, and allowed us to get the third hour to load the container at no extra expense. This extra hour was a huge help, as the original contract stated we had two hours to load the container, and each extra hour would come at a cost of $120 per hour. Ugh! So, we agreed to move the date of the container to the following Monday, 19 July.
We used the extra time to purchase a king sized down comforter and some other odds and ends. During the rest of the week, we welcomed into my father's garage the order from Pottery Barn, and the following beauties from Crate and Barrel:


On Wednesday morning, we received yet another call from the forwarding agent. Since we did the entire shipment under my name, as a foreigner, I am allowed one shipment of personal goods without customs tax, I needed one more important document. It turns out that the US changed their export laws in January of 2010, requiring ALL US citizens who export goods outside of the US, even personal goods for personal use, to file for an Employer Identification Number. This simple process, I was told, could be completed via the internet, and I would immediately receive a EIN number. The forwarding agent told me that this number was needed before we received the container. This left me with 3 business days, and spotty internet avaiability.
On Thursday morning, I rushed to my stepmother's house to fill out my EIN application. Turns out, basically, I was required to file with the IRS that I was opening a business! Hello! Business! You have got to be kidding me! I ended up calling the IRS, because I was so confused. I called the phone number for help filing for an EIN, and the lady on the phone still had no clue. Finally, after speaking with her manager, she confirmed indeed, I needed a number. And so, with her help, I started a business.

We also received the shipment from Bassett. I failed to mention how the New England Furniture Warehouse was giving me angina, and well, same for my dad. I had been back and forth with the furniture warehouse responsible for shipping out Bassett's Connecticut orders since April. Evidently, they received our first Bassett sectional in mid-January, although I was told it would not arrive from to warehouse until March. They had held onto my furniture for almost 6 months. In May, they called my father and said that if we didn't get this worked out, they were going to get rid of my, already paid for, furniture. I had a big runaround with the warehouse and Bassett furniture. In the end, the store manager promised he would work everything out, and that because I had been such a good Bassett customer (ordering 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, living room tables, and a china hutch) over a 6 month time period, they would put pressure on the warehouse to wait for me. I called the warehouse as soon as I arrived in CT in order to set up a delivery date. The woman was relieved to set up a time. Fortunately, the container was pushed back, because the first available date she had would have been the day after the container was scheduled to be packed and leave. What a nightmare that would have been.

As you can imagine, my father is a saint. He moved one of his trucks out of the garage at the beginning of the trip, so we could start collecting all of our funiture in one place and preparing it for shipment. Here's what the garage looked like BEFORE the 2 sectionals, 8 dining chairs, coffee table, two end tables, and a china hutch arrived:

That's my dad's very large Chevy Silverado, that ended up packed into the garage for a week or so, hidden behind our headboard

And yes, that is poor Joern sweating because all this was happening during a crazy 100 degree (40 C) heat wave.
Here's the garage after all the furniture arrived.

There was barely room to close the door!
We had a busy weekend before the container came, but I used every spare minute to pack, pack, pack. I ended throwing away some things, because they really were frivilous. But, I did manage to send overseas a bunch of my old stuffed animals, collector Barbies, my grandmother's china, old prom dresses and my mom's last wedding dress, all of my momentos from high school and college, and lots of old books, including all the remaining yearbooks I had not yet brought over. I also packed my flute, which will be so nice to have here. I packed away a painting from my mom's house, as well as a few Fairfield posters.
Each item that went into a box needed to be inventoried, and each box needed to be numbered. All items that went into the container also needed to be numbered and inventoried.
We woke up at 6 am on Monday the 19th, with the plan to spend two hours finishing the inventory, as the container was scheduled to arrive at 8 am. As soon as we stood up, Joern shot out of the bedroom, saying, "the container is here!" Sure enough, the container arrived ridiculously early. And the best news of all? We had until 10 am to fill it. This would have been good news- meaning we had one extra hour (4 hours instead of 3 to pack the container,) but my cousin's boyfriend was coming at 8 am to help us out. Obviously, I could not help Joern lift a couch into the back of the container which remained at the height of the truck. What was meant to be a busy, but smooth two hours, turned into chaos. I had number every item in the garage, and finish two boxes in the house. Plus, I had to desperately call my cousin's boyfriend to see if he could come any earlier. He did arrive around 8, and unfortunately had a job interview that required him to leave at 9 at the latest. Hmmm... now we were in a bind.
As my cousin's boyfriend drove away, my heart sank. I had no idea how to help Joern with the heavy items, and even less idea of who to call to ask for help. I am pretty sure without help, we would have needed a week to pack the container. My dad arrived from breakfast about 15 minutes after my cousin's boyfriend left, and he brought the dark clouds with him. As the impending thunderstorm started rolling in, our lifesaver, my godfather, called to ask how things were going. All I heard my dad say was, "they really could use a little help." So there it was. Ten minutes later, with an ever darkening sky, my godfather drove in to save us. He and Joern worked hard for about 20 minutes before the sky let loose. We had to retreat into the garage, and I had to ask the driver if he could wait extra time (knowing we'd have to pay, we had no choice.)
After 10 minutes, the rain slowed, but it stayed rainy for the next 30 minutes or so. Joern and my godfather packed, and I numbered.
The biggest challenge was the last item: our king-sized mattress.
Here are Joern and my godfather, Rich, trying to hoist the mattress on top of everything in the container:

Joern and Rich decided to use the box as a smooth surface to slide the mattress onto. Both Joern and Rich are underneath the box at this point.

At one point, Joern got lost under the box. Would we have to ship him too?

A few failed attempts, time for a conference.

A last attempt.

SUCCESS!
As soon as the mattress was loaded, the container was shut and sealed. It will not be opened again until it reaches Hamburg on August 11th. Good luck to those customs agents who try to take on our container!

The seal that goes through the lock.

See you in a few weeks on the other side of the ocean!

My dad picking up the remains, and looking forward to full use of his garage.

After 6 months of stressing over our furniture, it was a relief to see the container roll away. Unfortunately, a few pieces didn't make it in, like an end table from my mother and our personalized door mat, but that's about it. My whole life right now is on a boat, making its way to us.
It arrives in Hamburg on August 11th, and will arrive in Neckartailfingen two to three days later. Joern is currently building his unpacking team and looking for the proper place to store our stuff!

We're under contract to purchase the land!

I haven't posted in about a month, yet obviously, a lot has happened. I will save the story of the container and all the furniture and purchases we made for the house, for anotheer post. Today, I want to focus on what happened yesterday- we signed the contract for our lot!
Before we left for the States, we had set a date of July 22nd to meet with the lot owners at a notary public to sign the sales contract. Since we had to stay in the States longer, to pack the container, we had to move the date of the meeting. We got in on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, my father-in-law called us to tell us that he spoke with the family we are purchasing from, and that they had rescheduled the meeting to yesterday (Thursday.)
Our meeting was yesterday at 5 pm in Esslingen am Neckar at a notary public. Since I've never purchased real estate in the US, I can't compare the process. But, I can explain what the process is like here to purchase a building lot.
First, Joern and I gathered with the family selling us the land, as well as Joern's father. When we were called, we all went to a room, where a government official collected our passports. He also checked our factual information listed in the contract, like the spelling of our names and our addresses. He then took our passports to make photocopies, and returned with the notary public.
In the States, I only remember going to a notary public to have them witness a signature. I think I had been to one twice, but can't place the reason for either visit. In Germany, a notary public holds a much larger role. This guy was a big guy in every sense, he was physically large, and took up the wohle room with his voice and personality. After introducing himself, the notary public explained to me that a translator was not provided for me, and that I needed to make sure that I understood the entire contract, and could not sign it until I understood every detail.
An hour later, the notary public had read the entire contract, and explained in detail each paragraph in it. There were a few tricky additions to the contract. We are purchasing with the land 1/6 of the private road that runs in front of our house, and only found out yesterday, that we are responsible for paying 1/6 of the final paving of said street. We also had to clarify with the notary public that a condition of our land purchase is that we would allow our next door neighbors to build directly on our property line, instead of 2.5 meters removed from our property line. We also agreed to build our house (but not our garage- which you are legally allowed to build on the property line,) 5 meters back from the property line. Oy, that took another 15 minutes of discussion.
If the meeting were shorter it would have been interesting. It was just long though. I did learn though that because Joern and I are purchasing the land as co-owners, the house will automatically be in both our names. I also learned that we can't purchase the lot just yet. Because Germany is so wonderful, the signed contract with the house placement needs to go back to the town of Neckartailfingen, just to make sure that the town really does not plan to put a school, road, or anything else public on our building lot. How foolish. The town approved the building in the first place, in Februrary, or March, but we just need to make sure. Sheesh! Once the town agrees that no town pool is being planned for our building lot, we will then be allowed to complete the purchase of the land. They truly assume here you have all the time in the world! But now that we have signed the contract, we are legally required to pay for the land within 10 days after receiving the okay from the town. The other positive though is that the sellers cannot sell the land now to anyone else. Hooray!
The big surprise came after the meeting was over, when the sellers invited us, Joern's father included, out to dinner. We went to a really nice restaurant in the town center. We had such a yummy dinner, and nice conversation. It was certainly an evening to remember!

A very quick update

Since I have a lot of laundry to do, and some vaccuuming, I will just write a quick update on the house. I will do a more thorough job in writing about it hopefully during the week.
Since receiving the building permit, we are now waiting for the "Rote Punkt," or Red Point which allows us to actually start building. Mr. B needs to register himself as our project manager, which will allow us to receive the Rote Punkt. We've also met twice again since the beginning of the month with Mr. B. We've worked on optimizing the design of the house. We've moved around a few walls. In the cellar, we've enlarged the rooms, and reduced a little width in the hallway. We also enlarged the mechanical room by removing the wall to the toilet room. It may seem odd to have a toilet and shower (for rinsing purposes,) in the mechanical room, but Mr. B suggested that we place our heat pump and water tank in a way that it can be covered by a curtain most of the time.
On the first floor, we've added one meter to the dining room, and removed the shower from the first floor bath. Although it would have been nice, it will give the bathroom a much more airy feeling, as the shower really made this bathroom cramped! We also changed the design of the window in the kitchen and widened the door from the kitchen to the side terrace.
Upstairs, we redesigned the children's bath, optimizing the space, which will also give me room for my Pottery Barn sink console and some shelving space for the laundry supplies. We also worked on the design of the master bath. Mr. B gave us a few suggestions for the bathtub. He did talk us out of making the shower too big, but I'm not totally convinced on that one either. We also made the hallway in the master suite a bit smaller, which gave more space in the walk-in closet. We eliminated two windows, one in the bedroom behind the bed, and one in the bathroom. It is fine.

The blueprints are complete, and Mr. B has started the paperwork for estimates. The paperwork is huge, he fills out an enormous booklet with explicit details on the house to send to builders, excavators, etc. This way, all contractors give us an estimate on exactly the same terms, which allows for a fair comparission.

We've also booked our container. We are going with a US shipping company. Turns out, summer is high season for shipping, thus, not the cheapest time to ship. We've chosen to self-pack our container, and have two hours to pack the container, before incurring an hourly rate for packing. Ugh!

Lastly, we also booked our tickets- hooray! We'll be home from July 5th to the 20th. A nice long time!