Blog with educational purpose

Hi, Y'all!

Spring is in the air! We had our first latte macchiatos on the balcony and even the dogs enjoy to go for walkies without their coats. (No discussion about coats being necessary for dogs or not, there are situations where it totally makes sense.) Anyway, Magdeburg is really pretty right now and it starts feeling like home. Tbh, the picture below neither shows a latte macchiato nor Magdeburg, but it looks so sunny that it reflects my mood perfectly :-)

Few days ago I had to go to the post office because my signed transfer notice was needed in paper (!) for my digital (!) personnel file. On my way I walked our street from one end to the other and realized that the house numbers are sorted in an unusual way. Normally we have the even numbers on one side of the street and the odd numbers on the other. But in our street they are continuously arranged, which means they start at the Cathedral on one side of the street and ascend up to the end of the street, then continue on the other side and end again at the cathedral. 

Highly interesting, and I wanted to know if that is typical for Eastern Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, the city of Magdeburg or just our street. Well, since I had to walk a bit yesterday, because there was no parking space right in front of the vet, I realized that it had to be a special feature of our street. I did some research and learned that our address even has its own Wikipedia entry! Slightly outdated because it stated our house would be still empty, but nevertheless an interesting fact, I think. 

Furthermore, I learned that house numbers in Magdeburg have to be at least 10 cm in height and that they have to be located at least 1,50 m above street level in order to be visible from mid-street (this is equally important for rescue services and delivery heroes).

But that's not all, I also learned that - in contrast to my original assumption - there are two homogenous systems to arrange house numbers:

1. The so-called Paris system, where you start with number 1 on one side of the street and with 2 on the other side. Both sides ascend with the numbers divided into even and odd until the end of the street.

2. The so-called Berlin system with circulating numbers which means you start on one side of the street with 1, ascend without interruption on that side until you reach the end of the street, then go back on the other side of the street with further ascending numbers.

Funny thing, right? That these systems exist with equal value was completely new to me!

But to avoid a blogpost with only one picture, here's something artsy:

I already mentioned that I needed pictures or artworks with portrait orientation, and I played around a bit. Unfortunately, the artworks for the bedroom did not meet my expectations and have to stay in the unpublished stash for the time being. But I managed to produce two unexpected flukes which now hang in the hallway above the antique sewing machine:

Hubby's office, however, was in dire need of some color because the furniture is limited to black and white, only. And once again, I got inspired by the Bauhaus movement - at least regarding the colors. I worked with acrylic paint and applied it with a foam roller, a wooden strip and a champagne cork... Here you go: 

The artwork frames below are slightly larger than the ones above, and therefore they hang on an unfurnished wall whereas the smaller ones hang above a sofa. Hubby likes, and me too! 

Stay safe and sane, sweeties!

DIY rocks!

Hi, Y'all! 

My relocation vacation is over, and I've been working again since Monday. And since that day my email footer shows Berlin as official work location. Well, then I will have to use a real vacation day for carnival next year, as only the offices in the Rhineland and Ruhr area gift their employees one additional vacation day. But that doesn't matter, the main thing is that we will be able to celebrate again next year. Although there is room for improvement in the vaccination process in Germany, but I remain optimistic...

What shall I say? Except a larger order at the Swedish furniture company which I procrastinate because I have to check how they organize delivery and installation, everything is done. Our kitchen is delivered and functioning, only the fridge and the hood will be installed next week. No problem though, because we have a spare fridge. As it stands in the upper floor we have to take our shopping basket and jump up and down the stairs for cooking and preparing breakfast, but that only adds to the moving streak on the smart watch...  

And then we additionally ordered a broom cabinet and a kitchen island. That never happened to me: There is so much space in the kitchen, that we would be insane not to add that broom cabinet. Will come in very handy to have the mop right where the dogs' water bowl stands, because their table manners, you know... And in the center of the kitchen it looks weirdly empty. A dining table with chairs would be too large, but an island will be perfect. Help, my kitchen is too big! :-) But seriously: I am very happy with my large open concept kitchen. Now I don't have to spread my stuff everywhere but have everything in one place.

Thus after the chores comes the fun part: decoration and DIY! As first project I painted all my storage jars, unmatching flower pots and a metal sign which I want to use as a menu board, with black chalkboard paint. 

Then I want to create some artworks. In our old house we had some beautiful calendar pages in area format. But here the ceiling height is a bit lower (at least in the first floor), and artworks in portrait format would be better because they optically stretch the rooms. I started with a matching set of two artworks in silver and grey for my office space. I was inspired by mid-century/modern design, and I think the two objects somehow resemble the Bauhaus figurines by Oskar Schlemmer. Wich is very suitable, because Dessau as birthplace of the Bauhaus movement is right around the corner. 

Both artworks aren't painted, but glued like in a scrap book instead. I used corrugated cardboard, shiny cardboard, crushed paper and some leftover adhesive aluminium foil which I used years ago to cover my dishwasher. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a picture without reflections on the glass, but the artworks look very nice and fit well in their spot.

My plan is to create another set of two artworks for hubby's office and maybe a set of two or even three for the bedroom. Will keep you posted! 

And then I started another crazy project to recycle some of the packing material from our relocation. In my office, there is now a rack which we originally had in our living room. There it was solely used for deco purposes, and thus it only carried some pictures in frames and some sculptures we bought on our trip to Tanzania. Now I want to use it for storage as well, and therefore, I need a few fitting boxes. I'd love them to look kind of braided like rattan or water hyacinth for example. So I built two boxes out of a relocation box:

For additional stabilisation and to cover the writings I will cover them in paper and glue. This is still on my to do list right now. After that I will take all the wrapping paper from tableware and glasses and make two giant braids which will be wrapped around the boxes and fixed with hot glue. Like this:

Might look like that then:

But to be honest, the braiding is too bold for my liking. I have two kinds of paper, and here I took the harder one. I guess with the thinner and softer paper the braids will be more delicate. When everything is glued to the boxes, I will cover them in another coat of glue to make it durable. And last but not least I want to install two leather handles with book screws, to be able to pull the boxes out of the rack. At least that's the plan, and I will report, if it works or if I have to order ready-made boxes from the Swedish furniture company...

And here's something funny I made for my laundry room: 

In case you can't see it  - the clothespin holds the famous single black sock...

Stay safe and sane, y'all!

Magdeburg Move

Hi, Yall!

A heartfelt hello from our chaos! But to be honest, it's pretty comfy already, although there is still much left to do. But in contrast to our prior moves I try to take more time to decorate and DIY. 

Let me recount a bit: Wednesday (27 Jan) our movers hit the bell 7:30 sharp. They wanted to package and wrap all fragile items, and after 2 hours they were done. They told us that they would return the other day to mount everything on the moving truck. The other day??? I mean, it's 9:30 in the morning, why not get the truck over, pack everything, drive to Magdeburg on Thursday and unpack the whole stuff on Friday? Well, the movers thought to take much more time packing and disassembling of our furniture, and therefore, no truck loading on Wednesday. The thing was, we wanted to hand over the house to the new owners and depart for Magdeburg, because Thursday morning we had an appointment with the telecommunications company to access the internet. Thus we informed the new owners and kindly asked if they could open the door for the movers the following day. That's what they did, and they even sent me a video from the empty house for me to check if the movers packed everything. Really nice!

We really have a talent for crisis management, don't we?

Fun fact: As we were so expertly prepared and the packing people were so fast, we even got a reimbursement when everything was done! 

The first things working in our new home were WiFi and the coffeemachine! Thursday we basically spent adjusting the dogs to the new environment, getting them used again to riding the elevator and to plan meticulously where to put which piece of furniture. Furthermore, we spent the first two nights in separate bedrooms: Me in the first floor with Else to keep her from getting silly ideas, and to be able to take a quick potty break during the night if needed, whereas hubby stayed with Heinrich in the upper floor to make him feel safe in the new surroundings. And as we established four walkies at fixed time slots, no accidents so far. In the meantime we learned that there live to other dogs in the floor above us, which is really nice to know. The owner of the estate seems to have a weak spot for dogs and considered that by choosing beautiful and robust floors and enabled a stepless access from outside to apartment door. Me and the dogs really appreciate!

In the picture with Heinrich you can see my office, and below the quilt there is a pile of two mattresses. Together with four euro-palettes this should serve as guest bed/guest sofa. But even without the palettes it's quite comfy. 

In the second picture there are various kitchen appliances in the background, and here is the story behind: We and the kitchen company thought, the kitchen would be delivered on 11 February and planned the installation for 11 + 12 February. But the kitchen manufacturer was ahead of time and the guy who will install it hadn't enough space to store it. And so the movers just headed home and the kitchen delivery guys popped in to place the whole kitchen in our apartment. Good news: Installation will be done on Monday and Tuesday already, yay! 

Then I can unpack the remaining boxes, because this is what our balcony looks like at the moment:

In our last two homes we didn't need closets, thus we have to get one. But as we didn't want to order a closet out of the blue, I dug up our old clothing racks until the custom planned closet made by the famous swedish furniture company will move in. I proudly present our closet for the time being:

Apart from that, everything that has a home, moved into said home, for example our shoes:

And may I kindly point out, that there is some imbalance between his and her shoes? 3.5 shelves are mine, the remaining 7.5 shelves are filled with hubbies shoes - who is the diva in this relationship, I ask you? 

And below you find a very creative way to place a dustbin :-) If Heinrich ever wants to play basket ball, he might practice under the desk...

And this is the view when washer and dryer are used simultaneously:

In theory you could pile both appliances, but because they are from different manufacturers, they differ in size and both have to stand on the floor. and as long as the washer is still working, they have to stay that way. Due to the pandemic the guest bathroom is only frequented by us anyway. 

Oh, and after three days of ignoring the stairs, Else tried to climb them and was mighty proud when she reached the upper floor! But climbing up was way easier than getting down, and so we had to put her harness on and get her slowly downstairs, step by step. Therefore we secure the stairs with moving boxes, because we learned that one box is not enough... On the long run we may have to install a baby security device, I guess :-)

Overall, the locals are super friendly, open and welcoming, our surroundings are beautiful, and as soon as we have defeated COVID I am looking forward to all the small shops, restaurants and cafès, theater, concerts - we are right in the middle of all hustle and bustle. 

And last but not least: In Germany we have a notification requirement which means you have to inform the local residents' registration office about your new address within two weeks. But the Magdeburg administration is a bit behind due to the pandemic and therefore we have an appointment on 16 March! So, we have to wait a bit longer to become official Magdeburger :-)

I will keep you posted - stay safe and sane!!!