I am a bit tardy in writing, because we have been preoccupied, racing to find an apartment, getting settled into the one we finally got, and waiting for internet (which takes 4-6 weeks). Here’s a slightly abridged, somewhat exaggerated, version of how the process worked for us…
As I have described in earlier posts, we arrived in Berlin with the understanding the we would stay in an air B&B for one month while we searched for a place of our own. For the first steps to do this search, we spent hours looking on-line using several websites, choosing places that looked good, and trying to set up appointments for viewings. We networked with friends who have been living here for a few years, and we supported and commiserated with newly arrived friends in the same situation.
The first place that we physically viewed was nice. Just nice. Crispy clean but a little too urban in terms of the lack of view. We are selfish artists. Home has to feel like a place where we can compose, record, make visual work. This one just didn’t. We were spoiled too. Our apartment in D.C. had a view of the National Cathedral and Rock Creek Park. This one looked into our neighbors’ windows. Sorry. No.
When we saw the second place, we fell in love with it. Unfortunately, so did about 20 million other people who scurried to apply. It had high ceilings, soft colors, two balconies with views of trees and gorgeous architecture, so much light and charm! For pragmatic items, it had a lift (yay, my hip could live), a washer and a dryer (dryers are a rarity here), a fitted or fully equipped kitchen (in Berlin, rental places are sometimes shown without appliances…if there are appliances in the space, you may have to buy them from the previous tenant…this was not the case with this one, in terms of it having a fridge and stove, but we would have to buy the washer and dryer), a big bathtub, storage in the basement, a huge wardrobe, (which we would have to buy from the former tenant…not a lot of closets here in Berlin) and a nice sofa (again, we’d need to buy this from the former tenant, but we didn’t have one anyway, so why not). Benjamin and I only had to look at each other because we knew. This needed to be our home. With tenacity, we stayed until we were the last of the viewers. We talked with the previous owner and the agent. We wanted them to remember us.
I mentally started decorating. This was something that some of my friends cautioned me not to do, and I could understand why, but I did it anyway. Another friend said it was ok, even good, to visualize. I went with this feeling. I couldn’t help it. As time dragged on, however, and the bureaucracy that is part of finding a home required paper after paper, I started to lose my optimism, and so did Benjamin. We were exhausted with waiting. But we had no choice.
We were encouraged to keep looking. So we did. We saw a third place that again was nice. Clean and a slightly better view (only slightly…it overlooked a courtyard just above a kids’ play area…I like kids, but they are not trees or the National Cathedral). Additionally, this place was a duplex, and the stairs felt steeper than they had looked in the picture. Why would I want to climb every night, just to go to bed? Sorry. One more time. No.
At this point, we felt downtrodden. We tried to distract ourselves as we waited. We watched ‘Portlandia’ and ‘Mad Men.’ We took walks and ate gelato. We took deep breaths and started again with the apartment websites. But our hearts were heavy. We wanted Apartment # 2, and all we could do was practice patience.
Finally, finally, finally, Benjamin got the call. We were approved by the Housing Agency, and we could sign the lease for our favorite choice! YAY!!! I received this news right before my first meeting with my new writers’ group. I now had two reasons to feel excited! I will save my writers group reflections for another post, because it was incredible to work with three new writer friends, and our meeting warrants a fuller description. To end this one, however, I’ll simply say that Benjamin picked me up at Shakespeare and Sons, and we properly celebrated our new home at Maria Bonitas over margaritas and tacos. Casa dulce casa!
