Apartment set up
We now have a microwave and the internet and a new mattress arrived by mail order.  We bought a 140 cm x 200 cm one made in Germany.  It came rolled up.  So now I have it unrolled and it is inflating now.  Our two twin beds put together had a big gap and they are pretty hard.  In fact, I am using the twin mattress as an ironing board, it works great as a ironing board.

Oct 26, 2012 - Our bed frame arrived and we put it together.  It is really low to the ground but it is comfortable.  I'll look for another fitted sheet at one of the large stores we found in the mall.  The different thing about sheets here in Germany is that I haven't found plane cotton sheets with a fitted bottom sheet and a flat top sheet.  Seems all they have is a jersey knit fitted bottom sheet and a comforter with a duvet cover.  The pillows as a norm are square 80x80 cm with a case that matches the duvet.  I like having a flat sheet for when it is too hot with the thick comforter so I'll look some more and for a couple more pillows that are not square and a pillow case that is not square and a comforter to fit the 140cm new bed.

our new larger bed, 140 cm x 200 cm

November 10th, 2012 DESK

Steve was able to keep the company car over the weekend because he had to drive to a customer in a different town on Friday.  So we went to the furniture store on Friday and bought a desk for the bedroom.  Steve put it together on Saturday.  We rotated the the furniture 180 degrees and put the desk near the window where there is better light.  This is where we will put our computer when we need to use them and where I will put my sewing machine when I am using it.  WHEN OUR STUFF ARRIVES!

New desk and furniture rotated.

GUEST ROOM

the guest room with the twin beds

We moved the twin beds into the guest room.  They take up almost the entire room.  So we are almost ready for you to come visit.  Just don't bring a big suitcase, it won't fit in the room with you.

Window shutters
I thought I'd show you the metal shutters that almost all apartment buildings seem to have.  We have them on each window and to cover the balcony openings.  The one for the living room doesn't work right now, I'll work on that today I think.   (Fixed it the next day. Just had to hang out the window and pull on it a bit). It is still in the 30's today so I was reluctant to open the big window to try and fix the shutter but if I can fix it, then maybe it will help retain the heat in here at night.

When you loosen the strap the shutters roll down as far as you want them to.  When it reaches the bottom of the window then further loosening will close the little oval openings so that it is totally solid.

By putting these shutters down it keeps some of the heat in.  So on cold nights I've been lowering them.  The other night when I went out on the deck to lower that one, a small bird must have been sleeping in the window box and by the time I closed it at the bottom it was trapped and flying around the closed in deck.  Luckily I had not left the apartment door open or it would have flown into the room where the two cats might have gone after it.  I opened the shutter slowly and guided it out safely.

To let the metal shade down on the outside of the window, loosen the strap a bit and the shade comes down.

The shade goes all the way to the bottom of the window then further closes to cover up the oval vent holes if needed.

APARTMENT HEATERS/RADIATORS
My mom asked me what kind of heaters we have in the apartment.  We have these radiators in each room that have hot water circulating through them.  They work OK if you give them about 5 hours to heat up.  Each room has doors so the intent is you only heat the room that you are mostly using and keep the others pretty cool.   The knob shown on the right side of it is what you turn to adjust the temperature from zero to 5.   This one shown is in our kitchen by the table.  I like to sit at the table and put my feet right on the radiator.  Muffin kitty likes to sit on the kitchen chair right next to the heater.

Radiator heat in each room.

TEA KETTLE
This little hot water kettle is amazing.  It is like a jet boil.  Cold water to boiling for tea in 1 minute 20 seconds.  I like having hot chocolate, it is so cold here.