What is in common with Unterschleißheim, a South African Family, and a German Landlord Residing in the U.S.A.?

The Ferguson Four's New Home in Germany of Course!

Unterschleißheim - is a town in Germany just a few kilometers north of Munich that dates back to the year 785. Adobe Systems and Microsoft both have a large presence here. The Dachau Prison Camp is a few kilometers to the west, but we won't talk much about that. The below map shows the city boundaries along with where the school and Cindy's office is located. We like this area because of it's proximity to Haimhausen and Freising and public transportation availability. The home is in a smaller subdivision with lots of open space around including a nice park with playgrounds.

We have not yet figured out of we can make it with just one car. This town is connected to the S-Bahn train that goes to Freising, but it would require a walk, bus, S-Bahn, another bus, then short walk to get to TI. All in all a little over an hour vs. a car ride up the autobahn in 15-20 minutes. School will be about 7 minutes away.

A South African Family -
We had to mention the family that currently resides in this house. They are from South Africa and they have lived in several countries as expats. The couple has two older boys that have attended the same school, BIS, for a couple of years. They love it, in fact they are buying a house in Haimhausen close to the school. One of the factors that sold the house to us was this family telling us they tried to buy this house from the owner because they like it there so much. Additionally, the owner has been gone for at least a couple of years and the real estate agent mentioned they would limit our lease term to five years (not that we need one for that long). We took that to mean the owner is not planning on being back for at least another five years, yet he refused to sell the house.

Back to the family. The first time we looked at the house the wife opened the door, the agent was not there yet so she started to show us around. Once the agent finally arrived the owner continued to guide us around the house and give us the inside scoop on everything. The agent did pretty much nothing.

Real quick another tangent........These agents, from what we have seen, do pretty much nothing. The houses are not marketed like in the US, most of them are never online with a multiple listing service or individual agencies. The last home we toured the owner was very nervous about allowing us to take pictures. She told us that in Germany if I wanted to sell or lease a home I do not need any license or training. Just snap some pictures, put them online, find a buyer and get paid.......ready for this? Three months worth of rent. This commission comes out of the pocket of the tenant, not the owner, so I am not sure what she was so nervous about.

Back to the family once again. The wife was super nice and stuck with us the whole time. They have a cat that is 13 years old and a almost hairless dog that is 12 years old. Our kids fell in love with these animals. I really liked the house the first time around, Cindy liked it but also liked the other house we saw that day. We needed to go back again two days later to compare.

This time the husband was there, no agent as this was a spur of the moment appointment and she wouldn't have done anything anyway. He too had some insight for us on details of the house. One trick was the cook top vent. They tried to use it and never got it to work. The owner told them the kitchen window has to be open to use it. Hhhmm, why you ask? Since it gets so cold here in the winters the houses are built well and sealed well. If you have a fire burning in the living room and you turn on the vent hood apparently flames will start shooting out of the fire because the open chimney vent is the only place the vent hood can get air from. Nice safety feature. It is just a normally closed contact switch like an alarm system would use to allow the vent to turn on.

The cook top is also induction....YEAH!!!!!!!! I miss my induction cook top from our last house. We still have the pots and pans that are compatible. There are a couple of large drawers below the cook top as pictured below.

Cindy was asking the husband a lot of questions about their family. They like it here so much they are buying the house and planning on naturalizing as German citizens. He made a comment that there was "no future for his boys in South Africa". Kind of sad they feel like they cannot go home. Obama will be close to out of office once our time here expires so we should not have a similar excuse to not come home. Okay, okay, no political commentary in the comment section, it was a joke people. It is my blog so I get to make political jokes. 

Believe it or not we are excited about this as the frig/freezer. It is large compared to most, and the house comes with an additional freezer in the "keller". Do we remember what that means from the last post?

This is the nicest oven and microwave that I have seen here. Very excited about the kitchen. 

Good use of space with these pull out lazy susan corner things. 

They have this huge table in the kitchen as the dining area. This frees up space in the living room to make it a very large space. The rest of the kitchen is to the left of the table.

The front entrance is on the left side by the red mat. A lot of people ask guests to take shoes off as they enter the home. Again with the large spaces, most home entries are a little area where they cram a half bath right next to the door. Here there is space for the large credenza and shoe storage.

The kitchen is at the end of this hall to the right and the living room is behind. It is a three level house with three bedrooms up the stairs with a good size full bath and what will be the master suite downstairs with a large bedroom and full bath, along with the house mechanical systems and laundry in a separate room. 

One thing we have wondered is why do people not have screens on the windows? With the heat we have had windows and doors open and sat in the dark to not attract bugs. We did not notice the first time we were here that the tenant had put up screens over all of the windows and this netting in front of the back patio door. Above is part of the living area. 

Here is another view of the living area with the cool fireplace. Those are not vents above the fireplace, they are areas where you can warm up things like rolls or bread. Honestly I am not real excited about that but I am sure Cindy and the kids will like it. 

This is what could be another eating area, but they have it as part of the living room space.

I don't remember any of the houses having a covered patio area. Many have the crank out soft shades, this one is an overhang of the house.

This is still the covered patio and the door leads to the front entrance and one car garage area.

There is also some additional patio area around the corner.

It is a nice size yard with well developed and maintained landscape. 

One of the upper level bedrooms. 

This will be the kids and guest bathroom.

It has a separate shower.

And built in storage, you come to appreciate after you have seen what else is out there. This cabinet above the toilet is exciting. 

A big plus for this bedroom is again, storage. These built in wardrobes stay.

Good size laundry room with another storage area to the right. 

An extra storage closet in the basement, and again, the shelving stays.

This will be the master bath. I am happy with this shower as it is as big as any that I have seen. 

All four above are the large master bedroom. Those wardrobes stay...again, very exciting. There are still windows in the bath and bedroom to let air in. And these basement areas are the place to be in the summer when it is hot with no AC.

Here is the front. The garage is on the left behind the grey car. 

Not pictured is the attic that is completely floored and very large and open. It might end up being a large play area for the kids, or just where the Henry clan can sleep if they come visit. Just don't come in the winter since it is not heated. 

Well, I hope I am not jinxing this, it is not ours yet. Our relocation people have put in the contract on our behalf and we are waiting for the agent to talk to the owner in the US today. The plan is to move in October 1st. 

The plan for this weekend is to test out the public transportation to the middle of Munich to see Marienplatz and other attractions that we have not been able to see yet. I suppose we will share that story next time unless something better comes up. 

September 7th we have a 11 hour tour planned to see the Neuschweinstein Castle (Disney castle) that includes a bike tour, bridge over a gorge, the alpine slide, and other events.