What makes a home?

I tried to post this from the library in Bad Godesburg, but did not manage very well, so now we are connected from home, oh happy day!

We have moved. Into a very empty house. But it is our home for the time being, and we couldn’t be happier.

We left our little apartment in the center of Bonn on Saturday and moved our multitude of suitcases and plastic bags into our fantastic 6 bedroom house (ok, 5 really, the sixth room we call the lego room, where the kids can build their lego creations, is a very small attic space).

Now we needed something to sleep on and closets and dishes…and lots of other stuff to fill in until our container arrives. So where did we go? Like a good Swedish (American) family we went directly to IKEA. Note here that like ALL stores in Germany, even IKEA is closed on Sundays, so we had one day to outfit ourselves.

We only bought essentials on this trip, along with the promised bunk bed for Louise, but that was plenty. We got our dish pack, our “starter kitchen” essentials and even vanities for the bathrooms - because those are not included in the house.
And the fun continued during the weekend. Being the savvy shoppers that we are, we scouted out the “Craigs-list” equivalent in Germany, and found four second-hand wardrobes (since we have no closets, really no closets, or drawers, or “where do you put the linens”-type spaces).

We also purchased a freezer at the spur of the moment this way (for the meatballs we bought at IKEA only to discover later that we had no freezer!). Figuring out the transport of all these items required a lot of logistics, but we did it.

Now my hands ache from assembling furniture. The kids and I spent most of one day getting Louise’s bed together and assembling wardrobes. We also worked very hard on the trampoline we decided to buy as a special surprise for the kids.

Thankfully Olof came home with the much longed for washing machine a few days later.
Today is day 4 in our house. Noah told me it feels like much longer, and I agree. Being in a more settled state has worked wonders for all of us. The kids have space to escape to when they need it; they can jump on the trampoline and play games out side, or go to their rooms and read. I can cook in my new (very white) kitchen and we are HOME!

There are still a few more days left until our furniture from Davis arrives, but we have learned that it really takes very little to make a house a home. Stuff is stuff, and though it is a comfort to have things from home, we can all get by with a little less.