apartment hunting in germany

So we've started our apartment hunting here in Germany and we're learning a lot of things.

For example, the other day I called my German friend twice with a dozen questions about what all these strange abbreviations in the newspaper ads meant: 3 ZKB with an EBK, 480 euro rent plus NK with 2MM KT...huh? And what's the difference between a cold rent and a warm rent? And just how big is 75 squared meters...I'm still not use to thinking of things in metric terms?!

And another thing...it is not a given that the apartment will have a kitchen. They seem to all have everything you'll need in a bathroom, but the kitchen may have everything or nothing or just a few things. Germans tend to take the kitchen with them when they move...everything: cabinets, stove, oven, fridge, everything. Sometimes they'll offer to let you buy the kitchen from them...so the kitchen remains there and you just pay an extra few hundred euros when you move in to pay for it. Sometimes the kitchen is built in and stays with the apartment...in fact that's what we learned an EBK meant: Einbauküche = built-in kitchen. Sometimes they let you offer to pay for any part of the kitchen you want to remain...like we'll pay for the appliances, but you can take all the cabinets. It's kind of strange for us...we're not use to wondering if our new apartment is going to have a kitchen or not!

For the most part, though, it isn't too different from apartment hunting in America. We search through the ads in the paper and on the internet then make a lot of phone calls and go see a lot of apartments.

In fact, remember that house in my little village of Oberweier that had the kitsch-y mural? That happened to be the first place we went and looked at last week!



We didn't like it so much, though. It was fairly big but had an odd, uncomfortable layout. The best part about it was the kitsch-y mural on the outside!

So...back to all the ads and phone calls and deciphering all the abbreviations...