Finally - on Friday - after months of waiting we finally had our final meeting at the Notaire. The sellers handed over the keys. All 46 of them - plus a few remote control devices. Of course after they left the room the Notaire looked at us and said. 'You know - you really should have all the locks changed...' Thanks for that... It was nice to finally get the house and have the process behind us.
Prior to our meeting at the Notaire we had our 'final walk through' of the house. Checked out the complex heating system again, watched the sellers show us how to read the many pressure gauges in the basement, looked at the control panel on the jacuzzi, tried to figure out what every button in the house controls... Aimee of course told me - don't touch anything -please don't touch any buttons or knobs. No big surprises.. a few odd bird stickers left on the kitchen window...a missing fountain. Nothing too shocking except for the fact that there were far more light fixtures removed than we expected.
You see in Switzerland and Germany (and the Alsace - especially if you are Swiss or German) everything goes when you move out. Light fixtures, closets, curtain rods, appliances (that are not built in). We were given a list of things we could purchase and opted for a few things here and there but didn't go for the light fixtures. We casually talked with the seller about leaving a couple of old fixtures (basically worthless) upstairs so we had some light. But there was nothing... So - no light but on the bright side we can just put up our own new fixtures now and not deal with removing the old ones... Of course - the lack of light fixtures did mean a valuable packing/moving day spent at IKEA. I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than spend a Saturday morning than IKEA.
Oh maybe there is one thing... Calling EDF (Electricite de France) to have the electric service switched over to our name. At the closing (as I'll call it) the Notaire informed us that the sellers would call the electric company and the water company to give the final meter readings (we read them together at the final walk through) and then the power and water would be in our name. At about 4PM the Notiare called to inform us that the previous owners couldn't have the electricity put into our name and that we had to call... She gave us an 800 number (not usable outside of France - of course we don't have a French phone) and said to call EDF and change it. We were a bit worried about this and wanted to get in touch with the sellers as soon as possible to see what had gone wrong... of course the Notaire didn't have any contact numbers for the sellers.
After a bit of research we found a number for EDF from outside France... I am not one for automated menus. And in rapid French it is even worse. It was wild... Press 1 for this. Enter your zip code. Say no. Say yes. Say your name. What wine growing region are you closest to? Tell me how you feel about French foreign policy? I am not sure but I think they just wanted to get me to an operator who was a good Myers-Briggs match. So finally after just 5 minutes on hold I was able to talk to a nice French woman - I'll call her Marie. I explained my situation to Marie - after telling her I didn't speak French well. And then she broke into English. Very good English. This was amazing - talking to a French service company on a Saturday morning in English! Everything was going so well - until the computer system crashed. It appears that Marie's minitel had some trouble. She actually started saying things in English like 'for God's sake' and 'I am pissed off.' Marie cursed a bit more in English and put me on hold. She came back and her English broke down...I told her to speak in French again.
It was so perfect up to that moment and then... no it couldn't be...I couldn't lose Marie. Thankfully after hitting the minitel a few times it was resolved - she took my bank information for the fifth time and voila - electricty. We ended up having a good laugh - I had her repeat my email address back to make sure the bill would be going to the right place. I started with the 'p (as in parrot)' thing earlier in the conversation when spelling - so she decided to take a stab at it. She said 'c' as in CIA and 'u' as in USA. What a joker!She apologized for the delay and it was done - a very good experience with EDF. And I have a new friend in France.
At the walk through we also discovered that not one but both of the 1500 liter (400 gallon) oil tanks were nearly empty... Time to order oil! Thankfully the sellers gave us the name of the company that ordered from in the past... A quick call, an unsuccessful conversation with the receptionist, a good conversation with the delivery guy and voila. Oil on tuesday. The only word of English the delivery guy could get out was 5. Not sure why that was his only number but he was happy using the word five in English. The rest was - a mishmash of German and French - more French than German though. Tuesdays is also the day I expect a call from the appliance store where I ordered a washing machine and dryer. Again, using a mishmash of French and German I am pretty sure someone is going to give me a call and tell me that they have arrived...
Or at least that is what I think. Who knows - maybe I'll end up with 3000 liters of fish oil and no electricity. I am always about 90 percent sure that I have said or done the right thing but nothing is ever 100 percent these days....
The next few days will be filled with closing out the apartment and moving to the new house. The movers come on Monday and then Friday morning we will have our final inspection. Hope it passes... We still haven't set up telephone, Internet or TV in France. And of course we don't don't lights in the new place. So we'll be spending more time reading by candlelight than blogging or checking Facebook.
For now here are some pictures from the new house....
house/backyard from the back gate
Shed
Shed/house
View from back gate
Backyard
WOW!! Aimee and Paul...CONGRATS! Beautiful home and property. I know where I'm staying when I come to visit :-) Paul, you better have carried Aimee over that threshold my boy! Happy Housewarming!!!!!!
Posted by: Shelly Peters | 08 November 2009 at 03:23
Wow! The place is absolutely beautiful! And it must feel good to set down some roots there! Congratulations!
Posted by: Julie & Josh | 08 November 2009 at 16:37
The house looks great and the views are spectacular ..... a little disappointed the Saga is coming to an end! I am sure there will be another coming soon. LOL Congrats!
Posted by: Neil & Sue OLeary | 08 November 2009 at 18:39
Thanks everyone! And of course the saga will never end - we are moving to France!!! Every single day will bring something new....
Posted by: Paul | 08 November 2009 at 22:15
Congradulations Aimee & Paul. The house looks beautiful. Hope everything goes smoothly with the movers and all the other crap. Keep everyone informed. Love your storey. Hope you publish some day. LOL
Posted by: Pop Pop | 10 November 2009 at 15:19
Congratulations to our friends! Paul, it is so nice to read through the site and stay connected! Best wishes and hope the boxes have been unpacked by now. - Kina, Abbie and Rolf
Posted by: Kina Paegert | 23 February 2010 at 22:52