Updates

Well, we spoke with our management company about our concerns. After some back and forth, we now have our final bill and it is a QUARTER of the first one! What a difference, thank goodness!

On the pregnancy front, I am closing in on 35 weeks this Saturday. I'm experiencing all of the typical third trimester fun stuff- braxton hicks, not being able to get comfortable, etc. Oh, and I still puke every morning. Fun, fun!

My next appointment is tomorrow morning. We are hoping for the all clear so that we can go on a little trip this weekend. Please knock on some wood or do whatever you do- I need a little get away! I feel like I've been on pregnancy lock down for 8 months!

I'll close with a little pic of me at 34 weeks (from last Saturday). I actually put some make-up on and got dressed up for a shower for two of my friends. We all left the husbands and kids at home and had a wonderful time!

The apartment problem

We are inching towards a resolution on all of this so I wanted to give you all the scoop!

I met with the management inspector when we switched apartments to go over the protocol for the old apartment. He spoke English and, I thought, we were communicating rather well.

Before we walked through our old apartment, I showed him some problems we had with our new apartment. He contacted the facilities manager who does not speak English to explain the problems and arrange for him to come by. The two problems I showed him were rather big issues- our dishwasher wasn't working and our kitchen drain was not draining.

Then it was time for our walkthru. There were some things he pointed out that were left over from the old tenants (we had only lived there for five months) but I had no proof. For example, he pointed out a wall that was kind of dirty in our master bedroom and a loose knob on our stovetop. We had assumed when we moved in that these were acceptable to Swiss standards. No one had walked us through the protocol for the apartment when we first moved in. So, sadly, we were stuck and have to pay for these to be fixed.

However, there were other items that he pointed out that I was adamant were not our fault and had proof of this. One was a crack in a bathroom sink. We emailed the management company within a month of moving in of this problem. He assured me that if i could find the email, we wouldn't have to pay for the sink replacement. The other was a water stain on the floor left by the cleaning crew. I told him that it was a new stain and we agreed that we would give it a couple of days to see if it would go away.

We also noticed that the cleaning crew had poured some dirty water down the kitchen drain and it had not drained completely, leaving residue in the sink. I reminded him that our new apartment sink was also not draining and it was a problem with a clog in the common drain line. He didn't bring it up again.

He explained all of these things to me in the protocol, with the exception of the sink not draining, and I signed the paper, written in German.

Two days later I went to check on the water stain left from the cleaning crew. It was gone without any repairs required.

Fast forward to earlier this week. We get a bill for all of the "problems" with the old apartment, including repairing the water stain off the floor, replacing the bathroom sink, and clearing the clog in the common kitchen drain between our new and old apartments.

It was a huge bill and my blood pressure rose as I translated the explanation in Google Translator.

So I emailed the information to Brian who emailed it to our management contact.

She wasn't too thrilled by the tone of our email. Her email reminded us that everything in the bill was included in the protocol and that, in the future, we should be sure we understand what we are signing.

Which is fine, I completely understand that. But when the inspector is walking me through the document and explaining it to me in English, I felt I understood what I was signing. Little did I know he was telling me one thing and writing another in the actual written document.

However, she did remove the charges for the water stain "repair" that was never completed and the replacement of the sink.

So that is good. But we are still trying to figure out the charge for clearing the clog in the kitchen drain. The clog was eventually removed by a plumber in our new apartment. He was here for less than an hour and did no work in our old apartment.

In my opinion, this is a maintenance issue, not a protocol "problem". It would be like charging us for the new dishwasher we ended up getting since our old one didn't work.

Our management company says that there is no way to tell who clogged the drain so we got the bill for our half in the old apartment. We said that that was fine and acceptable, but we'd like to see the other bill that went to the previous tenants of our new apartment. They only sent us the one bill.

I suspect they are trying to get us to cover something that we normally wouldn't have to. We will see how it plays out.

Ahhhhhh, what a week.

So don't make my mistake. Don't trust the English speaking inspector. Get your own representative to make sure he isn't telling you one thing and having you sign another.

Also, I've since found out that new tenants usually have a walk thru to go over the protocol before they move in. We didn't have that for some reason and I just chalked it up to the Swiss way. If you don't have this walk thru, go through your apartment very carefully and forward ANY problems to your management company as soon as possible. We were told you only have 10 days to do this when we moved into our new apartment, however, they did accept our email about the sink in our old apartment within a month of our moving in. But beware, not everyone might do this.

Now I'm worried we'll be stuck with the problems our new apartment has. The previous tenants ruined the floors; there are scratches and dents and stains everywhere. I've brought it up many times before but I'll have to make sure this is in the protocol so we don't get hit with replacing the entire floor whenever we move out.

In summary, when moving in Switzerland, cover your ass, don't trust anyone that isn't there to be your representative, and, when in doubt about an issue (no matter how small), tell your management company immediately in writing! And good luck!

In which we are stunned first thing in the morning

Marion managed to sleep in this morning (8:15! 8:15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so that meant Brian and I were able to sleep in a bit and take our time getting ready.

So when the doorbell rang at 8:30, we were a little taken aback.

Brian answered it and then came back to inform me that it was the complex inspector asking for the fourth key to our old apartment. Someone is moving in today, we get a refund of two days!

Hahahahaha. Ha.

Finally, it is someone else's problem. With two days to spare. I can hardly believe it.

Busy busy!

And without a laptop, still!

We've been keeping ourselves busy this week. So far we've hit another popular Christmas market, went to Brian's company holiday party, watched a singing Christmas tree, discovered a new favorite treat, and went to that Samichlaus parade I haven't posted about yet. As soon as I figure out a way to get the pictures on Brian's laptop, you will be smothered with information.

It's a good thing I've been up and about. It's a great time of year here, so festive. But I also get to deal with cramps, dizziness, nausea, and exhaustion after our trips. I'll be mentioning that to the good doctor at my appointment next Friday. All of this just makes me jealous of friends who are due to have their babies anyday now!

In other news, Marion's been a rockstar going potty during all of our outings. A favorite moment of hers was when she went number 2 on the potty on the choo-choo train. She'll kill me one day for posting about this on the internet. But I'm her mom, it comes with my job! At least I'm not posting a picture of it (you're welcome). Of course this momentus occasion came after she repeatedly hit the SOS button. I couldn't see it hidden below the sink and next to the toilet paper holder. However, it was at the perfect toddler height. She went right for the round, red button. Fun, fun.

Finally, our apartment is still on the market. One month down of paying two rents, two to go. We've advertised on yahoo expat groups, a popular apartment website here, and a popular expat website. Someone, please take our place!!!!

Oops

So I did it again. Went and stopped blogging for awhile. Sorry!

I guess I should start at the pregnancy appointment. Had my 20 weeks check up last Friday and everything looks good. I am technically off of bedrest but still am having some pain everytime I attempt normalcy and I continue to feel faint often so I'm taking it easy. Mom's sticking around until January to help me until I feel better and become less worthless. Despite things progressing well we had to cancel our Vienna trip and our trip home for Christmas because I can't seem to get this pregnancy thing right. It sucks to be missing out on more of our planned trips but that is what is best for right now.

Side note: a word of advice- buy trip insurance. Because those airlines don't refund everything, even with a doctor's note.

Some good news is that we are halfway to my due date. I'm so ready to have this baby and not be pregnant anymore.

In other news, I continue to have problems with my laptop. I've only had this thing since February 1 of this year. Not really a ringing endorsement for Dell laptops, eh? I've contacted Dell and they are going to pick up my laptop and take it to their repair facility where, hopefully, all the problems will be solved. I'm not going to hold my breath though. So if I'm absent for a little bit, that is why. Go ahead and send Dell some nasty-grams for me, k? ;-)

Finally, we still have not rented our old apartment. We have shown the place to five people, with the sixth coming tonight. We've handed out four applications. Nothing. It's really frustrating to have to pay two rents but our third bedroom is coming in really handy right now with Mom here. In the grand scheme of things, we are trying not to get upset about it. There really isn't much we can do. And our focus is on the baby. But, still, it is frustrating.

Oh, one more thing. It snowed here again this weekend. Several inches on Saturday with another healthy dose on Sunday. It was gorgeous and Marion loved getting out there and playing in it with her Aunt Colleen, who visited for the weekend. They built a snowman and then Colleen showed her how to throw snowballs. Grammie was the main target. There are a few positive aspects to feeling like crap and laying on the sofa!

The New Apartment

Our new apartment is great. We moved in last Thursday and are loving the extra space. I'd take pictures and show you but it is an absolute mess right now. We are going to Ikea on Saturday to pick up some essentials to help us organize. Then it might be good enough to post on the internet.

Anyhow, we've already had some problems with the new place. The previous tenants lived here for four years before we took over so some things were broken. Like our dishwasher. Then our sink clogged up. It took a couple of days to get our management company out here but the sink is finally working. Dishwasher guy is coming next week.

Most of these guys who come to fix things unfortunately do not speak English. It makes for some frustrating phone calls. They call, I ask if they speak English, they sigh, say no, and continue to speak German to me. I ask them to wait a second, run out of my apartment to the floor upstairs, knock on a neighbor's door, and ask her to translate.

This really can only go on for so long. She's due with her second child in a few weeks and I can't keep bothering her. I'm hoping everything is resolved with our apartment before her baby is born. :-)

We also have yet to find a tenant for our old apartment. We had two promising potentials but haven't heard from either of them. Keep your fingers crossed please, we are responsible for the rent until January 31 if we don't find someone.

Oh, and one more thing. I think the previous tenants cooked a lot of curries while they were here. Our kitchen has a spicy smell that I haven't gotten used to yet. Kitchens in general are difficult for me while I'm pregnant and sensitive to all sorts of smells. Any ideas on getting rid of it?

Moving, the Swiss way

We are moving this week to the larger apartment next door. Funny, Brian and I swore off moving for awhile when we packed our bags and came here five months ago. Yet, here we are again.

But this time, we are subject to the Swiss rules of moving.

First of all, in most rental contracts, there are two times of the year when the renter can get out of contract with only a months notice. All other times of the year you are responsible for giving three months notice. Or, if you move out before those three months are up, you can find someone else to take the apartment. If you do not, you are responsible for those three months.

As luck should have it, we are not moving during one of those two acceptable times during the year. And, unfortunately, we have not found a tenant to take our current apartment. So, as of November 1, we are responsible for rent for both of the apartments. Great timing by us.

Additionally, renters are not allowed to leave an apartment at the end of the year due to the Christmas holidays. Double whammy.

We are still hopeful that we will find someone. Otherwise, Christmas is going to be small this year.

Another Swiss rule of renting is the state of cleanliness required for the apartment. Each renter is entitled to a clean apartment when they move in. And by clean, they mean spotless, eat off the floor kind of clean. I've been told the cleaners actually take off the handles to the stovetop and clean each individually.

This results in a multitude of businesses willing to clean your apartment for a hefty fee. Our apartment has been listed on a popular rental website for almost two weeks now. We have received two phone calls as a result of the ad from men who only spoke German. Once I found someone to translate I found out that both of them had cleaning companies and wanted to clean our place. Talk about frustrating! I was hoping for apartment leads and I get cold calls. Pfft.

Anyway, we had the walk thru for our new apartment today. They've lived there for four years so it needs some sprucing up. The management company is going to paint the place and recaulk some things and then it will be ready for us.

We will start moving in tomorrow evening and finish up on Thursday. Next week, we get to do the whole thing over again for our old apartment. And then we will definitely be swearing off moving for awhile!

We are moving.

Again.

Our next door neighbors started it. They decided to move and leave their apartment. And their apartment has a third bedroom and second full bath.

Yea. We're jumping on it.

So now we have successfully added some stress into our lives where there wasn't room for any. I still feel sick most of the time. Sadly, I am getting used to my routine trips to the toilet. Brian is busy at work and busy doing everything here at home. Marion is still getting over the ear infection/cold, sans antibiotics. Yet, we think moving in a month and trying to find someone to take our apartment on such short notice will be worth it.

First, we love our location. It is fantastic with easy access to everything.

Second, the new apartment is bigger which will be great for when the baby comes.

Third, the new apartment has a fenced in patio, great for keeping an independant toddler close.

Yep, I'm pretty sure this is a good idea. Now, anyone want a two bedroom flat in Zurich?

Mold Update

Well, the facilities manager stopped by to look at the mold. He doesn't speak any English but is a very nice guy. I pantomimed again and used one of my German words. I said "wasser" (water) as I pointed to the water stains on the wall.

Impressive, I know. My German is growing by leaps and bounds.

Anyway, from what I could tell, he believes the water is coming from poor caulking around our shower. That's about all I got. I gave him my cell number and, I assume from his pantomiming, that someone will call to caulk, clean the mold, and paint. I think. I asked when and he just repeated his motions. Only time will tell.

The trim is now loose and siting against the wall. Amazingly enough Marion hasn't played with it. However, I'm sure I've now jinxed it and she will shortly find it fascinating.

I'll keep you all updated! I know you are all just sitting at the edge of your seats wondering what will happen next. Maybe I should install a webcam on the mold to monitor growth? Nevermind, that's the engineer in me coming out. Please ignore that outburst.

We got our new refrigerator today

and possibly some mold too. But more on that later.

When we first arrived in our apartment, we noticed that the refrigerator didn't keep food that cold. First, we thought that maybe the refrigerator had been turned off in between tenants and it had to cool back down. Then, after a week, we thought maybe the Swiss don't keep their food as cool as Americans do. Finally, after a little more than a month, we realized how ridiculous that sounded and notified our landlord.

Our landlord made an appointment with us for someone to come look at the refrigerator. The refrigerator guy arrived on time and spoke no English. I was able to pantomime through a few things, pointing out that we had had the refrigerator set to the highest setting and showing him how warm it was. After 5 minutes he told me "New one." I asked him if he would call our landlord and he shook his head yes. After that he left. Fairly quick visit. It must have been obvious the frig was broken!

Anyway, Brian checked his US office voicemail on a fluke on Monday. Lo and behold, there was a message asking to schedule delivery of our new refrigerator. Brian called our landlord and confirmed delivery for Thursday morning between 9 and 11 am.

So imagine my surprise when, at 8:30 am this morning, our doorbell rang. Half naked and about to step in the shower I almost ignored it. But I decided to throw some clothes on and answer the door.

And there, on the stairwell, was the delivery man. I asked if he was here for the refrigerator and he responded yes. He spoke English. I said, "I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow?" He just shook his head no.

What are you going to do? Tell him to come back later? No. So now we have our new refrigerator. And it works, although we don't have the cabinet doors to cover it yet.

Now, onto the possible mold. I don't really know what this is. But I noticed it this afternoon and it is kind of freaking me out.
What do you think?

Shades

Yes, I said shades.

Marion was feeling better today, but her nose was still running so we spent another beautiful day inside. So you get a post about shades.
:-)

This is one of our windows.
See the rod at the left of the window? It's the control for the built in shades. It turns into a handle when not tucked away against the wall.
The rod controls shades at the exterior face of the window.
It moves the shades up and down as well as controlling how open or closed they are.

No screens though. We like our built in shades despite that. They are great for darkening the room at night. And the bugs aren't too big of a problem here.

These shades are pretty typical around here. We see them often and in all sorts of buildings- commercial, flats, homes, etc. Here's a view of the building across the street.
Pretty exciting stuff, huh? Well, it's functional so we like it. :-)

Finally, a couch. And a TV.

Brian went to go pick up our new TV last night. Mapquest said it would only take 20 minutes. However, Mapquest, Garmin, Brian, and I didn't take into account the craziness of the Euro Championship. All of the streets were blocked off for people to walk around, enjoy the city, and watch the games (we hope to explore that this weekend).

Anyway, it took Brian longer than expected to get there and back. But when he did he looked like a kid in a candy store. A TV. A 32" LCD HD TV. What more could a guy ask for?

I think it is too big. Which is odd since we had this for years.

I think I got used to smaller televisions since we had this for the last few months at our old house.

Marion's still making the transition from the portable DVD player to the TV.

Yes, the Little Mermaid. Again.

Our couch was then delivered by Ikea this morning. We were given an 8-12 window. I guess some things truly are universal.

Or so I thought. I got a call at 10:05 am saying they would be here in approximately 30 minutes. You don't get that kind of service in the US unless you request it. They arrived at 10:20 am. Amazing.

In addition to delivery service we also paid for montage, or assembly. It wasn't supposed to include putting the slipcover on but they did that too.


It's alot bigger than I expected. Gonna have to move the rug farther out but I already discovered I can't do that myself. As far as the pictures go, Marion was in the mood to model. But as soon as she got off the couch she wasn't interested and ran away. Stinker.

The Ikea people left by 11 am. They were awesome! But I didn't tip them. I wasn't sure and asked the question too late. Crap, I hope that was right.

In other news, Marion really took to the Swiffer. Here she is, cuddling with it. Now that's comfort.

Another laundry day, another gray day

So we'll be staying in. And doing laundry, putting up curtains, organizing things, and trying to get some cleaning done. Exciting stuff. Marion seems to like the dry Swiffer so we'll also try a bit of that. No vacuuming, at least for the time being.

In other news, today is Brian's and my four year anniversary. Wow, that went fast. To celebrate we are considering flying my sister from London in a couple of weeks and going to see the Matterhorn for the weekend.

Yesterday evening Marion and I enjoy some fun outside after the sun came out. She played in her rain boots with my umbrella and I took pictures. Makes perfect sense, right? No umbrella for the rain, boots and umbrella for sun. Anyway, here are some of the pictures, enjoy!

You can see her eye color here. I always have a hard time explaining what they are. She has brown around her irises and, as a result, her eyes tend to change color depending on how dilated they are. They've been gray, blue, green, and brown.

Good shot of her shiner, day two.

Rookie mistakes

After Marion woke up from her nap, we headed to Fust, the electronics store, and the Coop, grocery store, to get milk. We need milk because the largest container of milk sold here is one liter and we go through that in a couple of days.

I miss gallons of milk.

During the course of getting ready I made a few decisions.

1. I decided not to take the stroller. Marion needs to get used to walking so I decided to use this as an opportunity to force her to walk.
2. I left the umbrella at home. It's been raining all day long but wasn't raining when we left. I figured we wouldn't be gone long, we'd be OK.
3. I also left my grocery cart at home. We weren't going to get much so I decided to take a bag instead.

Rookie mistakes.

Marion quit walking about a third of the way up the hill next to our home. So I carried her to the top of the hill where she walked a bit more before giving up again, forcing me to carry her to Fust. While at Fust I picked up the cellphone charger I needed and then decided to get a hair dryer instead.

Because, you know, I needed one. And I only needed milk at the grocery store.

I picked the cheapest hair dryer they had. Meaning I picked the 10 CHF one while the others ranged from 50-80 CHF. That resulted in the following exchange at the check out counter:

Store employee: "This is for travel, yes?"
Me: "No, it's for here."
S.E.: "Oh, because this is meant for travel. It is small."
Me: "That's OK, I don't use it alot."
S.E.: "Uh, oh."

My hair today must not have given me away. But I probably will pay for getting the cheap one by buying another one in the future.

After that awkward exchange, Marion and I headed to the Coop. I walked, she was carried.

Sidenote: How the hell do you pronounce Coop? I've heard it pronounced as Co-op, Cope, and Coop (as in chicken coop). Everyone seems to pronounce it differently.

Anyway, we went to Coop to get milk. We came out with milk, cherries, apples, grapes, swiffer stuff, sponges, peanuts, cough drops, and strawberry pastries.

Someone clearly forgot we did not bring the granny cart.

Granny grocery cart, at home, in the kitchen.

We checked out and left Coop. And what was outside waiting for us? Rain. Damn.

So I picked up my bag, stuffed to the gills with groceries, and the diaper bag, also stuffed with items we didn't really need now, and started to head back with Marion.

Marion loved the first half of the walk. She enjoyed stopping to look for and jump in puddles. So while I didn't have to carry her, the walk took awhile and I was getting very wet. Meanwhile, Swiss people continued to walk briskly past us with their umbrellas.

Marion stopped halfway home and gave up on walking. So I picked her up and booked it to our apartment. I was soaking wet by the time we got there. Marion was laughing, saying "Mommy necklace wet!"

Funny girl.

Once home, I unloaded our groceries. And then I thought of one reason why items are smaller here than in the States: the refrigerator is smaller.


No way I could fit a gallon of milk in there.

And now the sun is out. Go figure.

Marion and I need to work out the kinks of our routine

Today is one of two of my laundry days. Seeing how my apartment is also an absolute mess, I declared today cleaning day.

With two loads of laundry down, some playtime outside, and the dishwasher running, I decided to tackle vacuuming the rug.

I took the vacuum out of the closet and Marion lost it. Crying, pointing, yelling, etc. So I told her, "It's a vacuum, Marion. It's OK." and proceeded to vacuum the rug, wondering what her reaction said about my housekeeping skills.

Marion's meltdown continued. I moved her toys off the rug but if I came within two feet of any of her belongings she would cry out. "Baboo!" (stuffed dog) "My yellows!" (crayons) "My seal!!!" (stuffed seal)

Finally I finished 3/4 of the rug and turned to go around a chair to get the other side of the rug. Apparently I moved too quickly for my toddler because she moved backwards pretty fast, slipped on a broom she had previously played with, and took a header into the floor.

Uh oh.

The hysterical crying started as soon as she picked her head up off of the floor. I immediately envisioned blood everywhere. Luckily (?) I saw only a bruise the size of a five franc piece on her cheek. I calmed her down to get rid of the hysterical crying and then, like any good mother, grabbed my camera to capture the moment.

The only thing that soothed her after that was to sit down on some pillows with her Baboo and seal and watch some Little Mermaid.

Here's a good shot of her shiner.

Now I have to figure out how I'm going to clean this place without her losing her stuff.

Ants of the Swiss variety

We've been getting ants. Lots of them. And as luck would have it, we've been getting them in Marion's room.

It started with one or two around Wednesday. But today there were 20 or so, everywhere. Up her wall, all over the floor, on the window. Those suckers move fast too and were hard to get. But Colleen and I managed to round most of them up and spray a little bit of insect killer left by the previous tenants before Marion's nap.

It was an ant graveyard in there after Marion's nap. Dead ants are much easier to catch than live ones though.

But today was our lucky day. After Marion's nap, exterminators arrived to spray the patio. I managed to get out there before they left and let them know that we had ants inside. "Inside?" he asked. "Yes, inside", I replied.

He told me that someone else was going to be doing the inside work and that they would be back.

And back they came after a half hour or so. Both of them were very nice, spoke pretty good English, and put covers on their shoes before they entered our apartment. Then they inspected Marion's room and her window. After some spraying and caulking they told me how the ants were coming in, that the spray wouldn't be dangerous after it dried, that they left some ant death food (the kind they take back to the ant hill to kill the others), and then they were gone. And, hopefully, the ants are gone now too!

Our new apartment, before

Here is a video of our new apartment. Something I can post quickly since I still haven't had a chance to write down everything I want to about the last several days.

Anyway, here is what our place looks like without any furniture and all of our stuff. Hopefully it is neater and more comfortable by the end of the week.

Oh and I would not recommend sleeping on the floor when it gets cool at night in your apartment. Priority one today: get a bed.

Part One:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
Part Two:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

And please don't hold the quality of the video against me. There's a reason I'm not a doctor or videographer or anything else that requires a steady hand!

Our new home

Our new home is south of Zurich, Switzerland.

Our apartment is a 2 bedroom apartment with a patio and green space. A playground is a hop, skip, and a jump away from our patio. And there are several toddlers in the area. All boys though. Shhhh, don't tell Brian.

Our town is one of the larger towns along Lake Zurich, approximately a 20 minute ride from Zurich. Several stores and the train station are within walking distance of our apartment. But, by far the most important thing, is that the current renters have a list of babysitters for our use. Score!

This is a HUGE load off our shoulders. We will receive the rental contract fairly soon and then will be able to occupy the apartment when we arrive in Zurich the morning of June 2nd. I've been told we can also preorder furniture from Ikea and have it delivered the next day. Suh-weeeet!!!!

Unfortunately, it is not a 3 bedroom apartment. But potential guests, please don't worry. We will be purchasing a new sofa bed just for you. :-) No excuses people!!!!

So, we have a place. If you'd like our new mailing adress, just shoot me an email. Now onto decorating... off to Ikea this weekend to investigate!