Getting to Zittau: 1hr20 from Prague!

On our latest trip, my friend Paul (an IT guru from my engineering internship days) was in the front seat, no idea what conversation he had with his Nexus’s google maps and the driver’s pigeon English,  but we discovered that the trip to the train station was almost longer than driving to Zittau. Okay that’s an exaggeration, but for 200 Euro’s for the eight of us, we arrived in Zittau about the time our train was supposed to depart Prague for Dresden, a 2.5 hour trip. Makes me think hiring a car in Prague may be the way to go rather than Dresen for our next visit :-)…Also since there is way more English speaking tourists in Prague, a great selling point for our holiday rental. Awesome!!!

https://www.google.ae/maps/dir/Prague,+Czech+Republic/Zittau,+Germany/@50.4683857,14.214073,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x470b939c0970798b:0x400af0f66164090!2m2!1d14.4378005!2d50.0755381!1m5!1m1!1s0x470922d4123c5f05:0x421b1cb4288de20!2m2!1d14.8029971!2d50.8999681

Home School Adventure

My original dream with this project was that we’d all be up in Oderwitz working together on the house. We’d all gain from the learning experience of DIY and from the time together. However it looked like it was not going to be possible, as our visits were always sandwiched in between work leave allowances and regaining energy from our stressful jobs.

Well, just when everything looked like it would not work out, life threw us a curve ball, as they say. I don’t know anything about baseball, but I assume this could be a good thing if you can hit one. Like getting lemons when you know a great lemon meringue recipe, or the traditional lemonade….

I was set to take the next big step in my career, and so excited about it, when a major health issue hit our family. I can’t say what would have happened if it did not. Perhaps continued rat race style life, and our beautiful family project continued to be completed by others, as we struggle to just get up there for a week, and when we do we are utterly exhausted, as no matter what anyone says, being working parents is hard!

Now, I’m back looking at the original idea of going to stay in Oderwitz for a short time until we can finish the house. It’s kind of exciting – a home school adventure, on a budget! And free time to just be together as a family and work on things we want to. Fingers crossed it will all work out.

 

 

 

 

 

Air BNB

It looks like we have a bit of competition. I’d searched under Oderwitz on AirBNB and received 300 options. Albeit some are far and wide, that is from as far as a few hours drive inside the Czech or Polish border…But it does look like we will have to do some serious marketing to get our beautiful holiday rental in the Zittau Giberge. If I look at 6 or 8 persons it cuts down considerably.  On a more positive note I guess that means people are travelling to this region. Such a beautiful place, and very ‘off the beaten track’, as many Air BNB guests have called it!

All things in time…First completing the building, right now it’s just lots of bills!

The Ruins at Kurort Oybin

We spent an amazing morning walking around Oybin in the snow, the sights were something you can’t describe.

http://www.oybin.com/

Fun in the Snow

We love the slope in the back yard, and so did the kids!

An Airfield in France?

I’ve just found this airport, perhaps we may be able to take a trip with some friends from Oderwitz to visit our new holiday accommodation, a self catering hotel apartment in Le Residence – can’t wait to visit. http://www.chateau-de-camiole.com/ (…a little smaller, but it is finished , and the kids will love the pool :-).

Bathrooms – Not Quite…

We’ve almost finished the new bathroom and kitchen upstairs….Alas it was all a little too late for friends are coming to visit us in a week!

It’ll be finished before the next tax year (I promise Mr receiver, I really promise! – for us all 🙂 But not quite finished for the trip coming up, alas no where near close!!!

Bathroom and Kitchen for Upper Floor

We’ve just arrived back from Oderwitz. It was a rest rather than work trip this time, however we made one or two stops. One at OBI and the Tile Proffi next door (in Zittau), and one at the kitchen shop, Kuche Architec, (in Oderwitz), that was it.

(Being sick helps one organise time very efficiently! Knowing what we wanted before we left helped too, and this was easy to do in the hospital on their wi-fi (I’ve had quite a lot of down time there recently- but all on the mend now).

The top picture is the choices for the bathrooms (1 bathroom and 1 toilet), and the bottom is the kitchen splash-back, the same stone will be used for both benches.

We found some nice travertine, but we’re keeping it for the bottom.

Getting Closer

We’re getting closer to completing the project :-), thanks to some great help from our agent at Dr Thomas Immobilien for organising the contractors.

The outside works are essentially complete, and we need to make fitting decisions (bathrooms, flooring etc) to proceed with the finishing on the upper floor. Looking forward to this – the fun continues!

By the Berg : The New Colours

The scaffolding is finally off, and we’ve finished what I think is the big jobs. The outside is newly protected, the rotten chimneys are replaced, the wiring and plumbing to external services is in place, we have new windows upstairs (I can hardly tell in the pics so I think they did a great job of replication, only a visit will decide), and the electrics are split for upper and lower dwellings.

We’re going to take a break now for a bit, till summer. Mainly as I wasn’t looking forward to another winter visit before we fixed the big heat drain (stair well) enroute from lounge/kitchen/bedrooms to the bathrooms. But also so we can collect ideas and funds and not be under pressure, to make it more fun.

The outside and the essentials are complete, so when we go back we’ll  be starting with the fun stuff: choosing flooring, bathroom fittings, kitchen, paint/paper etc. And a little more time to make up my mind on the exactly-right things is better.

Our summer trip should allow finishing the upper floor for permanent rental, then a winter trip to finish the lower floor for our most exciting daily rental (Ferienwohnung). If it’s as much fun as Swanlamer was, I can’t wait.

Good things take time….No rush!