We got the keys to this beauty today! Its ours and I cannot wait to walk in. I have so many emotions right now. Mostly I really would have loved to open the house myself after this ordeal of purchasing it. Instead, I cannot do that, we are still in Germany. We FaceTimed with our contractor to walk through the upcoming projects in the house and oh, how I wished I could be there right now! I am so glad and grateful though for my amazing contractor, Al, who has helped us transform our old home into our dream home years ago. I am confident that he will make things happen until we are back home and can move in.

But first things first!

This is the formal living room. This wall needs to be opened left and right of the fire place. We are going to make the space behind it, now a garage, our office/library. Floors and paint color  will be changed too. I already have a pretty good idea on what I want the house to look like, more about that along the way though. 

All floors upstairs will be removed, they are carpet, and replaced with hardwood. We picked some samples, but I just sent Al out again to compare some other colors and report back to me tomorrow. Oh so not the perfect way to manage a remodel, but I have to make it work. 

Here a few more pics --- 

Happy painting and remodeling to us!!! 

B

This one will be the "man cave"

boys rooms are identical with a balcony, not sure if that is good or bad yet :)

I love the lamps and hallway with the dramatic staircase

The master with balcony and large bathroom. Yay, finally my own walk in closet. 

Master balcony

Dining Room

Wet Bar

Family Room, great views to the outside which I love. Even though the  outside needs a lot of work, but that's a project for 2015!

The very spacious kitchen. I am very excited about having all this space to cook, bake and store. 

Hallway leading to Casita and entrance of house. 

Double ovens...more baking. 

and a little desk for being creative...

Meet the Krazy Krafts

Established in 1996, our family consists of our two sons Tom and Finn, my husband Reiner, myself, as well as our cats Sweetie and Sookie.

Not only do I like to be "Krafty", but I love to travel, art, design, redoing old things, culture, gardening, baking and cooking....oh I basically like all things that make life more beautiful and livable. I appreciate my surroundings daily and am so grateful for the place we live in. 

California,  its beaches and rolling hills, landscapes and nice people, made us fall in love with the Sunshine State and lifestyle almost 18 years ago. 
When Reiner and I were "young", not that we are old or feel old, we decided to take off to California in search of something new. 

Boy, did we LOVE it here: sunny weather year round, palm trees, beaches and ocean, earthquakes...oh wait, those I still do not like, but I do love everything else. We never looked back after stepping foot into this country, except to get our VISA and paperwork for our permanent residency (and because we missed our relatives like crazy those first few years) . Its been a smooth ride since then for us...all of our dreams came so true in this country and we have never regretted making that big step in August of 1996. 
The rest is history and I will eventually talk about it a bit in the future while I write my blog. 

It feels like home now, even though I am still attached to our families here in Germany (and I miss them dearly when I am not here) and the culture, my heart is in Cali now. I always feel like standing on two continents, two cultures, languages etc. I like the fact that I can enrich my life with the different lifestyles that I get from both countries and I love to incorporate both into our daily family life.

I have been wanting to start blogging again for a while now, but life always got the best of me. Our lives have never been busier than now; and it all started with our search for a new home while also getting ready for our annual trip to Germany. I was laughingly telling Reiner that I bet we would find that perfect home a few days before we leave for our 8 week trip...laughing and joking! Well, I was right!

Here we are, in Germany, planning a move and remodel on a home that will hopefully be ours in a few days (dealing with banks nowadays is unbelievably stressful, they almost made me give up my firstborn in return for a loan, I am joking).  

Challenges are my thing, but this is extremely challenging for a person like me who is typ AAA and wants to control and manage everything. Dealing with banks (my husband did most of this, thank God!), contractors, paint chips, decor, moving boxes, finding new (fabulous tenants for our old home),  and much more from over here gave me lots of sleepless nights. But I am in a groove now where I feel I just have to let some things go and they will fall into place eventually.

So while I am writing this, I am hoping that in a day or two, we get the 100% approval from the bank and we can get started on the process of our second home. 

Cross your fingers for us, 

Bettina