As I’ve said before, if you grow up in Germany, you can forget about going to college and toiling away at your studies in order to acquire a fancy professional degree. Why? You’ll make no money as a white-collar worker! Professional fees such as those charged by attorneys and accountants are heavily regulated, so these poor saps make about 10 bucks an hour after taxes, I’d say. But the blue collar workers? They are RAKING IN THE DOUGH. BIG TIME.

Here is a perfect example. We asked for a quote to pave our small driveway, which covers about 100m2 (1000ft2). It’s simple, it’s flat, it’s square. Our labor quote… that is, excluding materials (which run about EUR 2,000 in our case), and EXCLUDING THE 19% SALES TAX….. was (drum roll………) EUR 10,000. *GASP! CHOKE! BARF!** Assuming about 35 man hours of work (and that’s giving them plenty of time for cigarette, beer, and poker breaks), that’s THREE HUNDRED EUROS PER HOUR, just for labor. Wow, why go to college when you can make EUR 300 per hour tossing stones in a straight line and pushing around some dirt?

So, to summarize, this little stretch of driveway, all inclusive, would be running us – in dollars – nearly $20,000. My Dad helpfully pointed out that this is nearly more than the value of the cars resting on it. Thanks, Dad.

In reviewing our labor quote, I noticed that for a tiny, uninspired, one-level step of about 2 square meters, we were being charge no less than TWO THOUSAND EUROS in labor. Do I have “Rich, Dumb Idiot” written all over my head? Why, Yes I Do. I mean, even *I* could design and build a totally tricked-out step, paved in gold and jewels with perhaps an adjacent koi pond and an Italian fountain, for a lot less than EUR 2,000.

So I took another look at the little earring in this contractor’s ear. What I thought was just some tacky costume jewelry suddenly became a karat-and-a-half diamond stud courtesy of all the rich dummies in Hamburg who aren’t doing the math.

I was also tipped off to the injustice of the labor system when the 25-year-old guy who treated and painted our ceilings (hardly a highly-technical field of work), for wayyyy more than I thought we should have paid, showed up in a great big BMW. Uh huh. I see. Drop out of school, get a Beemer. Alles klar.

On the upside, thanks to the Herculean efforts of my soon-to-be-husband and his energetic and generous dad, we got the entire interior of our house painted without lining the pockets of all the Ferrari-driving painters in Hamburg. That makes me feel a lot better! (Hauke, we owe you one!)

(And may I loudly shout “Thank you!” to my homegirl Kirstan who saved my life and future marriage by helping me pick the remaining colors for our house before Soenke sent me on a one-way ticket back to California!)

So in 3 weeks, Soenke and I say goodbye to our first apartment together.. the place where our baby spent her first months… my first abode in Europe… a place of many happy memories… and move into our new Villa with a TOTALLY TRICKED-OUT KITCHEN WITH THE BIGGEST SINK IN GERMANY (black market garbage disposal on the wayyyy…), A GIGANTIC “SUPER-SIZE-ME” BATHTUB, A PROPER BUILT-IN SHOWER WITH RIVER STONE SHOWER PAN AND STONE WALLS, TRAVERTINE IN THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM, A DECENT TWO-SINK BATHROOM VANITY, A MASTER RETREAT (yes, my American girls will know *exactly* what I’m talking about), ITALIAN STONE FLOORING, NEUTRALLY-COLORED CARPET (no, blue is not a proper carpet color, people), BASEBOARDS, AND LIGHT FIXTURES THAT IN NO WAY INVOLVE HALOGEN LIGHTS!

HALLELUJAH! It’s a miracle that we’ve made it this far. Only took us about 14 months. As one of our not-so-mind-numbingly-expensive contractors said, “you’re bringing a piece of California to Hamburg.” Amen, brother.

Here are some photos of the work in progress. I have to admit our photo selection is really meager at the moment so I tossed in a few Sophie shots……..

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I like my rooftop window in the new office:

Soenke chats with some workers:

Our guest bathroom shower:

Sophie flies!

Taking a nap in her favorite place…