{welcome}

my name is holly becker and this is my little space on the web to talk about my current partial relocation to hannover, germany. i say partial because i do not plan to live there full-time, only 5-6 months each year. i'm looking forward to having complete access to europe, the city i'm going to live in is called 'the center of europe for good reason, it's truly a hub. the main train station has connections to prague, paris, amsterdam, berlin, even russia! we'll be an hour from hamburg, 4 hours from amsterdam, and a little over an hour and 20 minutes from berlin by rail. i was born and raised in america, spent my childhood on the beach in south carolina and my adult years in boston. i met my german husband online in 1999 and we've been together ever since, married now for almost 7 years, july marks our anniversary (details here).

{this is a cafe in the hannover town hall where i love to sit in the sun and look out over the lake on sunny days while sipping tea.}

since meeting my husband thorsten (silent h), i've been flying back and forth to germany to visit friends and relatives so much of my life is centered around our contacts there. this year we decided to stop staying in long-term rentals and hotel suites and to put our money into an apartment. the apartment was just gut renovated, it's very small (only 70 sq meters, around 700 square feet), but it's perfect for part-time living. plus it's in the heart of the neighborhood that my husband was raised in so there are many emotional connections there for him and of course, lots of people who know us both. it's only 3 stops from downtown, which is super because we're close to everything. i've never lived in europe but have been visiting for years. i've had the dream to live there since i was in my early 20's and now i'm 35 so i think it's time to do this! we've saved and worked very hard to be able to support our lifestyle of living in two countries, we're not loaded, but such these things do not come overnight so much patience is needed. we've not suffered for this dream though, we took our time planning and saving so we still have lived a very comfortable and happy life while looking to our future goal. But we've had to sacrifice, no pets, no kids, and only one car -- some examples of such sacrifice. in the years ahead, we want to have children and pets, but for now we will first get started on our new life in germany and see where the road takes us. i am a writer, blogger, and a very part-time interior designer right now -- something i've had to put on the back burner due to time constraints. i author decor8, a design blog with nearly 20,000 daily readers, and co-author a blog for real simple magazine called simply stated. i also have several other contracts for magazines and newspapers. this keeps me neck deep in work. but that's not all! i'm very active with friends and family, love to travel, and i'm currently in the midst of launching a new project alongside a partner, doing some site redesign work on decor8, and trying to pull my act together long enough to furnish an apartment in germany using primarily the internet. that's the journey i'll take you on via this blog. here is where i will start to share with you my inspirations, floor plans, decorating ideas, and then when i arrive in august i'll include before, during, and after photos along with small tidbits of my new life living abroad, from the farmers' markets and flea markets i shop to my weekend adventures to other cities and countries, along with product packaging and food photography because hey, we all love to see what stuff looks like in other places. ;) thank you for joining me. this site will be in english as my german is a bit poor and until i learn, i'm not that comfortable going public as a german writer yet. so let's stick to english, shall we? ... and because lowercase feels far less formal and a bit more like friends talking to friends, i will stick with a lowercase font. thanks for coming along for my little journey... i'm the haus maus (the nickname my husband has called me for 9 years) and this is my little diary documenting how an american sets up haus in germany. xo, {image taken by holly becker}