Yes!

We have a house!  Actually, we have a contract for an apartment.  But now that we have the contract, I feel comfortable disclosing all the details.
It's the upstairs of a house.  The nice middle aged German man who owns the house is a carpenter type who, our housing lady, explained, does "wood ceilings, wood floors and the like."  He lives downstairs, so if anything goes wrong, he is there.  He also speaks very little English.
(I need to learn more German!  The ability to tell him what color my hair is will not be very helpful.  Not that I anticipate anyway.)
Our place is 140 square meters.  Which is the equivalent of 1500 sq. ft!  It's positively enormous by European standards.  And it's actually a bit bigger than our house in Rock Island.  It's listed as 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 water closet, 1 spare room, 1 balcony.  The "water closet" is actually a second bathroom, with a shower bigger than the main bathroom.  But it's located outside the main entrance of the apartment.

OK, how to describe...

So, you walk in the front door of the house, to encounter a staircase and another door which leads to the main level apartment.  One way goes down to the basement, one way heads upstairs to our apartment.  When you walk up to our apartment, the door to the right is the entryway, while a door straight ahead is the "water closet".
The rest of the apartment is fairly standard for Germany.  Except, of course, for it's positively enormous size.  The kitchen is "built in", which is a good thing.  Apparently, in Europe, a kitchen can just be a room to put kitchen stuff like cabinets, ranges, and dishwashers.  Our place has them.  Complete with a European sized refrigerator.  Which, is about half the size of an American fridge.  Also, complying with German housing standards......

we have no closets.

Now.  To help Americans transition into European living, housing gives you things.  We get 3 wardrobes, a larger fridge, and a washer/dryer.  (we were concerned with this, but were informed that the hookups are in the bathroom.  We are getting euro washer/dryers as the washers don't require a hot water hook up, and the dryers dry by condensation, which, apparently, is lower maintenance.)

We signed an indefinite contract starting 1 August!  (Indefinite unless we want to move out with a 3 month notice, or until we PCS and then we have to give 30 days with PCS orders.)  Hopefully, my car will arrive by then as well.  And until we get our household goods, which are not scheduled to arrive until mid - late August due to all the diversions John went through, housing will also lend us dressers, a couch, 2 easy chairs, a double bed (boo), 2 nightstands, and a dining room set.  Then we go to ACS (Army Community Service) and we can choose pots and pans and other kitchen essentials to help until we get our things.

Exciting stuff!

Did I mention how lovely this place is?  Large, with windows EVERYWHERE so it has lots of light...very much unlike the Rock Island house.  The landlord is fixing things up for us in the meantime.  He is repainting, and fixing a few decor issues the last tenant left behind, as well as replacing all the bathroom fixtures in the master bath to make them updated and way better looking.  It has great views of the neighboring houses, and slightly overlooks the town.

Oh, the town!  We are in a town called Ammerthal (I think!), just outside of Amberg, about 20 km S of Vilseck.  It's about a 30 minute drive.

We also got out German cell phones today!  It is pretty much for in-the-country use only, and we still plan on getting a stateside number through Vonage soon.

Now, all we really need is another car.  We are looking at SUV/Crossover type vehicles like the Volvo XC 90 or even a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  The BMWs are a bit pricier than we want to pay, but are looking at those as well.

Actually, I would also love real food.  Living out of a hotel has gotten quite old, quite fast.  Our meals choices include Charley's subs, Subway, Burger King, Anthony's Pizza, Popeye's chicken, or this sad Tex Mex place on post called "Tumbleweeds."  Of course, there is also anything we can store/make in our hotel room, like convenience soups, cereal, or sandwiches.

I'm telling you know, if Panera and/or Chipotle opened up here, they would make a mint.  There is need for more variety of fresher tasting food.

OK, I'm off to figure out my new phone....which was an adventure in itself trying to figure out if we wanted a German contract or a prepaid phone.  We settled on prepaid phone with internet options, as German phone contracts are almost iron clad, impossible to get out of, and automatically renew if you don't cancel at the end of two years.

Good times.  Pictures soon!