Let me tell you a thing about kitchens...

In Germany when you rent an apartment, it is likely to be empty, as in, without a kitchen. Not only will you not have a fridge, you won't have an oven, a sink, cupboards, or a dishwasher! So the dilemma is, should you buy a really expensive kitchen and bring it with you OR try to sell it when you move.

The problem is that it all depends on the person moving in to your apartment. They will either already have a kitchen which means you have to remove/unmount/unscrew/move your kitchen and try to make it fit in your new apartment which might not be the same size as your previous apartment.

They might want you to leave the kitchen there and they will offer you part of what you paid for, which is less trouble than moving it but you lose some money off of the initial price.

And if you do manage to sell it, it means you'll either have to buy the kitchen that is already in your new apartment (if you are being offered by the previous tenants) or by a new kitchen and move it/mount it/ and screw it!

We chose the later and I hope it's the last kitchen I'll ever buy. We got a good price for the whole thing but had to spend an incredible amount of time at, you guessed it, IKEA! After being told it would take 3 hours to process our order we decided to come back during the week, couple of days later it was delivered and the mounting began.

On another note, if you buy your kitchen anywhere else, you're likely to wait 4 to 8 weeks for your kitchen to be delivered.

We had a lot of help with fixing the cupboards to the walls and cutting the counter and I can't thank the ones involved enough for all their time and expertise!