This is not the usual technical post you usually find on my blog. Rather, it is a kind of review of the past year 2021. So for those who are interested in technical things and not in private and sentimental stuff: Stop reading after the next paragraph. Everyone else is welcome to read on afterwards.
TL;DR
Whether family, friends, acquaintances, partners, vendors, customers, craftsmen and anyone who does not feel belonging to one of the previously mentioned categories and whom I have therefore forgotten at this point: Thank you for an incredible year 2021, stay healthy and hopefully we will see each other again in 2022!
I look back on the past year with many crying but also many laughing eyes. And I don’t even count the permanent low COVID-19. Even outside of the omnipresent pandemic, the past year had one or two highlights, but unfortunately also one or two lows up its sleeve.
As one or two of you may already know, my wife and I started renovating the second floor of my wife’s childhood home, built in 1522, in early 2019. As is usual for this age, the building is of course a historic building. But as we learned, not all historic monuments are the same. Our house is one of the „cultural monuments of special importance“ and is therefore on the same level as our local parish church. This means that the higher-level authority of the state of Baden-Württemberg is responsible for the supervision and approval of all conversion measures, not the local office for monuments. A good one and a half years and several discussions with authorities, architects and restorers (who also prefer to take on state-funded projects rather than deal with private individuals), we thought we had finally reached the end of the road at the end of 2020. Unfortunately, however, a building permit in a listed building is not the end of bureaucracy but only the starting signal for regular building inspections, detailed coordination and lots of photographic documentation.
Accordingly, the year 2021 got off to a somewhat bumpy start, but was in the meantime brightened up by two very pleasing events for me personally. In mid-February, I got the email with the great news of being part of the VMware vExpert program for another year.
It didn’t take long and at the end of February an even more joyful email fluttered into my inbox. To my surprise, I was given the great honor of being part of the Veeam Vanguard class of 2021.
After a few joyful weeks in March, the construction site chaos hit all the harder from April onwards. Almost every day we had at least two if not more craftsmen in the house who had to be coordinated, controlled and instructed. And, of course, all of this in addition to our actual full-time jobs. In retrospect, my wife and I have to thank COVID-19 for one thing: Due to the pandemic and the accompanying effects and restrictions, we were able to organize ourselves in such a way that at least one of us was in the home office every day and could thus regularly keep an eye on the construction site. How would we have managed without working permanently in the home office? Honestly, no idea!
But after many hard weeks with long days and short nights, the time had finally come at the end of November: We were able to move into our „almost“ finished renovated home, at least partially. We still have some unfinished parts, furniture that we have organized from friends and family and temporary solutions that need to be replaced in 2022, but after a good 2.5 years it’s just a great feeling to sleep in your own bedroom, to stand under your own shower and to cook in your own kitchen.
At this point I would like to share a few impressions with you.
We put back a lot in 2021, invested our vacation completely in the renovation and also used every other free minute to still be able to be in our own four walls this year. It was a hell of an adventure but definitely worth every extra mile we went. We were able to have a party including a five-piece band in our almost finished monument on the occasion of our first wedding anniversary (kitchen and dining room were completely empty at that time), we were able to celebrate Christmas at our own dining table together with our family and we will end the year tonight together with our best friends by cooking together in the new kitchen.
Even though I therefore see black for the VMware vEXPERT 2022 program as well as the Veeam Vanguard 2022 class, as the priorities were simply elsewhere, I would do it this way again any time. Although I hope now first of all in the near future to see no more craftsmen!
Wrap-up
Now the time has come: you have made it and I leave you in peace for 2021. Once again, a big thank you to all who have accompanied us on our 2021 adventure. It will definitely not have been our last adventure.
Now I wish you, your family and your loved ones a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a happy new year! Stay healthy and see you in 2022!
