it's springtime

It's official, it's springtime. I don't know why I'm raving about it, because it's just something that happens, but still... And it shows. Figaro is sunbathing in the window. The sun is shining on his beautiful coat, which really he doesn't need because behind the glass it's warm.

Yesterday we spent the day clearing out my dad's flat. It's sold as per April 1, and there were still items in the kitchen. We got help from Peter and Stéphanie and, unlike today, it was bucketing it down. Still we managed. We finished the day off in the local Indonesian restaurant. Not a cheap trip but very worthwhile. And finished in style because after all, we symbolically closed off part of our lives now that Harry is not here anymore.

On that note, Harry loved flowers. So these are for him...

settling in

Settling in is a gradual thing, realising that you are settled in is more a sudden thing, I guess. Anyway, we do feel at home in our new house. After you have moved you know that your stuff should be in the house that you are actually in. The fact that you don't know where some things are most of the time is quite frustrating. When you go out to find things you lost you very often bump into things that you were looking for before, but hardly ever the things that you want and need at that moment. Such is life.

We are for instance looking for the remote control of our bedroom television set. (Does anyone know where it is?) Though we don't know where it is, John has now hung up the tele over the bedroom window. We got it to work with what is known as an HDMI cable, instead of a "common" SCART cable. I haven't fathomed out whether that is more or less effective than the old SCART cable, but John insisted it were a thinner cable. Anyway, it works now, if you let it alone. Don't touch it, it works now. And it's nice.

Since the last time I added text to this blog so many things have happened (which explained why I haven't actually written), that I still might forget to mention a few things. To help me out I will use a few pictures that I took with the mobile phone, and hopefully that will give you a more complete picture of how our little lives have changed since the last contribution to this blog.

One thing that is new is the fridge (in the picture it is not installed yet). We bought the house and there was a massive (to Dutch standards) fridge in it. It was as high as the house itself. It ups the energy bill, probably, and we only use 3 out of 22 shelves, so we decided to get rid of it, and instead buy one that fits underneath the work-top. We bought it at (guess...) and the salesman even gave us a faulty advice about the door. Anyway, handyman John sorted it all, and it's purring in our kitchen now, next to the cooker (in the picture, to the right). Meanwhile the mega-fridge is moved to the shed, and is currently up for sale on Marktplaats.

The other thing that is new in the living room (and one in the garage) is oodles of Billy's. They are bog basic book cabinets from (guess...). John has loads of books, and they need to go somewhere. Building them didn't take long really, the average cabinet takes approx. 15 minutes, but you always get distracted. We managed it, and there was only one mishap, which was one of the top cabinets which couldn't be built, because the various parts just didn't match. Another excuse for going back to Ikea's, to swap it out and buy other stuff that you didn't think you'd need, as you go along. The other major article that can be seen in the picture is the new settee. It's off black. It's massive. It took a few days for us 1) to build it (not really), and 2) to realise that it was not as big in the shop as it is here in the living room. Anyway, after we set it up, we decided to let it all (the living room's layout) sink in. The next day we decided that the settee needed to be turned around, and now things feel good and are all in place. A picture of that new situation will follow soon enough.

The final thing with great impact that is being illustrated in today's issue of the blog is the cat flap. Figaro now has 2 toilets and one cat flap. Well, really he has 2 cat flaps but one is taped up. Had we not done this then Figaro (or Puzman) would have been strolling the neighbourhood, because the existing cat flap is in the garage and is leading outside. We don't want him to go outside yet. Through the various windows he got acquainted with quite soms fellow felines, some of whom even rudely sit on the bench in the front yard, and sunbathe! And it's Figaro's front yard!

Anyway, maybe this summer we will have to let Puzman out and about, but not yet. One of his cat litter bins is now accessible through the new cat flap, which was quite some work. You always think that you can install a cat flap in less than 15 minutes. Not true! I will spare the details, but John was not a happy person while he was installing the mischievous and inco-operative cat flap. But it's done now.

Other tasks that we have rounded off in the past weeks: install a cabinet in the bed room along with the hanging tele opposite, as pointed out above. Paint the hall downstairs, hung up the coat hangers. New curtains are hanging in the garage, along with the filing cabinets, which are really cheap-skate cabinets for cheap-skate kitchens, but who cares? We got new curtains from HEMA, they are purple! They are still to be hung up in the living room along with some of the Lindmons which are still lying around. Mounted the bed in the guest-room, which was gratefully tested by 3 different persons. Hung up a whiteboard and a lamp in the garage. And there is still so much more to be done!

More later, people. Thanks for reading up!

dismantling the house

Now that I am writing this, the month of February is long gone. And so is Timorstraat 41. New (very nice) people own it, and we wish them happiness and all else.

But before we could actually deliver the house so many things had to be taken out of it first. John disposed of loads of old stuff, exams and tests from his work at school as a teacher. A desk, old music instruments and books. Lots and lots. Lights and all things that were mounted to walls and ceilings were removed, which took longer than expected. I started feeling that we were actually moving when our bed was removed (see to the right).

The other thing with major impact (and an investment in time) was the removal of the elevated wooden floor in the living room. I think we estimated it would take a day, but seeing that it was actually demolishing a floor rather than with great accuracy installing it, it took only 4 hours.

A complete frame of underlying beams were supporting the planks that can be seen as a surface which were painted white. The new owners did not want this floor. They are actually going to remove the tiles as well and replace them with a parquet floor. Long and short is that we had to remove all the wood and take it to the tip. Quite a shame, because the wood is not bad at all. It had been lying there for a good 8 years, because we found old newspapers which we put there on purpose. Joanna pointed out that that floor was the nicest feature of the house. Thanks, Jo.

On March 1 the house was actually delivered, for which you need a solicitor. Well, you don't actually need them but they make themselves indispensable and costly, because all they do is compare names, numbers and signatures. When you leave their offices you feel cheated and a house has changed owner, so here John is posing in front of their premises. Not bad, hey?

A new period starts now and we live in Leiderdorp.

focus

It's been busy, need I repeat it again? Probably not. The last day I wrote about was Wednesday (February 17). That was our major shopping spree at Ikea's. On Thursday John got delivered a new dongle for his laptop, so he cycled to Leiderdorp early morning. Then the rest of the day was spent cleaning the kitchen in the new house and dragging stuff over, with the trailer. Because there is not much parking space near the old house we park it on the sidewalk. Hope the neighbours don't mind.

On Friday Robert helped us move stuff. He arrived late Thursday evening and spent the whole Friday with us. John and Robert pose here on Friday. Loads of boxes were moved, but packed before. The majority of the boxes were books. Remember, the ones that were lined up in the study in the old house. Robert moved them all from the study to the living room, while John and I took old stuff to the tip, which took a few runs. Mind you, if you ever go to the tip and visit the adjacent recycle stuff shop (a bit like Oxfam, but not for charity) then mind not to buy any stuff, that you really don't need, like vases. I love vases. We thought that after this big move we didn't need the trailer anymore. But we did. We still had to move our bed to the new house, so we still needed the trailer, which we then extended to the Saturday. Consequently it was our first night in the new house! Quite an adventure.

On Sunday we thought we wouldn't be doing much, but we did. You spend a lot of time on not a lot, really. I haven't called this episode focus for nothing, because it's really difficult to keep focusing on something. You do something and halfway along you shift your attention to something that crosses your path. You'll pick up on that and forget about what you were actually doing. Now I have to admit this happens to me at the best of times, but during a move it's terrible. So it's my learning point now to try and keep the focus, whatever it may be on. If you find me walking off on a tangent at any point, then do not hesitate to remind me. At least when I'm painting (for instance) I usually do not get distracted easily. Well, there is still a lot of painting to be done in the new house, but for now we are focusing (there it is in the shape of a verb...) on clearing out the old house.

Till then. Watch this space..!

buying stuff

Sorry, peeps, for not having written for a couple of days. It's been hectic. For starters on Monday I had a long day at work, reluctantly. I was helping to organise a convention (for lack of more suitable terminology) and it was a long day. But it's over now and since Tuesday (Feb 16) I have time to apply myself to the move.

On Monday though John was busy hanging up the blinds (Lindmon, remember?). It's nearly finished now. There is one blind still to be hung up in John's clock workshop, see top right.

These days every time we drive from Leiden to Leiderdorp we try to transport as much stuff as possible. I was not under the impression that we have little stuff in our house, but once you stuff your car with as many boxes as can be seen in the picture, you'd think you'd notice by increasing space in your house. Well, it doesn't work like that, although I have to say that when John cleared out the clock workshop (a.k.a. klokhok) in the old house you could really tell. It took two runs between the old and the new house to get all the clocks and clock-related stuff over.

What we did today, Wednesday, was Buy (with a capital B). At Ikea's of course. We bought a settee, loads of things for the windows (more blinds, for the ground floor) and lighting. The settee will be delivered in a few weeks. It's nice and big enough, we think. John is testing it, and it was approved. It's a bit dark, between black and grey.

Also we bought a bed. We sound like a right greedy couple, but we think the bed needs to be good. The old bed is not called old for nothing, so we will still keep it for the guest room (which happens to be in the same area as the clock workshop).

You have to gather your stuff from all over the place at Ikea and then drag it to the car. For this occasion we rented the trailer again from Allsafe. Only € 15 per day, a bargain. We needed it for transporting the bed.

Needless to say that the bed was mounted on coming home. John did the testing again and it was approved by the sleep committee. Also some cleaning was done in the bathroom. A bathroom's got to be clean, right? Also we stowed away some goods in the small attic above the garage. We - again - actually did quite a lot. Come and have a look when we're finished. We have 11 more days to move before we have to leave the old house. Thankfully Robert is coming on Friday to help us move some boxes. We kept them in the old house on purpose!

weekend activities

This weekend, including Friday, not much was done. Considering the fact that in the old house things needed doing (washing, cleaning, admin) John spent most of the time in the new house and I in the old. I for a change hung up the washing and cleaned. The thing about moving is that at some point you have to remove stuff from the old house, so sensible as I am, I remove stuff that we don't really need anymore first, like the wicker basket in the bedroom. When you move stuff that has been sat in a certain place for a while it tends to collect dust. So I removed that also. I don't want to be too ashamed when the new owners see the place we just abandoned. Also they - the new owners - came round to measure up rooms. And we had a nice chat.

Saturday was for painting. In the bedroom we applied a colour that we didn't really like. Sometimes that happens. Today I bought paint at the Decorette, which was exactly like the colour of an old sheet! And I applied it. Still some patches need to be touched up we discovered in the daylight. John installed the shower door that was delivered on Friday. Massive improvement, as opposed to the shower curtain that was there (the old owners had thankfully taken it away themselves) when we bought the house.
Also John mounted the majority of the blinds and roll up curtains on the first floor. Nearly there, it's not a nice little duty as you have to saw off parts (wooden beams-like) that you don't need. Matter of precision. The workbench for the clock workshop has been put up and only 3 more blinds need to be put in place. On the ground floor there are no blinds or curtains yet, not ones that we like, so we are going to use the same blinds as we have on the first floor. Just wait and see. In the afternoon, still on Saturday, Peter and Jeane came round. Jeane brought her fried banana cookies and krupuk, Indonesian treat, and admired the house. It was difficult for her to climb up the stairs, but she made it. It was a joy to have her around. After that Peter and John left for the Decorette, again, but this time they bought a piece of furniture for the hall, which was actually a present from Peter to us, for the new house. Thanks, bro!
Meanwhile Jeane and I chatted about stuff, and about how we miss my dad, Harry. It was good. As we sat in the bay window neighbours and others passed by. Cosy, what?

And, in the end we did do quite a bit. It never seems much when you are being busy on it, but it takes a hell of a lot of time, doing whatever you're doing...

white thursday

White, because walls have been painted white, again. And, outside was white. Snowy white. On Thursday remainders of the living room walls were painted, by the kitchen and in the garage few spots were forgotten, and painted. Can't hear the word paint anymore!