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!

witte woensdag

Vandaag een bericht in het Nederlands. John heeft vandaag de Lindmons en Tupplur van gisteren geïnstalleerd in de voorkamer. Hij is nog niet klaar, want het is een hels karwei om ze op maat te maken. Verder heeft deze bezige bij geprobeerd om de douchedeur die vanmorgen voor dag en sneeuw bezorgd werd op te hangen. Helaas brak tijdens die poging de boor, dus dat was dat.

In de late middag zijn Joanna en Nick nog langs geweest in de Lindelaan. Zij krijgen een budget om de zolder in te richten. Allerlei theorieën komen langs. Razend interessant. Met hun ben ik daarna naar Ikea (where else?) geweest om te eten en dingen te ruilen. En natuurlijk weer gekocht. Dit keer een gordijn uit de Alvine-serie, voor de garage. Leuk!

lazy tuesday

Lazy? Not really. All we basically did today was not go to the new house on Lindelaan, except to collect the mail. What we did do was sort stuff out. Stuff that is "missable" (for lack of a better term) in the old house, that can be boxed up. Like books. John has a nice collection of books. They are now in special boxes ("boekendoos", plural "boekendozen"). The difference - if you want to know - between regular "verhuisdozen" and the boekendozen is that you don't pack up too many books in boekendozen. Books tend to be heavy, and if you pack up a regular verhuisdoos you'll break your back while carrying them, or attempt to. Verhuisdozen are less than double the size of boekendozen.

For those who know the study in the "old" house, get stunned by the stack of boxes containing books. These boxes are now where the books used to be. Note that one of John's hobbies is ironing. Difficult to part with the ironing board...

manic sunday

On Sunday we did a lot of painting, as was done on Monday, really. When does it end? one may wonder. Good thing is that on Sunday Annemarij (a.k.a. juffrouw Ooievaar, featuring on the right) came to help. Only, she overslept. So at 1 o'clock she called to say she was going to be late. Never mind, yet we (Nick, John and I) were starving koz she (A.) was meant to bring us food! Let's call it a late lunch, but a good one. A wide range of sandwiches and bagels was finally presented to us and we were hungry. Anyway, A. was excused because her painting was fast, neat and necessary. Painting ceilings is hard work at the best of times, but the living room is quite big and really needed doing. Bad thing was that the day was a bit cloudy so it was difficult to see which patches were actually not painted, or wet, or otherwise. Never mind, who cares about the details? Nick did his fair share of painting, and I painted the garage ceiling and walls.

We concluded the day with a nice meal from the Indonesian in Leiden's Steenstraat. Yum.

On Monday we - it is getting boring - did more painting. Although A. helped us a great deal on Sunday, the living room walls hadn't all been done yet. A few more patches on the ceiling were touched up also and the walls I mentioned before were painted. Furthermore on Monday we rented a trailer to take an old desk, a bird cage and other mainly wooden scrap to the tip. Almost forgot about that and we ended the day with a visit to our local Ikea (only 15 minutes in the car, to Delft) to buy blinds and roll up curtains (can't think of a better name in English). We did spend some money along the way.

slow progress

Some days don't seem very productive. Today I visited my sweet aunt (my dad's sister) so part of the day went to chatting to her. Pleasant views over the North Sea, though it was misty and cold, so we hid away in an Italian café. Very nice.

Yet I didn't do anything in the house. Not much anyway. Peter visited and helped John tear the bird cage down. It took some strength and persistence. Nick came over and painted the landing on the 2nd floor. That's where Jo and he will reside whenever they are at Lindelaan 25. Also got paint because tomorrow (Sunday) miss Stork is coming over and she is very productive and dedicated so she can apply herself to some proper house decoration. So I bought 2 more buckets of white paint, some preparing fluid to make stains that are visible on the ceilings invisible. See if it works. Along with some rollers and a stick to put a roller on so that painting the ceiling is equally tiring but at least you don't have to try and balance on the steps. As a preparation to this John took off the curtains and the rails in the living room, and I washed the walls in the garage and stuffed the holes that are there as a result of the bird cage that was removed.

Pictures will follow. Today was a bit of a dull day with bad lighting.

sold

It's a bit hard to read, but the sign says "Verkocht". Previously it said "Verkocht onder voorbehoud". Conditionally sold. So we were quite excited, but not. You know. Now we can be excited (because it's unconditionally sold) and we realise how lucky we are in this season of an abundance of houses for sale, and ours (T41) is sold!

We couldn't be happier about it.

Anyway, what have we done over the past few days? Not much really, except that John did a load of painting. He applied a second coat of paint onto the front room floor. He rolled it (with a roller, see?) as opposed to brushing it. Having learnt from that he did the same in the other bed room, and probably not having to do a second coat, which saves time and money.

So John actually did quite a lot, after all. Sorry, John.

We are now looking at "the garage", which is still possessed by the bird cage and is now due to be removed. We attempted to do this before, but this is not an easy task. Also it's best not to tackle this one alone, because the bird cage is quite big, it's hanging against the ceiling and it's screwed to the wall and/or ceiling. Once it's unscrewed it will go only one way, down. We'll have to see. We'll get back to you on that one.

Yearning for spring time meanwhile.

Browsed at the shopping mall (Winkelhof) for curtains and other stuff for the windows. Curtains, blinds, shutters? Who will know? Stay tuned...

case of decomposition

On Wednesday John and I knocked down some furniture. We are not finished yet, but tried to demolish a desk that was mounted to the wall. Also in "the garage", which is actually the practice area, there is a massive bird cage mounted to the wall. It is still there. We have been looking at it trying to work out a plan of attack, but have not concluded yet. Don't know when we will. Also in one of the bedrooms there was a built in wardrobe that we tore apart, and since then it had been sitting waiting in the garage. Now, I was a bit fed up with it being there so the majority of it I dragged out into the garden. Nobody can see it, and it's waiting there to be taken to the tip some day soon, I hope.

paint the room white

On Tuesday I spent the day painting. For which I am using Super Latex Uitstekende Dekking ("Excellent Coverage", yeah right). It had to be applied twice. I painted the 2 bedrooms on the 1st floor (probably 2nd floor, were I in the States). All the walls and the ceiling of the back room. My my, I rediscovered many muscles. It was a good day. Reflecting all the time as I went along. Therapeutic almost.

However, Uitstekende Dekking. Don't believe it. It had to be applied twice, the paint. Experienced colleagues said that "you always have to paint twice", no matter what they call the paint.

ownership

Today we are becoming the proper owners of Lindelaan 25, in Leiderdorp. This is Da House. It's not our car parked there...

Before transferring ownership first you get to view the house to see if it is really what you buy. Basically the former owners should not be in the house, and what you see at that time is what you buy. Sometimes that is a bit daunting, because somehow you spot different things in your (not yet) house than before. The former owners left amongst others a fridge, a bird cage (massive one! for a complete flock), a desk in a horrible colour, furthermore a freezer and loads of other little things that we hadn't counted on. Otherwise there was also things that we spotted before (we came to the house on the 22nd of January also) that were not left for us, sadly, like apparently very expensive plafonnières (fashionable terminology for ceiling lamps, I guess).

Then we head for the solicitor's office a few blocks away. We just walk over, with Anne, our money man. He sorted the mortgage, thankfully.

The solicitor was a very nervous woman, nice, but very nervous. The people present were the couple (well, no longer a couple really) selling the house, Anne, the real estate man, René and ourselves. The documents were read to us all, the sellers signed, we signed, and then they left. René handed us the keys.

We own the house...

It was quite a funny atmosphere because the people who sold the house had divorced. You could sense their atmosphere. The man was quite harsh, not very friendly, certainly not looking you right in the face. The lady was very friendly. She was in her early fifties, a bit trendy, and asked us if we would forward mail addressed to her and her daughter.

The next procedure was the mortgage, which was quite boring but ever so important. Quite exciting in another way. After that was rounded off, Anne, John and I strolled back to our new house. On coming in we found the note written by the woman who sold the house. I felt sad. Anne and John discussed more technical matters and financial ones. Anne gave us a beautiful plant. When he left we walked through the house discussing things to be done in the house and noted them down in a little notepad. My god, what a load of work is waiting for us. But we enjoy every second of it.

the day before

Tomorrow we, John and Victor, move from Leiden to Leiderdorp.
Well, it really is "only" the day that we get the keys to our new house.

This is just to keep you informed of the latest developments. A story of an average house move. Or is it?

Happy reading, and let us know what you think.