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.