Stairs

Our house was almost finished, and we've been living here for six months now, but we still missed one thing. We didn't have stairs yet. The ladder worked fine for a while, but as my belly got bigger and bigger it became harder for me to go upstairs. The past month I was afraid to go up, so I just stayed downstairs. But as of last week, that's over. We finally have our stairs! I think they look beautiful (and it's so nice to be able to go see the second floor of my house again ). The nursery will be upstairs. We don't have it in order yet, because the baby will stay in our room for the first few weeks. That's why the bassinet and the changing table are in our room for now.

Family heirloom

When I told my parents about my pregnancy, one of the first things my mom asked me was if I wanted to use her family's bassinet. I didn't even realise that there was a family bassinet, let alone had I considered using it. She got out the photo albums and showed me that I slept in it too, for the first few months of my life.

It was made in 1946 for my aunt. After that my mom, cousins, distant cousins, brother and I slept in it. Of course I love history like that, so we went to my aunt and uncle's to look at it.
It needed some work. The upholstery was gone and there was no mattress. But we brought it home with us and my mother-in-law offered to help. In the end, she didn't just help, but she and M's aunt did all the work. All I did was go the market with them to pick out the material. When we came back from our vacation, it was right there next to our bed. Isn't it beautiful?

Our baby will have a historical start. Hopefully it will be born in the house that was built by daddy's family in 1863, and then sleep in the bassinet that was made for mommy's family in 1946. We think that's pretty cool!

Living room

Some people have asked me for some new pictures of my house. So here is one of the most finished rooms of the house: the living room.
First: view from the kitchen. Never mind the coats hanging over the chair: we don't have a coat rack yet..

Lots of light! We have a lot of windows, which I totally love. Almost all of them are double glazed, so they're energy efficient too.

The piano that my grandfather gave me for my wedding (it used to be his).

Turned around (the piano behind me). Note the nosy kitty.

Nosy kitty is also a lazy kitty.

Haiku - II

Limited cleaning
Low housing expenses
Dream trailer

Haiku

Slanting floor, bad couch
Limited storage, cold nights
Dream trailer

Bathtub

Have you ever taken a bath in a bathroom showroom? We have! We found a tub that is big enough to fit my M, but has armrests so I'll fit in it as well. It's 190x90 cm (6 ft 3" by 3 ft). We had fun today, trying out the different tubs and looking at sinks/toilets/urinals.It was our third day in bathroom stores so we were getting a little silly... But now we have three different prices on our bathroom and toilet, so we can start comparing. That way we'll know where the best deal is.

It hit me like a ton of bricks...

... that we're not only demolishing, but building too. That seems to be good news. On the other hand, the cabin fever hit me too. All of a sudden I was annoyed by the lack of privacy, and mad at myself for those emotions. We are very grateful to all the people who help us with the remodeling. Without them, it would cost us a lot more money. But at the same time, it would be nice to not have people around the house (and trailer) all the time. It would be nice to be able to say "OK, it's 19:00 and I'm going to get into my pajamas and veg out on the couch. That is not possible. My M gets home from work, eats dinner, changes into his work clothes and gets to work. Around ten o'clock he walks in the house, drinks something and goes to bed. Lovely.

But it's all worth it. And I should not be complaining. It's only temporary, and it's all worth it. I just need to get over myself sometimes...

House renovation

For everybody who speaks Dutch, and is interested in the renovation of our house, check my new blog.
Don't worry, I'll still write here too!

This is why I've been offline

This is my home, right now. The internet connection took a while to work correctly. That's why I haven't posted anything in over a month. It works better now, though, so I expect to be online more.


My house looks like this. The big demolishing has begun!

Working hard

This is a "before-picture"... We're really busy moving all of our stuff to the trailer. Today we spent the whole day with the help of my brother, sister-in-law, M's brother and girlfriend, and M's parents. They helped us pack things up and move things. Boy, do we have a lot of stuff!

The plan is to move to the trailer within a few days. After that, the big demolishing can start. Fun, but very emotional for me!

Sew busy

When we bought our trailer I realised that it would take some effort to turn this little world of 1981 brown and green in a housey environment that I would feel comfortable in. And since I received a sewing machine as a wedding present, I decided to sew new covers for the cushions.

So I counted, measured, went to Ikea to buy many metres of fabric, washed and ironed that fabric and started to sew.


Lots of hours in the past six months were spent working with my new best friend. Today I achieved my goal: I finished the last one. That means that I covered sixteen cushions. I did feel very housewify! And this, my friends, was the very last one. Now all I have to do is use the scraps to make a tablecloth and maybe two pillow covers. But none of that will take as much time as those huge cushions, or even worse, the corner cushions (look closely in the first picture and you will see one).
M laid new carpet and vinyl in the trailer (I'll show you a picture later) so it's starting to look more and more like home. Which is good, because we'll probably have to live in it for at least a year. So it might as well be as comfortable as possible!

The joys of home ownership

"Good morning ma'am"
"Good morning."

"Well, that's obvious, isn't it? It's broken."

"That might explain the cold in here."

"How much longer did you say you'd live here?"

"Probably not more than three months."

"It's not worth fixing ma'am."

"It's not?" (thinking: but I'm cold already and it's only september!)

"I'll call the office and ask them how much the part costs."

.....

"Yup, that's what I thought. Not worth fixing ma'am."

"Well, how much would the part cost?" (thinking: can I please make my own decisions?)

"At least €200, and that's without taxes and installation costs. Would you like my advice?"

"Sure."

"Put an electric heater in your living room and put an extra blanket on the bed"

"OK, thanks."

"Can you please sign here? Because of the road block down the road I had to charge an extra 15 minutes for the detour I had to make. My office will send you the bill later this week."

"Sigh. OK, thanks again."

"Have a good day ma'am."

"You too."

Mobile Home

Last night I bought a mobile home. Or should I say "manufactured home"? In Holland we call it a caravan. Whatever the name, it's going to be our temporary housing while we remodel our house. We need somewhere away from all the dust and dirt, that is water tight and will keep our feet warm. But it also needs to be put in our back yard because we can't (and don't want to) afford to rent a second house while we remodel this house.

I was having coffee with my mom in law when my dad in law walked in. I was telling the story how I had ridden my bike to some local camp sites to hang up ads asking for a mobile home. Dad in law said he knew someone in town who had one for sale. He called the guy and the two of us went over there (M was at the fire station). He showed us the trailer. It was everything we wanted! It has two bedroom (so we can make one into a closet), seperate shower and toilet areas, a kitchenette (with gas stove and lots of cupboard space), a dining corner and a big couch, and gas heating. It looks old but neat and well taken care of. Unlike so many trailers for sale this one doesn't smell like cigarette smoke and there was no visible fungus. And the best part of it was the price. We were willing to pay no more than €1000, but the guy asked for only 250! And an apple pie, but that was because he said the price was low and so I said ok, I'll bake you an apple pie and we'll seal the deal. So after sealing the deal at 250 I guess the apple pie was part of the deal.

Hurrah! We're going to live in a trailer! (People that know me well know that I am not a big fan of camping. But trailers are ok).

The trailer in the picture looks just like the one I bought. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll post one later.

Decisions

M and I are going through a time with lots of decisions. Planning a wedding and buying a house are both pretty expensive, important things. I think it's hard, because they both cost a lot of money. And, especially the mortgage, is an expensive commitment for a long time.

Where do we have our wedding, and what choices do we make? Do we have a reception? What kind of dinner would we like? How many people will we invite? And who do we not invite?.
And then the house... What kind of mortgage do we want? How much money do we want to invest in the remodeling? How much money do we want to spend on our house every month? Which bank do we choose, and for how long do we want to set the interest?
Deep sigh.
I have trouble making choices. Sometimes I find it hard to decide which pair of socks to wear today. And now there's all this.. Thank goodness I have my M to share this with. I know I want to marry him and I know we want to buy the house. So even though it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of time, we'll figure everything else out!

And, totally off topic, here's a little music:

Spending money

We went to a city yesterday to do some shopping. Both M and I were in dire need of clothes and shoes. We succeeded, and I even managed to find a pair of blue jeans. What is up with all those low-rise pants that end mid-butt? I want hip blue jeans that do not show of the color of my underwear when I sit down. I ended up buying a men's pair. I don't care though, I like them and they're comfy.

But the hugest money spending of our life happened Wednesday night. We bought our house! We had been renting it for two years, but were offered the opportunity to buy it. After two appraisals and three nights of careful discussing (because our landlords are M's uncle and father) we agreed on a price that was acceptable to everybody. Now all we have to do is finalize the mortgage and visit the notary to get the paper work taken care of.
I believe I'm growing up. Within a week I'm an engaged woman who owns a house!