Hello everyone!!

 

Well, we are getting ready for our first Christmas here in the Klokjesbloemlaan. I want to keep buying stuff and buying stuff, but I have to put the brakes on sometime. I thought we had a lot of decorations but of course, in an apartment they were alot...not in an house!! I think we have done a nice job anyway. I put up some pictures for you to see.

I also put in pictures of our kitchen as it is now finished. We are very happy with it. There are photos too of our hedges that were put in by the city of Utrecht. They look a little dead now, but hopefully in the spring they will turn green and look nice. The hedges in the backyard are bigger as you see in the pictures so we are thinking that they will after all provide a little bit of shelter. It is funny, but since the hedges are in in the backyard the backyard seems a lot wider. Weird.

We are looking forward to Christmastime and we even have presents under the tree already from Canada!! Exciting!! I will take lots of pictures Christmas Day and put them up for you all.

I want to take this chance now and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2007!!

Hello there!!

 

Well..we have been here in the Klokjesbloemlaan for one week now. Wow..feels like months already. We have been busy with a lot of stuff this week..well, mostly Thomas and Andre have been busy. Andre built some shelving for the utility closet downstairs so now we can stash all of our stuff there. Thomas has been busy installing light fixtures and stuff so now we have light!! The blinds that we ordered are finally in so some time this week we will put them up or maybe Thomas waits until his vacation to do that. You know what that means..more pictures!!

 

The title of this blog is the ice cream truck..well..yes...we have an ice cream truck in the neighborhood!!  A modern version of Dickie-dee (are they still around in Canada??). Every Sunday the guy comes around..and yes...he rings a bell to let everyone know he is in the street. You can get packages ice cream or he has the real scoops of ice cream also...exciting, huh!!! I thought it was cool.

 

Well...enjoy the latest installment of pictures..and to all of those people that are waiting for an email from me...this week..I promise!!

Hello there..

 

Well, our kitchen is now in. Most of it anyway. The RVS plate that goes behind the gas cooker didn't fit so they have to remake it along with the border of countertop. How exciting was it yesterday!! Things are really starting to happen over there in Vleuten. We are very very pleased with the kitchen as it was everything we hoped it would be. Really nice colors and the appliances are top.

 

Next big thing....the floor downstairs and that is coming Thursday. Again, I will for sure take pictures.

 

Hello all..

 

Well...it is here already!! Our last week here in Harmelen. We will be leaving the place that we called home for 3 years and embark on a new adventure as homeowners!! Can't believe the time is finally here. We are very, very excited.

 

Today the kitchen will be installed and then on the 20th the floor downstairs will be laid. The bottom floor will be all but finished. We have to paint the little closet in the living room but that will be a fast job. I think we are going to do that today while the Germans are busy. We are also going shopping today to buy much needed window dressings. We are thinking vertical blinds in one window downstairs (as well as for the bathroom) and then a sort wood-like folding blinds. Not sure what that is in English..but in Dutch...vouwgordijnen. We saw some nice ones so we will go and check it out today.

 

The more that we see the color on the walls in the living room the more we are liking it. It was a bit of a shock at first to see it as it was a bit more color then on the palet that we chose. It is a really earthy color though..very calming.

 

I have uploaded more pictures for your enjoyment so go and check them out!! I will take pictures today of our kitchen and then tonight I will put them up.

 

 

Hello again...

 

Wow...2 weblog entries on the same day...:)

 

Went to the house tonight to check out Thomas and Andre's hard work today. They finished our bedroom off and the closet as well as the hallway so that is all finished and ready for the flooring. Everything is going fast!!

 

Hello everyone!!

 

Well, we are into our second week of painting and it is going great at the house!! We had a good time on the weekend and were able to get both bedrooms, the hallway upstairs and the attic started with one coat of paint. Yesterday Andre and Marijke went to the house while Thomas and I were working and put the second coat of paint on the 2nd bedroom. Today Thomas is going to finish our bedroom and the hallway and maybe the attic. The colors look really cool. I have taken some pictures from Saturday but will take more today as you can see the finished product.

This week the man is coming to paint the downstairs floor and the stairwell and the people are coming to measure the downstairs for the flooring. Also, the electricien/plumber is coming today to make the kitchen ready i.e. changing the pipes and sockets.

Everything is on schedule and next week we will be ready for Tijmen to come and put the floor in upstairs. We are looking forward to seeing that!!

 

Hello everyone!!

 

What a day it was today...full of excitement!! We had trouble sleeping last night (example: Thomas was up before me today at 6.30 in the morning!!---anyone that knows Thomas knows that this never happens!! And especially not on his day off!! hahahaa).

 

Today we had the visit to the house. Giovanni was nice enough to accompany us as he has more knowledge in this area than we do. We went room to room and wrote down things that weren't acceptable although there wasn't really that much. We are very, very pleased with how the house looks. Especially the upstairs bathroom...wow....it really turned out nice.

 

We got to meet our neighbors for a split second-Mathijs and Marije so that was cool...it ended the mystery. They seem very nice, down to earth people.

 

Now..only 9 sleeps until this house is ours!! We can hardly wait. Next week we are planning to spend the whole day in the house and get cracking with the work. The ceilings and the downstairs bathroom are all finished which was a nice surprise. One less thing we have to do.

 

There are a lot of pictures today so we hope you enjoy them all!!

Hello there..

 

Of course we were at the house yesterday...but a camera with dead batteries is not very useful, is it now!! hahahaha. I will write an update of everything that is happened so far for you anyway;

 

Our front door is now on...a nice bright blue color!! Not impressed, but it looks ok I guess. It is almost the same color as the temporary door..a little bit deeper blue. The bottom two windows on the front of the house (in the kitchen) have been tinted black now as well as the two windows at the back of the house (the lower ones of course). That was a nice finishing touch. We have a doorbell and that was cool...however we rang it and the owners weren't home!! hahahahaha....Int the front of our house there is dirt on both sides of our walkway leading to the front door so we are thinking there will be some sort of things planted there or we can plant what we want on both sides of the door. The street in front of us almost finished...they are almost past our house with the brick. We also have two planter boxes made of concrete that are at the end of our walkway to the front door. According to the architectural plans it looks like they will be planting bushes there.

 

We looked through the front window and the bathroom is all but finished from what we could see. The toilet is there and the wash basin also. The doors have been placed in the hallway and for the closet under the stairs. The bathtub is no longer in the living room so we are guessing that that has been placed upstairs as well. In the backyard we have a sort of stepping stones that goes from the house to the shed through the dirt so that is handy.

 

Really, that is all to report. Oh yah...we go to look at the house on the 13th of June and we got our letter this past week that we will be getting the key on June 21st!! Only 16 sleeps to go. Speaking of sleeping....it is not very easy these days as we have so much on our minds. It is such an exciting time for us.

 

I will definitely buy some more batteries for the camera and I guarantee that there will be new pictures after June 13 of eveyrthing upstairs and down!! Stay tuned!!

 

hello there!

 

We were at the house on the weekend again and we saw that the men are busy with the parking lot beside the house..busy with the brickwork (instead of having a paved street, it will be composed of bricks). There is an interesting thing in front of our house...cement blocks. We are thinking that they will eventually be part of the sidewalk and some bushes that will be planted there.

We looked inside the house and the radiators were there...our wash basin that will be going into the downstairs bathroom was on the floor by the front window and our bathtub is still in the living room. Other than that, that was all that was new.

We had some good news last week as we got our letter from the builders telling us that on June 13th we can go into the house for the walk-through. At that time we go with an inspector and anything that is not up to standards will be noted and replaced as soon as possible. About 1-2 weeks after that we will receive the key and then that piece of land is ours officially!! Let the painting begin!!!

 

Hello everyone!!

 

Well..today was a good one. We got a call last night that the Germans wanted to come today to measure the kitchen so Thomas met the guy there. Was able to get some pictures of the inside of the house so go and take a look!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....how exciting!!

Hi everyone!!

 

We had a lot of fun at the site today and a lot of surprises!! First of all, they are busy with the downstairs walls and from what we can see they are almost done. The bathroom on the ground floor is all tiled and just waiting for the toilet. Also, upstairs, we could see through the bathroom window and you can see the black stripe against the white tiles that are already in there!! We definitely didn't expect to see all this in a weeks time. Our bathtub is on the ground floor in the living room so we think that maybe this week that will be ready to go upstairs. The dirt has been filled in in our backyard up to the bottom of the back doors where it should be. They are busy with the street in front of us as it is now all covered in sand..as is the parking area that will be going in beside our house. A couple of the houses in our block have the concrete blocks all ready and a sand path that goes from the house to the shed. The concrete blocks will be places in the sand path so that you can walk easily from the back door to the shed. We are still waiting for the Germans to contact us for an appointment so hopefully we can be there when they are there to take more pictures. We are dying to see the 2nd floor!!!!

 

Hope that the pictures we took from the outside looking in are viewable for everyone.

Well...sorry there was nothing to report last week..hence no post. We were suprised to see today that the scaffolding is gone and now it really looks like a house!! Andre...jij had gelijk!! Our window at the back is now repaired so we have no way in anymore. We took a few pictures through the plastic but they didn't turn out that great. You can see the profile a bit of the metal beginnings of the walls. You have to look really close to see that though. We are hoping that we can call the Germans to come and measure the kitchen in the next two weeks as if that doesn't happen soon we will have to wait til after the July vacation to get our kitchen in the house. We are hoping that will not be the case. One good thing is that in the next couple of weeks when the Germans come we  can get into our house at that time while they are busy measuring. Good opportunity to get some more pictures of course!! Until then, I am afraid there wont be any more to post unless we have an open day again. 

 

Easter weekend we went shopping and bought a couch...have put a picture up of it. We also bought a new bedroom set as ours is in bad shape and we have no intention of moving that to the new house. We were very happy with our choices and did shop around for a few hours before making the final decision...so no hasty decisions were made.

 

 

 

Hi everyone!!

 

Well, Thomas and I were feeling adventurous this afternoon and decided to climb through the back window of our house to sneak a peak inside. We took lots of pictures in there so go and check out the photo album. It is coming along really nicely. The major thing to report is the fact that we now have a shed and it is a nice one. Big enough for our 3 bikes and garden stuff. Didn't really expect that.

 

I also threw in a picture of Thomas on his bike...a sort of action shot!! Today was nice enough to go by bike to Vleuten. I had my bike computer hooked up and saw that it only took 15 minutes to get there from Harmelen so that means that is is do-able when I have to ride from Vleuten to Woerden to go to work. What is 15 minutes?? Almost nothing. I also talked Thomas into extending our little bike trip to go outside of Harmelen to have a look at the baby sheep!! What a nice site to see!! Anyone who knows me knows I love sheep so of course you can imagine I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

 

Enjoy the pictures everyone!!

We have been presently surprised today when we went to the house. Our ground floor has been poured already and the dakkapel (sorry, not sure of what it is in english) on the back of the house is on!! The brick work is completely finished from what we can tell. At least we were able to sneak a peak under the plastic by the back window to take some photos of the ground floor. We will just have to imagine what it is like upstairs!!

We have received a letter from the builders and we can go and see the house on the 13th of April so we are really looking forward to that. They are hoping to have the walls in by then so we can make an appointment with the kitchen company to come and measure. Exciting!!!!!

Hello there..

 

Well....the roof on our house is almost finished so that was a pleasant site for us yesterday at the site. The builders were busy this week laying the wiring and everything on the ground floor...no pictures unfortunately as the front door was still locked and the window at the back of the house is now blocked off with plastic (that was our means of entry the last few weeks). From now on there will only be pictures on this site of the outside of the house. Maybe we will make an appointment in the coming weeks with the builders to go on an afternoon or something to get into the house to make pictures of everything.

 

I am now kicking myself because last weekend we were still able to get into the house through the opening at the back...but...I had a "blonde moment" and forgot to put the disk in the camera before taking it with us so there was no way to make pictures. We had stairs leading to all the floors and we got to see the pipes for the plumbing and the hotwater heater hookups and everything. So, yah...I just have the happy memories to hold on to!! But we will hopefully find a way to take some photos of the inside. Where there is a will there is a way. The block beside us has been prepared for the floor to be poured on the ground floor so that will be next for us.

 

Had a good weekend and shared a nice 2 hour conversation with Jacquie from Canada. It has been a while since we talked so I enjoyed that very much!! Jacquie..have Dan show you how to get onto MSN messenger..it really is easy and a hell of a lot cheaper!!

 

 

Well..we were again at the site and our roof is there!! The door was locked so we could not go in..we can wait though. There are no stairs yet anyway so we can't check out the other floors. The blue plastic on the back of the roof will be where our big window/dormer will be that is in the 2nd bedroom and the bathroom. The other big window further up the roof is in the attic so that is nice. Lots of light will be let through. On the front of the house the windows and wall are there that will be in our bedroom and our closet. Sorry for the quality of the two pictures of the front of the house...too much coffee I guess and I was shaking too much. Next time Thomas will take the pictures.

Well...again on our regular trip to the site were we amazed at how fast everything seems to be coming along. In our block all of the brick work is done on the ground floor-front to back. There is also a nice temporary door that was locked so we couldn't get in the conventional way..thomas jumped in the opening where there will be a window in the back of the house. I, unfortunately am not so big so I had to stay outside. We were however, in the block beside ours (everything that is done to their house is the same as it will be for us). They have the stairs in to all the floors so we got to see the 2nd floor and the attic!! That was so cool people!!! That whole block - in a weeks time- has a roof and stairs already!! Soooooooooooo...next week we hope to be able to take some pictures of the areas in our house. We are keeping our fingers crossed!!

Hi again...

 

Since last week the men have begun with the brickwork on the bottom floor. The side of the house and the front are now covered in brick.

Special notation for MOM: As you will notice on one of the pictures we put up there is yellow insulation behind the brickwork. So there you have all your questions answered. Took that picture especially for you!!! hahahaha

Hello all

 

We were at the site again on the weekend and we now have the windows at both the back and front of the house on the ground floor. The double doors are also on on the backside of the house. We saw in front of our house and at the back there was a pile of brick under plastic so we think that maybe that will be begin this week. In a weeks time the builders have put the brick on the ground floor on the block beside us so they are really getting stuff done!!

Hope you all enjoy the pictures we have put up once again.

 

 

Wat gaat alles snel nu, zeg!! Wij waren vandaag op de bouwplaats en inderdaad staat de 1e verdieping al! Wij hebben foto's gemaakt, dus ga lekker kijken!!

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Wow..is everything going fast!! We were by the house today to check out the progress and lo and behold, the 1st floor is on already. We have, of course, taken pictures so we hope that you will go and have a look!