Hammerdrills and Jazz

The past two weeks have found us busy with the new house and local summertime festivals. Most of the work on the house has been very enjoyable and it is great to finally be able to put our own tastes and personalities into a place again. The two years of renting certainly had it’s advantages and it didn’t bother me at all like I first might have imagined, but it is very nice to be getting back into ownership mode. In a way, working on this place is easy compared to the one back in Maryland. I’m sure that some of that is sheer volume…this house is less than half the size. But the simple, square rooms and the consistent 220V electric wiring are also much easier than back in the states. The hardest adjustment has been adapting to the stone and concrete construction. Other than the staircase and trim, there is virtually no wood in the place. This has allowed me to introduce a new skill into my handyman regimen - Hammerdrilling. Need to put a cable through the wall? Hammerdrill. Hang a picture? Hammerdrill. Put up the new toiletpaper holder? Hammerdrill. Anything that goes deeper than the quarter inch of plaster is going to need an industrial style machine that can blast its way through the solid rock….pretty cool!

We’ve also had time for some other types of fun. Joe came over from the states for a week and we did a lot of biking, spent a day in Amsterdam and hit the local food fair. But once again, the best by far has been Haarlem Jazz. This event has been going on for the past week and even though Beth and I are not big jazz fans, this festival has turned into one of our local favorites. The streets become one giant party scene where you can eat and drink as you wander between the 8 different bandstands set up in the old quarter of the city. We tend to gravitate to the Blues stage or even the Big Band music, but the best part is always just sitting with beer or glass of wine and watching the world go by.

I’m off to America next week and am trying to get into a two week update pattern for the blog. Enjoy the remnants of summer…damn, it went quick!

Here are a few more pics from the house.



Living Room



Kitchen and Dining Rooms

The Board Room (Beth's office)

Verhuizen

Wij zijn verhuizd!

It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but the move into the new house is finally complete. Well, “complete” might be a bit of a strong word. It’s still a bit of a mess and the trim is not yet back up in the living room and the hallways are not yet painted and some of the lights are not yet up and the pictures are not yet hung and you get the idea. But the beds are in and the kitchen is functional so we are now sleeping and eating meals here.

We have already done quite a bit of work to the place. The biggest job was ripping out the old hardwood flooring. The old owner had added on to the house in the back and had not done a very good job of matching up the old flooring inside. The new stuff came out pretty easily, but the old stuff that was probably laid back in the 1930’s was a complete bitch. I had to borrow a saw from a friend and start cutting grid patterns into the wood to get it to even consider budging in small chunks. There is still a large pile of scrap in the back yard. But the new hardwood turned out really good and we are happy that we put in the effort.

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

















The kitchen/dining area with the old floor and before any painting.


















Removing the old wood-burner. Damn! That stove pipe wasn’t attached!

















The living room. You can see the line in the old floor where he added on. Yes, we know that the awning is kind of ugly, but it is electric and can go in and out as needed. On a hot summer day with this sunny south-facing garden, it is a blessing…so we’re going to keep it.

















The newer hardwood came out in huge chunks (leaning against the wall), the older hardwood had to be cut out and stacked in the back garden.

















Lovely red walls with white trim and blue carpet. We couldn’t change the bedrooms fast enough.

















New hardwood floor and a fresh coat of paint can do wonders. The new kitchen goes in this fall.