Day 3

Our bikes came today! They really make the trip from Utrecht easier.

We got the carpet in the entry hall pulled up today,

and also took the carpet off the stairs.

We finished taking the brick off the wall,

then pulled up the carpet in the living room.

It's a clean shot to the back yard now from the front window,

and it's time to empty the dumpster...

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Day 2

We're both pretty amazed at the progress we're making. The living room wall is coming along.



We pulled up the carpets from all of the rooms except the ground floor, the first floor (second floor for Americans) hallway, and the steps to the second floor.

The rooms above and below are what will be the master bedroom.

The steps between the first and second floors are free of carpet now.
The second floor looks much cleaner with the carpets removed from the study

and the 2nd floor hall.

Tomorrow we'll finish removing the brick wall in the living room and pull the rest of the carpet.

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Day 1 in our house

On Monday, around noon, we got the keys to our new house. It was an emotional day. The guy we bought the house from was the original owner and had lived here since 1964, when it was built. He raised two daughters here. His wife died last year, then he moved earlier this year after a fall down the steps. He was glad we were buying it, but it still had to have been tough for him to let go of the keys.

After getting our keys, we rode our bikes to the house and started working. We planned on just having some champagne, but that was quickly forgotten once we took hold of the crowbars.
We got quite a bit done the first day. Here's Ian, deconstructing the partial faux brick wall in the living room.

More pics after the jump. . .
The wall to the right of Ian, in what will be the dining room, is made of solid brick. We may leave it, but we're not sure yet.

The room above will be the Master bedroom. If you look closely, you can see a hole in the middle of the wall.
Here's the hole from the other side. We're going to remove this wall to make the bedroom larger.
This will be the guest room - it shares the deck with the master bedroom.

We went to bed at around 9 pm, completely exhausted.

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What the . . . ?

Wow. It's been ten days since I last updated this. We've been BUSY. I'll give you the highlights over the next couple of posts. This week started with a trip to IKEA for their 1 Euro breakfast. It was not far from there that I noticed this:

Ian tells me something was lost in the translation.

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De Woonbeurs - Amsterdam Home Design Show

Chris, Janine, Ian and I went to a home show in Amsterdam last weekend. We're all looking for ideas for our new houses. We liked the chairs - the design was fun and they were very comfortable.
(More pics after the jump)



Chris was obviously up for a good time.

The sinks and fireplaces were worth the trip - everything else was a bonus.




Above is my fave.








It was huge - we spent about 3 hours there, and I think we could have spent a couple more very easily, but they threw us out at 10. It was raining when we left. Our train stopped at Duivendrecht and we had to wait in the rain for a bus - I guess the electicity went out, so the trains couldn't function safely. We got home, completely soaked, sometime after midnight. Chris and Janine got home even later and wetter.

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Fred Phelps. He's GAY!

In case you don't recognize the guy with the signs between the two in the shirts that say "He's Gay," it's my old neighbor from Topeka, Kansas, Fred Phelps.

I don't know who the two in the T-shirts are, but I love them.

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Disposable Scrabble Game

Here's a scrabble board that conveniently prints on an A4 or lettter sized sheet of paper. if you are ever stuck on a plane or in a pub with no scrabble board you can use this sheet to get your fix.

(via Lifehacker)

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