House Updates

In addition to Jude's busy first week at school, we have been busy with preparations for our move which is happening this Saturday! Our initial Oct 5th closing date was moved up when we learned that the current owners were leaving sooner than expected. We found new tenants (Pete's new coworker) to take over our lease so now we close on Friday! We have had less time to prepare for the move and to say our goodbyes to our apartment, but are happy to get in early to feel settled before Pete's work gets really busy. 

Remember when we said goodbye to our Brooklyn home and took off for Amsterdam with just 10 suitcases and two shipped boxes? 

How simple it all seemed

Well, we may have accumulated a few things in the past two years... And now, moving from a furnished apartment to an unfurnished house we needed to accumulate a lot more stuff! I am a member of a number of Facebook Amsterdam Selling groups and expat sales are sort of the best. People move here, buy all new furniture and then sell it all for a song a few years later when they move back home. Yes, most of it is Ikea, but I happen to like Ikea. And then you go to collect said second hand Ikea item and the sellers are like, "oh, and do you need kitchen stuff, decorative stuff, etc for free?" People get desperate to get rid of stuff and I have been the happy recipient of their generosity. I imagine this will be us in a few years so I will be sure to pay it forward. 

We've scored some major deals, but the biggest of all was a former executive selling the entire furniture contents of his house for 1,000 euro. Including 2 flat screen Tvs, a woman's bike, 2 sofas, the list goes on and on! This was back in July so we made the decision to buy it all, rent a moving van, borrow a friend and move everything to a storage unit until we were ready to move. Even with the costs of the rental van and storage unit for a few months, we knew it would be worth it. There is a lot that we won't need and will resell to recoup some of the costs to make it an even sweeter deal. 

Maeve helping at the storage unit a month ago

We filled it up in no time!

And now we are in the packing phase of the move with the movers scheduled to come first thing Saturday morning. Where did all of this stuff come from??

Our current view

A lot goes into buying and setting up a house, especially in a new country. A new washer/dryer was purchased from a salesman who shared a lot of Dutch history. Carpet for the stairs was ordered while we had our first "we lost our child in a store scare" (Jude was behind the drapes hiding). Contractors and painters came and gave quotes. We've chosen an internet/TV package and are choosing insurance options. Oh, and we are transferring a lot of dollars into euros to pay for the house at closing on Friday! We will be in our rental until September 15th, taking next week to set up the new house.

It is going to be a busy time, but we brought in reinforcements! Oma and Opa arrived today. They initially were coming to help me this week while Pete goes on his grade level trip. Then they were going to return in October after spending a few weeks traveling in Portugal to help us with the move. Now, we'll take care of the move in the first part of the visit and have the second part to just enjoy our time together.