Life changing moves

Well... there you go.. how things can sometimes happen QUICK

Tuesday I arrived in Holland (about 21:30) and I said to my brother that it was such a pity I didn't have a car for a few weeks so I could cart myself around in search for the perfect house and browse furniture.

Well.. that same night we drove past a few houses I had picked from the net but none of them looked very cosy in the dark so a few of them got discarded instantly.,.. then my brother called one of his friends who has a garage who said he had a car for me to use while I was here, a blue peugeot 205, lovely little car.

So, Wednesday morning I first went to view a house which was not what I wanted, then had coffee with my mum and at 11 went to the notary to get him to draw up a 'living together' contract which he almost didn't want to do because he claimed we would not live together :-)

The guy was like one of those old fashioned doctors, horrible, telling me off for having my money shared with John, that it wasn't safe and that we should change that and each have our own account and one combined. I so was tempted to scream 'get out of my life' but I needed him for the document that will allow us to buy this house together. :-)

Anyway after I convinced him that we shared all our accounts and houses and a lot of love he reluctantly agreed to drawing up the contract as well as allowing John to sign a power of attorney so John doesn't have to fly over. (John does NOT like flying :-))

Then Jacco called and said he had 'my' car and would you believe the license plate starts with TG? ;-) That sounds like meant to be or what? So I am now the proud owner of my own blue Peugeot 205 from 1998, over the moon I am!

Then my mum and I went to a place to have something to eat and we passed an estate agent and saw a flat in the window which was JUST over budget but looked nice enough to check out so I went in and got the particulars... well.. the pictures alone made me fall in love at first sight and my mum loved them too.. so .. made an appointment for a viewing, went there with Karin and my mum to view at 15:30 and it was IT - it is as quirky as I am, very different and strange but still big and plenty of room for me and John AND a proper room for someone to stay over!

The kitchen is gorgeous, all tiled from top to bottom as well as the bathroom and.. wait for it... it has a jacuzzi bath!!! How great is that! The extra 'box, dressing, laundry, visitorsroom' is a bit warped though. It was a childs room and some artist has drawn a fantastic mural on the wall - it is just too beautiful to take off but it did make me wonder if anyone could sleep there and not get nightmares :)

I have a few pictures here but I must say you can't really see the quirkyness, that only becomes apparent when you are in the place....

So.. picture 1 is the flat itself, the apartment building I should say... you need to scroll to the right a bit and then you see the view... then on the 2nd row you see a few pictures of the lounge..the blue glass blocks are my absolute favorite... very beautiful as they are but they also have lights in them for nighttime.. great stuff...

On the 2nd row the picture on the far right you can see a door to the left, that leads to the little room where you can sleep if you dare and that then leads again (with a glass door) to the bathroom, mind you, the toilet is still separate, they didn't put an extra one in :)

In the ceiling in the bedroom and livingroom there are tiny little lights which look like stars in the dark, very romantic :)

I am so glad I found something that I absolutely love, I was a lot scared! I do feel guided because.. who manages to get a car with their name on it AND a house they adore in ONE day? Unbelievable.. I am reeling!

Next step now is to have a 2nd viewing on Tuesday with the mortgage guy and my brother to get the more objective view (not that they can ever change my mind but they might be helpful in the negotiations since all I want to scream is YES YES YES anything you want I'll pay which is totally ridiculous since the house has been on the market for 2 years since it is just TOO personal, they are just lucky they found someone from their planet to love it :-)

John and I do realise that we will probably not be able to resell again but came to the conclusion that I will always want to have a pad to go to in Holland instead of staying with family, I so need my own bombshelter where I can pretend that I am still Dutch :-)

And it is fun here I must say, very confrontational, like.. of course it is great that I know where everything is, it feels very cosy but if I am in our version of Tesco which is about a third of the size of the one I am used to I get a bit irritated because they only have expensive brands and not the nice cheap tesco value stuff which we always buy. John will just have to take truckloads of stuff with him ;-)

The BAC is still working really hard on moving me to Holland, I must say they are really coming through for me, how great is it that you can move country and take your job with you? It *has* advantages to work for a Big American Company!