iMac says hi

Here's my very first post from our new house and from our very own iMac. Evidence that everything is in good working order. I'm soooo looking forward to work with my pictures again !!!!! More will follow; first back to unpacking ... We're now also connected to our original website server again. At this point, we don't know if we'll start up-dating that website again or not. Posting blogs is so much easier :-)

Buying stuff, unpacking stuff

I'm ever so proud of us. Yesterday, we made a decision on which bed to buy, as well as a dining room table and chairs. Taking into account that we are no quick decision makers, this is quite and accomplishment :-) Of course, we were amazed (not really, we knew what to expect) by how long it'll be before we have the items in the house. They are able to deliver the table week 41, the bed in week 43 .... And we were told that that is fast, because normally it takes about 12 weeks! Even to buy a comforter, there's a delivery time of three to four weeks. I guess this is because of the wide array of materials and designs one can choose from and perhaps the high quality of the items, but it's a huge difference with the delivery times in Taiwan. They normally appologized if someting took more than a few days to be delivered.

Sometimes I wonder if that is why the Dutch are so good at planning; we have to think ahead, otherwise we would not be able to get anything done or delivered on time. The same thing for road construction. In Taiwan, they fix a road in a few days, a week at the most. But they (have to) fix them very often. Not seldom because they seem to forget something. Here, road construction usually takes at least several months. Now the chicken and egg question. Are Taiwanese fast at road construction becuase they have to do it so often or do they have to do it so often because they do it (too) fast? The other way: are Dutch slow at road construction because we plan too much or do we have to plan well because the work takes so long? You tell me :-)

Monday, we started moving the furniture into the living and dining room areas. We managed to to move all the cupboards in and even our big and heavy bookcase. That last one took a bit of thinking about how to do it, but we managed to do it without major injuries to ourselves or the book case! Yesterday, I spent the whole day unpacking boxes. I did about ten, with probably close to a hundred still to go. We'll be living between boxes for quite a while I think.
First lunch in our new home

For Emma and Janne it must have felt like Sinterklaas (or Christmas, if you want); we let them unpack the boxes which had 'toys' written on them. This resulted in a big chaos of paper, boxes and toys, but they had so much fun doing it, that it was definitely worth it! It'll be nice to be able to put many of their toys in their bedrooms and have the living room look a little bit less like a day care centre.
Feels like Christmas ...

Meanwhile, Pieter still has to work several hours a day, which he mostly does early in the morning or late at night. He is busy hanging lamps, installing networks, bringing away trash items etc. Thanks to his hard work yesterday, we already have internet access in the new house, as well as a working telephone (don't know the number yet). It means I will be able to work on my pictures as soon as we have moved. I'm almost eight months behind with all my photo albums, so I know what I'll be doing for the next six months or so ...

Well, I hear Emma waking up, so I'd better stop for now. Next post with some pics of the moving.

Brussels

Drinking tea, remembering Taiwan ...

Today, Emma, Janne and me went to Brussels, to visit Florence and her family. The youngest addition to the family is little Julien, who is now seven weeks, and the main reason we went to see them. It was great seeing Florence again and the girls had fun playing with Henri, who is the oldest of the three boys and the same age as Janne. It was also nice to see the progress that's been made in the house. They live in this beautiful, big, old house, which still needs a lot of work done though. One can already imagine how it will be to live there, once all the works have been done and the rooms are ready! According to Florence, it will take a few years before they reach that phase :-) Still, the house is gorgious!
After some warming-up time, the girls and Henri had plenty of fun

Florence wouldn't be Florence if she hadn't prepared delicious food for us. This time she even made a rubarb-pie for Janne's birthday!
Thanks to Florence, Janne got to blow out four candles after all :-)

Toverland (Magic Land)

Today, we did something fun for the girls. We have been running back and forth to the new house so often and have been doing so much looking around for items we still need to buy, that we thought it would be nice to do someting just for them. They have been really great entertaining themselves while we were doing our new house things. So, we went to Toverland (Magic Land).
The witch's climbing hat; Emma and Janne were ever so proud when they managed to get to the top!

Toverland is something in between a amusement park and an (indoor) playground. There are several rides/rollercoasters, but above all there are lots of play areas and there is really BIG climbing equipment. Emma and Janne LOVED it and they were shattered by the time we went home. They were still too little for the most exciting rides and climbs, but that is something to look forward to next year :-)
Two very big slides, connected to an even bigger climbing jungle; a BIG hit with the girls

We thought we were being pretty Taiwanese, being at an indoor amusement park when it is sunny and hot outside! The park reminded us a bit of what Windance in Hsinchu used to have at the top floor, only a lot bigger.

Oh, I almost forgot; yesterday we also did something fun with the girls; fingerpainting. After about half an hour, it almost turned into bodypainting...
Look mom, the plate is stuck to my hands!

After some real fingerpainting, Emma could not resist the temptation either ...

Our things have arrived

Boxes come out of the truck

Packing material goes back in

It's already one week ago, but here are a few pics of the arrival of our household goods. As it was is storage in Rotterdam for a while, it arrived in two 20-foot containers, instead of in one 40-foot container. It didn't look as impressive as the 40-footer, in which our items arrived in Taiwan, but it still was A LOT of stuff. The moving in was done in very high speed, it took four guys about five hours to unload both containers. The next day, two of them came back to help 'set up the items' as the contract stipulated. Which meant that they put together three beds, two cribs-turned-couches, one bookcase and three wardrobes and they unpacked about 30% of the other boxes. Which means that the other 70% are still to be unpacked. By us! Emma and Janne love the fact that all the items are triple-packed in large sheets of paper, because they make perfect, really big, drawing surfaces.

Our garage as temporary storage facility. At this moment, there's about twice as many boxes in there, and about the same amount in Pieter's studio (behind the white doors in the back). We will have to move all this into the house ourselves... Starting next week Monday.

Janne turns 4!

Yesterday, the weather was glorious and we spent a very nice and hot afternoon at the playground. Even though they sell drinks, snacks and ice cream at the playground, they don't mind at all if you bring all your own stuff. So, we took about five big bags of candy, potatoe chips, snacks, drinks and cake with us, to celebrate Janne's birthday. We had a small, but very nice group of people and I think everybody had a good time. As the adult could sit at picknick benches in the shade, it was not just the kids who had fun :-)
Cake time at the playground

Only one little thing went 'wrong': mommy forgot to bring the birthday candles! We decided to sing an extra birthday song for Janne and she didn't really seem to mind too much. She was proudly and happily handing out party hats, gifts, drinking straws, plates etc to everybody way before it was time to use some of those items. But, it all worked out fine and we stayed until closing time.
Janne enjoying her birthday present

Almost there

Today, the workers started putting in the wooden floor in the living room and kitchen. The wood looks VERY nice and exactly as we hoped it would. Hopefully the lacquer they put on won't change the looks of the planks too much. We chose Canadian maple (esdoorn) for the floor. Maple is a very light (almost white), but hard type of wood. It should make the living space on the ground floor very sunny and light. In a little over a week, we should be able to move in.

There will still be lots of boxes to unpack and lots of work to be finished, but at least we'll be in our own house. The kitchen won't be finished until third week of August, as will Pieter's studio and the build-in closets in the bedrooms. Not all the (newly done) electricity is working as it is supposed too yet. Several doors need detailed work done. Every room needs painting (they're all white now). Etc etc. I guess most of you recognize the situation: most of the work will be done in the next two to three months and the remaining work will be done in ten years or so (if ever).

We keep our fingers crossed what the kitchen will look like when it's finished (not having very much confidence anymore in the craftsmanship of the guy who is building it),but apart from that, we're VERY HAPPY with the way the house turned out. Admitted, the project was much more expensive than anticipated, but it was worth the money. Well, almost ...

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Janne's birthday. If the weather is nice, we'll go to a nearby playground. So, we hope it'll be at least dry, because the rental house we're in now is not really big enough to accomodate even the few people we have invited :-) Fortunately, Janne's birthday is not a real kids party yet, but more of a family get-together. When Emma's birthday comes in December, I'll have to put much more effort and creativity into it. Now, we're just planning for a fun afternoon at the playground.