On September 28, we moved in. On moving day, our contractor was putting the bathroom fixtures in the newly tiled bathroom. The kitchen had been installed the end of the previous week, but during delivery, the driver tripped and dropped the bottom corner cupboard, so while the kitchen is installed, they have to come back, take out half the cabinets, and put in an undamaged cupboard. This means we can’t tile the walls or floor yet. Plus, we had some delivery issues – despite ordering a month ahead of time, the range hood wasn’t there by the time the kitchen was installed, and the kitchen tap we ordered was missing a few of the connector bits. Plus, we’d ordered one box too few of the floor tiles for the toilet, so that couldn’t be done either. Not to mention random finishing throughout the house that was not yet complete. Or that we hadn’t got to hauling away the construction waste in our front and back yard. Oh, and we hadn’t got the floor down in the attic, and it had been done wrong in the kids’ room and attic landing.
But despite all that, the house was livable. We got the kitchen sink in within a few days, and the kids’ floor redone, and we’ve been slowly working on unpacking and finding places for everything. The month has been a bit hard because we’ve been hit by sickness – both Liam and Kaya have had fevers and colds, I was sick for about a week and a half, just completely drained and enervated, and just for kicks, Liam got the chicken pox – he’s still spotty. Which, of course, means that Kaya should be getting it any day now. At least we’re getting it over now, and should be better before we go home for Christmas on December 13. All that has made progress a little slower than I’d have liked. Plus, after working non-stop on the house since mid-June, I’m just tired of it, despite it not yet being done.
By Dutch standards we’ve actually done quite well. It’s not uncommon for work to go on for a year, or more, here – in fact our neighbour a few doors down worked on the house himself for a year before they moved in and is still getting stuff done. And when I take Liam to playschool I go by a house I liked that sold before this house came on the market, and it’s still being reconstructed.
In other news, I’ve started my own company so I can do the editing and writing work that I sometimes get from Ivo’s company and very, very hopefully also do consulting work in my field, including stuff on behaviour change and sustainability. At this point I’m still working on getting the website up, but I will be looking for clients soon for both the editing/writing and consulting bits. A bit nerve-wracking really, but if I can make it work it will be great to be able to work from home while the kids are still small. At this point, they are going to a babysitter two days a week so I can work on those days, but it’s pretty flexible. Not that I’m ruling that out getting a job either – if I find a job that I want to do for 3-4 days a week, I’ll happily do that. And I haven’t ruled out a PhD either. But at this point, I am going to try to make this consulting thing work.
Anyway, for photos from the Fall, click here or on the photo below:
