Showing posts with label Apartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apartment. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2008
By Popular Demand
Adding a few pictures by request. The first one... I guess some people needed visual evidence that Radhika DOES indeed ride a bike to work - weather permitting. The others that follow are of our place here in Amsterdam. The bedrooms and such are on the floor where you enter the apartment, and the living room, dining room, kitchen, and nook are on the top floor. Sounds backwards, but it is the best way as we're on the top of the building so there are 3 skylights providing natural light and they open up when the weather is nice. The rooftop terrace is a nice area to have for gatherings or reading, and just hanging out (again, weather permitting!). The views from both floors are exceptional and it's relatively quiet considering it's a popular section of the city. Enjoy!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Found A Home
Well, we are moving into our permanent apartment this weekend, and we couldn't be more relieved! Apartment hunting is not a joyous undertaking anywhere, but even less so over here. Finding what you want in a limited amount of time is a tall order, especially when you're looking for an apartment on a canal and near the central part of the city. But, we're generally happy with our choice and hope it will turn out to be a great decision in the long run. We take the keys on Friday around 1pm, and the movers will bring our stuff that came by ship on Saturday. It will be interesting as they lift everything up on what is called an elevator from the outside, and bring everything through the 3rd or 4th floor windows! The stairs are too long, narrow, and twisty for them to bring anything but the smallest and lightest items up. So they shut down a portion of the road as the trucks are parked out front. This is done on a routine basis, as we see it as we walk around the city. Radhika is concerned that certain things won't fit, as a co-worker had to saw their box frame in half to get it through their apartment windows. Well, there will be no cutting the 63" TV or our couch, and those are the 2 largest things we own. It will be a full weekend of furniture moving, setting up our new place, finding a safe place to lock up our bikes, and all of that fun stuff!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Apartment Hunting.102
Well, we're not done yet! Tomorrow morning, we will revisit 2 properties we have already seen as a final run through before we make the offer. Of course when we make the offer and it's accepted, there's no turning back. So we want to be sure. This has not been....fun, just another one of those "gotta do it" things in life. Our current lease on the temporary apaertment runs out on the 24th, so a decision has to be made soon as it takes 2 weeks for the paper work to go through. Once we are settled, I'll be able to stop my whining...at least about apartment searches. I'll find something else to moan about, I'm sure. Seriously, it will be nice to be in the long term place. Just hope it's the one we have our eye on!
Finally got a new stereo in this place! Still waiting on the part to fix the jacuuzi tub in the master bath. We have been in here since mid December and I told them about these things within the first couple of days. From what I'm told though, the Dutch don't move too fast, so I guess we're doing good to have music and hot bubbles in the bath before we leave here.
Went food shopping...another observation. They have not embraced plastic as much as the US has. Packaging has a considerable glass and metal presense here. It's good for the recycling that they do, but it sure makes your grocery bag weigh a ton! When was the last time you saw fruit juice in a can? One monthly trip to Sam's weighs as much as a day trip to the store here! And I wonder if the transportation of the added weight adds to the air pollution. Don't see where they do too much plastic recycling here.
Radhika's friend from boarding school is coming in from London on Friday night. Saturday, we're taking the Ford on our first long distance trip to Brugge, Belgium. Look it up on the net. It's a beautiful city. We did take the car out once already to Volendam which is about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam. It's in an earlier post. We'll be staying the night in Brugge, and leaving the next morning to drop Dimple off at the Amsterdam airport for her trip back to London. She has a Canon 30D, so we'll do some shooting, I'm sure. So, come back soon to see what's new, and I should have pictures up from Brugge. Don't get too pissed off Rose! And I have new images, and made changes to my website, so check that out as well instead of playing solitaire or whatever it is you're doing instead of work (like reading this post?). Later!
Finally got a new stereo in this place! Still waiting on the part to fix the jacuuzi tub in the master bath. We have been in here since mid December and I told them about these things within the first couple of days. From what I'm told though, the Dutch don't move too fast, so I guess we're doing good to have music and hot bubbles in the bath before we leave here.
Went food shopping...another observation. They have not embraced plastic as much as the US has. Packaging has a considerable glass and metal presense here. It's good for the recycling that they do, but it sure makes your grocery bag weigh a ton! When was the last time you saw fruit juice in a can? One monthly trip to Sam's weighs as much as a day trip to the store here! And I wonder if the transportation of the added weight adds to the air pollution. Don't see where they do too much plastic recycling here.
Radhika's friend from boarding school is coming in from London on Friday night. Saturday, we're taking the Ford on our first long distance trip to Brugge, Belgium. Look it up on the net. It's a beautiful city. We did take the car out once already to Volendam which is about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam. It's in an earlier post. We'll be staying the night in Brugge, and leaving the next morning to drop Dimple off at the Amsterdam airport for her trip back to London. She has a Canon 30D, so we'll do some shooting, I'm sure. So, come back soon to see what's new, and I should have pictures up from Brugge. Don't get too pissed off Rose! And I have new images, and made changes to my website, so check that out as well instead of playing solitaire or whatever it is you're doing instead of work (like reading this post?). Later!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Apartment Hunting.101
Well, after seeing 14 places back in June, then another estimated seven back in early December and another 16 over the past 3 days, I'm getting a good idea of how a lot of people live here in Amsterdam. I also remember what a total drag it was looking for a home over 7 years ago!! This time, the place we choose will be our home for at least the next year and ideally the next 3. It's always easier to weed out those early ones that don't make the cut, isn't it? But then you get down to those remaining 2, 3, or more, that have almost everything you are looking for but just don't quite take you all the way there.
We've learned a bit along the way...the big thing would be that toilets are like gold here! If you have more than one, you must be royalty!! We saw a 4 bedroom apartment, and it STILL had only 1 toilet!! I mean...COME ON!!!! I'll be the first to say as American's, we're spoiled to an extent. We're used to a way of living that's, well, referred to as a higher standard of living. Orlando provided us a 4/3, and sure, one of the toilets gets used about as much as "W" uses a dictionary, but there were those rare occasions we had a housefull and each one was "occupado". I guess we just don't like to "hold it". We are told it is just not the "Dutch way" to have more than 1...that they get by...have no problem with it. We are also looking at places that are in or near the city center, so space is at a premium (see previous posts where I dish on that). It would be easier finding 2 toilets if we were looking for a place out in the rural areas, but we're not looking to live out of the city. Also, we must be careful here. When a place advertises that it has 2 baths, that doesn't mean it has 2 toilets. Some rooms you go into and there's a shower, and only a shower. Some bedrooms have sinks in them. Yes, I know I wrote bedrooms, that's not a mistake. Some bathrooms have sinks and a bathtub with a shower head, but no curtain and no way to hang a rod and curtain. Many have full windows right next to the shower or bathtub, so you can clean your body as you entertain your neighbors with it!! We were at one of Radhika's co-workers apartment around Christmas, and their female neighbor was doing a little cleaning wearing a shirt. When she bent over just a little, it reminded me of Tom Petty's album, "Full Moon Fever"!! Some places I've looked at had a window to another apartment literally 2-3 feet from a window of the apartment I was looking at! "Love thy neighbor" takes on a whole new meaning over here.
Another new thing for us is making deals with the landlord. If you like a place, but it is lacking in something, you can negotiate for it. Say...like, you don't have a DVD that plays the European format, don't want to buy a 220v vacuum cleaner, and there's not enough shelving in the closets. Offer a lease that's for 3 years, but with an option to break it after a year with 2 months notice, and you can get those things and perhaps more provided by the landlord.
Well, that's about it for now. More on our apartment adventure as it developes. I'll add a few pics of the ones we have looked at, so you can get an idea. These are for reference, so you photo majors need not critique me on the backlight situations on some of these. Until next time.....
We've learned a bit along the way...the big thing would be that toilets are like gold here! If you have more than one, you must be royalty!! We saw a 4 bedroom apartment, and it STILL had only 1 toilet!! I mean...COME ON!!!! I'll be the first to say as American's, we're spoiled to an extent. We're used to a way of living that's, well, referred to as a higher standard of living. Orlando provided us a 4/3, and sure, one of the toilets gets used about as much as "W" uses a dictionary, but there were those rare occasions we had a housefull and each one was "occupado". I guess we just don't like to "hold it". We are told it is just not the "Dutch way" to have more than 1...that they get by...have no problem with it. We are also looking at places that are in or near the city center, so space is at a premium (see previous posts where I dish on that). It would be easier finding 2 toilets if we were looking for a place out in the rural areas, but we're not looking to live out of the city. Also, we must be careful here. When a place advertises that it has 2 baths, that doesn't mean it has 2 toilets. Some rooms you go into and there's a shower, and only a shower. Some bedrooms have sinks in them. Yes, I know I wrote bedrooms, that's not a mistake. Some bathrooms have sinks and a bathtub with a shower head, but no curtain and no way to hang a rod and curtain. Many have full windows right next to the shower or bathtub, so you can clean your body as you entertain your neighbors with it!! We were at one of Radhika's co-workers apartment around Christmas, and their female neighbor was doing a little cleaning wearing a shirt. When she bent over just a little, it reminded me of Tom Petty's album, "Full Moon Fever"!! Some places I've looked at had a window to another apartment literally 2-3 feet from a window of the apartment I was looking at! "Love thy neighbor" takes on a whole new meaning over here.
Another new thing for us is making deals with the landlord. If you like a place, but it is lacking in something, you can negotiate for it. Say...like, you don't have a DVD that plays the European format, don't want to buy a 220v vacuum cleaner, and there's not enough shelving in the closets. Offer a lease that's for 3 years, but with an option to break it after a year with 2 months notice, and you can get those things and perhaps more provided by the landlord.
Well, that's about it for now. More on our apartment adventure as it developes. I'll add a few pics of the ones we have looked at, so you can get an idea. These are for reference, so you photo majors need not critique me on the backlight situations on some of these. Until next time.....
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