First week of “meivakantie” for David which was a very boring “Staycation” as we were moving house. I offered him to go off to an overnight camp for four days, but he wasn’t interested. I told him he would be bored and he promised not to whine. All in all, he did pretty good.

Apr 20 – Day 109

Monday and no school for David, but yes work for Mom & Dad. In the afternoon the container that had been stored in the middle of the road was picked up and that felt good to have things a bit less bothersome for the neighbors.

David’s karate class was moved from Tuesday to Monday for the first week of school vacation. It was quite a small class as most people were gone for the two weeks, but he was able to participate and practice.

Apr 21 – Day 110

The sanded floors were painted with oil and they looked so shiny! Lacquer came the next couple of days and finished gassing off over the weekend.

Apr 22 – Day 111

I went for a walk with my international women’s group on Wednesday morning and we took a bit of a side path “up” a hill overlooking the Japanese Garden and the overall view was gorgeous. Normally we walk on the path through the garden itself.

As we walked through MaximaPark we came across these guinea fowl that wander through this area of the park. I have no idea if they “belong” to anyone but they are super cute and I smile every time I manage to catch a glimpse of them.

Apr 23 – Day 112

Thursday I was back in Amsterdam at work and this incredibly picturesque scene is a couple of blocks away from the office. So very postcard perfect pretty.

Apr 24 – Day 113

Friday was our first moving day and we weren’t fully packed, but a lot was done. The main problem is that the downstairs floor wasn’t ready for anything to touch it yet which meant no heavy furniture on the ground floor. The lacquer would’t be ready for any pressure until Sunday morning which was quite the hiccup. Our friend Sándor came and helped us pack up the downstairs bookcases and shelves.

The main job was to get the heavy furniture from our house to across the street to the new house. We moved as much stuff upstairs as we could with the help of three strong guys from Ecuador. We also put some heavy downstairs furniture into the back garden and were so very lucky for dry weather through the weekend so nothing got ruined. Whew…

We finished the first day around 17:30. Friends took David for a sleepover and they invited us to dinner as well knowing that we wouldn’t be able to cook yet. As we had a bit of time in between finishing and dinner time, we took ourselves out for drinks in the nearby shopping center and had delicious mocktails in the sun. Utter bliss.

Apr 25 – Day 114

Saturday we got somethings organized but were also quite wiped out from Friday so we sort of recovered a bit as well. David’s room was set up and he was ready to sleep in the new house and luckily the bottom floor was finished gassing off so it was alright to sleep in the house.

Apr 26 – Day 115

Sunday loads of friends came over to help us out some more and we got things moved into the ground floor and mostly set in place. We all worked together to get a lot of stuff done. Some were amazingly into serious electrical work and helped us take down lights which we were going to have an electrician do. Together, we moved the heavy furniture form the garden and front entrance into the ground floor. Once the old house was mostly empty we cleaned it out, and got the new kitchen somewhat organized. It was a big team effort which we could never have done alone in one day.

Our main goal was to have the place be empty so that it was ready to hand over on May 1. We got about 95% there and had a couple more days to finish up and give it a good cleaning.

The view in the back garden is beautiful and we feel so blessed to be able to be where we are.

I am looking forward to having our wind chimes out of storage, but in the interim, this will do: