A year goes by pretty fast when you think about it. Right now I’m thinking back to last year, we were in the middle of a heatwave while moving our stuff to the new house. When I look out the window right now, it’s pouring rain but otherwise, not a lot has changed. Although when I think about it, we managed to do a great deal of work and our lives did change, although not in the way we foresaw.
A year ago
You see, last year we bought a house in a small village in the middle of the Netherlands. I was pregnant at the time and we were very excited about it. Little did we know that at 38 weeks we would lose our baby boy Fynn. Nor did we foresee that I’m currently looking at our one-year-old Anatolian shepherd sprinting to and fro in the garden (it finally stopped raining, and he really needs to get rid of some excess energy).
But I digress, this blog is about our house, and what we plan on doing to it (oh that sounds so ominous, doesn’t it), to drag it into the 21st century. So I figured I’d tell you a little about what we did in the past year.
The history of the house
So back to the house. It sits on a piece of land next to a little grove, turned play area for the village. We have a decent plot of land (by Dutch standards), which is about 1.100 square meters, or 0.27 acres.
The house itself was built sometime in the 1930s. The exact date is unknown, as are the building plans… Believe me, I tried looking them up. Although I did find the original plans for the garage. Turns out it should have been built perpendicular to the main building, but because of the ditch behind our house, that was physically impossible. So now it has this weird angle to the main building, but hey, that’s what gives it such charm!
Now, we do know the house existed during World War II, because, as the story goes, shrapnel from the bombing of the house across from ours was found embedded in the front door.
As with all old houses, when it was built, there was no indoor bathroom. In later years, an extension was created at the back of the house, housing the kitchen, a shower room, and a toilet.
The driveway
As you can see in the picture above, it looks like our garden begins at that fence, right? Wrong. You see, back in ’94, the owners were given the option of buying the piece of land with the official street on it. Since the new main road was built behind the house, the old road now dead-ended at this house. So they bought it. The previous owner was a truck driver, and he could now comfortably leave his truck parked in front of his house.
Of course, this was not updated at the municipality where they keep track of the public space. This means that according to the zoning plan, it’s still a public road with some public greenery beside it. That’s also why you see that street light in the picture. Ownership is registered at the Cadastre though, so we are the official owners of the plot.
Our plans with the house
Basically, we want to go energy-neutral. Or, seeing as how this is an oooooold house, as energy-neutral as possible.
That’s why it needs a total overhaul. The heat in the house is provided by a gas-burning stove. The fuse box only has three groups, one of which isn’t even in use. The fuses themselves are actual fuses. Most windows are single-glazed, the ones that are double-glazed are from the eighties, so the isolation of the house is practically non-existent. As you can imagine there’s a lot to do.
We also want to converge the two buildings, so you can walk to the garage without having to go outdoors. But that’s probably going to be a long-term plan.
What we did so far
We made plans. Mostly floor plans, we did have a conversation with the municipality about those plans (I will inform you about this in a separate post). We talked to some contractors about them and the possible costs (more about that to follow), and it takes time. A lot of time. Especially right now, because it seems everyone wants to do some work on the house at the moment. Which, let’s be honest, I can totally understand.
The garden
So in the meantime, we worked on the garden. The greenhouse was built, the conifers at the front of the garage were taken down (a lot more light in the house!), the pond was dug, the ditch wall (I cannot find the proper word for this one) was made, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of other projects. I’ll make posts about these developments, to keep you guys updated. In the meantime, let me know which subjects interest you!
Oh, and want to know more about me and our pets? Take a look at the About me page.