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As we are busy Friday and Mark is at work in the afternoon and the evening we phone the estate agent that we don’t want to know until Saturday.
We choose to not end up in the same situation as we did a couple of years ago the Netherland.
If we have the house we would like to get to know this together.
If we haven’t got the house, it’s even more important.
And; we haven’t got the house.
It was not a game.
The elderly couple that had a look on the Saturday we had a look as well bought the house.
They made an offer lower than ours.
But they made a cash offer.
And the landlord accepted. It’s not our house. It’s not our house. It’s not our house.
The bin is suddenly full with dreamed dreams.
Dreams that will never come through.
All the paperwork can be binned. It’s not our house. It’s not our house. And for now, we’re just angry.
It’s unfair! He accepted our bid. In the Netherlands it means that it’s final.
See…. We did play a game with rules we didn’t know.
And now… we end up with nothing. With a big sigh and not much joy we press the button on the search engine again.
Let’s wait and see…. what the Lord will do! The end…. (for now)
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I promise I will get the man to sign a.s.a.p, says the estate agent, while we’re leaving the office.
As it’s Saturday afternoon just after 6 pm we know we have to wait until next week.
Although she says she will try to get it done on Sunday.
Monday passes without any news. The estate- agents office is closed and so we think we will hear the next day.
But Tuesday passes without any news. Maybe he’s busy this week. Coming up from Paris does take a little while and maybe…
But
Finally on Wednesday morning the phone rings. 5 Minutes later we’re sitting on the sofa. Flabbergasted, so to speak.
Apparently there has been another offer on the house.
An offer with another estate agent.
A cash offer!
And the landlord is rethinking the offer we’ve made and he’d agreed on.
We’ll hear on Friday.
We’re absolutely guttered.
This is a non- moving house market.
The house had been for sale for over a year.
Surely the changes of another offer in the same week are none…
Are they?
We’re not sure.Maybe they are playing a game with us. The estate agent did ask if we could raise the price we agreed on. But, if there are other people we have to raise the price with so much money….
We don’t think it’s worth it.
And so we wait again.
Hoping and praying that it’s a nasty game with a good ending.
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After we figured out the words on the French paper we ask ourselves the question: Do we really want to buy this house?
Is this the house God has for us?
Is this the town we need to be in? Lots of questions to be asked.
The amazing thing is that we didn’t think we could find a house that was better than the house we live in right now. But in the end… The house we’ve found right now is even better!
The lay- out is better. The guestrooms are situated better. And we absolutely love the room in the basement.
Yes, we think this is the house.
So on Saturday afternoon, the 5th of Feb, we go around one last time.
Mark’s parents have just arrived from the Netherland and Joas is able to come too.
The shutters on the house we would like to buy are open. We feel that’s a bit strange.
Cars are in front of the house.
But we don’t worry too much. Together with our dog Leon we start exploring the area. We would like to know if we can enter the woods at the back of the house. That would be ideal!
And so we start walking the road. Trying all the different paths that could lead to the woods.
And we the second one is right! We’re in!
Ideal for walking the dog. And the kids….
An hour later we’re back at the house.
The estate agent is running late. When we’re going in we’re walking into another estate agent, with another agency, who is showing the house to an elderly couple. A strange feeling enters our tummy. That was a long visit… Immediately we say softly: “Let’s sign the papers quickly. This is our house!”
Joas likes the house. We photograph the whole house. Just to be able to see which floors are where and where all the fitter cupboards are….
On the way back we stop at the agency! The papers are signed for… let’s say 55000 euro’s.
Now we just have to wait for 7 days.
The landlord has to sign within 7 days to make the deal a real deal.
But… we’re happy.
Because that feels like just a formality.
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The next morning, it’s a Saturday, we decided Annemieke stays home with the kids. French talks are hard to follow anyway, let alone with two little boys around.
So a few minutes after 10 Mark steps into the car and makes the little drive towards Gouvieux.
He phones a few minutes later.
The house we’re trying to buy is an inheritance house. The son is an only child and he has to pay 30% inheritance tax over the full selling price of the house.
And so he wonders if we can pay an amount in cash. Under the table, so to speak.
Even if we had the money, it wouldn’t be a game we wanted to play, and we don’t have the money, so we say a big no to that suggestion. Immediately after the French papers are put on the table.
We’re asked to sign a paper with the selling price on it.
But Mark says he would like to take it home and studies it a little bit.
“Don’t you trust me?” the estate agent asks.
It hasn’t got anything to do with trust.
It’s got all to do with the fact it’s the first time we’re buying a house in France.
And we would like to know and understand the forms before we sign.
The rest of the morning is spend figuring out what the form says.
It turns out not to be so standard as we hoped it would be. And a few phrases are quite doubtful. The form makes us obligated to buy the house unless we die or have a big accident in which case we don’t have too. Otherwise there is no going back.
The question is: Do we really want to buy this house? |
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We’re quick.
We really love the house. We think about moving. We even talk about getting the boxes ready. And so we’re quick.
We want to show the man that we are willing to negotiate. But that we don’t want to make big steps. And of course we have an end- result in our heads.
We pray about it, we talk about it, and we call back with another offer of, let’s say 55000 euro’s. Again the lady asks us if we can’t bring it up a bit more. But we say we’d like to stick with this offer. “Well, I think this will be the final offer then, she says”
This phrase leaves us in doubt.
Why? Why would this be the last offer already?
It’s our first bid after the opening bid.
That’s going quickly.
Again we wonder what the rules are.
We’re still, 15000 euro’s off of his last price. That’s an amazing kitchen and a good bathroom.
We’re not talking about a bottle of milk and some raisons.
We’re talking about lots and lots of money.
Of course it’s nice that he will have an amazing bank account after, but for us it will be years and years of hard work.
So we want to get the house for the right price.
And although we are in doubt, we wait. Again we wait. But not for long!
The next evening, it’s Friday the 3th of February, we get a phonecall from the estate agent if we can come to the office tomorrow. Mark asks her that that is possible but why?
Well, she says, the man said he agreed with the price we offered but they’re things to be discussed.
So I’ll see you tomorrow.
Did we just buy a house? We wonder a few seconds after Mark hangs up the phone.
Doubtful smiles appear. Did we?
Let’s wait. Let’s wait and see….
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It feels like we are playing a game and we’re not sure about the rules. The estate agent said immediately after we made the offer…. “if you put in 10000 more I think you will get it”.
But, for now, this is our offer…
She told the house-owner and we will hear back from him before or on Tuesday.
And so we wait…
My memory goes back to 7,5 years ago when I sold our Dutch house.
Mark was in the simulator and had no idea what was happening. The whole process of negotiating took only 2,5 hours. But they ended up in the 10 most nervous hours of my life. And then the house was sold! It was nothing less than a miracle.
We’ve prayed for a good house for over a year now. We looked and looked and looked. And this is the first house we’re really enthusiastic about. I’d love to grow old and grey in this house.
But we’re still waiting. Monday passes.
Tuesday passes.
Wednesday passes.
We don’t want to phone. At least… Mark doesn’t.
We don’t want to sound eager.
but we’re not sure about the game.
In the Netherlands you only have to deal with one estate agent. He will know everything about the house. And no other offers can be made when you start a negotiating process.
But here, we have to deal with estate agents that we don’t even know exist and have this house for sale. Maybe somebody else put in an offer in the meantime…
Does is look eager when you phone after 6 days?
In the end Mark picks up the phone on Thursday morning.
Apparently the man did come back on Tuesday night. But the estate- agent lady wasn’t feeling very well and so she left it until this morning.
Hurray! The game is on!
He came back with an offer from, let’s say…. 70000 euro’s .
What will our next step be? |
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Sorry, this one had to be posted before the 'making the offer' blog
You know what? We like this house!
We really like this house.
It’s easy to put our stuff in.
Not really because of all the space it has (well also….) but the house just suits us.
Yes, we can find lots of things that we would like to change.
Like the golden light switches and the bathrooms. And the kitchen. And the wood on the walls and the single glass and the roof needs to be insulated. And…
But you know what?
It’s not important. We like this house. And so…
3 Days later we phone the estate agent for another viewing.
The biggest issue is the fact that we would like to know if we could put windows in the two potential bedrooms upstairs.
And, if so…, would that be expensive?
And we have to know all about this house.
Maybe the woods behind the house are not there too last forever. It would be sad if a big flat was build behind the house at some point.
And the walls of the house are not insulated. Just as the roof isn’t.
And the window are single glass.
Yes, there is work to be done.
All the papers are being send to us.
Mark does a great job reading them in French.
We start looking for windows. For kitchens. For badrooms.
We ask prices for double glazing, for insulating the whole house.
We figure out that we can’t get building permission for the windows before we buy the house.
But, the lady doesn’t think it will be a problem. We found out that in the next 20 years the wood will still be wood. And we dream…
We dream about the house. In a market this slow…. We have found our dream house.
And we’re thinking about making an offer.
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On a Friday afternoon Mark walks into the estate agents office. They chat about several things concerning the house.
The weird house (remember my blog) is just 200 meter away.
It’s the same size house, much better insulated and more modern and on for 35000 euro’s less.
We figure we have a good point with that. The estate agent agrees with us.
And asks Mark: Well, if you would like to make an offer for this house… what would it be…
Remember: The estate agent get 7-8% of the whole price of the house.
In this price range it can vary from 15000- 25000 euro’s, just for selling a house.
But if she doesn’t sell, she won’t get anything.
So it’s also in her interest to put an offer in asap.
But we have to remember it our budget.
And in the end she is not our estate- agent, but the sellers….
Annemieke, I’ve put in an offer for the house…. We offered (Let's say:)51000 euro’s.
It’s Friday January 27th 2012
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It’s a cold and grey day when the next house pops up at the search engine.
It’s the third Saturday in January and Mark happens to be off.
Although the pictures are not great, the description looks wonderful.
Even better then we hoped it would be.
And with hope in our hearts we phone the estate agent. (again a new one) The same afternoon we follow a black car into Gouvieux to the house.
The front of the house doesn’t have the ‘wauw’ factor. But the back has.
And we have a lot of time to view the front and the back as the estate agent can’t get the door open.
Apparently the door hasn’t been opened for several weeks. Maybe even months.
It’s an inheritance house. The father has died over a year ago and the son has just decided to lower his price from- let’s say 140 000 euro’s to 98 000 euro’s.
Suddenly this house is in our price range…
With a bit of force, and a reminder to put easier locks on the door if we would buy this house, Mark gets the door open. With a bit of help from a torch the electricity is turned on.
The house is cold. Cold but great.
The hall is big with lots of doors leading to several areas in the house.
The first door to the left is a downstairs toilet with a little sink.
Immediately to the right is the kitchen.
It looks almost the same as the kitchen we use right now.
It’s not great but it works perfectly well.
A door from the kitchen leads to the living room with a fire place and 3 French doors leading to the terrace and the garden.
The view is open and free. With just trees in the wood behind the house. Nothing but trees.
Back in the hall a small hall- way leads to two more bedrooms and a bathroom.
The bedrooms are great. The bathroom is old but works well. Back in the hall way the second door on the left leads to the first floor.
A floor with 2 amazing bedrooms, 2 potential bedrooms and a bathroom with a small room attached to it.
The two potential bedrooms are big enough to be bedrooms but at the moment don’t have good windows make it good bedrooms.
It might be an option to make them…. At least we think….
Back in the hall way, the last door to the right leads to the cellar.
A cellar with a great, great room. A wine cave, a work space and a large area to put ‘stuff’.
Tim is enthusiastic.
A couple of weeks ago we challenged our kids to pray for something they would really like to get.
We hope to show them that God answers prayers. And that He is a loving and giving God.
Tim is praying for a garden where we would have the possibility to build a tree- house.
It looks like his prayers are answered. It’s late when the front door is closed again.
We have to be quick as Joas needs to be picked up from scouts.
The estate agent would like to have an immediate answer.
But we would like to think about it….
And pray about it…
And maybe visit again….
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Winter starts. Well, it feels more like spring but people stop putting their houses on the market.
And so we wait.
December begins.
December passes. All the houses that pop up on the search engine are old.
We’ve long seen them or we’re just not interested.
2012 starts
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During the months of our house searching we came in contact with several estate agents.
That means… Sometimes we get an enthusiastic phone call with a story in French that they’ve got a house for us that we really need to see because they think it’s great for us.
No, we don’t have to look at the website. They just know it’s good for us! And so we step, again, into our car and go to the estate agent in Chantilly.
After a talk in the office and a lovely small French coffee, we step into our car and follow the young man to Gouvieux.
Immediately we see that this house is not for us but we don’t say anything. 
The house has a private garage block that you can renovate in to a guesthouse.
But it would be unfortunate for our guest not to have our sons jump in their beds early in the morning. Wouldn’t it?
And, the long Dutch guests would constantly have to bend a little to the right or the left side (depending on which way there walking) cause of the roof.
Inside the house they’re 3 bedrooms on the first floor.
The bathroom is on the ground floor together with the kitchen and living room, but no bedrooms. The 4th bedroom can be found in the sous- sol.
 All the estate agents they we’ve met so far, proclaim in all the houses that we’ve seen that: “It’s not a problem. You can change, this, that or the other….” But, we really almost have to rebuild this house.
And so it’s another NO.
We could almost say to the estate agent: “Told you so… but you wouldn’t listen”. And it’s not the last house we ‘just’ see because we are pushed by the estate agents.
Several houses pass by…. but… it’s never the right house.
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Don’t you love the view of this house? And you know what?
It get’s even better. 2 houses Down the road live a couple from our church. And their son is Joas’ best friend.
How great would it be if…..
This house seems ideal.
It’s in the estate next to us. The boys could still go to school by bike. The estate has a swimming pool and tennis courts which you can use if your part of the estate- association.
The house inside is lovely. Although much smaller than the house we live in right now.
And we have the pleasure of seeing it even before it’s on the market, back in April, last year.
The garden is the same size we have right now but is situated on the main road from Gouvieux to Chantilly. The noise from the cars is all day long. But back in April the price for the house is high. Almost at the top end of our budget.
And the house doesn’t have the guest rooms we’d so like to have.
But it’s next to our friends.
Even though the price has come down almost 100 000. 00 euro’s since, every time we stand in front of the house and hear the noise, we step back into our car and say: “No, this house is not for us!”
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 Plop!
An add pops up on the immobilier site.
A house with a GREAT garden in Gouvieux.
Again the pictures are not everything and the address is unknown.
And so the phonecall to the estate agent is made again.
Later that week we meet in front of the house. The house is on Rue or Route de Lamorlaye.
Although it’s a fairly busy road the owners of the house say it never bothers them. The house is: weird!
It’s been built in 3 different stages in over the last 70 years. Starting in the year 1942. The house is entered via a small, glass conservatory. After that you step immediately into the old living room space. With a fireplace.
This is the centre room in the house. All the other rooms are entered via this room.
On the left 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Straight across a very small French kitchen. And to the right the new living room built in 1952.
The new living room has, all the way to the right side of the house in the right corner, the stairs to the first floor.
The first floor is even weirder. The mezzanine is big with windows. The ‘room’ after that has NO windows and leads to a VERY BIG room all the way to the left side of the house. And there’s a bathroom with an electric toilet.
Basically the upstairs has just one bedroom.
The sous sol (basement) is big but the ceilings are low. Mark has to bend a little.
And the sous sol can only be reached through the outside of the house. And the only place where the washing machine can go is in the sous sol.
I just can’t see myself walking outside with a basket of laundry to open the sous sol with the key to reach my washing machine. And then…. I know so many washes will be done and after that forgotten because I just don’t pass the washing machine and see that it’s ready. We think about it.
We even go back for a second viewing on Thanks Giving Day.
But in the end we feel the house just wouldn’t work for us.
And so we leave it again….. |
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| Januari 2012 |
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Her jaw drops.
Her face turns pale…
It can be good as we’ve just put an offer in for her house.
 The days are still nice when we start to look at the next house.
We’ve seen the house many times on the internet. But it just didn’t speak to us.
And so… we left it.
As the prices the estate agents earn by selling a house are ridiculously high, about 40% of the houses are sold privately.
A search- watcher makes sure we see the ads that are interesting for us on that site. One afternoon the ad for a 6 bedroom house in Gouvieux pops up. The description ticks all the boxes we’d like to find in a house and so we phone the owner. After he told us the directions we realise we’re going to view the house we definitely didn’t want to see. But… we can’t get out now so we’re going to view the house.
The rain pours down when we arrive at, what might be, our new house.
The elderly couple that opens the door speaks quite good English and with a bit of French from our side it works really well.
While Mark checks all the window on wood rot and the electric and waterpoints in the house, I figure out that the couple have already bought their new house in the southern part of France. To be nearer to their kids and grandkids. Nearer in this case means about 1,5 hours away.
Later that afternoon we’re quite enthusiastic. We actually like the house. Although lots of work needs to be done. The bathrooms (3 of them), kitchen en toilets are all about 30 years old. The fabric on the walls doesn’t seem to attract us. But the house could work for us. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs. Great for all the 168 visitors we had over the last 2,5 years in France.  | | I'm just saying.... who thinks a picture like this will sell the house? |
 The downside is that we feel crowded (I know we are spoiled). Although it’s a house sans vie sa vie (without people being able to see in our house or in our garden from the other houses around us) we can see all the houses from our house and our garden. Not quite the freedom look we have at the moment.
But it could work.
The other downside is that the house doesn’t have a basement. But it has a garage with a loft so enough space to store things. We do miss a back-door. The only door that leads into the garden is through, what would be, our guest room.
After a second viewing, with the boys and Mark’s parents, we decide to put in an offer. As this house is for sale without an estate- agent this happens around the coffee table in the house.
But
Her jaw drops.
Her face turns pale.
It seems like we almost gave her a heart attack.
Yes, we did came in low, but we didn’t want to play all our cards immediately.
We wanted to have room left for negotiation and did have a certain about in our heads that we would be willing to pay for the house. But the offer is not good enough.
And the couple decides that they don’t want to consider it.
And then…
We change our minds.
After living in our dream house we are well aware that a house is much more than just a building. We don’t want to settle for a ‘it will do house’. We would like to find our second dream house. Let’s wait and see what the Lord will do…
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When you’re in the files of estate-agents it’s hard to get out.
A nice man, with a big mustache, calls us to show us another property.
He’s very enthusiastic about the house and he’s totally right. 
We love the house from the outside.
It’s close to the villagecentre. But it’s again above our budget and even with negotiation we are not sure we want to buy at that price.
This estate-agent makes us wear shoe-socks around our shoes to keep the house clean.
It’s the first French house that we see which is clean and proper on the inside. Everything is painted lovely. Not to our taste but it is impeccable, as the estate agent says. The sous-sol (the cellar but covering the whole underneath of the house) is great with an extra room.
The out-side though… is very small. So small that when the boys with jump on the trampoline and fall of… the would fall straight in our table.
Yes, it’s nice. But again not for us… In our best French we try to tell the man that he did a good job finding the house for us. But that we feel the garden is too small.
He grumbles and asks us what we want! Because the other house he had shown us the garden was too big. So… what do we want… We smile and say that surely there must be something in between 2500 m2 and 300m2. We haven’t heard back from him since… |
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It’s been months now, since we’ve seriously started looking for a house. Our landlords have, very kindly, agreed on a year extension on our contract but it’s time to look And so we are looking!
It’s been many years since we’ve owned a house. And we’ve never owned one abroad.
It’s kind of playing a game without really knowing the rules. And that makes it hard and sometimes unexpected.
We miss (for the Dutch readers) FUNDA. It’s a site where you can find all of the houses that are for sale in Holland on. It makes life very easy.Dutch estate agents make great pictures of the houses. Descriptions and sizes are all measured and shown. No surprises when you view a house.
But here, things work very differently.
For one, the house prices for the same house are different with every estate agent. And so are the photos.
Maybe this has to be 1 b, cause I forgot to tell that a property owner can put his house for sale with as many estate agents as he likes.
The estate- agents don’t have the key for the house and the property owner is mostly there while we’re viewing. Thank God for the Dutch language to commend.
 Photos of the houses are not very clear. And many times pictures are missing. Bathrooms and kitchens are very often not shown and that makes it quite difficult to get a good idea of a house. The other thing is that the name of the road is not shown in the add.
Most of the time we just know the town we’re going to view a house in, nothing else. It makes it all very complicated for foreigners like us.
But we have to find a house…. And so we’re bravely doing our job.  The top- end of the budget makes we’re seeing this house. After spending hours on google-maps to see where it was situated we decided to phone the estate agent. And made an appointment to have a viewing. This as somewhere back in October.
The house was situated on a busy road without any neighbors. The 2500 square meter garden contained 8 fruit trees and about 1500 square meter vegetable garden. The house had just 4 bedrooms but 5 (yes it’s not a typing error) garages. But because of the top end of the budget we wouldn’t have the money to convert one of them into a very much needed guest area. The inside of the house just didn't appeal too us. Maybe it was because of the blue and yellow rooms and the conservatory I just never seem to like.
And… One of the garages contained a cool-room…. With 2 death, hanging, pheasants.
No…. this was not the house for us!
So the story needs to be continued.
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I know it has been ages…. And I’m sorry.
Life just passes by without too much to write about.
Christmas and New Year passed by in the company of lovely family and friends.
It was the first time we stayed in France.
It was our first art- exhibition ever but we enjoyed it both very much. And then….
There’s not much left to say for today.
But: Did you know the Dutch are very complicated?
We live not in Dutchland (like somebody said to me once) but the Netherlands. Although most foreigners call our country Holland. But then we speak Dutch and we our nationality is Dutch. It makes it hard to explain, cause we don’t even understand why.
And then:
Did you know there is a American expression that says: “Let’s go Dutch”
It means you both pay for your own meal…
Quite funny!
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I haven't written this post but saw it on the internet. And as we are driven off to the Netherlands too tomorrow to celebrate Sinterklaas I thougt you might like to know what we are doing :) Well kind of... because of course only the Dutch will really understand....
No. 36: Sinterklaas You’ve seen the imagery all over town: that old dude with white hair and the big pointed red hat. You know those pesky black-faced fellas he hangs out with. The ones who’ve whipped pepernoten at your head. You’ve joined in the heated Zwarte Piet debate. And you’ve eaten your chocolate initial at work. BUT what really is the deal with this whole Sinterklaas thing? Basically, all you need to know is that Sinterklaas is the most beloved of all Dutch holidays and traditions. And one, Dutch people are fiercely proud of. Don’t you dare go messing about with this very gezellig affair! Check out our handy guide below to help you survive the madness.
Everything you need to know about Sinterklaas: Q: Where does this old dude and his black-faced friends come from?
A: Sinterklaas is said to have originated from St. Nicolaus, the Bishop of Mira, who lived in Turkey in the 3rd century. According to the legend, he saved the town from starvation, revived a couple of dead children, and offered gifts of dowries to poor girls so they didn’t have to become prostitues. Hence, a pretty saintly dude. Q: How does he get to the lowlands?
A: Nowadays, he sails in from Spain on a boat in late November and rides about the town on a white horse named Amerigo (don’t ask) with a handful of black-faced friends who throw things at people. Q: Huh? Who are these black guys? Bodyguards? Elves?
A: These friends, Zwarte Piets, are Sint‘s mischievous helpers and they can be seen through town violently whipping hard-stone like cookies (aka: pepernoten) at children and passerby’s. Duck! Q: I don’t get it. Why are their faces painted black?
A: Please. Save yourself the trouble and don’t go asking this question in your Dutch workplace. You won’t make any friends. You can speak your mind here. Q: Wait. Am I allowed to say anything critical about the Sinterklaas tradition?
A: No. Q: Ok…back to the basics then. When is it officially celebrated?
A: Get out your Dutch-people agendas! Although he makes his first appearance mid- November,Sinterklaas doesn’t get into the full swing of things until December 5th. Q: This is the poem and presents stuff right?
A: Yeppers. On the eve of the 5th (pakjesavond) children place their shoes by the fireplace (although hardly any Dutch homes have them), by the radiator (how the heck do the presents get through that?) or by the door (for the brighter Dutch children) and eagerly await their presents.
Q: What do they get?
A: Back in more modest times, presents consisted of mandarin oranges, chocolate letters (the initial of your first name), chocolate coins or marzipan figures. Surprisingly, no Dutch licorice or dairy!Nowadays, full fledged gift giving is in effect with the average Dutch home spending upwards of 130 EUR on presents. Q: Why did my boss write me a sarcastic poem?
A: Adults get into full swing by writing witty poems to poke fun (or publicly chastise) their family or friends and often accompanied by a gift exchange (similar to a “Secret Santa“). The poems are often funny and of course, involve Dutch directness! Q: This whole Sinterklaas dude seems pretty familiar. Are you saying the Dutch invented the North American Santa Claus?
A: Closely related Sinterklaas figures are celebrated in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium as well as French Flanders. Scandinavian folklore has a “nisse” character who is pretty similar. Santa Claus is thought to be a combination of Sinterklaas and the British Father Christmas. Phew! That should cover the basics! Now go out, eat some pepernoten, speculaas, andkruidnoten, write some poems, buy some presents, paint your face black and join in the fun! Easy enough, eh? 
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Tonight we are experiencing another ‘first’ in our abroad-career.
We’re trying to sell a car.
I think this has been the first car we ever sold.
O, no… how can I forget my lovely rusty English white Volkswagen Golf. The car that gave me freedom!
All the other ones though, were driven until they couldn’t go any further.
Our Peugot 309 broke down during our honeymoon.
Our Fiat Panda on one of the motorways in Holland. (driven by me)
Our Swift on one another motorway, also driven by me.
Coincidently, obviously….
I can’t remember what happened to our English Vauxhall Vectra. Although I do remember I had nothing to do with it…
And then our Vauxhall Astra arrived. Just before Tim was born.
The joys of a station-wagon are immense. Especially if you live abroad.
Hurray for shopping in Holland! The car was always packed full driving back home.
But the teller had miles and miles on it. I think around 190 000 miles. (Does that seem right?)
And so we thought, in the beginning of the year, that it was a good idea to orientate on another car.
The Vectra might break down at a motorway (NOT driven by me…) and we didn’t really wanted to buy another car in just 2 days.
So Mark had a look, compared, had another look, I made a comment that one of the cars looked like a biscuit-tin, Mark had another look. Compared some more. I mentioned again that a red car would be nice. (It’s an inside joke. I would like to be the owner of a red car since we’re married. But Mark always replies very kindly to me that he’s not going to buy a car on the colour. So we never had one yet… Still worth to be mentioned once in a while, at least I think)
Anyway, we’re months down the road when Mark is still comparing. By this time I don’t care if we buy a yellow car with purple spots. So when the right car happens to be at the dealer in Chantilly I want to buy it immediately. It takes 3 more days but after that we are the proud owners of a black Mazda 5. That happened in June. We’re still the proud owners of a Mazda 5 with a bit more scratches than in June. Thoroughly enjoying the car though!
Anyway, the right-hand drive Vauxhall Astra didn’t sell. Much to Mark’s surprise.
And for the MOT (APK in Dutch) there were to many things to be done.
So we wanted to get rid of the car.
I don’t know a lot about cars. If they don’t drive they’re kind of useless in my opinion. But Mark thinks we can sell it for parts.
At the moment we have 4 cars in our drive (it’s a whole other story and one of them is not ours) so after the Vauxhall stood there for about 2 weeks we decided this afternoon that we would put it on the French kind of ebay site.
2 hours later we got a phonecall. The man wants to pick it up at 7.30 pm. We are surprised. But the rest of the evening the phone keeps ringing. Every time we think: “ We should have asked for more”…
Anyway.
7.30 pm is delayed until 8.30 pm.
The man wants to buy a new battery for the car.
By 9.00 we text-message the man that we’re waiting.
It’s pitch dark by this time and Mark has to work at 5 in the morning.
He will be there in a sec.
We know you can always count on the French time wise but at 9.30 we feel it’s getting a bit ridiculous.
Of course our house is hard to find and so on, and so forth, but still…
Mark’s cell-phone keeps ringing with people who are interested.
Finally, at 9.43 the people arrive.
Right now it’s 10.10pm.
I can hear the car doors slam. The deal is made. The car is sold!
We still should have asked for more… and maybe made the appointment later.
Only 6 more hours of sleep left. |
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I’m scared. Gosh, I’m so scared.
I knew in my heart for weeks already that I had to do this. But I waited and waited. And now this was my only change left.
After I sprained my ankle I was told I had to go to physiotherapy
And I did.
When we finally found one, it turned out to be quite close to our house.
I met de physiotherapist, a girl somewhere in here twenties and saw her for 15 sessions.
That means I spook 15x 30 minutes French with her. And although it doesn’t go very quickly we got to know each other a little bit.
But today is my last session.Today is the last time I could mention God or Jesus. Today is the last change I could give her a bible.
Today was the last day I had a chance to speak about God or Jesus.
And I did.
I prayed before the session and He got mentioned. She started to talk about Christmas. And I gladly joined her and mentioned baby Jesus.
Then we talked about ThanksGiving, that we will celebrate tomorrow.
And then, I gave her a French bible.
With little notes inside.
With scripture verses written down and a thank you note on the front page.
I was still scared.
So I wrapped the bible in lovely wrapping paper.
I tied a lovely ribbon around it.
And I told her, she wasn’t allowed to open it until she was at home (Told you I was scared)
But, I did it!
And the rest is up to GOD! Let’s hope it doesn’t involve another sprained ankle |
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I’m learning a language. I’m learning a language from another language that is not my own.
And if I would learn the language from my own language: you would catch me at my worst subject anyway.
I’m learning French.
French grammar.
But I’m learning English grammar too.
Something I can’t remember I ever had before. Yes I know when I have to say: “I’m going to…” or “I will be…”
But I have no idea about the why I’m using that at that moment.
And in Dutch I’m not much better, grammar wise.
So every week, twice a week, I’m going to my French class.
To study the present time, the future time, the passé compose time, the infinitive time and all the other times the French thought were necessary. Getting it explained in English. Hearing words I never heard before. I have no clue when to use what time.
So for the moment I’m still trying.
And I’m getting there.
J’ y arrive.
Some day.
I hope. |
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 It has been a long summer holiday. Full of fun and laughter.
But September has arrived again. And as the leaves in our garden start to turn from a dark green to yellow it’s time for the boys to go back to school. Tim has talked about it all summer long.
I’m going to school in a castle.
They’ve seen it being renovated.
And now it’s ready.
Ready for over a 100 kids to move in.
Joas has gone to year 3 in the English system. CE1 in French.
His teacher is called mr Reagan. The same one as last year. Next to him (not yet in the pictures) is a Dutch girl called Charlotte. Together they have fun speaking their secret language, that all the other kids don’t get.
Every morning Joas walks up the large staircase (sound of music like) to the top-floor where his class is. Tim is one floor down.
He has started Reception. Grand Section in French.
He has a class with just 9 kids. 5 of them are boys.
One of the girls is the sister of Charlotte who is in Joas’ class.
It was fun to hear that the teacher Martina thought the whole Monday Tim and Juliette were twins. Just because they have the same blond hair and both speak Dutch.
They only met that morning. Every morning we get the bikes out to cycle the 1,5 km down our road.
Tim absolutely loves that part.
But he told me that he doesn’t like this school (although he goes with fun and laughter) because they had to do three times travaille (work) J Yes, grand section has arrived for our 5 year old!
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It has been one of the topics on our minds over the last couple of months.
Our house.
After a talk with our landlords in the beginning of March we thought we couldn’t afford the house. But the never actually said the price they wanted to have for it.
We looked around. Saw a couple of houses. And found out that the small houses in this area are actually, considering everything, far more expensive then the bigger ones.
So we started to doubt again.
Maybe we just had to buy our house.
It’s a good house. With good opportunities. And the only downside we could really think of was that it’s too expensive. Which obviously is an important one. And so we planned a lovely evening with our landlords again.
And we heard there price.
And….
We found out that there is no way we can buy the house. And… We are at peace.
The landlords have been very nice to us. They don’t want to kick us out. Our contract ends in March next year. But if we haven’t found a good house yet we can stay for up to another year.
And that’s a miracle in itself. |
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We still enjoy our house everyday. Although it doesn’t look like we are able to buy it any time soon.
But we can stay here for some more time.
And we plan to enjoy that time to the fullest.
We.
But not our neighbours.
Our neighbours on the left hand side of our house are a little bit strange.
We knew that from the start.
But still We never talked to them.
We hardly know who they are.
They built a concrete wall at the end of their garden next to the road.
When we ring the bell nobody opens the door. But we hear him grumble at the other side of the hedge when our kids ring their bike-bells.
We hear him call nasty words when we cut the hedge with electric cutter or weed the weeds with the electric tool.
We know our landlady arrived at our place an hour after Mark started to build a compost bin next to his fence, because the neighbour phoned her. Mark just says: “He bought a house next to a pre-school. He could have figured out people with young kids would come and live in the houses next to him. And kids make noise. Including ours.
But then there are the complaints.
Anonymous .
But still complaints.
In December we received a note in our letterbox that our dog was constantly walking through the neighbourhood. Our dog was. The neighbour was absolutely right.
We just didn’t have a plan of action yet. First, our dog Leon, escaped only when we’d already left the property. But now he escaped immediately when we opened the front-door.
Zoom.. and he was gone. After much consideration we decided to train Leon with an electric fence around our garden.
Leon learned quickly and doesn’t come near the fence anymore.
In April we mowed the lawn on a sunny Wednesday at the beginning of the afternoon. I think it was between 12 and 1.
We started in the morning and just wanted to finish the job. At 2 o’clock we receive a letter in our letterbox with the restricted times on it when we can mow the lawn in our village. The times were highlighted but the note was, obviously, anonymous. Handy! said Mark, as we had lost the note with the times on it.
I felt like the steam came out of my ears.
And last Wednesday we got another note saying: Vos chiens ne cessent pas d’aboyer
La région était paisible avant votre arrivée
Nous souhaitons qu’elle le demeure It means something like :
Your dogs don’t stop barking.
The area was peaceful before you arrived.
We wished it would have stayed that way. Yes, the reverend and his wife had asked us if we could watch their dog for 5 days.
Ellie, a white Labrador, arrived on Sunday afternoon.
As she is trained to bark when she wants to go inside she barked a lot.
Because we’re used to leaving Leon into the garden until we let him in again.
And so we got into a little fight with her…
And when we were all in the garden Leon and Ellie had a couple of ‘who’s the boss’ fights between each other. And that’s when you have to bark… being a dog.
But still.
I wish the neighbor would just have knocked at our gate and asked us.
Then we could have told him that we were as annoyed with Ellie's behavior as he was. But we also could have told him the great fact that she would leave again at the end of the week.
Just as we could have told him that we were busy figuring out a plan for Leon escaping.
And that we’d just forgotten the time when we were mowing the lawn. I wish it would be as simple as that…. Maybe it’s best if we just move, because our landlord says we just have to learn to live with it…. |
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