Apartment
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
9
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
I just returned from New Jersey where I saw Evan Lereah, one of my oldest friends, get married. It was a beautiful event, although I spent most of the weekend battling (and loosing to) jet-lag. I suppose a 7-hour flight and 6 time zones is too much to travel for a weekend but I really wanted to be there for my friend, found a great deal on airfare, and just went with it.
It was also a great opportunity to see Julie for the first time in 4 weeks. I now have 3 more weeks to wait until she finally moves. My parents and brother were also at the wedding as were a few other friends. Julie and I also got to see her bro Jon and g-friend Melanie.
My body is now so messed up as I am not really adjusted to East-coast time or to A'dam time
01. Entrance to apartment
. Last night, back in A'dam, I spent the wee hours of the night, basically from 12:00 to 3:00, lying in bed, wishing that I could fall asleep as I would be waking up a few hours later for work. I spent that time thinking how crazy the trip was...but how worth it it was.I must say being out of Holland for the first time was odd. I certainly felt at home in the States but also felt very much a foreigner. I spent a lot of time noticing the differences and often times feeling more at home in A'dam. I can't really explain it.
As for my continuing journey to set up home in A'dam, here is what is doing...
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APARTMENT
In last week's episode...I had found "the one" and was hoping to iron out the details. Specifically, the carpet was a mess. My recollection was it needed a little bit of work, mostly in the spare bedroom. I had made an offer to rent the place (E100 above my budget, E100 below the "asking price", and E600 below the TRUE asking price). In addition to my offer, I had asked that the owner re-carpet it. It became apparent that he was not going to re-carpet it for such a low price so I went to meet the landlord and make one last visit to the apartment. I thought one solution might be to get area rugs to cover the really bad spots.
Honestly, we would need about 40 1-SF rugs to cover this mess
02. Den
. I don't know who lived there before but I would guess it was stage 2 or 3 on the "Evolutionary Chart". I never saw anything so poor in all the apartments and fraternity homes in all of Madison. It was horrible.So, I made 1 last offer for an additional E50. This offer was also rejected. I told my agent that it was a wonderful apartment but I just couldn't afford any more money. If the owner also couldn't afford any more of a discount, then so be it. I would continue to look next week.
I was pretty upset as this truly is the perfect apartment but I just couldn't afford any more and didn't want to sacrifice money for travels or a down-payment on our own place back in Chicago someday for a new carpet in some guy's apartment. Well, apparently the owner needed a little scare because I got a "today is your lucky day" call the next morning. And he agreed to re-carpet the place as well. Now I understand that he is taking a big hit on his asking price (E550) but I know he is still making plenty so I don't feel too bad for him.
I hope to get the keys on June 2, have the moving company deliver our stuff from storage on June 5, pick up Julie at the airport on June 8, and begin to piece the apartment together thereafter
03. View from the den
. The address is:Herengracht XXX
XXX Amsterdam
The Netherlands
When we have a phone number, I will pass that along.
The apartment is a typical Dutch canalhouse, built some time in the 1800s. It is a very spacious (about 1500 SF) 2-bedroom, 2-bath that overlooks a canal in an area of city center called the Jordaan. Specifically, it is in a really cool area full of small restaurants, bars, and stores called "The Nine Streets". It is about 20 minutes to work and is convenient to the tram for those mornings I don't feel like riding my bike to work. It has a nice-sized den (about 200 SF) that overlooks the canal and has a gas fireplace, a big eat-in kitchen (about 75 SF), and a spare bedroom/office (about 120 SF) with a great private rooftop garden. My biggest concern is that we will get spoiled living here and will never find a place back in Chicago that measures up. I'm willing to take that risk though.
Attached are a few pictures with very detailed descriptions of the place
04. Kitchen from the den
. Hopefully some of you will get a chance to see the place in person...just make it soon, before Joey gets himself another air mattress for his new home - my floor.Entrance to building (not pictured): The front door to the building is heavy and dark wood with a very intricate design. You enter and walk through a white marble hallway similar to Melanie and Chris' place. Climb 3 flights of stairs, about 45 steps all together - the banister is also a nice dark polished wood and the steps are the same marble material, wide, and not too steep. At the top of the steps, there is a landing that has a few windows that look out onto the back of the house and the neighbors. There is a small storage closet that can hold our luggage and other things like that and the front door to our apartment.
Entrance to apartment: Click here to see the entrance to the apartment. Not seen in the picture, to the immediate left is a door to the kitchen. The doors on the right are the coat closet, WC, and washer/dryer. Across from the last door is a spiral staircase to the bedrooms. At the end of the hallway is the den, which faces the Herengracht canal. Notice the beams on the ceiling, a very Dutch detail.
05. Kitchen
Den: Click here to see the den. This is about half of the den. We will have the couch removed. There are 3 windows, 2 smaller (similar to the one on the right in the picture) and 1 big one that opens basically floor to ceiling (on the left in the picture). You can't really see the carpet but it is a light brown/beige. The owner will be replacing it with a very similar color. Not pictured is a gas fireplace that the couch in the picture faces. The beams are tall enough so that I can walk around comfortably - Julie should have no problem =)
View from the den: Click here to see the view from the den. The canal is the Herengracht, the 2nd of the 4 main canals. The apartment is located in "The Nine Streets" neighborhood, about 2 blocks west of the Spui and 4 north of Leidesplein.
Kitchen from the den: Click here to see the kitchen from the den. Not pictured to the left is the couch and to the right is where the TV will go. In the foreground to the right is the fireplace. On the left is a wall with a security phone to the front door of the building
06. Eat-in kitchen
. Behind the glass is the spiral staircase to the bedrooms. Beginning at the tile is the kitchen. Kitchen: Click here to see the kitchen. The freezer is the small closed compartment inside of the fridge, probably not even big enough to hold a frozen pizza. We can probably get a separate icebox to put somewhere else to hold some more stuff. Not pictured to the right is a large area for a table. It looks out onto the back of the house.
Eat-in kitchen: Click here to see the eat-in kitchen. Not pictured to the right is the rest of the kitchen and to the left is a door, which leads to the entrance, WC, closet, and washer/dryer.
Eat-in kitchen to den: Click here to see the den from the eat-in kitchen.
Spiral stairs to the bedrooms: Click here to see the spiral stairs to the bedrooms. They are not too small and well-lit during the day by the sun
07. Eat-in kitchen to den
.Master bedroom: Click here to see the master bedroom. The bed will be removed. Again, the beams are high enough that they don't bother me. Also see the glass shelves. Not pictured to the right is a "French balcony" which is basically a large window, floor to ceiling which opens. We'll call it our "freedom balcony". The ceiling has big windows, almost like skylights in them, which allows the sun to enter the room. There is nobody near us who can look into the room though. Not pictured to the left is a walk-in closet and behind the camera is a bathroom with a bathtub and a toilet (the toilet has it's own door). A walk-in closet is pretty rare, as most homes don't have shelves or closets requiring that you buy an armoire or dresser.
Master bedroom to spare bedroom: Click here to see the master bedroom to the spare bedroom. To the left is the "French balcony" window. It looks out onto our rooftop terrace. Not pictured to the right is the closet and bathroom. Just outside the bedroom in the foreground is the spiral stairs with a little bit of room for a bookshelf or small table on the landing. Beyond there is the 2nd bedroom and the rooftop terrace
08. Spiral stairs to the bedrooms
.Master bathroom: Click here to see the master bathroom. Not pictured to the left behind the door is the toilet.
Rooftop garden terrace: Click here to see the rooftop garden terrace. This is a BIG commodity. We're going to have plant some foliage.
View from the rooftop garden terrace: Click here to see the view from the rooftop garden terrace. In the background you can see the yellow crown steeple from the Westekerk, the church next door to the Anne Frank house.
Front of the apartment: Click here to see the front of the apartment. Our bedroom is the top window and our den is the window right below. There are 2 apartments below us, 1 in the front of the building and 1 in the back. At the top of the apartment is a hook which is used to hoist furniture into the apartment
09. Master bedroom
. I think it will be neat to see our couch dangling above the street. Incidentally, there is no bike room so we will need to lock our bikes outside.So that's it. I hope you like the place, we sure do.
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Nothing else is really doing. I would think this will be a slow week, most of which will be spent relaxing. Julie and I have discussed buying a very cheap boat with Melanie and Chris to put-put around the canals with. That's next on the agenda.
Hope all is well wherever you are.
-Stephen
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