The shed is done. We have taken out all floor tiles, evened out the sand, laid the tiles again and now we have a shed with a level floor. Which means we could move all furniture back in again (2 work benches, two cabinets) and start hanging tools on the walls. It's beginning to look a lot like crafter's heaven in there.

Moving all tools out of the stair cupboard means we can now actually store foodstuffs and kitchen powertools in there. Meaning no more boxes in the kitchen. Yay, we can see our beautiful floor again! And I finally got to rearrange some stuff in the kitchen itself, making better use of all the cupboards.

We have a new waste bin that matches the color of the kitchen, a very large mirror in the bedroom and a new frame to hang all my earrings on (and there's room for more!). We have a plan for the third desktop in the work room, but I don't think we'll get around to finishing that soon. All the wood needs sanding and painting before assembling the frame.

It would be nice if summer would actually start to behave like summer. With more sun and less rain. That would make sanding and painting stuff a lot easier because it can be done outside where it doesn't matter much if the floor gets stained a little and you can actually keep on breathing. That was one big plus for our former balcony: it had a roof.

We have skirted the floor of the landing on the first floor and it looks great. We still need to start on the skirting for the ground floor, but the kickass steampunk lamp has been hung up already. We still need to hang up a lamp in the eating area and in the bedroom and work room. For those last rooms we still need to buy lamps.

Tomorrow will be cleaning day and I have to bake a cake that has to spent at least four hours in the fridge, because it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm celebrating it on Saturday with family and some neighbours from Ermelo. I'll have to cook for 13 people (!) Saturday, and that's of course only the people that stay for dinner. I'm expecting about 16 guests coming in groups of 3 - 2 - 11.

Well, I'm off to feed the cats and get some dinner in the oven.

We still don't know for sure who the new inhabitant will be, but it is no longer our problem. I had to call Domijn to ask which candidate had accepted the house but did not get through to the 'consultant' that we had dealt with so far. No, some woman on the line wanted to do this herself. Which did not help much because she had to ask advise on the consultant that I actually wanted to speak... The message came through garbled. "Number 2 wants the house". There was no number two, he/she was on vacation and did not even attend the viewing. "Oh, well, then I suppose it's number 3". Whatever... we'll assume it's indeed number 3, who wanted to at least take over the floor and mumbled something about the fridge. "We can not give you their telephone number, but I'll ask the consultant if she contacts them and have them contact you." Yes, fine...

Since we did not get called by the new inhabitants we did some convenient guessing about what they would want to take over..

So, last Tuesday we went to Enschede to clean out the last things. We dragged down the huge bookcase, the carpet, an old desk and the table from the balcony. Took us about 2 hours. The first two things were taken by Het Goed, the rest will be picked up by the trash tomorrow.

On Wednesday Feenstra was earlier than expected, they rang us awake at 08:00 while we did not expect them before 12:00. So we had to boil water in a cooker for the cleaning, since Feenstra turned of the hot water. We spent several hours cleaning the house. Matthijs did the toilet, bathroom and all doors while I was busy doing the kitchen. Dusty grease everywhere. Yuck! (We did clean our kitchen every now and again, but not on top of the cupboards or behind the fridge)

After a last toilet visit and round of vacuum cleaning we finally jotted down the numbers on the meters and left the building to hand in the keys. After that we treated ourselves to an expensive lunch at La Place and went home to Amersfoort. Our real and only home now. Yay!

With all the furniture present it is now actually starting to feel like a home. The floor is very pretty (and already has a first dent...) and we can now sag on the couch and watch tv. Still, there's a lot left to be done. Unpacking boxes will have to wait until after the Summoning though. And I'm back to working full weeks again.

I really need to do a project that includes ridiculous amounts of non-color-matching fabric, leather and my serger... Yes, we have been packing the stuff from our hobby room. I think we may have had a shelve-of-holding or something because stuff kept appearing.

I have good hope that with 4 cars (Cora & Rene hopefully, my mom, Dutchy, us) and two trailers it will work out this Sunday. Though of course some stuff will be left behind so we can stay in Enschede one more night: Tuesday to Wednesday. On Tuesday we will drag down the huge bookcase from our living room (if the new inhabitant doesn't want it, we'll know tomorrow) and have it picked up by Het Goed. On Wednesday Feenstra will come to check on the heater in the kitchen and lock it down. No more hot water from that point on, so we'll have to do the cleaning of the house in the morning.

We had two candidates this morning for the apartment. Number 1 and 3 on the 3rd list so far. Number 1 was a bit surprised that he actually got called for this house, he was 'just browsing' at the moment to get a house away from the UT campus. He'll let us know tomorrow if he'll take it. Number 2 was on vacation and number 3 also said they want the house. (though official numbers 1-3 have said likewise...) This was the first time that we had actual Dutch people on the viewing...

So, let's hope number one wants the apartment and can visit next Tuesday to decide what stuff they want to take over and what we should get rid off. We already did one trip to Het Goed for some small stuff and we have a new box ready for them. There's also a fair amount of trash to be brought to the dump, so we won't be sitting idle for a while!

Today our floor will be laid. Finally no more concrete to walk on, but a real floor. Unfortunately for the kitties this means that they will be locked up in the workroom for the day, so they won't be able to escape through the front door or annoy the workers.

It has been more than a month since we ordered the floor, so I hope I still like it and I am very curious what it will look like in our living room and kitchen.

When the floor is done we need to do the skirting and bring in the furniture. Coming Sunday (10th) we're planning to do the big move. Around 12:00 we're going to drag all stuff 3 stories down in Enschede, pack it into cars and trailers and head of to Amersfoort. It would be nice if we could do it in one run, but I'm not sure it will all fit. However, this Thursday we have the third try at house viewing and after that we'll take some more stuff to Amersfoort.

We still don't know who the next inhabitant will be so we have not yet been able to make arrangements about what stuff can stay behind (like closets, floor, shelves etc.). The 15th of June we had the first three candidates visiting. The one that was first on the list was very enthusiastic and wanted to keep nearly everything we offered to leave behind. Unfortunately Domijn did not want her as a renter (something to do with money probably). Then the number two and three, despite being in a hurry for a house, declined.

So we picked a new date, 30th of June. Number 4 on the list thought the house was too small for her and her three children. Number five declined after agreeing on the viewing and number 7 (6 already had a house) could not be reached. So... on to the next people on the list. Coming Thursday (7th) we have the next viewing. Hopefully this time with more luck. However, the number 2 of this set of three has already called Domijn to tell that they are very interested, but they are on vacation on Thursday so they can not come to the viewing. They tried to arrange a viewing on Monday or Tuesday (today) but we're still in Amersfoort (some thing or other about a floor..) so that was a no go. They have my phone number if they want to visit on Wednesday, but so far I haven't heard from anybody. Crap.

If we do not know who the next inhabitant will be, we'll have to strip the whole house. Meaning that we have to take of all shelves from the wall, ditch all furniture we no longer need, take out the floor again etc. Lots of work. So, fingers crossed...