De Ruijterstraat 66

Shopping -- and setting up shop -- in a new city

We got the keys to the apartment on Friday and are starting to buy the essentials so we can live until our belongings arrive sometime in late January or February.

The big ticket item was the bed. We went to the Auping store Friday afternoon and found some nice beds only to find they were incredibly expensive. I don’t know why the models on the floor are so expensive that they’re out of the price range of 99 percent of customers. Who can spend 7,000 euros on a bed?

We took a deep breath, thanked the salesman for his time, and went back to the hotel and played with the website and figured out we could get a quality bed there for a lot less. The model we ended up with was still 3,300 euros but it will last for a decade (or longer). Our leasing agent graciously agreed to be there when the delivery people arrive in early January. If you can sleep well at night, it makes camping for a few weeks more tolerable, we figure.

Today involved trips to to homewares stores (Hema and Blokker), a hardware store, and the grocery store (Albert Heijn) to get some basics. A waterkoker (electric tea kettle), some flatware, pet food, laundry detergent, dishwater detergent, bedding, towels, etc etc.

Here’s some pictures of the apartment:

The biggest room — probably 50% of the square footage — is the living room. We’re going to break it up in different areas — a table for my home office, a seating area in front of the fireplace, an area to watch TV, and a small dining table.

Here’s the opposite view facing the street. The doors are partially frosted to provide some privacy from the sidewalk. Yes, those are concrete floors, which is a bit unusual for The Netherlands. It’s a bit of change for us but I’m excited to get a Roomba and let him go to work …

The kitchen is very nice. The smaller oven will be an adjustment but I like the panels over the fridge and freezer (to the right of the oven.) The gas stove has six burners and there’s a dishwasher and a wine refrigerator.

Lots of shelving around the gas fireplace. We haven’t figured out how to operate it but are meeting the landlord on Monday and hope he can explain it.

The foyer, which connects the living room with the bedrooms and bathroom, is our favorite room. There’s a floor to ceiling glass wall facing the garden. We plan to put a sofa here and make this Stephanie’s library.

The garden is a little nice space about 20 feet by 20 feet that will be perfect for relaxing in the evening. It’s ideal for container gardening and Stephanie is excited to start researching what might grow on a trellis along that wall.

The bedroom is at the back of the apartment, away from the street.

The walk-in closest. We’ve never lived in a house with one …

The bathroom has a tub, shower, and heated towel racks. There’s a separate toilet room, which is pretty common here. There’s also another toilet room in the entryway way next to the living room.

Not pictured: (1) the entryway (2) the guest bedroom (too dark in the basement until we add a few lights), and (3) the laundry room.

Hopefully we’ll get some more sunshine in the next few days and I’ll take some photos of the neighborhood!