Making it our own

Right, it has been awfully quiet here for the past two weeks, and I think it will be for quite some time to come. During the past Christmas holidays, we've been really busy DIY'ing in our new home, which is finally starting to look somewhat more like a home and less like a place that lots of people lived in, painted weird colours, damaged, moved out of, builders changed bits and bobs on, dragged dirt around, left, and left sitting for 2 months. Just 2 more days to go, and then we have to go back to work/internship and we won't have that much time to do stuff anymore, so we've been going as hard as we could. Trying to make it our own.
I've moved around a couple of times now, and each time it was to a house (or room, when I was a student) I wanted to change absolutely everything about. I cannot imagine just moving into a house that is already 'done', especially if other people lived their first. Even if I love the colours on the wall and the curtains they left hanging and the floor, I would still try to change most of it. Because to me, it is like they are still living there. I really have to tear out the old wallpaper and paint and smell and feel of the previous inhabitants, and put in my own, before I can feel comfortable.
Now with this house, anyone would have done that. Firstly, it smells of disuse and dirt and just generally, musty un-used house. Secondly, it's slightly decrepit in places, with holes in the walls and bits falling out and stuff. Also, it is painted in all the colours of the rainbow. And I mean literally every colour. To make the fun complete, the previous owners also painted over things you're not supposed to paint over, like using wall paint for beautiful old wooden beams, spray painting a radiator shiny silver, and smearing the openings of the screws of the wall sockets shut. Yup, it's been fun.
Most of the second floor (that's third floor for Americans) has been done now, except for the floors which we will do last. Most of the first floor has been painted, and the bathroom was delivered today. On the ground floor, basically nothing has been done but plaster up some holes and tearing out all the tiles in the old bathroom (we don't need a bathroom on the ground floor, so it's going to go). Because on Monday, the 'real' builders will start, smashing down walls and building new walls, bricking up doorways and making other new doorways, and installing the bathroom. When they're done, we can do the last bits (haha, 'bits') and then hopefully we can move some time in February. If we haven't fallen to pieces by then. But at least the house will be well and truly ours by then!

The house phase

I know, it's been quite a while since I've written anything, and also quite a while since I've done anything worth writing about, creatively speaking. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy. My internship has gone up from 2 to 4 days a week, and there are lots of meetings and events in the evenings and weekends, so that's keeping me pretty busy. Also, I've had to finish most of my dissertation before the 19th, which I managed, but only just. But the thing that's been occupying my mind the most lately is the fact that we've bought a house.
Yes, you've read that correctly; we've bought a house. Remember when I was ranting on about life's phases and not being sure where you stand and what you want to do and where you want to live? Apparently, all that doubt goes away when you find the right house, in the right location, with the right feel. Not entirely true, as I still have some creeping doubts when I hear that friends of ours are going to live in New York City for a year, but I was there on holiday just 2 months ago, and I want a garden and a place for our cats to live, and something we can afford, and that's in Groningen, not NYC.
So we've been busy talking to banks and notaries and contractors and bathroom people and what-not, managing stuff from money to insurances to bathroom tiles to paint colours. The house is huuuge, they've combined 2 ex-social rent homes to make one new home, and it needs a lot of work done. There's no bathroom, for example, and only a very basic kitchen. On the other hand, there are two massive living rooms (one of which will be split into a bedroom and an office). So that will keep us busy for a while. We hope to do most of the work ourselves, and we hope to do most of it in the Christmas holidays, although I had also planned to do a lot of dissertation work during that time, so we will see how that goes.
I'll try and put up some before and after pics, something I forgot to do with the house we live in now, which was in about the same state as this one is in. The garden (which is quite big) is also going to need a lot of work, as it is all kind of clay-y and soggy at the moment, but that will be a nice project for April or May. For the moment, it feels as if we've got pretty much the most basic stuff arranged and done, so now we just wait until December 17th, when we'll get the key. And then I will be the most adult version of myself I've ever been, complete with a  house and a mortgage. Let's wait and see whether we slide on into the double-income-workaholic stage that seems to follow this stage all around us... I hope not, as I want to enjoy this house as much as I possibly can!