First days of house-hunting

A collection of houses and interiors that we have seen over the course of this first week of house hunting:

Types of houses:

Maisons de maître (“master’s houses”) – not actually for sale but I thought that they were just so beautiful. O’s dream is to live in such a house, but most of them are out of our price range (or in a terrible state!)…

House probably built in the 1920′s or 30′s… Sold by owner but we haven’t visited it yet

Bel-étage house with garage on ground level, usually built in the 1950′s and 60′s. I am increasingly leaning towards this type since you get garage and parking in front + fairly big gardens, and they are located in tree-lined residential streets.

However, we visited a bel-étage house yesterday that was built “on” the pavement so only parking on the street* and in the garage (as seen on the photo) and the [maximum] 50 m2 back garden was described as “pas mal” (not bad) by the real estate agent. In other words, gardens are not very big at all and are sometimes called “jardinette” (small garden) or “cour” (courtyard). These houses are typical in urban streets with a mix of residential houses and shops with apartments above.

Various interiors:

Maison de maître staircase

Wooden ceiling in maison de maître

Glass ceiling in staircase in maison de maître

Old-style heating in a 1920′s free-standing house**… This kind of heating is actually still in use in many houses / apartments in Brussels (and sometimes the only heating system!)

Same building as the photo above, another floor which was completely covered in mold!!

Same building, retro wallpaper

Cool retro kitchen cupboard

Old bathroom, the warm water gas boiler in the bathroom is a scary feature we don’t like!

This is such a Brussels’ solution – putting the bathroom at the top of the staircase!! Oh yes, even the toilet is behind the divider!! Other creative solutions that I have seen in the past (and lived in myself): having to pass the bathroom to reach the bedroom, bathtub / shower in the kitchen… (the shower in the kitchen was actually in my flat in Geneva)

Old sink

Garden shed – you can see that the land behind the shed belongs to the neighbouring house which has a much bigger garden… This property is still considered to have a big garden of almost 70 m2.

Some more house viewings tomorrow and Saturday but we are probably far from making a decision. We viewed a house in our old street (!!) today, it was very big but also in need of a lot of work in order to be brought to a liveable standard…

*) The garbage you see outside the house on the photo is normal – twice a week the garbage trucks pass and you put the garbage bags straight out on the pavement. The white bags are for normal garbage, yellow for paper and blue for recycling (plastic, carton, metal). The streets look extremely messy on garbage-days but that’s the Brussels’ system… And be aware, do not put out the garbage too early (or too late), there are garbage spies also in Belgium (like in Sweden!) and I know a few people who have been fined!

**) In house ads the number of sides (façade) of the building is always mentioned. Most houses are attached, and free-standing buildings are rare.

Back to Brussels: magnolias, round-abouts and house-hunting

We have been back in Brussels since Sunday and everything is fine! The sun has been shining for the last two days, and even though we have woken up to grey skies this morning, maybe the sun will come out in a few hours (I hope). The magnolias are almost in bloom, the cherry trees definitely are and I have fallen in love with some areas of Brussels that I didn’t know before. Maybe we will end up living there…

Old photo of a Californian magnolia

House-hunting so far has been mostly driving around looking at different neighbourhoods and checking out houses for sale from the exterior – today we will actually visit some of them. Driving in Brussels has always been frustrating but yesterday was extreme; all the roads seemed to be either under construction (+ all the tram lines that are being refurbished all over the city) or one-way, or both… The round-abouts we enjoy though, something that don’t exist on the other side of the Atlantic*!!

Tree in spring bloom – cherry??

Yesterday evening we had dinner with our French-Greek group of friends, in our favourite Thai restaurant Le IIeme element. So lovely and we have already planned two weekend trips with them – Normandie at Pentecost at the end of May, just like three years ago, and then Sweden for Midsummer’s Eve in June. This is what I love about living in the middle of Europe – the trips that you can take without spending too much money! We will drive to Normandie, and the plane tickets to Copenhagen in June were 150 EUR return!

My favourite dish at my favourite Thai restaurant – Nr 38 (fried rice with chicken and vegetables) for 11,90 EUR (remember: No tip, and the VAT is already included!!)

Unfortunately I can’t show you any photos since the hotel doesn’t have wireless in the rooms and only O’s work computer is connected to the internet. I will try to add some photos as soon as possible.

Another food favourite, hardly seen in Puerto Rico, rucola (rocket / arugula)!!

Now, a big hotel breakfast before we head out to visit some houses!

*) I think that I have seen one round-about in Puerto Rico!

Back to Europe!

We have now been back in Europe, Spain to be exact, for one day and people are wondering how it feels… Well, like we are in Spain on holidays which is actually true since O is not [officially] working this week. Maybe it will feel different next week when we arrive to Brussels and start re-adapting to life in Belgium with all that it includes (bank appointments, house visits, job hunting and most important: meeting up with friends!!).

It was definitely sad to leave Puerto Rico and I think that both of us felt a little numb when driving to the airport on Sunday evening after a last fika (coffee) with our best friend B. We had planned to meet up with her at Borders for our usual Sunday ritual but it was closed since it was Easter Sunday, so we had to go to La España bakery instead. O announced to the whole [Spanish] staff there that it was our last coffee in Puerto Rico!!

Our last days in the Caribbean were spent relaxing on the beach & by the pool, saying goodbye to friends (and meeting two sets of French parents!), having a last stroll in the Old San Juan and the final “pollo con arroz y habichuelas” (chicken with rice and beans), and “quesito y cafe con leche” (Puerto Rican pastry with cream cheese and coffee with milk)…

Selling algodón de azúcar (cotton candy) on the Escambrón beach, San Juan

Playa de Escambrón with El Morro (the fortress) in the background

Bringing ice to the beach – a Puerto Rican beach necessity!

A new mural was being painted when we visited the Escambrón beach on Saturday

Costco by night – O wanted to buy an emergency radio (with solar-cells and a crank handle) (for Belgium??)

Eating at the counter, La Mallorca bakery, Old San Juan

Old San Juan street sign

O is already going back to Puerto Rico in less than two weeks’ time but I have no idea when I will be back to la isla del encanto (enchanted island)… Hopefully one day soon, because I know that I will miss both the island and our wonderful friends.

Show & Tell / Friday Theme: In my Easter egg I would like…

Taina in Connecticut is the April hostess for the Show & Tell and her chosen, very challenging, themes are:
2nd April: In my Easter egg I would like…
9th april: Nails
16th April: White lies
23rd April: Power
30th April: OMG how embarrassing!

We have no Easter atmosphere at the hotel, but last year we followed both Swedish and Spanish / Catholic Easter traditions, including eating fish on Good Friday and lamb on Easter Sunday:

Good Friday procession in the Old San Juan – religious processions are an integral part of Spanish Easter celebrations

Swedish Easter egg

Swedish Easter decorations – on a plate. Next year I would like to take in branches from [our?] garden and decorate them with these ornaments

This year there is no Swedish Easter egg filled with Swedish sweets , we are not going to the Old San Juan to look at the Easter procession (O is too tired after having worked until almost 10 o’clock last night) but we are going to eat fish today as good Catholics (Hello, I am protestant!?). O has promised me sushi, which might not be the most traditional way of eating fish on Good Friday…

Conclusion: this year since I won’t have a proper Easter egg,  I will make do with sushi at my favourite Japanese restaurant in San Juan!!

I apologise for my not-so-updated list of Show & Tell participants: Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

A new view…

After having lived 2,5 years with an ocean view, we opted for a lagoon view at the hotel… And we are not disappointed!

Laguna del Condado at 07 in the morning… The small planes’ airport in San Juan is to the far right – you can see the landing strip if you look really hard. The Old San Juan is to the West of the lagoon.

Laguna del Condado towards the East – we used to live further East facing the Atlantic Ocean (North). The lagoon is South of the Condado peninsula.

I woke up this morning when O was getting ready for work / or at least for his “cleaning out the office”-day. The lagoon was completely calm and people were paddling in kayaks and standing on top of surf-boards (what’s the word again for that sport / board-paddling or something??). So peaceful…

Moving days

The movers have just left (for the second day, they didn’t manage to finish yesterday!) and I am about to start cleaning the apartment while O is off to the office. Tomorrow we move out of the apartment, which has been our home for 2,5 years, and check into the Condado Plaza Hotel*. It will be nice with some luxury: relaxing by the pool, eating out (after having eaten left-overs for the last couple of days) and meeting up with friends for the last time [for now].

Living room with our stuff that will be air-shipped in the middle, 438 lbs in total (mostly clothes packed in air-tight SpaceBags). The furniture belongs to the apartment, except for the leather arm chair seen on the right (we have two).

Result of the move: 100 items! The movers were complaining about the amount of books we (actually I) have and O threatened to sell them all on eBay

Kitchen full of boxes

To sum up our feelings right now, as expressed by O yesterday evening: [I] can’t believe that we are actually leaving, and [I] feel homeless… Who knows when we will have a proper home again!? Hopefully in a few months’ time…

TV- and guest room, also full of boxes…

We wanted to stay in Puerto Rico until Monday but when Iberia suggested us flying San Juan – New York – Barcelona – Madrid, we decided that Sunday was good enough (with a DIRECT flight to Madrid!)! We will spend a week with O’s family in Spain and then we head to Brussels, and I am already lining up dinners with friends

 
*) Features in the [crap] film Men who stare at goats with George Clooney, as a hotel in Kuwait in the 1980′s! (I haven’t liked any of George’s so-called comedies, he’s just not funny!)

Show & Tell / Friday theme: Change

I really have to apologise for my sporadic participation in the Show & Tell / Friday theme, but here’s at least an interpretation of today’s theme which is CHANGE, chosen by Saltis.

Our lives, as I have mentioned so many times before, will change in a week’s time (or so, probably Easter Sunday to be specific) when we leave Puerto Rico and move back to Brussels.

Here are some photos to show the way our everday views will change from living in San Juan to re-making a life in Brussels. It is probably not an entirely fair comparison, but I want to underline that I love both cities and just like I have missed Brussels, I will miss San Juan and our life here.

Street life in Old San Juan

Brussels street view

A rainy (Midsummer’s) day in San Juan

Brussels on a rainy (National) day

Punta / Playa Escambrón, San Juan

Parc Leopold, behind the European Parliament, Brussels

The City Wall in the Old San Juan

The old City Wall in Brussels – not much left of it…

Plazuela de la Rogativa, San Juan

Manneken Pis on Belgium’s National Day (21st July), Brussels

The Raíces (Roots) fountain in the Old San Juan (usually spraying passers-by with water)

Fountain in the Parc Royal, Brussels

Old San Juan by night (seen from our departing cruise ship)

Brussels Town Hall at the Grand’ Place, by night

I will try to make the blog round today but I can’t promise anything with all the things I need to do before the movers arrive on Monday morning…
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

PS I did a similiar post comparing a Swedish autumn with autumn in Puerto Rico – click on the link.

Swiss / Swedish Kitchen Inspiration

While I am starting to prepare for the move back to Brussels, I keep wondering where we will un-pack our stuff… Will it be in a rented apartment or in a house of our own? And when will it be? Within the next few months or maybe longer? We are going to try to divide our belongings into two groups: 1) “will need immediately” and 2) “to be stored until getting our own place”, which will be an interesting exercise since we are not going to do the actual packing ourselves (for insurance purposes the movers need to do it).

Speaking of a future home, my “Inspiration”-folder on the computer is filled with photos from homes all over the world. Every time I see an interior on the internet that I like, I just have to save the pictures for “future reference”. Hopefully we will soon have a house of our own to furnish and decorate according to our (??) taste! I am sure that there will have to be lots of compromises between O and I, because I am not the only one in this household who is interested in interior design…

However, there are a few of my own photos as well – from a home I have loved and been inspired by, since I was a child: my father’s uncle’s home in Switzerland! I have already written about his and his wife’s beautiful old house in a small village by the Geneva Lake (read more here and here about the house and garden). I hope that you like these inspiring photos from the kitchen in their small guest apartment.

They renovated the apartment in the 1980′s and everything still looked the same in 2007 (my last visit) as when I was a child and we spent a few days almost every summer in this wonderful house. Even the mugs that my brother and I used to drink from were still in the cupboard (see below).

Unfortunately my father’s uncle R (as an uncle-less person, he was as much my uncle!) passed away in 2008 and we miss him dearly. He moved to Switzerland already in the 1950′s and only came back a few times to visit his parents, his sister (my paternal grandmother) and us. His Swiss wife is still alive but I am the only one who can really communicate with her since her English is not great and neither is my parents’ French. I hope that we might be able to visit her this summer.

A 1950′s spice chart, designed by Signe Persson-Melin

Both R and his wife M worked as graphic designers and they had their own ateliers in the house. I wonder if not my interest for interior design originates in my fascination as a child for their home. I used to dream about living in that old stone house with steep squeaky stairs, graphic posters on the walls, retro furniture from the 1950′s and 60′s and antique objects. There was always so much stuff to look at and do for us children; photos and paintings, a Labyrinth-game* and a blackboard in the hallway to draw and write messages on. And not to forget the ping-pong table and the black leather beanbag chairs in the old “nailsmith’s workshop” (spiksmedja) in the garden.

If you look carefully, you will be able to see some Swedish china in the cupboard – the jug for example with “1 liter” written on it

The way this kitchen looks is, according to me, a wonderful combination of old and new. Personally, I would move in in a heartbeat! Maybe I wouldn’t choose the same kitchen cabinets if I designed my own kitchen, but considering that this space was updated in the 1980′s I think it has a surprisingly modern feel.

My brother always had the cat-mug and I had the dog one

I guess that since I nowadays also live abroad and have a foreign spouse, my father’s uncle’s more than 50 year long life in Switzerland is even more fascinating for me. I definitely regret that I didn’t have more opportunities to discuss with him about culture and languages… Nevertheless, the Swedish touches in his and his wife’s home is one thing that I intend to replicate in O’s and my future Spanish / Swedish home in Belgium 

Serving plates including the popular Swedish Blå Eld from Rörstrand

*) You know that frustrating game where you are supposed to balance a small marble through a wooden labyrinth that moves in all 4 directions…

Flyttdatum?

Jag tar det här på svenska eftersom jag vet att vissa av Os kollegor, både här och i Belgien läser min blogg*, och inget är särskilt officiellt än… Många frågar om vårt flyttdatum och jag svarade följande på Mariannes blogg idag:

Frågan är vad som syftas på med “flyttdatum”:

• Os sista arbetsdag i PR är den 31 mars
• Vi funderar på att stanna över påsk och bara semestra några dagar, antingen i lägenheten om hyresvärdinnan går med på det eller på något hotell i SJ eller någonannanstans i Puerto Rico / Karibien (det är mitt uppdrag att kolla upp olika alternativ, vilket jag inte har gjort än pga internetstrul)
• Flyttlasset går förhoppningsvis sista måndagen i mars, det är inte vi som ska boka flyttfirma utan det görs av en relocation-firma. Vi har som önskemål i a f den sista måndagen i mars.
• Vår sista dag i PR? Någongång efter påsk, flyger antagligen till Bryssel via Spanien och stannar några dagar där…
• Os första jobbdag i Bryssel? Antagligen runt den 15 april…
• Bostad i Bryssel? Företaget ska fixa en möblerad lägenhet till oss i Bryssel så de närmsta månaderna kommer vi att bo provisoriskt medan vi letar ny bostad.

Hoppas att ni har fått lite bättre hum om våra icke-exakta planer nu!

PS Internet har varit nere / otroligt segt de senaste dagarna och jag sitter nu på en kudde på en hård låg pall bredvid tv:n eftersom det trådlösa nätverket inte fungerar och datorn måste vara direkt kopplad till modemet. Det är varken särskilt bekvämt eller praktiskt, och vi får nog flytta internetmodemet till ett bättre ställe…

*) Är de tillräckligt nyfikna översätter de så klart den här texten

Belgian house ads and my dream room

Our last guests to Puerto Rico arrived on Sunday evening and they are enjoying the sunshine, warm temperatures and the beach to the fullest. My father said that it was the first time since December that they are not surrounded by snow… They are happy without the snow, and I am happy because my mother brought 4 new Swedish interior design magazines, Swedish sweets and cookies, almond paste for the Lent cream buns* and Prästost (Swedish cheese) for me (and O) to enjoy! We also got two cans of elk paté from Mrs N[eighbour] – not her delicious home-made paté because it has to be vacuum-packed for the US Customs but I am sure that it will be yummy anyway, and my father brought my black high-heeled winter boots that I had left in Sweden – maybe I need them in Brussels in April!?

Lent cream buns, baked in Puerto Rico in February 2008…

Speaking of interior design, as you all know, we are soon moving back to Brussels and I am checking the house ads every day on the Belgian web-site immoweb.be. It is a huge difference between how a house for sale is being presented in Belgium and in Sweden. In Sweden almost all houses and apartments are staged / styled for a sale, photos look professional and the homes are de-cluttered to a maximum. The layout of the home is shown in a simple drawing – not so difficult to produce with computer programmes nowadays…

However, as I have already mentioned before, Belgian home ads are T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E: photos are blurry or just badly taken, no layout shown and the homes are most of the time not even CLEAN or TIDY in the photos! It doesn’t seem to matter if the home is being sold by a real estate agent or an individual, the photos are equally bad. Garbage bags in the middle of the kitchen floor, unmade beds with dirty laundry on the floor, cupboard doors open so you can’t see the room etc. And let’s not talk about standard… but we are willing to renovate and therefore try to see the potential in old homes without a proper bathroom or fitted kitchen. We don’t want to pay extra for somebody’s crappy renovation with flowery tiles and a cheap, unpractical kitchen.

A messy kitchen in a Belgian house ad… Not the worst that I have seen!

I didn’t participate in the Show & Tell / Friday theme in January when one of the themes was “My dream room”, but the other day I saw a photo of a room in a Belgian house ad that could be made into my dream room – inspired by Desiree’s description of her dream room and a recent Ikea ad:

My dream room would be a so-called “sun room” or covered veranda. Here the sunlight would flow through big windows. [---] I would have lots of green plats in the room. Both big and small pots with different plants. Many beautiful orchids. Here I would have a really comfortable armchair placed centrally with a nice footstool. The room would also have a small sofa where you could stretch out to rest or lie and read. Some beautiful wicker baskets on the floor with gorgeous fashion and interior design magazines. Over the sofa I would hang some cosy blankets to snuggle up in when it is cold outside. A small table in front of the sofa where you could put a big tea or coffee cup. [---] This would definitely be a room to rest and to enjoy the peace and quiet. (from Desiree’s blog, January 14 2010)

This is the Ikea ad:

And the room in the house ad:

Can you see the potential? Too bad the rest of the house wasn’t very interesting… Or well, it could have had potential if it had had a garage / parking space, but it didn’t. To be able to park the car and not have to desperately drive around and around the block trying to find parking every evening is one of O’s requirements. One of mine is to have a metro station within walking distance (max. 500-700 m away). And we want a small garden.

We are not too stressed about finding a house, and will of course wait until we are back in Brussels so that we will be able to visit any potential homes. What is great is that we already know Brussels and we know in which areas we would want to live. After having studied the market for the last 6 months I think that we can recognise a good buy when we see it.

Update: I forgot to publish this photo of the Swedish visitors watching the Winter Olympics in the Caribbean…

*) We should make the Lent cream buns TODAY as it is Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras / Fettisdagen…