pictures at last!

Yippee! I figured out how to import several pictures into one blog entry and put text around them! And I got caught up on all the updates! So now I'm going to switch gears and send out some more emails. If you are just hearing from me now and checking out these blogs for the first time, here's a quick summary: Paulus and I are in love... with each other of course... but also with an amazing house in Bunnik. If all goes well we will be living there by next Christmas! (in fulfillment of a resolution/affirmation we made last Christmas...) It will take a few small miracles to achieve that, but we believe in miracles (and we are also willing to work very very hard.) I've been researching and writing and blogging and mailing like crazy, and some of that effort you can see here below. If you want to follow it chronologically, use the archive on the right and start at the bottom... "We've found a new house?"


This is the view of the house from across the Kromme Rijn. The little brick house on the side with the chimney was formerly a bakery -- it is now attached to the main house with a hallway. We would use that little house as our bedroom.

Here is what the bakery house looks like inside. Notice the old oven on the left.

This is the view of the house from the street. This is the dead-end section of the Dorpsstraat. To the left, outside the picture, is a cute bridge over the Kromme Rijn. Looking at the house, on the ground floor are windows to one of our potential meeting rooms and the dining room. Above on the left (windows blocked by the trees) are the B&B bedrooms. The midle area that comes forward would be our main entrance. To the right of the main entrance is the other half of the house, not visible in this photo. That's where the two big halls are.


This is the big hall on the ground floor (there's floor heating under the tiles.) It is a huge room. Try to imagine it without all the antiques! Although many of them are beautiful and if we have the finances to buy some, we will! Especially a few large wooden wardrobes and a long dining table... Victor Couwenbergh and his wife Nellie have put a lot of love and attention into their antique showroom and restoration business and you can really "feel" the good energy in the building. Who knows? Maybe we could arrange to "babysit" some nice antiques, in addition to a grand piano (via Anne and Robert... see previous entry)! And if we pursue the art gallery angle, with paintings and sculptures on display and for sale, maybe we could do that for some antiques as well. Everyone wins: extra sales and no storage fees for Victor and Nellie, nice ambiance for us and our guests....


This is the big hall on the second floor (or first floor, as they call it in Europe...) Again, imagine it without furniture! We would make it an open space, with folding chairs and mats and meditation cushions available in the storage areas under the eves. We would also change the color to something more neutral/meditative, and put wall sconce lighting and floor lamps. The window at the back opens out onto the emergency exit and staircase -- we would probably make that more available for people to use (but not to go out onto to have a cigarette!)


This is *not* from "our" house but from Samaya Conferentie Centrum, where I went for a visit. This is the kind of sphere I'd like to create, though, in the upstairs hall. Could be a challenge of course because we don't have all the windows...


This is the back of the house, with terrace. We would replace the big window with double patio doors into the large ground floor hall (an idea of the Victor's, which we thought was great.) There is another single door to the right, into the same hall. The door on the left goes into a work area that Victor set up with a temporary wall along one side of the large hall. We would probably keep that temporary wall (or most of it) and make the work area into a professional kitchen area. The door will be handy for deliveries. If we do catering or receptions in the large hall, that will be the perfect place for a kitchen. To the right, outside of the picture, is the vegetable garden and after that the river.

Here it is, the vegetable garden, with raised beds even! I've been wishing for a vegetable garden space ever since coming to Holland. We have a nice garden now (and all the bulbs and perenials will be lovingly dug up and brought with us) but we've never had sun and ground in the right place for veggies. So this is fantastic. Nellie said that this area could be dug up and covered with terrace tiles if someone didn't want to be bothered with the vegetable garden, and I said, no way! Beyond the garden is the bakery house (our bedroom) with its own little terrace and grape trellis. We would put our hot tub on that terrace.

There are more pictures at http://www.funda.nl/woningaanbod/koop/Detail/Fotos/?id=804edf5a-1a2c-44bd-b994-d4ecfd8d9499&objecttype=DetailKoopObject but I am going to stop with the downloading for now....