update March 25

More exciting installments in our quest to buy our dream house in Bunnik!

Tuesday March 24. In the daytime, I worked on the business plan, which is now posted in part on this blog, and complete with tables on our website. What a job! And that's just the first version, and without the attachments....

In the evening, I drove to Wageningen, to a sort of "open evening" at a health food store there called Buys & Ko. I've heard a lot about them and wanted to see it for myself. I was also hoping to see an old friend and colleague, Karl, who now works there... and I was in luck. Karl was there, and quite surprised to see me! (it isn't an easy drive from Utrecht, in the dark and rain... I'm impressed that he commuted every day for many months before finally moving to Wageningen.)

I asked Karl in particular about the "client card" being used at Buys & Ko. Approximately 300 clients signed up for this card a few years ago, when the store came up with this way to raise funds. Each client had to loan a minimum of 100 Euro to the store, interest-free. (150 for a family) They could loan more, but in practice almost everyone did the minimal loans of 100 or 150 Euro. Clients can ask for their loan back at any time, but until now only one person has done this. Each year, there is a renewal fee of 10 Euro to cover administration costs. In exchange for making these loans, the clients received a card that gives them 5% discount in the store, plus the right to participate in meetings to discuss developments in the store. Clients with these cards turn out to be very loyal shoppers -- when the weather is bad, regular customers stay away but the client card holders keep coming, to "their store." As a result, the store had dramatically improved sales figures since starting this service -- a nice extra benefit in addition to the interest-free loan of 30,000 plus Euro.

Karl also told about another store in the area that needed to raise money to pay for moving to a new location. They also turned to their customers for small, interest-free loans. Karl said they
needed 200,000 Euro but they could have raised 3 times that much. They had to tell people, no thanks, we don't need any more. His opinion is that there are plenty of people in the Netherlands, even in this economic climate, who want to do something worthwhile with their money. They aren't so concerned about making a profit, if they get a good feeling or some sort of social benefit from their investment.

But how could we use this idea with our fundraising plan? A card with a barcode and discount -- that's good for grocery stores but not for us. A gift certificate for 25 Euro, for every 500 loaned to us, would be a nice gesture (that's the equivalent of 5% interest, plus it brings us more customers) but it is probably not that interesting to our friends and family in America. I thought, what about organic cotton t-shirts with a copy of the old etching of Het Huis aan de Brug? I started to tell Paulus my idea that evening, but he stopped me -- HE had been thinking about what we could offer as a gift to people who help us with loans, and HIS idea was to use the etching of the house, on ceramic tiles. We laughed. It's crazy, we both work all day and when we get back together in the evening, the conversation always starts with "hey, I was thinking, what if we ...."

Wednesday March 25: I got up very early so I could go meet with Ellen Kok from Terecht Anders at 8 a.m. Ellen is another super-friendly person, who gave me an hour of her time and lots of useful information. Today she has sent an email with even more: documents on B&B rules and regulations, a power-point presentation with good tips on how to plan your remodeling and redecorating, a summary of some national research on B&B's... I'm still reading through it all. Great. My conclusions: I've lowered the prices on our two "luxury rooms" and my "best guess" for occupancy rate, to be safer, but it was good to hear that some B&B's in the area are as high as 85%. Plus that the whole group is friendly and cooperative. And that Terecht Anders is very busy with marketing and promoting, and membership is not expensive.

It was 9 o'clock and my next appointment was with Nellie and Victor, at 10:30, so I had an extra hour. I decided to go visit Samaya again. The same friendly receptionist was there as last time, and she invited me again to look around or take a walk outside. I decided to visit the garden, and one of their conference rooms that was not in use. Again, it was such a great experience. I can't explain it. Something about the place touches me so deeply -- I was actually crying, walking in the garden (luckily it was raining and no one else was outside.) The building is not very old, so I don't think that I am tuning into the emotions of previous tenants. And the tears weren't due to my own sadness or longing or whatever. I think it must be because of all the people who come there for their meditation classes and awareness workshops and such things. Cool, that the effect is so tangible. I wonder if that will keep happening every time I visit, or if the effect will wear off after a while.

At 10:30, I rang the doorbell at Dorpsstraat 1. I had another very nice visit with Victor and Nellie. They are really great people. I hope, if we don't manage to get it all together, that they find other good buyers for their house. I know they will be disappointed if they feel they have to sell to someone who doesn't appreciate the house as much as they do.

On this visit, I learned a few extra useful things for our plans, the most important being that we really need to talk to Peter de Wit. Peter is the restoration architect who did all the remodeling of the house for them when they moved in, plus the big restoration for the city back in 1980. He is an expert on the house, but also on Monument buildings in general and in particular on the subsidies that are available for Monument buildings. We have now made an appointment for Monday. (he's coming here! which means I need to clean up all the papers and maps and spreadsheets that are spread all over the livingroom...)

I need to say something about Netherlands and subsidies (although I will be able to say much more after Monday). I'm not an expert on this subject, but I know that Holland does it much better than the US. One of the reasons my mom is worried about this project is because she has been very active in historic preservation in Ithaca (and elsewhere.) In particular, there is a nice old building in Ithaca, called the Clinton House, which was scheduled to be torn down at one point in the 1960's. A group of people (Historic Ithaca) came together to save it. They borrowed money to make all the necessary repairs, and recovered the money later by renting out office space in the building. But they fell behind on the continued maintenance, and took out extra mortgages on the building to fund other restoration projects, and in the end it was a financial nightmare. Now the Clinton House is being sold to a developer. It's a pity.

The way it works in the Netherlands, if I understand correctly, is that someone can petition to get their building on the city Monument list or the national Monument list. There is a selection process, and it takes a while, but in the end if the building has historical or cultural or architectural value, it is accepted. Once on the list, it stays on the list, even if it is sold. There are some disadvantages to being on the list -- you aren't allowed to make certain changes that affect the "essence" of the building (for example, adding an elevator or a sunroom, hanging a modern plastic business sign on the outside, etc.) But the advantages of being on the list are many, especially if you get on the national Monument list. Then the government pays you to maintain the building. How much and how often is not clear to me yet, but apparently you can put together a "10-year maintenance plan" with a rotation of projects like exterior wall painting, new gutters, new lead/zink panels by the chimneys, etc., and get the plan approved, and those costs are covered. If you need to do a major renovation, there is also money for that. In our case, that isn't necessary because this house had a huge, million Euro renovation in 1980. All the walls have an extra wall built on the inside, with a space between the two walls, for insulation (resulting is lots of deep window sills, perfect for plants...) The roof is renewed and insulated. The electric and plumbing and everything are fine, also the emergency fire escape from the upstairs hall.

(update: I learned that the government used to actually pay monument owners for doing maintenance, but not any more. Now you get to deduct the costs, including the cost of your work hours, from your taxable income. Plus, for the maintenance of the building's exterior, you can apply for loans with very low interest -- around 1.5 %. So, it is still much better than living in an old house that isn't a registered monument.)

What is also interesting, this year, is that there is extra subsidy money available for improving energy efficiency (as part of an economic stimulus project from the government.) So we could apply to get a new, more energy efficient water heater (for central heating), for example, and custom made storm windows for the old ones that don't have them yet, and maybe even solar panels or a little windmill. I don't think there will be a subsidy for our new kitchen or bathroom, but who knows? Water-saving showers and automatic lights are good things... Or maybe someone will be impressed with the fact that we want to put in a handicapped-accessible toilet. Anyway, we wouldn't have to worry about outrageous maintenance costs (especially since Paulus can do most of the work himself.)

Another interesting new factoid: The Kromme Rijn river, which runs behind the house, is allowed to partially flood into a flat area each winter, just on the other side of the bridge. The flat area is set up with a mound in the middle, and benches, and lighting poles -- to make an outdoor skating rink! We saw it on our first visit, when it was still very cold. But later in the year, the water is drained away, and you are left with a big swampy area of ground -- a favorite resting spot for massive bird migrations in the spring! Cool! I went home and immediately added "birdwatchers" to our "target audience" list in the business plan.

Victor had some funny stories to share... Apparently, there is a group in Bunnik that likes to organize courses for the locals (I found their agenda already at the city hall -- lots of interesting things, like yoga and photography and music classes). They approached Victor when he first moved there and asked if he would be willing to give a course on restoring antiques. He said, sure, why not? Apparently that caused quite a disturbance in their offices -- lots of people were angry, because when they showed up on the first day to enroll for classes, Victor's course was already full! He ended up running 4 separate sections! He said the same thing about the local people as Michel said, from Bio Goed: lots of academic types, and a rather sleepy feeling in the town -- but very active when it comes to culture and music and so forth. I think this is a very good thing, in general of course, but in particular for our project.

I explained that Paulus wasn't with me because he was busy with a painting job -- in fact, he had painted all day Saturday and Sunday, because the weather was good. Victor said, it's a real advantage being handy with a big house, and Paulus would certainly get extra business in the area. Victor does the exterior painting himself mostly, and he has gotten several requests from passersby: "Can I have your business card, Mr. Painter? Do you have time for a project next month? My back wall needs painting..." Funny!

But the main reason I went by the house on Wednesday was to pick up some materials that Victor had collected for me -- some old postcards and books and articles about the house, including a small copy of an etching that was done of the house in the 1700's. Victor used the etching as part of the design on a wine bottle label (they make wine from the grapes in the garden.) I asked, could we use that etching as well, as part of a logo for the B&B? He said, why not? Copyrights expire after 50 years, and so the etching is public now. Cool. But the books and postcards were also very interesting. In fact, the cover illustration on a book about architecture in the area, is another etching of Het Huis aan de Brug! I'm going to make copies of everything, to use in our business plan, and take the originals back to Victor next week.

After our visit was over, I went back to the Shoemakers to talk to Geerke again. Again, such nice people! I discovered that she and her husband had just been written up in a book about Bunnik in 2008 (a sort of yearly report -- I later got myself a free copy at the City Hall.) Maybe we can get ourselves written about in the book for 2009? Or at least a line or two. The book mentioned a few events that happened at the antique business -- and of course there was a large picture of the house. I went around the corner to the local book store and looked for modern-day postcards of Bunnik -- and again, more than half of them included Het Huis aan de Brug! I'm going to scan a few and put them in the next blog entry.... It is just so amazing, to imagine living in an historic monument that people buy postcards of!

Until next time....

update on "our" house in Bunnik: March 5-12

I've been very busy the last few days, doing research, still staying optimistic that we'll find a way to buy the house at Dorpsstraat 1....

First, some "thank-you" messages:

to Renee, for the great tip that we talk to the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis (children's hospital) and let them know that we could host families if the Ronald MacDonald house is full. "Our" house is just a few minutes drive away from the hospital.

Norm: how interesting that you know the house from your childhood! Yes, we'd love to have copies of photos and info from the book you mentioned about Bunnik.

Manfred: great that you are willing to "spread the word." Yes, I think the networks from our Utrecht Ondernemers Academy will help us a lot.

Leslie: thanks for the encouragement and your own update and hope we can get together this week!

Wendy: you asked how the owners reacted when we asked if it would be possible to rent for a year or two...

I'll begin there. On Thursday, March 5, we had our second tour of the house and spoke with both owners. They said that they would naturally prefer to sell the house than rent it, and that they thought it would be a pity for us to pay a high rent to them without being able to call the place our own -- but, that they didn't really need all the money at once and they would be willing to consider alternatives. For example, splitting the house into two parts, on paper, and selling us half, if we could get a mortgage for that much, and renting us the other half for a few years. In any case, it seems that they like us and our plans, and we like them and their house, and we are all willing to be flexible. Just as long as they get their money eventually and we don't get in over our heads -- we all agreed that we need to be practical and give it up if it starts to look too difficult.

On Friday, March 6, we went to visit a woman who has a similar set-up in Baarn: an old house that she remodeled and uses for her practice and rents out to others. She said she had some ideas and could probably help us. (She didn't say that she would be sending us a bill for 178 Euro's afterwards. Her website did mention somewhere in very fine print that she gives consultations to businesses for 75 Euro -- I guess I should have asked explicitly, is that per hour or per session, inclusive or exclusive tax?) So, that left a bitter taste. Most of her advice was not something I would have paid for (like what colors to paint the walls and stuff -- that part we can handle.) I wanted to know about financing and reasonable expectations for how in demand our rental rooms would be. But anyway. We did get a little information on those points: meeting rooms are very much in demand (she says -- no specific numbers) and she has a feeling that we could get a mortgage if we could put a lot of money in a sort of deposit account -- what I described in my first letter to everyone. My intuition is that this one little piece of information was what we needed to get from her. I suppose, if it works out, those 5 minutes were worth the 178 Euro.

On Sunday, March 8, we went to an art exposition at "Concordia" in Utrecht and talked to quite a few artists. I collected business cards and contact info for the ones we liked the most, so we can invite them later to display artwork at our place, or give classes, or whatever. I like the idea of having art (and music) be part of our project.

On Monday, March 9, I met with our "loopbaan" group and shared my enthusiasm over all the developments. The others reminded me how much I've changed since I started going to those meetings. It was hard to remember. But yes, it is true: I'm focused much more these days on the statement sitting on a postcard in front of my computer screen: "Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams." It is exciting and fun to research all the possibilities. Even as we open the mail to find a parking ticket, which we won't be able to pay until Paulus collects the money owed to him from his last handiman job. Crazy, thinking about buying a 2 million Euro house when you don't have 50 Euro in the bank.

I wrote the letter that is the second entry in this blog.

On Wednesday, March 10, I finally had a whole day free to go off researching. I started by going to Samaya Conference Center in Werkhoven. (www.samaya.nl) They have (more or less) 6 conference rooms and 40-some bedrooms in an old cloister, which they rent out for conferences, and they also offer organic meals. One of Bunnik's 6 approved wedding locations is in their chapel. The receptionist said she was quite busy and all the conference rooms were occupied but if I wanted to guide myself around the hallways, I was welcome. So I did. I knew already from their website that it was a pretty cool place -- but wow, in person it was 10 times more special! Beautiful flower arrangements, artwork and photographs and garden spaces... just the whole energy of the place. I was literally in tears. I stopped by the reception again on my way out and learned that (a) they have absolutely no shortage of people who want to use their space and have seen no effect from the current economic situation, and (b) rather often they have more seminar participants than can be accommodated in their guestrooms, and for that situation there is a list of back-up hotels in the area, and they would be very happy to put our B&B on that list. Great!

Then I drove into Bunnik and went to visit the organic food store, Bio Goed, located on the same street as "our" house. The man by the checkout, Michael, turned out to be the owner. His first question, when I told him I wanted to start a bio B&B, was, did I realize I was in Bunnik? He walked me to the door and pointed out all the empty store fronts up and down the street. The only reason he is still in business, he said, was because he has no employees. He runs the whole business himself, the way he likes it, because that's the way he likes it. But if I really wanted to do it, he would be very happy to have us there. In fact, he'd be happy to have a Lidl across the street, he said, laughing. Anything to liven up the place. (Lidl is a chain of discount stores, where you can buy, for example, 12 liters at a time of off-brand cola. The polar opposite of one-man owned and run organic food store, dus.) Bunnik is apparently rather sleepy. Many residents work at the University and shop in Utrecht. He told in a very animated way how they have a vrijmarkt (open air flea market -- a Dutch tradition) on Queen's Day -- it starts around 10 a.m. and is all over by noon! Queen's Day in Utrecht, of course, starts the night before, goes on all night with music and partying and games and TONS of people. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Of course, as we're talking, customers are coming in and out. He knew most of them by name and greeted them with, "hey so-and-so, this woman wants to open a bed and breakfast in Bunnik, what do you think of that?" I think I was there for an hour and a half.

I learned a bunch of useful things: He'd be happy to order for/with us, and not at the "advertised price." There's a short cut over to the warehouse for one of the local important suppliers; we could take turns with him driving over to pick up our orders. We could leave fliers, etc., in his shop. He doesn't have time to provide recipes and samples for his customers and would be happy if we brought soup or snacks down to his shop. He'd be very happy to organize events in cooperation with us. If we want to rent bicycles, there's no one else doing it in Bunnik and we could get a nice supply of good cheap bikes at the police auction. He recommends getting stagaires (apprentice-type people) from the Vrij School (Waldorf school) in Zeist to help out when it is busy. And he knows a family across the street who used to run a B&B and we could talk to them about how it went -- unfortunately they had already closed their shop. His idea was that their B&B didn't go so well, but a client in the store was pretty sure that it was successful and that they stopped for other reasons.

My last stop that day was at the jeugdherberg (youth hostel) in Rhijnauwen. They have rooms to rent (family style with bunk beds and also dormitory style, I think. Plus several conference-type rooms.) I talked to the two guys at the reception. Have they noticed an effect from the economy? Would they recommend opening a B&B in the area? Would they be interested in cooperative efforts? Sadly, it seems that things are not going so well for them. The number of reservations there is much less than it was last year (although last year it was already going down, so I don't know if the problem has to do with the economy entirely.) They said that many hotels are having a hard time and it is quite easy to dig around a little and come up with a big discount at a 5-star hotel, and pay about the same as what they charge at the hostel. They would definitely not recommend investing in a B&B right now. There had been a B&B in Bunnik but it didn't make it. So. That was all a bit sobering. But as Paulus said that night, the youth hostel crowd is absolutely not the same as the B&B crowd.

On Thursday, March 12, I went to the gemeentehuis (city hall) for Bunnik, which is located in the nearby town of Odijk. I found a wall there full of interesting fliers (local choirs performances, agendas for small courses like drawing and yoga, etc.) and spoke with one of their workers. I learned that with a B&B of 5 rooms, we'll need to ask for a gebruiksvergunning (permission for particular use of something). Someone from the city hall would then come by and check for things like emerency exits, etc. But in general, she reacted positively to our idea. I pointed out that I thought a B&B would be good for Bunnik, and she agreed. I also asked about a horecavergunning. It turns out that a horecavergunning is permission for serving alcohol, and only for serving alcohol (although the name suggests that it is about horeca in general: hotels, restaurants and catering.) If we don't serve alcohol (for a payment), we only need a gebruiksvergunning. We can still serve alcohol for "closed" parties and receptions, or for example as part of a chamber music concert during an intermission, as long as the cost is part of the entrance price. I don't think this is how they do it in America, but fine... I think I understand what the rules are now, even if they don't make sense to me.

At the city hall, I also asked about the wedding situation. We had heard from the owners that the city wanted to continue using one of the rooms for wedding ceremonies. I learned that yes, the upstairs hall had been used for weddings before and we could probably continue that. If it is something we enjoy doing and we put some effort into it, we might end up hosting more than the current owners have. But, Bunnik is not like Utrecht and there isn't a huge waiting list for getting married. They do about 50 weddings a year in Bunnik, and that is including Fort Vechten, which is quite a popular location. My conclusion: we aren't going to be doing weddings every month -- but with a good website and outreach, we might be able to appeal to the Utrecht market a bit. If you are free to go to another gemeente to get married, and Utrecht has long waiting lists and Bunnik is very close by.... it doesn't take a rocket scientist...

At the end of our talk, the woman told me about a new organisation in the area that might be interesting to me. She found a full-page ad in the local paper (and here is the website: www.streekhuiskrommerijn.nl) The ad was to promote their opening ceremony on April 4th, but when I read it, I thought, I need to drive right over to their offices now! So I did. They were very friendly and helpful. Apparently, Streek Huis Kromme Rijn is an organization (with a large budget from the national government) to care for the whole Kromme Rijn region -- focusing on the environment, agriculture, history, tourism, and quality of life. Of course, they don't have money to give to an individual B&B, but it is good to know that they are doing things that are likely to make our B&B more successful, like adding more bicycle paths and promoting organic farming. I think we could arrange some sort of open door event, or a canoe or bicycle tour, featuring eco-friendly companies and farms, etc., and apply for a grant to cover our expenses. The people there also suggested that I contact a group called Terecht Anders (www.terechtanders.nl), that works specifically with B&B's, tourist-oriented businesses, farms, producers of organic products, and artists in the area.

My last stop on Thursday was at Amelisweerd, where people I know through Rio de Bio have a tea house (called the bezoekerscentrum -- it is coupled on their kitchen, which is called the Veldkeuken.) I spoke with Juliette there, who was also very helpful and friendly. At their tea house, they haven't seen any negative effects from the economic situation. They have a conference room upstairs that they rent out for 50 Euros for a "dagdeel" (part of a day, usually 4 hours) and it is no problem finding people who want to use it. Frequently those people then eat lunch in the tea house. They have a loyal following, people who are very disappointed when they hear that the room is taken. If Juliette tries to refer them to the youth hostel, they aren't very happy ("it's just not the right atmosphere" -- I think Paulus was right...) Juliette said they would be very happy to work with us, refer their clients to us for the B&B and/or our meeting rooms, and do catering for us (their food is all organic and really delicious -- we'd be crazy to try to make the same products ourselves.)

I really like the way they have set up the tea house, with rough wooden benches and tables, displays of local products and books, flowers, nature drawings on the walls. Like Samaya, it feels friendly and peaceful. And it is also right on the Kromme Rijn, so I'm sure we could cooperate on hiking, biking and canoeing events.

That was Thursday... I still have to report on Friday, but it is already my bedtime.... until tomorrow!