Year of the tiger-lilly

Archive for the ‘Home & Garden’ Category

Yes folks, I’m back with the dubious blog titles and sporadic posts!

If you’re still checking in on the website, thanks for hanging in there with me. I just wanted to update you on a couple of things that have been keeping me busy this past week:

• A button popped off my jacket, and no, it wasn’t a button on the tummy area. I just got irrefutable proof that my boobs got bigger.
• A co-worker was more concerned about BF and I moving into a house that hasn’t been cleaned from top to bottom, than being happy for us getting the keys to the house.
• A couple who can move together — and not kill each other — can make the relationship work. Oh, the moments in which I could almost strangle BF… the finish line is almost in sight.
• BF agreed to getting a kitten!!

There are many things I look forward to in the near future: the vacation, the roller-blades and the kitten. We’re getting a kitten. Did I mention that we’re getting a kitten? You could probably tell I’m excited, if not; I’m excited! I’m just worried about Hammy. I hope she doesn’t get so stressed by the kitten that she dies prematurely…

If I haven’t conveyed this to you earlier: we got the house! Not just “the buyer accepted our offer” but “the suits agreed to give us the money needed to pay for the house”. Everything has come through and we are going to get the keys to the house next week Wednesday. So right now we’re getting ready to move.

Okay, maybe it’s not literally moving mountains, but after falling ill this past weekend, recovering Wednesday, and spending the last two days prepping for the move it’s starting to feel like it. I’m really looking forward to next week Sunday evening, after all the moving is done, the mother-in-laws are gone and sleeping in on Pentecost Monday.

So, please accept my apologies for slacking off on my blogging duties.

Well actually: move to a bigger apartment buy a house! We got the call today around 5:30 in the afternoon. Our realtor and the seller’s realtor agreed on a buying price that’s € 4000,- under the asking price

According to the architectural report the house needs €10,000 in repairs. BF actually called me with the words: “Don’t be shocked..,” but for a house that old I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was that ‘low’. I was more afraid of hearing something was wrong with the foundation or walls. We will have to replace part of the roof and other parts of the house need to be remodelled, however, we’re going to apply for a mortgage based on the original asking price so the costs of remodeling will be lower.

We’re hoping that with the time it takes to apply for a mortgage and the buyer’s subsidy we’ll be able to move in end of May…

I can’t wait!! I can almost cross that item off my list

As you might have read on our Twitter accounts (Tigerlilly & Stomweblog) we went to visit “our house”: house nr. 1 in Genemuiden. The weather was perfect as if the cosmos was smiling upon us and showing us just how wonderful it would be to live there. It would be wonderful to live there; there’s a harbor, everything is within walking distance and there’s just so much more room for all of our crap stuff.

Next week we’ll call the realtor and tell him that he’ll be hearing from our realtor soon.

I’m really excited about buying a house with BF. I have faith in our relationship and I’m sure that financially we’ll be fine. There’s only one thing I’m worried about: Telling my mom I’m going to (try) buy a house.

I’ve had discussions with my mom on whether or not I should buy a house. At first I did agree with her: BF and I should wait a year or two, save, and rent a house. However, this was before I saw the house on Funda, saw it in real life, walk around the town it is situated in and dreamed of what it would be like to live in it. So, now I, who at first fought the idea of buying a house with teeth and nails, will have to back-paddle and try to explain to my mom why all of a sudden it’s a good idea to buy a house.

There were many reasons why I thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to buy a house: Can we afford it? What are the extra expenditures? What if there are unforeseen expenses? What if we hate living there? What if we break up? There are just so many things that can go wrong…

I’m scared, but I’m hopeful. I’m going to do it… I’m going to buy a house!

I told myself I wouldn’t expand the hamster cage until we moved, but I can dream can’t I? I currently have a Critter Trail Two:

Critter Trail has many other hamster cages I can use to expand. I’m thinking of starting with the Outlook, because it has more room to add toys in:

Then I’ll get rid of the wheel in the Critter Trail Two and add the Revolution:

There are many more cages, but I don’t know how I’d incorporate them into each other. Then again, I’ve only thought about how I’d expand the hamster cage  for the past 2 hours. Before we move to a new apartment (1,2) I’ll have weeks and weeks to think about whether I should and how I could add the others:

We went to the First Time Buyer Info Evening at Hypodomus. It was an awakening. It seemed like the financial advisor and the realtor were playing good cop/ bad cop with us. The FA said that based on BF’s salary alone we wouldn’t really be able to get anything affordable at all. I asked — just to be sure he wasn’t being gloomy– and FA confidently said: “No, really. You can’t get anything nice with your salary.” It almost seemed like he felt he wasted his precious time and carefully crafted pitch on a couple of poor one-income/ low profit buyers. The realtor on the other hand told us we could move into our dream home within the hour, so to speak. According to her we could shave off 10k off the asking price and still be able to afford a house in our budget. Like BF told me once we got home: “We gotta be careful with these realtors, they’re crafty people.” He’s right, the truth for us lies somewhere in between. We’re not going to get the dream home in the city we live in, but we might be able to get something decent in a town 5 miles outside the city. So, yeah. I’ve learned that we’re probably going to buy a house. When? I don’t know.

We might move to a bigger apartment and rent in the mean time and buy before the year ends. I’ll keep you guys posted

So, a friend of mine is immigrating: a sad occasion. However, her apartment is fabulous: a happy occasion. Via a point system I might have enough points to “win” her apartment…

BF and I want to move bad. We live in a one bed-room apartment with a kitchen/ living room. It’s always cluttered, because we’ve got way too much stuff. Plan: We start looking for an apartment via the point system, we get a bigger apartment, we live happily ever after, or so I thought…

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Progress (0/12) :

• Move to a bigger apartment (with extra room for bf’s aquarium)
• Babysit nephew
• Expand hamster-cage
• Clean Room
• Spend € 500,- on a new wardrobe
• Spend Christmas with sister
• Mail biological father
• Send grandmother a card
• Visit Grandmother
• Finish baby album for sister
• Visit sister in dorm room
• Skype once a week with mom
• Take mom out on “girls’ night”