House Shopping

Well, my heads about to burst.

We went on tours of 7 homes, all throughout the south of Amsterdam. Technically, most of them were in Amstelveen, which is said to be made up of 11% ex pats, of which 50% are American. Honestly, we did feel a little like we were pushed that direction. But it's a very nice place half way between work and the big city, so we don't mind. They say it takes 12 minutes to Amsterdam Central Station by train from Amstelveen (pronounced more like Ahmstelvfhain), Matt should be able to get to work by bus in 20-30 minutes, and I should also be able to get to the Hall in under 20 minutes. So that makes it attractive.

We saw every possible level of housing here. From a $2900 (euros but I can't find a euro sign) a month gorgeous 3 story house overlooking the Amsterdam woods, with 4 rooms, a huge garden backyard and state of the art kitchen, complete with original 1930's deco tiles, to a rather dumpy 2 room mezzanine brownstone for $1600 (euros) a month, to a one room ($2000 a month) flat spitting distance from the town square hub-bub.

After 7 viewings, and 5 or 6 hours sustained by 1 cup of coffee and a shared granola bar, deciding between houses and apartments was easy. We don't need 4 bedrooms, or even three. We did decide we needed 2 (since you are ALL going to come visit us :) no pressure...). But deciding between the 3 apartments we saw was tough. They were all very nice and all had lots to offer. The one we liked best, however, had a tanning bed instead of a sleeping bed, and just didn't seem big enough to fit many friends. The one that had the nicest amenities (fabulous bathroom, huge kitchen and storage) had blue carpet, and a bit of a walk or ride to town where we'd need to get public transportation.

So we settled on the third option. A two bedroom flat at the top of a high rise, the 10th floor. It will be about a 2 minute walk to the main transportation center, and has the best view of any place I've ever lived. You see for miles and miles. The Netherlands are completely flat. We decided that it might be fun to live dead center in the heart of things, since we're not likely to do it again. If the 6 month contract were a 2 year thing, I might have chosen a house instead, but as it is, I'll like walking to the cafe for a morning coffee and baguette ;). Indeed, I think I'm gonna like it here (hum song from Annie here).

It was easy to envision living here and thriving because we happened to show up on market day. The town square becomes a huge farmers/flea market every Friday, and it was bustling. One of the agents showing us around, Hella, says that there is also an "organic" market on Tuesdays. Perfect... She also says that she used to live in Amsterdam, and now lives in Amstelveen, and much prefers the atmosphere, the air itself, and that it has all the same shops and conveniences, for less cost of living. It even has a museum.

We actually had two tour guides for the day. Frans is the representative from the company Matt's HR department is working with, and he picked us up at 9:30 this morning at the hotel. He was quite a contrast to the other two ex pat assistants that we've ridden with. The other two obviously had children. Crumbs, sticker covered windows, and greasy fingerprints label these vehicles kid carriers. Frans; he had a gold bracelet and a gold watch and I tried not to let a hair drop off my head in his Peugeot. If all goes well with the deposit and paper work, then we should be moving into 399 Meander, Amstelveen, the Netherlands, by Monday. Hella will pick us up at the hotel and help us transfer the baggage, which is a blessing. I don't want to lug 4 suitcases, 2 backpacks, and 2 briefcases by bus, thank you.

In case you hadn't already tried it, the sideshow on the top right of the blog does link to Flickr if you want to browse more of the pictures we've taken. Okay, I've taken. Frans called me crazy because of how many shots I took in each potential home... I say, the more the merrier, and the more the memories :)