Monday, August 19, 2013

Welcome to my house

I have been meaning to post some pictures of my house for a long time however two things have held me back:  1) I hadn't taken any pictures of it yet and 2) I didn't think it was tidy enough to take pictures :-), so I finally got off my lazy butt and tidied up and took some pictures.  This will be a VERY LONG post as I don't know how to do fancy things with pictures in my blog yet, so my apologies.  Enjoy though!

A few things about my house - I live in a neighbourhood called the Statenkwartier and I am about a 10 minute walk from the North Sea so I am constantly listening to the gulls (and of course they crap all over my car and yard).  From here it is about a 15 minute leisurely bike ride (aka flat) to work.  My neighbourhood has one of the best shopping streets in The Hague (and I live right off of it) and there is not 1, not 2 but 3 wine stores within 2 minutes of my front door.

My house is approximately 2900 sq feet on 3 levels.  In The Netherlands, the main floor is called 0 and what we would call the 2nd floor they call the 1st floor, etc.  My house has 2 floors or as us Canadians know it, 3 floors.  It has the equivalent of 6 bedrooms, although 2 of them are small and most families would probably use them as nurseries - me, one is my luggage room (I LOVE luggage) and the other, I use as a store room.  The house has 2 water closets (rooms with the toliet), 1 bathroom and then in the laundry room, there is a closet with a shower in it - go figure!

The house was likely built in the early 1900s and this is the first time in my adult life that I have lived in a not new house - so it is taking some adjusting.  The house has beautiful parquet flooring throughout the main floor and gorgeous ceilings and chandeliers.  I had wanted what I consider a "typical Dutch house" - really, a house with a lot of character but I also wanted some modern conveniences as well - like a modern kitchen and this house seems to fit the bill.  I am very happy in my house and all of my furniture fits! :-)  Enjoy the tour of my house.

Oh - you will notice either an absence of art on the walls or painting sitting on the floor - that is b/c I have plaster walls and those 3M sticky hangers, they don't like plaster walls - pretty much everything has fallen and I will be replacing quite a few frames :-(
Master bedroom




One of the selling features of this house - a HUGE walk in closet!  Most Dutch homes don't have closets and most people have Ikea wardrobes in their rooms but not me!!!!

I can honestly say, I do need more shoes storage/space!



1st floor water closet


















Guest room on the 1st floor




Authentic Dutch sink



Main floor hall looking to the front

Looking at the back of the house



My backyard - just enough grass to make me happy :-)

Dining room looking towards back

Conservatory or where I like to drink my coffee in the morning and look into the back yard.

Dining room from the conservatory

Dining room looking towards the living room

Sliding doors between dining room and living room

A series of living room pictures from different angles




The Dutch seem to LOVE red carpet (I saw a lot when looking at homes) and they LOVE steep stairs - mine aren't bad compared to others!

Doors leading to front entry

My house  - Prins Mauritsplein 4

Audrey parked on the street

WELCOME!!!

Hall looking towards back of the house

Kitchen - on the bottom right, the cupboard is actually my freezer, which by Dutch standards is fairly big!

Thank you Ikea for making storage solutions!  I still have my Canadian grocery shopping tendancies.



Luggage room or nursery if so inclined (which I am not!)

Sky light on the 2nd (3rd) floor

More red carpet. . .looking down the stairs.  The red shows EVERYTHING!

2nd floor hall looking towards the front

Ironing & drying room or the lilac room - also has a balcony that looks down into the backyard.

Backyard looking down from the balcony

Looking from the balcony at the others


Guest room #2


Doesn't everyone have sinks in their closets?!  Both closets on the 2nd floor do yet there is no water closet up here!  Go figure!

Laundry room

And a shower in a closet. . .normal . . .right?!

My street

My street