Something horrible has happened. Our tree has been cut down. Officially, it is not 'our' tree - it stood in the small garden of the lady living on the first floor of our hourse. Complaints had been raised about this tree for years, but in the Netherlands you can't just cut down a tree, no matter how annoying it is. Or so I thought. Because even though our landlord had informed us that the tree would be cut down, imagine our horror when we returned home Tuesday evening from a long weekend in Almelo and found out that our tree was gone! I am heartbroken - I loved that tree, since it constituted a big part of our house's charm. Many people claim to be jealous of our apartment. Of course I love my apartment as well, or else I wouldn't still be living here after five years. The thought of leaving this place in a year STILL makes me sad, even though I've had almost two years to get used to the idea. We live in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by parks, families, dogs and cats just a couple of minutes removed from downtown Utrecht. There are great shops in the neighborhood where you can still buy authentic food and thus avoid the supermarket as much as possible, including a great vegetable and fruit selling familly across the street. Our house has some pretty nice thirties features, but let's face it: our apartment is a dump. Years of student dorm living has left its footprint. We tried to make it look nice by using lots of paint, but deep down, it's still a dump. Our apartment is very old, badly insulated and not well-kept. During the winter it's so cold that it's common for the heater to break down, which has already happened several times. During the summer it gets so hot that not even opening up all of the windows gives relief, if we are able to open the windows at all, because it's hard to sleep with your windows open when you have two cats who leap at every opportunity to spent some time outside. Things keep breaking constantly around here - a couple of weeks ago Jochem opened the door to the study too quickly and part of the doorpost came off. Our bedroom window is so dirty that no amount of water, soap or scrubbing can clean it (and we've tried several times). If you look closely, there is an actual hole in our bathroom wall (if you can even call it a bathroom), from which you can look outside. So why do love it here? First of all, you do get used to the cold and heat and try to make it work as well as you can. We have a small heater to warm our feet and we have a wide collection of woollen vests and Uggs to keep us warm. Other things we have come to treasure about this place. Like the big windows in our living room, which make the room light even during dark wintery afternoons. Or our crappy roof which makes the rain sound very loud when you lay in bed (of course, we did NOT appreciate the waterfall in our bedroom that was coming down from a leak in our wall a couple of weeks ago). Or the fact that the big tree in the yard created a beautiful Renoir-like sunlight effect in our kitchen and bedroom. And now that tree is gone. At least it should make it easier to move.
06 May 2010
Home Sweet Home
Something horrible has happened. Our tree has been cut down. Officially, it is not 'our' tree - it stood in the small garden of the lady living on the first floor of our hourse. Complaints had been raised about this tree for years, but in the Netherlands you can't just cut down a tree, no matter how annoying it is. Or so I thought. Because even though our landlord had informed us that the tree would be cut down, imagine our horror when we returned home Tuesday evening from a long weekend in Almelo and found out that our tree was gone! I am heartbroken - I loved that tree, since it constituted a big part of our house's charm. Many people claim to be jealous of our apartment. Of course I love my apartment as well, or else I wouldn't still be living here after five years. The thought of leaving this place in a year STILL makes me sad, even though I've had almost two years to get used to the idea. We live in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by parks, families, dogs and cats just a couple of minutes removed from downtown Utrecht. There are great shops in the neighborhood where you can still buy authentic food and thus avoid the supermarket as much as possible, including a great vegetable and fruit selling familly across the street. Our house has some pretty nice thirties features, but let's face it: our apartment is a dump. Years of student dorm living has left its footprint. We tried to make it look nice by using lots of paint, but deep down, it's still a dump. Our apartment is very old, badly insulated and not well-kept. During the winter it's so cold that it's common for the heater to break down, which has already happened several times. During the summer it gets so hot that not even opening up all of the windows gives relief, if we are able to open the windows at all, because it's hard to sleep with your windows open when you have two cats who leap at every opportunity to spent some time outside. Things keep breaking constantly around here - a couple of weeks ago Jochem opened the door to the study too quickly and part of the doorpost came off. Our bedroom window is so dirty that no amount of water, soap or scrubbing can clean it (and we've tried several times). If you look closely, there is an actual hole in our bathroom wall (if you can even call it a bathroom), from which you can look outside. So why do love it here? First of all, you do get used to the cold and heat and try to make it work as well as you can. We have a small heater to warm our feet and we have a wide collection of woollen vests and Uggs to keep us warm. Other things we have come to treasure about this place. Like the big windows in our living room, which make the room light even during dark wintery afternoons. Or our crappy roof which makes the rain sound very loud when you lay in bed (of course, we did NOT appreciate the waterfall in our bedroom that was coming down from a leak in our wall a couple of weeks ago). Or the fact that the big tree in the yard created a beautiful Renoir-like sunlight effect in our kitchen and bedroom. And now that tree is gone. At least it should make it easier to move.
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3 comments:
Aw, that is sad. I liked that tree too.
Oh no! That's a terrible surprise to come home too, pretty shocking. As you said, at least it will make your move easier. :(
Oh no! That's so sad! I hate it when people cut down trees. My old neighbors did it too. because apparently the reflection of the light on their horrific white marble 'garden' wasn't bright enough.
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