Kitchen in progress

Mark Verhoeven placed the kitchen units. The floor is 10cm lower at one end of the room, so it will be hard to get the whole structure level.

Lamps

Being inflicted with a lamp fetish has had its consequences. Take a look!

The rising sun - bought online.

3 lights bought at an Antwerp furniture store that was closing down in 2002 - these were their own ceiling lights. 3 euros a piece!

Raak wall lights, bought online.

Chandelier, bought at a vintage shop in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.

That same light, with a mirror found in the derelict apartment upstairs from my flat in Antwerp, back in 1995.

This Raak light was bought online - my partents bought the same light in 1972.

Kitchen in progress

Mr A and I went to check on the progress of our kitchen, being built by Mark Verhoeven in IJmuiden.

He had told us his workshop was turning green!

Dutch customer service

Mr A and I want the kind of gas fires in the two chimneys that can be operated by remote control.
So I wrote to Jaspers, a local business with a good reputation, sending them photos and measurements, asking them if they could send someone around for an estimate.
They replied we needed to come to their shop.
So off we went, on our bikes, to the shop. We told the staff what we were looking for, only to be told 'dat wordt heel moeilijk' - that's going to be very difficult. She advised us to choose a fire and build the chimney around it (sounding as if she thought: 'that's what normal people do'). I stressed we bought an old house with existing marble chimneys. In that case, she said, I could make an appointment for an assessment by one of their experts.
My comment, that that was exactly what I had asked for in the first place, was ignored. The 'appointment' was 'somewhere between 1pm and 3pm'.
You can't hear me, but I am screaming.

Meanwhile, our Estonian, Ukrainian and Moldovan builders are doing excellent work, putting up lamps, mirrors, laying a floor, installing outside sockets.
You can't see me, but I am smiling.

And contemplating emigration.

Table!

Today our custom-made (yes, we are posh) marble table arrived. Trevor likes it so we're happy.