Over Easter

It’s been a busy Easter getting ready for the builders to start tomorrow.

The farm is a traditional 1900 Dutch barn which means the first floor was the haystack, the middle and back of the house were for livestock. Only a third of the house was actual used for people. When I bought the house it had three basic rooms, covering around about a third of the actual space. To bring events up to speed the roof has been taken off, replaced for new (not bad as its huge 154 sq meters of floor space with a roof that rises some 8 meters from the base of the first floor to the top). The original floor of the haystack has been removed and replaced with new. The space has been fully insulated and plasterboard fitted, the major electrical work upstairs is complete. Downstairs a bathroom has been installed, with heated floor, 200 fiber optics (never again), shower, sink etc. A fair amount of structural work was required to the main structure of the building to make all these improvements.

What is happening over the next three weeks is three rooms are being built with new floors, wall and ceilings which will renovate around a third of the downstairs. The overall budget for this is tight at around 7,000 euro including labor and materials but should come in a little under budget. Needless to say I have not chosen to use the local Dutch workman as the standard fee around here is based on the square meters that needs to be done. Based on passed experience you pay people to stand around and not work all day. They then complain about everything. When you go to the builders merchant you discover they have been adding 25% to the price to make that little bit of extra profit. When you work things out you pay double or treble the actual cost, no wonder most Dutch builders seem to spend so much time at home.