On this page ...

	This page is specifically for family and friends who are interested in me and my new live in the USA. See also the page with maps. October 26th, 2003, I moved to the US. Below you will find a list of things I did, encounters I had, pictures, people, etc. It will not be super detailed, but it will give you an idea ... By the way: More pictures I made can be found at DevianArt. The first 2 months My new home Going out - having fun The dog adventure - Puck goes USA Finally bought a car Snapshots of Puck Snapshots of the house and such Finally: Spring is here! And the summer is long, and warm ... I love it! First Family visit

Phase 2: Getting my own place

Well, Phase 2 is actually really simple, but it would not have been possible without the help of my aunt and uncle.
The simply bought a house (used to be called "The Mansion") which they rent out to me. Again: I can't thank them enough. It comes with 5 acres of land - nice.

I love that house. For European standards is BIG and DIFFERENT. And I mean that in a good way!
It has 3 levels. On each level you'll find a living room - well according to European standards.
One "living room" is a dining room, one is a family-room and the other one,... well I forgot how they call it.

A little (amateurishly) floor plan might give you a better idea:

Floorplan (in Dutch - sorry)

Some translations might be in place here, as I wrote everything down in Dutch. "Begane grond" refers to a the level equal to the ground level. "boven" refers to "upstairs". "Keuken" is a kitchen, "slaapkamer" is a bedroom. "terrasje" is a deck. The rest might be self explaining - specially when you see the pictures below.

Little side notes: The "kinder slaapkamer" and the "grote slaapkamer" should be swapped, and obviously I forgot to draw doors in the upper level. Be assured: I can actually enter and leave a room :-) There ARE doors there ;-)

View from the street

Promise for the upcoming summer: view from the house to the street ...

House closer up

The design of the house is very nice. The coloring ... well for European standards it takes a bit getting used to. Anyway, something you will not see from the inside anyway ... and wait till you see the inside: beautiful!

Room no.1

Room no.2

Room no.2 - the big window

Stairs which go up (bedrooms) and down (livingroom downstairs)

Stair view - looking down

Room no.3

Here you see the three biggest rooms. Room number 1 has a large door, giving you access to the deck. Being in that room, and turning to the right, shows you the second room, with the large rug. This room has huge windows and is 16 feet (?) high. The third room, with the weird blue on the walls (which HAS to go - as a matter of fact ALL the blue has to go), has a nice fireplace. This will be more visible with the next pictures where I show you my first furniture. The people in the picture are my aunt (Mieke) and uncle (Gottfried).

After a couple of days (many thanks to Mieke, Carol and Melissa for helping out) I had some stuff to put in the 3rd room, the bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen:

The kitchen filled with some appliances

Room no.3 this time with sofa, etc.

My new bed

Bathroom - with some bubble jet thingy

It took me quite some time to find the stuff I like, and as a matter of fact - it's still not perfect. But you have to know that American's have a .... DIFFERENT ... taste than we Europeans. So it's not easy to find the stuff you're used to. Anyway,...

The bubble bad is something Esther would love,... just one lesson: use the right bubble stuff otherwise (like I did) your bathroom will become one big bubble thing ...

Go to the Top of this page or go to "Going out - having a great time"