The first week back to work has been really tough. Having a hard time waking up, a hard time motivating myself back at work, and generally just a slow painful start to the year!

One thing that is going well, however, is the house! So well in fact that I’ve started to take pictures of certain floors that is really starting to look like the finished product! Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself!

First up, the living room – we’ve placed the Ikea furniture which I’ve talked so much about, the television and speakers are hanging, and some of the decorations from our old place which are making the cut have also been placed. The ikea furniture has both sliding doors and normal doors; we’ve got all our plates and glasses in there as well as our collection of CDs, DVDs, and BluRays which we’ve just finished merging together! One step further in our relationship!



Next up, the dining and cooking area, the Ikea furniture really connects the two spaces together, though the white door helps to delineate the two spaces. The kitchen table is all prepped for our guests. Today, I built an extra 4 Ikea bar stools to serve as reinforcement when we’ve got loads of visitors coming over. Wouter and I also spent some time cleaning there too.



I think one of the things I like best about the ground floor - is the ceiling and the original support beams.



The guest toilet, strangely enough, one of my favourite rooms in the house simply because of the contrast between dark browns and white being so well executed. Take a look yourselves.



Going upstairs now, the staircase with its carpet is yet another sign of things being nearly finished. There’s only one light which has to be placed close to the top floor and then this space can be declared finished off.



On the first floor, our bedroom, our closet, and our bathroom – only two things left to do here really, placing the lamps on our headboard (the workers have to get new ones ‘cause they screwed them up), and rewiring one lamp which has been wired to the wrong sector.



I've never managed to keep a bathroom this clean...



... and check out the metal beams!



The top floor is where the last bit of work still needs to be done – the workers will need to build me a custom-built table to serve as my workshop for my model railway, as well as my office. We need to lay a new floor, and then get the final accessories to allow our guests to sit and sleep comfortably. Oh, and guess what: I got a new computer screen!



All in all, not too shabby, eh?

  Was it coincidence or was it fate? Somehow, our detour towards Kerkrade led me to a awesome find for the house. As you may or may not know, one of the things which I have taken back with me from the United States is a love of junk food - burgers in particular. One of my favourite burger joints in the US was and still is Burger King.

Unfortunately, Belgium has some sort of border which makes it unable to acquire many of the American junk food that its neighbours have adopted. In the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, one can find Burger Kings, KFCs, and many other delights from the US. So, as one of my Christmas presents, I managed to get my partner to agree to drive me to the nearest Burger King in Dutch Limburg. As my partner's parents live in Belgian Limburg, this didn't represent an outrageous drive.

So, BK Day arrives, and we drive to Kerkrade, and we notice opposite the Burger King that there's a hardware/home improvement shop (Hornbach). I'd heard on web forums that flooring was cheaper in France, and I was just curious to see whether it was also the case in the Netherlands. We enter this huge hardware shop, and come across this floor which is on special offer. For 5,95 eur/m2, I can aquire a parquet which has a dark colour, is 8mm thick, and is a class 33 (suitable for heavy residential, moderate commercial use). In Belgium, for 5,95 eur/m2 you get a 6mm thick, certainly not class 33 floor, and never a dark finish.

The Floor is a Tarkett Select 833:



For 50m2, with the underfloor mat, my total bill is less than 400 EUR!

It was an awesome offer by Belgian standards. Despite having driven here with a Clio, I am sold, and I think my partner is too - we buy the flooring on the spot, without having a clue how we're going to get it back to Belgium.

Anyway, my partner and his father are now on their way to pick it up with another car - but I'm still amazed that just crossing the border really can make a huge difference on your purse. Might even be able to get that custom built table done now!