| All started with the selection of
the house itself. To do this I asked a couple of people to come with me and have a
look - two pairs of eyes and two brains can spot more defects than one ecstatic buyer
alone ... Peter D.G. and Peter
V.P. were there to help me out in this time of need. |
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Having to places to live and work
in was rather tedious as well. Apart from that I needed some help getting rid of all
the junk that needed to be thrown out. The only way to do that is to bring it to the
junkyard and sort it into the different containers. I was helped a lot by Henry E. and Bruno T.
who allowed their trusty and rather spacious car to be used as a beast of burden without
thinking twice about the dirt and dust they would acquire in the process.
After my big move I stayed at my old place for another couple
of days and it was Carine D.S. who helped me move the last bits of
furniture to the new house. Thanks for that.
Further transports were effected by Veerle T.
(seen with her trusty sidekick "Chicken"), who a.o. helped me get work materials
and paint from the shop to my place. |
| The next big thing was breaking out
the brick-o-rama in the living room: If it hadn't been for Ann L., I
would never have had the guts to do this myself. Thanks for kicking me back in line,
girl! And there was another good soul who
helped me with the timbered bits of the brick-o-rama (not completely selfless since he got
to keep the timber, but still I'm glad he could help me): Dieter D.
And another credit for Veerle T. who started
me off on the un-sooting of the ex-chimney behind the brick-o-rama. |
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Wallpapering proved to be a nice
and easy job as I had two valuable helpers who travelled overland from the Netherlands to
give me a hand: Thomas F. and Wolfram M., two university
friends of old. |
| And yet another type of helping
happened when Veerle T. came over again to help me wallpaper styrofoam
papering to insulate the staircase walls from the cold. 
Mixing glue has always been her specialty! |
At some point it all turned into a
fashion statement as we had to dress up anti-paint and glue to avoid too much dirt on the
floors. Have a look at the results. First we have Veerle presenting some nice
shoes fit for any important evening function made out of exclusive materials only
available at fairly specialised stores:  
And then here is me with a multifunctional hat with esthetic
as well as functional design made out of insulation materials fit for walls and heads. |
| And we have yet more wallpapering
with Veerle - she is becoming quite a pro - and so am I: we did the complete upper
staircase in one weekend. And let me tell you: it was not easy: not one single wall
is straight or has no bits that need to be cut out from a large sheet of wallpaper. We did pretty well, considering ... |
 She loves mixing paint and glue. |
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Another set of friends: Ann
we have met before - she's the unbricking wizardess in front of the brick-o-rama some
pictures up, and Marjoh N. had access to bits of wall that I never would
have reached without surgical extension of my arms. Thanks again to the two of them.
I really hope to be able to repay the services once start working on their own
home. |
| Once more, Veerle gets the credit of being
the woman of the day: it is amazing how she not only handles the sledge hammer, but all
the fiddly bits are her forte too ... |
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