ourhouse

The apartment we're staying in now is furnished, which is a great luxury. It includes everything from silverware, dishes and cups to towels and sheet.

However, from our stay in Somerset last year we learned that even in a fully furnished temporary apartment there are still things that are worthwhile bringing in. Most important is the big box with spices and herbs and a good kitchen knife (the knifes that come with the apartment are not very good). We also brought our favorite coffee mugs.

When we left Durham, now almost 6 weeks ago, we prepared a few boxes with things, mainly cooking equipment. Unlike last time, we did not have to get a new coffee machine.

Here's the list:

- Salad spoons
- Good garlic press
- A good large kitchen knife
- Small kitchen knife
- Dutch cheese slicer (kaasschaaf)
- Dutch masher (for stamppot)
- Box with spices
- Oven mits
- Extra glass bowls
- Our favorite mugs
- Peeler (one that works nicely)
- Dutch pan
- Placemats
- Woodpins
- Solid cutting board
- Non-stick frying pan
- Graters
- Nice salt & pepper shakers

We signed the lease for our new apartment! We will move back to the Courthouse neighborhood in Arlington, Virgina, just across the river from Washington, DC. It's the same area where we lived before going to North Carolina, and in fact we are just across the street from our previous apartment building, Courthouse Plaza.

We knew we wanted to rent a place in Courthouse or perhaps Clarendon, and we had selected several apartment buildings to visit, but we ultimately found the Wilson by just walking around the metro in Court House. They showed us two apartments, and we already liked the first one, but the second one was even better and has a great view.

It took a few days to get all the paperwork worked out, but we will move into the new apartment in a few weeks.

We received the first mail on our new address this week.

Ettie and Gerben were the first this time with a nice card for the house and jobs.

Yesterday the movers picked up our belongings. We got up at 6.30 am to prepare the last items, and they arrive at 9.30 am.

When we arrived in the States many years ago we each had two suitcases -- our apartment today consist of 6,000 lbs! The movers were a very professional and friendly crew of three. They packed our items until 1.00 pm. It took until 3:30 pm to move everything in the truck.

Since we'll be staying in a temporary apartment for two months, we packed many items into our car as well. I was relieved to see that it all fits, haha.

Earthquake

While the movers we working we didn't have much to do. When we were sitting in the windowsill we felt a slight moving for 15 seconds or so. First we thought that it was something that the movers did, but it was clearly too strong for that. The internet connection of our phones started slowing down, so it took 30 minutes or so before we heard that it was indeed an earthquake; the first ever I've experienced.

When the moving was done we checked into a local hotel, the Millennium. This is the same place Sasha stayed 5 years ago for her first interviews at Duke, so it seemed fitting to spend our last night in Durham here.

We went out with Esteban and Belen for dinner and had a great evening together.

The truck. The crew is based in Washington, DC and they traveled home last night with our belongings. They had spent a week on the road, mainly in South Carolina.

Packing.

Packing took about 3,5 hours. Our books, all in boxes.

Our boxes in the truck.

Our apartment, all empty. We've had five great years here.

This was a weekend of packing.

This morning I packed most of the electronics, and the house is starting to look emptier. The internet equipment will be the very last thing to pack, Tuesday morning.

The last few weekends we have been sorting and packing our belongings.

A move is always a great opportunity to clean up and sort the archives.

Really excited about our new opportunities in Washington, DC!

Sorting papers.

Storage.

We assembled the bookshelves that we bought during our trip to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.

It's from the "Expedit" series; the same type as our other two bookshelves we have in the study room.

The weather is dreadful today. Cloudy, overcast, a little rain... a friend called it "Dutch weather".

We added a new desk to the study room tonight.

I brought the box up the stairs: 67 lbs, or 30 kg in a big clunky box.

We drove up to New Jersey for Thanksgiving, and on the way to there we made a stop at Ikea at I-95. When we moved the United States we bought a lot of our furniture and home equipment from Ikea near D.C., and four year later some items were up for replacement.

On February 18 a new Ikea store will open in Charlotte, the first Ikea in North Carolina. Charlotte is not far and it's nice to have a store nearby.

This weekend we hang an image with an artistic view of Amsterdam in the 16th century in the living room, opposite the map of Haarlem.

There is some interesting lens distortion in this picture. I tried to adjust it with barrel correction but not all lines on the picture are vertical and horizontal (and yes, our apartment has straight walls and yes, the map is level also).