Home: In progress

To our surprise and delight, we are living in an apartment in the middle of downtown. We live on the first floor. That's the Dutch first floor, meaning the floor above the ground floor. That's the American second floor. The ground floor is a shopping street. We enter the building from the side and this boardwalk area connects all the apartments. It's actually pretty neat.

The house itself is fairly modern, which we enjoy a lot. There's double glass, the heating system works efficiently, and it's light inside. We're furnishing the house with our furniture out of storage after the year in Chicago. When we sold our house and packed up in the spring of 2010, we also got rid of quite a bit of furniture. It's lead to some interesting and humorous realizations. For example, we moved at least 20 boxes of books with no bookshelves to put them on. We have no printer, no radio, no microwave, and no TV. We do have a fabulous espresso maker and two DVD players.

A lot of our belongings are still in boxes. We're not sure how long we're staying. We have acquired a couple bookshelves. There is plenty of storage space. As I unpack, I'm trying to focus on creating a peaceful, purposeful space for us to live in. The most important space for me after the kitchen was a space for Peanut and Pumpkin.

A bench now serves as a play table and a second hand coffee table is one giant kids table. They help make a space that is just for the kids (mainly Peanut for now). There are a few things I really like about it. For one thing, there is limited storage, so whatever doesn't fit, we don't unpack. Having a large table at Peanut's height has also worked really well. He can stand or sit at it – and do so with a few friends as well. This space will change – and there will be more pictures. For now, it's a good start!