Jul 08
Life update part 2
2006 at 05.54 am posted by Veerle Pieters
In one of my previous posts I promised that I had some more news about what is going on in my world lately. As most of my readers know I’m always pretty busy and the balance between work and life is mostly in favor towards work. I’m not complaining or anything, in fact that’s how I like it. But a few months ago we received some news that has thrown everything out of balance completely.
Unexpected news
Two months ago on a beautiful Friday morning the postman brought us some disturbing news from our landlord that we need to leave the building. We have lived here for twelve years and knew the owner rather well. He lives just across the road so we saw him several times a week, but still he failed to mention any of this news to us. The official notice was the first time. Is it just me or would you expect more after such a time? It's not that we are bad tenants, we always payed on time and even helped him out on several occasions.
6 months to find something...
Luckily for us we live in a country that has its shit together if something like this happens. They have to give us 6 months to find something else, at least a decent period if compared with the US where this is only a month according to my overseas friends. So after the initial shock we did what any true geek would do and that's checking the Internet for a new home. Now you have to know that we stayed at our current place so long because rent was pretty low and we never actually created time to search for something. Always work work :)
Buy or rent?
We both felt that it wasn't opportune anymore to rent something, prices for a place big enough to work and live would cost us as much or more than buying a new one. So after all that calculation work the pretty amazing thing was that it took Geert only 3 pages on www.easy.be to find a place that we both liked very much. But as you know it is always smarter to look around a bit more and that's exactly what we did. We drove around for two weekends but didn't find anything better than our first love. It's true what they say, you have to fall in love with a house and feel its vibe or potential.
Houston we have a house!
Recent statistics showed that 70% of the people in Belgium own a house and now we are included in those figures :) There is even a saying that every Belgian citizen gets born with a brick in his stomach. As any house owner knows it comes down to money, so as you guessed by now we had to talk to several banks too to get the best deal. Luckily for us we have an accountant that is a true diamond and he helped and assisted us in this matter. We own him a great deal of gratitude!
I'm proud to say that we now own a house that will also have enough room to fit Duoh! our company. It's a new house that they are still building only a few minutes from where we live now. You also have to imagine that most people prepare such a life changing thing a year ahead. We didn't know anything about building a house at all, the work and exploration that comes with it like choosing tiles, parquet, bathroom, kitchen, lightening etc. We never spend so much time in shops as of late!
So much to do and to plan + some reader advice...
Of course it's all exciting and if you know me from my work environment posts, you know I like to decorate. But for painting we will have to wait for a year because the plastering of the walls needs to dry out. That's not bad at all since there is so much else to do. That's were I hope I can learn a little from my readers too. For example we are thinking about contacting a carpenter to:
- Create an table like the ones you find in the Apple Store.
- Another thing that comes to mind are custom made built-in cabinets.
I was wondering if any of my readers have experience in this and would like to share tips and experiences in the comments. Is this something that is expensive? Materials don't have to be top notch just good looking if you know what I mean. Another thing that I would like to know a little more about is:
- working with a landscape architect to design your garden
So if you have something interesting to tell, please don't hesitate. It can be about anything that has to do with building a new house. Thanks in advance angels :)
39served
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The Apple table will be no problem for any kind of experienced woodworker. In fact, you shouldn’t even need a veteran carpenter to do it. Looking at the picture it is a very simple and old design that most hobbiests are familiar with. If you want to buy one, I say shop around and show them a picture like the one above.
You may be able to use this coffee table as a base for your Apple-style table. However, the picture is not very clear so I can’t recommend it 100%
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The apple table should be no problem, like Nick said, any woodworker could do it. Are you planing to have the same office colors and decoration in the new building?
Also, working with a landscape architect is a awesome idea, the garden is an awesome place to chill out.
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I would strongly encourage you to consider anything built-in to be a long term investment. Good materials will last longer, increase the value of your home more, and ultimately last longer - thus costing you less money over time.
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I’d suggest, if you don’t want to spend a fortune for your yard, to maybe ask someone at the store for which plant to buy and do it yourself with some friends. But if you don’t want it to take years, then maybe hire a lanscaping company like you said. 2 weeks and it’ll be done. As for the table, everyone is right here, you could almost do it by yourself, it looks like 9 pieces of wood glued together.
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I agree with everyone else. The Apple style table is a good idea. those white mac keyboards.. and any Apple product looks great on that kind of table.
As for the garden I suggest a place to chill, I don’t know the English word but it’s something like a little house in the middle of the yard without walls with some benches and a table. It’s pretty cool if you setup a wireless hotspot, because you can work from your yard:D
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Not sure what kind of decor you are going for, but I would consider doing the apple table in a darker color wood. I’ve owned the lighter shade, in a desk and a kitchen table before, and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It doesn’t look as good unless you have the perfect lighting, it’s hard to keep clean and it has a strange way of washing the room out. They work really well for a retail space, but for the home space it just doesn’t quite fit it, makes things look cold.
A nice wood (and like others I suggest you do get good quality) with a darker shade in that style table would look really nice. I’d suggest teak maybe for a modern look.
Congratulations on the house. I am a mortgage broker here in the states and get to see this exciting occasion for so many people, and help them through it, it’s a dream job. Glad to hear that you guys we able to find good financing and pricing that you are happy with. The house looks great and it’s always 120% more exciting when you get to help build it by picking out materials, etc…
Good luck on the move!
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That’s interesting, I was wondering why everyone was spelling appletable as one word, but now I realize that somehow your blog is just automatically formatting it that way.
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Do all houses in Belgium have walls built from masonry blocks like in this photo? http://flickr.com/photos/veerles-blog/135944364/in/set-72057594118513513/
They build them sturdy there; here in the states you get 2x4s and sheetrock is all…
nice house - and nice Touareg!!
mark
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Those are great news Veerle. I think that kind of changes always bring even more impotant changes. Last time i moved i began to get everything i was expecting from life. A huge window with a wonderful view, a pretty Mac mini and a super beautiful iMac Intel 20”. Not to mention i won an iPod shuffle and work came to me as if i were the super-designer…
I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy new experiences… Good luck!
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You may be able to find your table from a retail store via a friend. Retail stores, such as large clothing and department stores, use tables like the Apple Store (probably not an exact match) for their displays. These displays go into storage depending on the season, and quite often end up in the trash as storage space is hard to come by.
If you know people who work retail - especially someone who is more facilities or grunt work oriented - you might ask if they know of such a table which is getting thrown out.
At one time I took home two or three large tables, with a nice light oak look, that a local department store was throwing out. One is still our dinning room table, its not antique but it is strong a works.
PS: If you take longer than 5 minutes to compose your post, you get locked out as if it is a dupe post - then you have to wait to be able to post.
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If you can afford it - try to hire professionals as much as you can… especially if you run your own business. Ok it’s fun to do everyhing on your own in the beginning, but normally you find out that it will be much better if you let the carpenter do the buildings, the painter do the painting and hang the wallpaper etc. And it will also be cheaper in the ending, if you value your own time. Compare with people doing their own homepages ;-)
I’ve had my own house now for 10 years, and I regret that I didn’t hired professionals for example:
- my garden
- painting
- hanging wallpaper
Good luck! / Henrik, Sweden
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I think (well, I’m sure) I won’t make this table myself and let some professional do it for me, as Henrik Eklund suggests here. I’ve read about the creation of these tables and these tables aren’t easy to make.
Here is a part of an article I found on a site that is solely about the Apple stores:
I’m not talking about a just a ‘simple’ table here. It needs to be made this way so we can ‘hide’ the cables etc. The cables, power outlets etc. will be built-in into the floor (nicely hidden in a floor box). We’ll document all of this here also, later once this is done.
And about the materials, when I say not top notch, I don’t mean the most expensive material, but of course better than average, just good quality.
mark said:
Yes all houses here are with bricks and always with the large red ones inside and then some room for isolation and on the outside the ones that exsist in all kind of sorts. I’ll take a pict of it later to show it more clearly.
Thanks but the car isn’t ours, it’s the car of our real estate agent :)
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Veerle, I’m sure your accountant knows this, but do buy the house yourselves, don’t let your company buy it. Business may be well, but it may also be less well in the future, so you definitely want to keep that house, and not have it sold in case of extreme bad business. Also, I could shamelessly pass you to my in-laws company for setting up the interior, which I’ll refrain from here, but if you need a pointer, drop me a line.
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Good luck with your new life, Veerle. :)
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Looking awesome - though it’s hard to picture it of what it will become from the photos as it’s dark and easily gets “messy” with the flickrnotes; Do you have any blueprints or architecture-drawings of the building? It would be intresting to see how it looked now (for every floor) and what you had in mind doing with the house on a seperate sketch one can use to put next to the original ne and compare the two. I believe it would also let us visitors play around with the thoughts and interior to give you ideas ;-). Would be a blast to see how the garden looks and what plans there is and let us visitors play around with that as well ;-). Keep at it!
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Alexander Berglund said:
Just added them to the article :) About the garden, there is nothing there yet just weed and dirt :)
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Congrats Veerle! Buying a house was one of the best things we ever did. We are in the middle of hiring a landscape architect to work on our yard, so hopefully I will have more to say about that before too long :).
Those apple tables are amazing—I would love to have something that looks so good and hides all the cables that drive me crazy…
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Hi,
For the table, if you need a price, I own a furniture shop who could provide you with oak or teak furniture that could meet your expectations… Just go and have a look at http://www.quatuor.be and if you want I would be glad to help you to find your furniture (at least the table ;-)
Good luck for all your project.
19
HI Veerle, love the site and appreciate all your tutorials epscially.
Hope that you will enjoy your new home.
On the subject of tables I saw a good article in the Sunday Observer newspaper all about unusual materials for tables and workspaces.
Mother ad agency has interesting giant concrete tables that seem to act as pretty industrial blank slates for creative people
20
We, too, built our own house (well, we hired a builder, we didn’t actually ‘build it ourselves’) and it’s something I’d recommend to anyone.
It’s very stressful, but fun also and you end up with a home hat you would have not been able to buy on the open market.
We built ours in timber frame, and then clad in brick which, though a little more expensive, allowed us to get the internal work done while the external work was going on.
Regarding painting the new plaster - I’m pretty sure you don’t have to wait 2 months to let it dry out - do check that Veerle, cos that sounds like rubbish to me :)
As for the garden and garden design; we tried several designs on paper, gave up and hired a designer who did a brilliant job.
The advantage of hiring a designer is that he/she will also provide the marking out, in other words the method where all the curves and so on are measured from.
Otherwise you end up in a mess!
So, top tips from lazymouse:
1 If anyone reading this article gets a chance to build your own house .. do it!
2 Consider timber frame
3 Get a garden designer to do the design, you can always do the actual landscaping work yourself if you want to
4 Work from one end of the garden to the other, don’t try and do it all in one go
5 Make the last part to be done the bit nearest the gate, so all the rubbish (dirt and stones and stuff) is moved to that place, that way you only move all the debris once!
6 Enjoy the experience, it’s great, but be aware that gardens can cost a fortune in plants!
Steve
21
Congrats on the house!
As for the table, cabinets and such…
My new neighbors got all of their cabinets and most of their furniture from ikea (ikea.com)...and I think it looks great. Most of Ikea’s stuff has a modern look to it. My neighbors also said Ikea was pretty affordable and many things were a better price than the equivalent at lowes (our chain hardware store). I think Ikea might also have some mix and match (custom) solutions…for things like closet shelving.
As for the garden, the foundation to any great garden is good soil. So wether you design and put the garden in yourself or hire someone else to do it, make sure you bring in plenty of good soil and compost if your current soil isn’t up to par.
There are also several other things that will make garden mantinenance easier in the long run like planting native plants and companion planting.
I’ve never worked with a garden Architect so I’m not sure I can be of much help there. I love gardening, so I plant all of my own plants and learn as I go along.
22
...i am planning a change in our (me.mywife.and.daughter) lifes too, and working (coding) at home since Aurora was born, one of my greatest concerns is about light. Light in working environment. Extend natural light as much as possible in my work area and work out night artificial light to my confort.
This includes wall colors, desk position, windows (not bill’s ones), etc.
And… even living 5min. from the sea, i need to get a swiming pool to work by in spring/summer: highly motivating :) and not that expensive: cheapper then a new car.
These were our plans:
http://www.valedosesquilos.com/ValeEsquilosENG.html
but Cris can’t live that far from the city she’s working in. But the arch. will be similar.
As for the table, mine were made by my geeky instructions: essentially size (hxlxw), material, color. Cheapper then buying already mades. One aspect to pay attention is for the angle for the sides of it: better round, not like the Apple store image above, that for severall work hours gets unconfortable to arms.
The main goal: let’s all live happily.
23
Looks cold! All that brick. Sturdy no doubt. Nice, I wish you the best of luck.
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Hi Veerle, and thanks for this wonderful blog :)
I have a question though. I’ve seen everywhere people who are displaying their recently listened albums, and when we click on them, we are redirected directly to Amazon.
I would have liked to know if it was a plugin given by Amazon or if it’s something we have to code by ourselves.
Thanks in advance, and take care ;)
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Hi Veerle,
I would recommend “De Groene Poort“.
They build custom made stuff and you can go over there and see lots ( and i mean LOTS ) of different kinds of wood and styles. You pick something you like there, or you get one of the guys to draw the thing you want. That table shouldn’t be a problem at all!
Good luck!
26
Veerle said:
Veerle, the table itself is actually not as difficult as you think. I’ve seen a lot of office building conference room tables that should provide the basic plans for what you’re looking for. Some things to consider:
1. Run the cables through a table leg to the floor mounted power outlet.
2. Use a false inlay to cover the power tray you install inside the table (flip up cover?).
3. Consider using a pedestal style table (one big leg in center) to put the cables directly down from the table.
I agree that you should treat this like an investment in your home. As I read this my grandfather’s words came back to me:
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Your website is gorgeous and an excellent extension of your creativity! I love floating around on it and the ‘magazine-feel’ makes me want to stay…all day! :) I will keep checking back and visiting your lovely place!
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You see… If something is expensive for you, it doesn’t mean that it’s really expensive. Yesterday I was trying to buy some shoes, but I didn’t find anything that fit my tastes. And do you know why? Because everything what I liked was too expensive for me. Now I decided to buy not an expensive and not very pretty model. Finances are ruling my life :(. I’m glad that your life is another
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Veerle,
A friend of mine has a landscaping business, I think his work is pretty great. Have a look at his website http://www.ripa-laeva.com/ (he could sure use your help in that department!) maybe you could offer some sort of trade arangment ;)
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Get a hammock.
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Congrats on your recent win for second place in the CSS Mania’s CSS World Awards competition!
:)
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Congratulations! My wife and I also just purchased our first home; what fun. As for finding a good woodworkeer, I married into a family of them. Actually, they are furniture makers, which is even better. My father-in-law spent 2 days building shelves in the garage, but they could have been built for the dinning room. I’m pretty lucky! One thing that I’ve learned from them is look at the joinery; it is all in the joinery. You can specify the material and the style but if the joinery is loose or rough, then they might not have the patience and attention to detail to produce the quality product that you are looking for.
Have fun with your house!
Adam
33
Veerle,
Congrats on the new house. I came across this site that has some great photos of the London Apple store. It also has some good photos of the wall shelves and some nice curved counters.
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/regent_street_3d.html
Hope it all works out and I look forward to seeing the finished office.
Rob
34
Hallo Veerle,
Maybe you should start with some research and then decide on what you really would like to live with…
For the garden check the book ofMartin Wirtz its Belgian’s finest (working with them only advised if you have unlimited budget, time, and perseverance to trim his plans down ;)
The kind of table you refer to are available at Maat in solid oak. In that pricerange and leadtime (!) I would personally go for more modern, slick (and durable) tables from MDF or Unifor.
However, my own -brandspankingnew- brand Utilia has a very interesting alternative at a fraction of these prices: The Travy. I wouldn’t mind making custom sizes/colours/tops for you either. If you feel this still isn’t special enough, I could sell you the first production piece of a new higher-end table in the making… maybe we should get in touch?
ciao,
Jiri
35
Hi Veerle,
Great site been a fan for couple of years (first post- big time lurker!:)), your tutorials helped me get into the web design thing, many thanks.
Only advice would give on owning your own house is ‘spend as much as you can afford - coz if you buy cheap you buy twice’. If you put in half the effort and care you put into your websites I’m sure your pad will be ‘cushtie’.
Good luck!
36
For the table (and maybe other custom-made furniture), try the Steendam Atelier in Ghent. They have classic furniture, some (good) home-made design. They are very willing to listen to the customers and come with witty solutions. And they do not charge the usual design prices. And you probably will like the people.
<http://www.steendam.be/atelier-steendam>
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verlaat je Deinze nu?
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Hey guys, thank you all for the nice words, help and advice :)
@Mearso, that’s an interesting site, but I don’t think concrete is my kind of thing, it’s a bit too cold and too industrial.
@Lazymouse, that’s a big list of advice man, thanks! When we bought the house the structure was already there. We can only personalize it from that point, which gives us still a lot of freedom.
Pilok said:
Thanks I’ll keep this in mind ;)
june said
I think Ikea is great. I like their style, and the prices are very economic. We’ll buy our kitchen at Ikea. It’s in process. Thanks for the tips for the garden as well, much appreciated.
DiGiTi said:
Thanks for the link and tip ;)
@mat: thanks for the step-by-step advice. Your grandfather’s advice makes sense to me. Exactly my thinking ;)
@wowbagger : thanks for the link and tip. Yes, he can use a bit of help there ;)
Travis said:
Nice idea. Too bad we don’t have any trees in our garden (yet) :(
@Rob: cool illustrations! :)
@Jiri Vanmeerbeeck: thanks for all the links and the advice for the table etc. ;) Interesting stuff. I’ve been on the MDF site before (because of an ad I saw in a magazine). Your tables look fine too, maybe I get in touch with you.
@pc: thanks :)
caramel said
Well no, not exactly. The new house is located in Vinkt, that’s part of Deinze. Unless you see this differently?
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Please let us know when you get the table made and how it went!