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Starter's story: a fix-upper in Bezuidenout

Hannah (27) & Niels (27) bought their first apartment in Bezuidenhout last August, which still needed a lot of renovation. After a period of renovation, it is finally almost ready. We spoke to Hannah.

A place of your own 
'What attracted us to this house were the old details and the fact that we could still do a bit of DIY to it. We were really looking for something we could make our own home in. That's why we certainly didn't want a new building. We also thought Bezuidenhout was a really nice neighbourhood, it's cosy and is on the right side of town for us. It is also a good base from which to explore the rest of the Netherlands. Furthermore, the architectural style and the cosy cafés also attracted us, of course. Friends of ours had also bought a house in Bezuidenhout, so that was a nice bonus.'

Demolish, demolish, demolish...
'First, we took a three-week holiday to demolish everything. We took out the floor, bathroom and toilet. We also removed a door from the living room to create a kitchen there and turn the old kitchen into an extra room.'

...and then refurbish!
'During those three weeks, we also visited shops to pick out a new floor, kitchen and bathroom. Furthermore, we really refurbished everything; painted everything, put up a lot of renovlies and installed a new floor. We also had the ceiling in the new kitchen renovated, there was a leak there.'

The downside
'We both really liked doing it and would like to do it again. But maybe we look back on it a bit romantically now, because we didn't have a toilet for half a week then and no bathroom for eight weeks. Things like that were, of course, not very nice at the time. Fortunately, we were able to go to our friends who live nearby. If we were to renovate another house in the future, we wouldn't already be living in it like we did then. Then we would prefer to keep this house for a while and only move when it is almost ready.'

Hanging up the garlands yourself
'If you are going to renovate a house, you have to make a lot of choices, so at some point you really have to decide. If you hesitate about everything for too long, you really won't get through. The planning will always run out, take that into account. For example, we thought the house would be really finished by Christmas, but that was anything but true. So there was some kind of bush with duct tape in the living room which was supposed to represent a Christmas tree. You also just have to make something of it yourself, we think that's what makes it most fun.'