House

Gregory and I have an appointment to look at a house today. The house is for rent through the real estate office I tried to get a job at. The only house for rent in their entire portfolio. So naturally Gregory called his father to call his friend, the boss, of this real estate agency. The house was for rent at 466€. Too high for gregory's standards. So the boss guy said that he does a lot of business with the landlady of the house and he would try to persuade her to lower it to 400€/month and also drop the 3month security deposit. Sounds like a lot, huh. I thought so too and I told Gregory I think 430 would be a more reasonable drop in price. And sure enough the lady agreed to drop it to 425€/month AND drop the 3 month security deposit. Which i think is ALOT shaved off! And also really good because, since we're breaking our contract with our apartment (if we decide to move into that is), we're not so sure we'll be getting our security deposit back.So if we don't who cares because under normal circumstances we would have had to pay that for the house so its like we're not losing money there.

so we'll look at it tonight and see if we like it. Here are the pictures from the real estate site: it's the house with the scooter in front. its a pretty good size house. I've seen houses where its only the width of this house's door and 2 of its upstairs window. Talk about narrow, eh? red cabinets. Very, umm..porno set? I'm thinking the fridge is separate. i cant imagine a nice stainless steel fridge with an ice maker being part of the deal.

SO if we get this not only will we be saving money in rent, but in gas money aswell because gregory's work is only 5 minutes away BY BIKE. He's excited about that. He would like the exercise.
when we go look at I'll try to take better pictures.


******UPDATE*********
we viewed the house yesterday. i didnt take any pictures because its super messy!! But its an awesome house. gregory's dad also used his power of persuation, or bullied the real estate guy to get the landlady to lower the price to 400. she agreed. so we've agreed to take the house.
but now that i've seen it i can give a little more detailed account of it.
i'll give you all a verbal tour. walking through the door theres a small hall and then another door that opens to the living area. by picture 2 and 3 listed, thats the whole living area. they're currently using it as a dining room and living room. as you can see in picture 3 theres a glass sliding door into a breezeway and what you cant see is another sliding door into the garden. the garden is fabulous!!! it has a small patio and a good sized lawn, aswell as a small shed. i love the back yard and we plan to barbeque this summer!!gregory loves that he wont have to go all the way outside to smoke. i told him the breezeway is fine as long as the back door is cracked open to create a breeze so it wont totally wreak of smoke in there. the kitchen is tiny. the fridge is seperate. but honestly i think their fridge takes up alot of room, so i think something a bit smaller will create more room anyhow. on the ground floor is the bathroom and apart toilet. in the bathroom theres a stand alone shower and a tub. the stairs to the upstairs is through the kitchen. upstairs theres ANOTHER toilet, but the room is larger than the one downstairs. downstairs the toilt is just enough room for that. a toilet. and upstairs has a rather large vanity and a toilet. the current tenents are using that for laundry (ironing and drying racks) which isnt such a bad idea. theres a large master bedroom, probably the same size as ours now and a smaller spare room. theres an attic that we didnt see and i think maybe a basement aswell. the front of the house will be power washed and the door and window frames painted! it should be available in june. we just got the news of the reduction price today so we havent signed anything yet but we're really excited and cant wait to tell our landlady "see you later!"

Belgium has wood

taken from my kitchen window to the street below.


Just in case they forget....


and a completely unrelated wood story. I saw a sign that said "animal center" and I thought it meant that it was an animal shelter because Gregory and I want a puppy (if we ever move out of this apartment) so I got really excited and Gregory was like "oh..That's the name of a STORE. We wouldn't call a shelter animal center, we'd say [insert Dutch word for animal shelter here]" and I argued that they write many things in English and how would i know know that reading animal center in english didnt mean just that. an animal. center.

so my question to you is, do you think they actually SELL wood at this WOOD CENTER or just wood accessories??

NATO

Today I had a job interview at the American embassy in Brussels. I'm not exactly sure how its going to go but my magic 8-ball says outcome looks positive. The only negative part of the interview was that usually everyone working there has to have a European nationality. Little did I know, I could apply for dual nationalities and not lose my American one. But the man I spoke to today said he'd speak to the other 2 people that I would have to go through before getting a job and see what he can do. I've been learning through this job search process how political Belgium is, in that, you really must know people to get anywhere. So I know someone who knew this guy I saw today and he likes my someone and appeared to like me so he's going to try and pull some strings. He said if it doesn't work out than maybe I could become his personal assistant because he's been without one for 2 weeks and is apparently swamped with work. So we'll see.i'm hopeful, but as he said he's not going to promise anything he cant keep, which I appreciate. So my feet are still on the ground but I am crossing my fingers real tight.

Easter

Hope everyone had a good easter. NOTHING exciting happened here. the bunny didnt even stop on by. bugger. oh well, the bunny didnt stop for gregory either. we're both bad children, i guess. we didnt hunt for eggs, go to church or have dinner. we didnt even visit his parents. gregory worked on his translations all day and i cleaned the house, only to have it soiled again when gregory took a break. it went from sparkling, to exactly how it was. we then later went to a welcome home party for a girl who spent the last 3 months in spain. she said yesterday she was lying on the beach!!! ohhh i wish i could be lying on the beach right about now.

today is easter monday and no one has to work. gregory is still sleeping. it looks like we have fairly good weather today and i'd really like to do something. we'll see.

not really too much to report.