(this picture doesn’t have a ceiling yet, but we fixed that shortly after I took it. See the last picture in this post for that)

Apart from the view, the kitchen was the big selling point in this house for me. We’d seen so many houses and most of them had hardly a kitchen at all. Cooking is not really a big deal here, obviously.

The kitchen is located outside the main house, connected to the porch. I love that layout, because we spent most of our days outside on that porch anyway (working on laptops).
Since we’re still (always) on a very tight budget, we chose to use what was there, being a concrete (really!) base with wooden doors. Built for eternity so we’re planning to keep it, though I want to paint those doors (make them white or stain them darker) and replace those tiles one day. The sink was leaking, but we repaired it.

I have a gas stove and chose one that has a gas oven too because we’re on solar power. That’s also the reason we searched high and low for a big, but energy-efficient fridge. This one is just the right size for the two of us.
I “built” the shelves next to it, because I had too little storage, but I wasn’t sure if I’d like open shelving, so I didn’t want to invest in buying something yet. So I just stacked some concrete blocks and old shelves to see how it would work. I like it. Since temporary solutions tend to stick around in our houses, I guess it will be here for a long time…

The table was one of the things we brought from Holland (it used to be my parents’ table) and we love how it looks here. We put a little bookcase with our record player in that corner because we don’t really have a living room (and we don’t know if we’ll ever have one, we’re always outside).

I just realized I already posted about the kitchen a while ago (you can find that post here). We’ve made a lot of progress since then. That’s good, since for me it’s clearly the heart of my home.

Just for fun: let’s go back to the beginning, just after we closed on the house (I did clean the floors already).

Then:

Now (with ceiling!):

Oh yes, that’s what I call progress.

Our bedroom was one of the rooms that I really wanted to be finished before we moved in. We didn’t make that happen though. No ceilings, no air conditioner. We also need to hang something on those bare walls. But it is clean and white and peaceful.
Especially compared to where we started…

We use plastic bins as nightstands. Our photo albums and memorabilia are in there for safe storage and easy access.

We decided to buy fabric wardrobes for our clothes. They are very cheap, so that’s convenient, but I also find that chipboard wardrobes tend to get smelly after a while here (it’s hot and humid). Until we can afford solid wood, this will work perfectly.

We have a second-hand air conditioner, but we haven’t installed it yet. Even during this hot period, we manage to sleep pretty well with just the ceiling fan, so we’re thinking about not installing the air conditioner at all. We’re fully on solar power (I’ll talk about that in another blog post), so using as little electricity as we can is important.

p.s. the window bars don’t look so good, I know. But this room is on ground level and we need it for safety.

Remember this little palm tree we grew from a coconut?
Well, it just kept growing and started to outgrow the container we had it in, so we decided it was time to actually plant it.
And last weekend we did.

I was so happy to plant our very first tree at the house. It felt really symbolic like we were not only planting a tree, but also planting our roots, making this house into our home just one little step at a time.

T. has been working very hard on this part of our lot. It’s directly in front of the house and the porch where we spent most of our time, so he really wanted it to be nice to look at. Which meant we had to somehow cover the concrete slab that’s over the cesspit.
He had this vision in his head. It took me a while to actually see it, but now I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. We still need to get more gravel for the path, but it’s close to done.
We have a second little palm tree, that will be planted when it’s big enough to leave its container.

And I got carte blanche to buy some more pots and plants to fill that flat space (that’s the concrete slab I was talking about). That will be fun!

It’s all artificial grass, by the way. Partly because it had to cover the concrete, partly because we wanted this to be low maintenance, but mostly because we can’t afford the water bills to keep real grass alive. Water is very expensive here and you need a lot to keep the grass green. I heard people with green gardens easily pay 400 USD each month on water alone. Also, it would be a waste of drinking water. One day we want to have a deep well, but until then, artificial grass it is. Collecting greywater and rainwater to water the rest of the garden is a lot higher on our list of things to do though.

How to plant a palm tree (or any plant or tree)

1. dig a hole that is larger than the container the tree used to live in
2. pour water into the hole
3. fill the hole partly with potting soil and put the tree in. Press the soil down gently.
4. water carefully if the soil was really dry, but don’t make overdo it. You watered the hole and you want to roots to find there way there. That will help to really root the tree.

How to root yourself into a new home

1. remember why you moved; bigger house, better location, closer to job, cheaper – there’s usually a benefit and you got to remind yourself of that.
2. Move your stuff. Don’t just unpack the essentials. Fill the house with books, knitting, photos, sentimental items.
3. Work, relax, cook your favorite meals. grow plants. Do the things you love to do.
4.  Be aware of the fact that this is your home now, but don’t make too big a deal of it. It has to become part of your “normal” to really root in this space.

I thought it would be fun to update you on the few rooms in the house that are more or less done. I’m not going to call posts ‘reveals’ since that would imply a lot more than we actually did. We’re on a very tight budget and have a very long list of things we need to do, so there’s no gutting, no design, no excessive shopping.
We’re trying to make do if we can (and this bathroom was nicely tiled and probably hardly ever used) and buy the things we need at La Curaçao and Home Plus (cheap shops comparable to the Dollar Store).
But we did come a long way from where we started.

I spent hours to clean it all thoroughly and then started adding some storage and some color. Green, of course. The most expensive part was the medicine cupboard with the mirror, but we really needed some space to put our medicines and toiletries, so a simple mirror wouldn’t do. The towels are stored in the rolling cart under the sink.

We still need to install a ceiling and a real light (there’s just a bulb now), connect the lights in the cupboard and do some painting. One day I’d like to replace that concrete air grate with in a real window and put in a vanity, but for now, I am quite happy with it.

Last week we added three things to the kitchen in the new house:

1. a stove.
Still to be connected to a gas bottle that we haven’t bought yet. Baby steps…

2. our dining room table.
One of the two pieces of furniture we moved with us from The Netherlands. It used to be my parents’ and though I try to keep myself from attaching emotional meaning to inanimate objects, it makes me so happy to see it here.

3. a kitchen cupboard.
We were browsing furniture, not really planning on buying something yet, but we both fell in love with this cupboard. It was marked down to under half it’s original price, so we decided to buy it immediately. I love how the tone of the wood and the style matches our table perfectly.

Bonus list:
Three things still on the need-to-buy list for the kitchen: chairs for the table, fridge, a ceiling.

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday

I have a tendency to dream, think, and plan, big. I know that’s a trend right now, but I’m not sure if it’s really all that good. I usually want to do more than I can and to go faster than I can manage.
And then I’m never satisfied with what I’ve accomplished. I’m always two steps ahead of myself.
‘Yeah, I did that, but there’s so much more I should have done…’

Not healthy. I don’t want to do that to myself anymore. So I’m trying to celebrate the small victories.

We’ve been working in the house for three weeks now and yesterday I could finally declare part of the house clean and free of bat droppings.
The whole downstairs, two bedrooms, the small bathroom and the hallway between them. All clean. Okay, don’t come over and test for hygiene. When we have running water, I’ll do some more cleaning. But for now, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished.

Bathroom before and after:

Hallway before and after:

Bedrooms before and after:

On to the weekend. I hope (see what I wrote there? hope, not plan) to clean the kitchen walls for the first time (but they are not as dirty as these were) and the walls of the entry room for the second time (because they were the worst and I didn’t get everything off the first time).
But I’m also going to have some (more) fun at the beach.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

I was going to stick with ‘three things that make me happy’ on Thursday, but today that list would be like this: 1. the house, 2. the house,  3. the house. And while true, that would make a very boring list.
So I decided to list three things I found in the house instead.

1. There was a bin in the kitchen and it felt like there was something in there. It took me a while to work up the courage to open the lid. I was going to dump everything in a garbage bag, but much to my surprise the only thing I found was this pair of flippers. In my size. Nothing wrong with them. just a little warped from standing up in a garbage bin for years. So I put a heavy stone on them to make them flat again and will probably be using them when snorkeling (not that I do a lot of snorkeling, but we’d like to)

2. In the kitchen, there’s an old closet (not pictured, this is one of the kitchen cupboards). It’s a smelly one and I’m not sure if I will be able to save it (but I’ll try, since we have a tight budget and hardly any furniture). Inside the cupboard, I found four smelly, stained towels. I took them home, washed them twice on high temperatures and then cut them up. Hey, presto! A nice stack of cleaning rags (boy, I really do need a lot those in this house right now!).

3. On the kitchen counter, I found a rolling pin. It was rolling nicely, but very dirty. I poured boiling water over it a few times and cleaned it thoroughly. Now it doesn’t roll very good (because it’s wet inside), but I’m hoping it will dry out. I’ve been rubbing it with oil to feed the wood and also let the oil drip inside the roller. We’ll see if that helps, otherwise, I’m throwing it away. It is kind of fun to try to save these things.

Bonus: we also found a skeleton in the closet! But it was so tiny (a really, really small salamander) that it got lost when I took out those towels, so I don’t have a picture of it.

Linking up with Carole’s Three on Thursday