more pics from us at Thomas' day out (above), and the infamous Peter Sam (below)
We have been busy as usual-- for the most part with fun things, occasionally with frustrating things. Despite the help of our dear friends the Grefhorsts in the Netherlands, it looks like the authorities will not let us rent out our house there. It has been vacant for several months, and for sale for a year with few interested parties. We'd hoped to at least break even on the venture, renting for a year while waiting to see if the market improves. Alas, the bank will not let us rent the property-- they claim it is too risky to allow a renter to take residence there, as Dutch law strongly favors the occupant of a place. Hmmm. I get that the law is different, but at the same time it seems strange to assume automatically that our renter would try to break a contract. People do rent in the Netherlands all the time, and it seems to work often enough. But, it is not our decision to make... so we continue to wait for a buyer.
In fun news we are getting things ready for the duo birthday party this weekend. James' birthday is the 15th while Willy turns one at the end of August. Since it will be a family-only party this year (we don't have any kid friends yet) we just want one cake in a 2 week period. James became very upset yesterday when he realized he did not have Peter Sam the train (one of Thomas' many many friends). When we went on our 'day out with Thomas' James was allowed to pick two trains to buy as his birthday gift, and had narrowed it down to three-- peter sam being the odd man out. Finally yesterday, a full 8 days later, James realized he did not have Peter Sam. We tried to explain that we'd never bought him... but it was difficult.
Thankfully earlier that day we received a letter from Grandma Maier with some birthday money. She'd also sent James some 'ice cream' money several weeks before, and together-- this 9$ was enough to get Peter Sam. So, we ordered him together online and James immediately said: "Where is Peter Sam?".
Hmmmmmm.
Then a great long description about how Peter Sam would be making the journey through the mail... blah blah blah... way too much information for an almost three year old. Crisis somewhat averted.
First thing this morning, James came down the stairs and, you guessed it, asked for Peter Sam. He's a minor character for goodness sakes! i don't even think he's in one of our videos. How did he become so important???
I have explained it may be the END of the week at the earliest... it should be an entertaining and question filled week for us all.
4 comments:
Hi Katherine,
I'm following your blog since a while now, and reading about the house issue, I'm very suprised. Currently I'm renting a house in Hengelo, and the house is also for sale. If I'm correct that's the situation you would also prefer? The real estate broker of the selling party offered the house on their website, and helped the sellers with the legal paperwork of renting. So.. if you want to know more about this, let me know, maybe I can help. Kind regards, Tineke (former colleague from UT)
Kat, I have never even HEARD of Peter Sam, but what a pain he is already! Since neither James' or Will's presents are in the mail, they will have more fun to look forward to in a week or so.
Sorry about the house issue, that has to be so frustrating. Hopefully a buyer will be found soon, very soon.
Does the web site you ordered from have a tracking option? Or you could pretend to check the computer, he doesn't read yet! Get a big map and a push pin and show him how it's making it's way slowly across the country to him. Happy B-day, James!
Mary
OK .. i thought we were Thomas Central and i dont even know who this Peter Sam is!! I like mary's idea w/push pins and map & add a couple extra days!
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