The garden concepts

Harrie came around last Saturday with three concepts he had thought up for the garden:

The order as shown is the order he presented them and like all good artists, he had named all three of them. From left to right: F&J island, stairway to heaven and levels. Click on a picture to see a larger version.

Since the garden is long and small and located on the north east, it was not that easy to come up with a solution, but we thought he did really well... He explained the process he went through to come up with each one of the concepts and the ideas behind it.

He told us to think about it for a few days before we took a decision on the final concept that we'd like before he'd start on the definitive plan. There was no need though, since we both like the third concept he presented best. It only needed to be renamed, so from now on we'd like to call it F&J levels. Apparently the third idea was his first one! The idea is that there are two levels in the garden; your eyes follow the way the big concrete tiles are laid and the plants need to be able to do well with little direct sunlight. We thought the lay-out was great for a garden party and already started to imagine the way people would group together in the different sections.

Next step after the final plan, with details and plants in it, is to find a good gardener to execute it. We have some thoughts on the execution as well! We are really happy with the way Harrie talked us through the process and also with the final concepts. Wish all things went so smoothly....

Sea bream in a salt crust

Sundays are the days for croissants and coffee, long lazy brunches and nice slow cooked dinners. Last night I thought I'd break in the Jamie Oliver in Italy cookbook, as pictured in the last post and make some salt crusted seam bream. The little chisel and hammer to free them of their crust always look great in restaurants, but two whole fish and a kilo of sea salt look a bit daunting when uncooked.

So when Jonny was updating his parents on the status of the house, I started on the bream. It was a matter of stuffing the bream with a whole load of fresh herbs and lemon and then placing them on a bed of salt, mixed with a beaten egg, some lemon and fennel seeds. If only my salt had looked a bit more like wet sand, it would have come out perfect. But I overdid the water splashing, so it looked more like a mud pool after a tropical rain storm. In the end, it didn't really matter, since water has the positive quality of being heavier than salt and sinking to the bottom of the dish. It tasted nice and that is what matters!

Furthermore, the weekend was a house-weekend, more on that later.....

Happy birthday Jonathan!

For a pre-birthday dinner we went to restaurant PUCK (www.puckfoodandwines.nl) for some pre-birthday food and fun with Sander and Alexandra. Food was okay, service was typically Dutch, but the company was very good. We compared notes with our guests on all the constructial work and interior design (they just bought a house in de Pijp in Amsterdam), talking it through to the wee hours of the morning. Such a project, building and decorating a house... They gave us the good tip of the shop Nijhof in Soest, which apparently sells everything, from second-hand tiles (toilet?) to posh fittings for the bathroom. Now on our agenda to visit next week!

This morning we had a hearty birthday breakfast, not a fry-up, but a posh organic smoked salmon on toasted muffins with hollandaise sauce. Yummie! Sounds like something you could put on your restaurant menu without any problems! If we complete this house project well, maybe a B&B could be our next one. Until then, our friends and family will be welcome chezcorcutt in grey The Hague! And maybe you will even get some home-made pasta, since Sandrex got us a pasta machine for our birthdays. What a fabulous present, we had been wanting to get one for a long time! Now Jonny can try all the 'Jamie in Italy' recipes from the book Sinterklaas gave him last year. Oh and me... for now, will start with pasta vongole for the first time. Special request of the birthday boy....

No load bearing walls?

Flo and I popped 'round the house after work today; as you can see from the picture below, a fair amount of work has already been done.

This used to be the kitchen, but will ultimately become our new living room. Below is a picture of our kitchen and dining room; you can see that the builders have been busy removing the floor, revealing the cement ceiling of the cellar.

The building contractor is pretty confident that non of the internal walls are load bearing. He's already gone ahead and taken out all of the walls upstairs, as you can see below. This will become our bedroom and bathroom.

If it does indeed turn out that non of the remaining walls are load bearing, then the renovation plan gets a real boost, since we'll no longer be constrained with a 6 week wait for the council to approve our plans. We'd better get a move on with planning the interior... seems we'll be busy this weekend.

Mysterious Valentine rendezvous

Following on from my e-Valentine card, I arrived at the new house, which was dimly lit from the inside. As I approached the front door, a broad smile crossed my face as I was confronted by a large display of candles, most noteably arranged in the shape of a large heart!

The candles led a trail towards the back of the house, where I stumbled across an attractive female bearing a bottle of champagne and a pizza in the shape of a heart. As I approached the pretty girlie I began to recognise her face... it was Flo!