[Crazy_Charlie]

someone asked me about more specific information about the house I live in, and I don't remember who it was so I can't send you a pm, but here's the link to a photoalbum inclduing pictures of the place: http://psych0b1tch.tripod.com/charlies_home_pix/

[Crazy_Charlie]

and if anyone wants a link to any of my other photoalbums (outdooor pictures from Utrecht, outdoor pictures from around in Nederland) just pm me.

Charlie

Can you explain how this official squatting works? It's pretty amazing. I never heard of it before. Thx.

em

[Crazy_Charlie]

Lol, I can try, I find it a bit difficult to understand myself sometimes. I think I have to start a bit before the actual squatting:
Holland is a very small country with many inhabitants (16 millions) compared to it's size. It takes aproximately 3 hours to drive from east to west, and four hours from south to north in you could drive in a reasonable straight line and have no trafficjams.
Considering this, you would probably not get surprised if I told you that housing is a big problem here, and quite expensive. I have seen families squized in on amazingly little place, even though I wouldn't necessarily consider them poor.
The governement here is trying to build more appartments to make it easier for young couples and people with less income to get their own place. But things take time, and to encourage "rich people" or companies owning buildings that is inhabitable but not in use to do something about this property, they have made it legal to squat buildings. And if you can prove that the building has been standing empty for 1 full year, and you manage to stay in there for 24 hours without being kicked out, you have the legal right to live in that building. It might be very difficult for the owners to get rid of you legally.

This of course sounds like a good idea, only that even if the building has not been empty for a full year, it might still be squatted, and it will take a considerable amount of time to get rid of the squatters. In addition, it might take a lot more than one year to get started with a project, espescially if the property is very big, costly or a monument. And it might be difficult for you to find people you can trust to take care of the buidling in a proper way (that is, make sure all rooms that has water in them are heated, make sure it looks inhabitated, notify the owner if there is something wrong-for example a leakage). The buildings might be unhandy to live in, you might not know how long it will be empty, etcetc.

To lift away most of these problems for owners that has other things to consentrate on than standing in front of the door watching for squatters, certain companies are registering people who wants to live in these kind of buildings. They are then contacting owners of buildings that look empty, and offers to find someone who wants to live there. Both the owners and the renters (anti squatters) are paying this company a certain sum of money. The owners are paying for the company to take care of the subletting, make sure the people take care of the building etc. The anti squatters are signing a cotract with the company, usually a regular rent-an-apartment thing, with a few exceptions.

The company has the right to kick out anti squatters with 2 weeks notice, and they give no guarantee that you will get a new place to live (although if they think that you are a decent person they will do their best to try). On the other hand, you pay next to nothing for living there (and things like gas and electricity is included in the price). The standard and size of the building vary greatly, but they do not rent out anything that is not really possible to live in (has to have water and heating for example).

I think that explain most of it, but if you wonder of something, just ask

Charlie

Yes, one more thing. Can I come live with you? I REALLY want to play in that bouncy tower and plant lilies in your garden.

em

[SweetCrusader]

When can I move in?

[SeptemberMorn]

Are you two ready for the winters?

Charlie, how are the summers? Hot?

That's a gorgeous place!! I'd like to bring a comfy chair, my craft supplies and sit in front of the window that overlooks the garden.

[SweetCrusader]

Sweetie, I live in FAR Northern Utah. I'm getting prepped for the winters as we speak!

Angela

[SeptemberMorn]

YIKES!!! I guess so, huh? Cold winters are nothing to you. I forget not everybody has winters like here in So. Calif. Still, I wouldn't mind ONE snowy winter. LOL

[SweetCrusader]

You can come live here for the winter and have my snowy winter, and I'll take your so-called "winter" any day

[SeptemberMorn]

LOL And you wanna go live in the Netherlands?!?! LOL

But you're welcome here any day, Hun. Just give hubby and me a week, ok?

[SweetCrusader]

Hey it's worth it to stay at Charlie's house!!! Did you SEE those pics?

Well it's good to know I have a place to stay if I ever go to S.Cali! I'm sure I would enjoy that MUCH more than my aunt's place in Rancho Bernardo...but that's a story for another day! lol!!

And if you ever want to sleep on a couch in a dorm in Northern Utah for some reason beknownst only to yourself.... uh, fair enough! I can surely hook you up with my couch! (Assuming you can tolerate the smell of my roommate Bok-Nam's Korean food, of course. pe-yew!)

[Crazy_Charlie]

I'm used to Norway so the winters here in the Netherlands are pretty mild in comparison Hardly no snow, just a bit of cold rain. In Norway it's allready 15cm snow in the capital in the south east, here we might get in total 6 days of snow, but probably nothing at all. It's cold enough, but I don't mind. In Norway the winter start early, end late and is terrible dark. Here it is just about perfect with light (I don't mind the dark but I need a certain amount of daylight). The summers are usually not too bad, the last couple of years it has been one or two heat waves during the summer though. The problem is that the air here is very damp, so high temperatures feels quite bad.

There's so many things I like about the place, I think I am more Dutch than Norwegian in my heart. I like the fact that whoever you have a conversation with here and say something like "but its impossible to XXXX", you will ALWAYS have a few moment of silence where the person is thinking, and then the reply will be "well, nothing is impossible....". Thats my type of response! And how wonderful it is when I'm going for a walk in the nearby park and people keep saying hello to me, even though I have never seen them before. Heck, this is a big city! But in the green areas you are polite! Hehe, fits me nicely, some politeness now and then doon't hurt anybody (it ads a bit to the provincial touch of the city though, and I am not too fond of that).

I wouldn't mind having lots of people living here, it's place enough. I think the pictures might fool you a bit though. It IS a really nice buildings with a small chapel (that has a very old organ in it) with a tower in it to put a small bell in. It's coloured glass in all the hallways, and marble floor in te outer hallways, There are lions on the front side (I will see if I can find a more close up pictures of the building from the front), and in the tower on the top you can walk safely ourside and walk all the way around, and see the city in all possible directions.

But this place is a monument, we are not allowed to do anything in the garden except from walking there, and even though the building is going to be totally renovated into luxurious apartments, we were not allowed to have my two precious cats here. We cannot paint any walls, and have to make sure that we can take away any decorations, even though some places the walls are quite bad. We cannot reach the ceiling (its 4 meters up), and thereby its quite difficult to get proper light in here. We cannot use the balconies because they are too rotten. Some places the quality of the building is quite bad (the roof has fallen down in one of the corners of the laundry room), and it's impossible to clean the place properly.

It is cheap though (135 euros a month per grown up person), including electricity and gas, and all public service costs (garbage, water etc). It's also in one of the better areas in Utrecht, the Museumskwartier, and it is close to the train station and bus station (and the hospital, and the fire police)...it's in the city center, so we have everything within close reach.

The woods outside of the city are within biking distance, and Amsterdam is 30-45 minutes away by train. Utrecht is a superb place to have kids in, there are proper playgrounds and big well kept parks everywhere. There are plenty of small shops that sells every thinkable kind of thing: homemade wooden toys, antiquities, beads, small furniture, art, used clothes, exclusive things, any kind of homemade decorations, anything.

The open air market is close to us, with very cheap vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, bread, cheese, clothes, and everything else (including instruments from different countries and mobile phones). So, it's more than nice enough in total I manage here. I'm warm, I have clean water, I have a bathroom and a bathtub, and enough space for all my friends to visit at once. We know we have to move soon though, probably within april 2005

Charlie