Tag Archives: praxis

Trials and triumphs

As I write this I am sat outside at Bokaal, my Dutch local. It’s about 9pm local time and still very warm. I’ve got a delicious Witkap Dubbel, ( a dark 7% belgian beer) and am waiting for some food. The sun has dipped below the buildings but Rotterdammers are still out in force enjoying life on the pavements.

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I got to Rotterdam on Sunday evening. It had been a hectic week supporting Java Dance, a New Zealand dance company, performing on a Transdev Lancashire bus for a total of thirteen performances across six Lancashire towns. (You can read more about this on the Culturapedia blog site.)

My new Rotterdam adventure started on Saturday with an email from Ikea.nl. They were not going to be able to deliver my mammoth order on Thursday as arranged. They would bring in on the following Monday instead. I won’t be here then but was unable to call them as their call centre wouldn’t be open ’till Monday.

I got to the apartment at about 7pm local time after a Flybe flight with rather loud, inebriated and inappropriate couple on their way for a birthday treat to Amsterdam. If anyone from Amsterdam is reading then I’d like to apologise for my fellow Brits. I suppose they spend money and the Amsterdam traders tut as they count the Euros.

I set to work painting the walls and ceiling in the spare room. On Monday the pallets of flooring were arriving and this was where I wanted them to put them while they acclimatised, ( I don’t really get this acclimatisation but that seems to be the system).

Monday morning. I nipped over to Jumbo, (local supermarket) for some breakfast things etc. I was early. As i came through the checkout i was told that as I was the fourth customer my purchases were free. ( I wish i’d done a big shop now). This was naturally much appreciated.

After breakfast I cycled over to the estate agents to pick up the missing postbox and bike store keys. I then called into Praxis for some paint. Getting back was my chance to explore the bike store. I has no idea which was mine and had to try all the locks. The last I tried opened to reveal the missing doors to the living room and the mini hall that leads to the bed and shower rooms. I think I’ll put these back but this is not a priority.

When looking around appartments I noticed that there are a lot of exposed heating pipes here in Rotterdam. The Pancake Street  apartment is no exception. It appears that the pipes were last painted when the heating was on. they were caked with lumpy cratered old paint. I tried scraping some of it off and found that the pipes are all chrome plated. Scraping off the paint wasn’t too hard. I followed this with some sandpaper and then polished them with some fine wire wool. They’ve come up a treat. I’ve painted the brackets grey and am very happy with the results. they add to the 50s industrial aesthetic.

I rang Ikea. They were so lovely I couldn’t be cross. I’ve rearranged the delivery for August.

The flooring was due to arrive between 1 and 4pm. I slaved to get the spare room clear. I also needed to lift the old floors from the hall the living room and the main bedroom.  I kept looking at the clock. The floor will be here soon.

The bell rang but it wasn’t the floor people. It was the postman with a box of tricks to get me on line and digital TV set up. Ziggo were early. I was expecting this on Tuesday. As the clock ticked towards 4pm I plugged it all in and it worked first time. I am connected. I can watch and listen to Auntie BBC from my Netherlands home.

At about 4:15, with still no flooring I rang the shop, only to get an answerphone. At 4:30 I changed from my splattered painting clothes and ran round the corner to see what I could find out. The shop was festooned in Red and white tape. signs in the windows said “Closed due to circumstances”. Looks like I’d been a victim of a company gone bust. My €370 deposit lost. No flooring delivered, no flooring fitted.

When we were here last we went and bought a fridge that, when we got it home, didn’t work. We had the van so took it back and exchanged it for another of the same model. We didn’t have time to test it and left it in the box. I unpacked it on Sunday night and set it up. I plugged it in on Monday morning. (you have to let them settle before using.) It whirred into action. I put things into it. I filled the ice tray with water, the light came on and after a couple of hours there was ice. Phew. A couple of hours later the gouda cheese was at room temperature and the ice was water.

First thing Tuesday I rang the shop and they said I needed to get an Indesit engineer. One is coming in the morning. I also headed off to find another flooring shop. I found one very close to the first. They seem much more professional and established. They are also more expensive. I do feel happier.  Hans is coming to measure up for himself in the morning.

I’ve persevered with the decorating though I no longer have the pressure of the bankrupt floor fitters.

When I arrived on Sunday I was thrilled to see my name on the door plate. It’s been a bit stressful but I know that I have a lovely apartment – In a great part of the great city. Sitting here at Bokaal with my beer I can see the  front door and am confident that everything will be alright in the end.

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Planning ahead

This blog is called Life on Pancake Street – I feel like a bit of a fraud as I’m not currently experiencing Life on Pancake Street. I’m still in the UK working on a busy Summer for Culturapedia. This week we’ve got a troupe of New Zealand Dancers performing on a moving double decker bus across six Pennine Lancashire Towns.

I will be back on Pancake Street on Sunday night, (28 June). I will be busy. On Monday I need to cycle over to my estate agents in Kralingen and pick up keys to the post box and the bike store. In the afternoon I have 50+ square meters of laminate flooring being delivered. It has to sit in the apartment for two days to acclimatise before it can be fitted.

20150530_132624We sorted this out last time we were there from a showroom just round the corner on Mariniersweg. I got a bargain. It was reduced and I’ve saved €5.00 per square meter. Rotterdam is a city that people live in. They live, en masse, right in the centre. They don’t have cars so the market comes to them. Also on Mariniersweg there is a Praxis, part of a DIY chain where we bought paint.

I will need to get busy with a paint brush. It makes sense to get as much paint on the walls as I can before the lovely new floor is down. I also need to lift up the floor that is still down in the living room and the main bedroom.

On Monday they will also transfer over the gas and electricity. I won’t need to do much there other than take meter readings.

On Tuesday I will still be painting and pulling up floors. Ziggo will be coming to fit a digibox and internet. I will be connected to the world. If they come before 2pm I will be able to join in the Culturapedia team meeting via Google Hangouts – live from the new Rotterdam office.

Wednesday, the floor fitter is coming. I will be no doubt moving things out of their way, making coffee etc. I’ve successfully fitted plenty of floors myself in the past including the rather nice bamboo one that we have here in the Culturapedia office. For speed and efficiency I decided to let a professional do this one. I won’t have all the tools and there’s plenty of other things I can do to make the place home.

On Thursday, at some point, A truck will be arriving from IKEA.nl. Last week I braved a Friday evening in IKEA in Warrington. The great thing about it being an international company is that they sell the same products everywhere and they always have the same silly names. I needed to sort out the big things that I won’t be able to carry myself or get up two flights of stairs.

Armed with phone photos and notes I got back home and set about filling a Winkelwagen, (shopping cart) on the IKEA.nl website. Their Dutch website can be as difficult to navigate as their UK one -especially when it comes to finding individual components for their PAX wardrobe systems. I got there in the end.

If all goes to plan the truck will contain: a spare bed, mattress, wardrobes in multiple bits, a washing machine, curtain rails and curtains. Luckily IKEA.nl are happy to deliver to apartments. (It is islands that they don’t like). I had to tell them what floor I was on.  This question was reassuring as the nightmare would be them turning up and dumping it all in the lobby downstairs.

There will still be things I need like some light fittings etc but these are things I can pick up in the city centre easily and none of them are urgent.  It makes sense to collect things once I am actually living in the place.

On Friday afternoon I will be flying back home having spent the morning with an IKEA allen key and finishing off bits of painting.

That will be my itinerary, Let’s hope it all goes to plan.