How can I thoroughly explain the first day of our HHT (house hunting trip)? I was very nervous last night, as this is my first ever HHT and we’ve been living in military housing for the last 3.5 years. I don’t know what I was worried or anxious about, I guess it was the complete unknowing of what it was going to be like – would I be able to take it all in and make an informative decision?
The first day is over, and I am over the moon happy – I don’t even know how to express such happiness. However the day was filled with pleasant surprises and some not so pleasant.
J and I kind of cheated, we got a hold of the houses that we were going to be shown by the housing office for Canadian military on base, and drove to each house last Thursday to get a look at it’s location, and get our first impressions of the actual house. I had vehemently refused to see quite a few houses in the last two days – another reason I may have been apprehensive last night.
We were told this morning at our intro meeting that houses are taxed by their curb appeal in belgium, so basically the better they look on the outside the more they’ll get taxed. And so, many people neglect the exterior while go over and beyond on the intrerior. Having heard this we decided to see all of the houses on our list – even the ones I had refused to even consider – I’m so thankful for this decision.
We saw a lot of houses (we have another two days to go so we are far from over) some I loved, some not so much. Here is an overview:
There were two houses I really wanted to see that really dissapointed me:
One of them was huge with a nice backyard, it looked really good in the pictures, the only apprehension I had was a sink in one of the bedrooms. Immediately waking in we were presented with a very unique smell – the smell of a group home – almost reminded me of those scary movies about a house that used to be a home for the sick or the insane, but a family now moved in only to find that it was haunted. On top of the smell (as if that wasn’t enough) the house was full of useless antique furniture which had to stay with the house, none of which matched our tastes. And the worst was the rat poo (which thankfully I didn’t see but J did – if I had seen it I wouldn’t have been able to stay in the house). As if all of that wasn’t enough, there were also the dead birds in the closed off heated garage that J was planning to use as a man’s cave.
Then there was the house that was 90s avant-garde gone wrong. I named it the ‘three men and a baby house gone horribly wrong’). It was awful, I couldn’t stand being in there it was just too much.
The last bad house was a small house surrounded by old, run down commercial buildings, on a busy street. The house literally made me very sad just being inside it. It was a little house surrounded by commercial properties. It was on a very busy street and it was as if the house was trying too hard to be a house in a place where there shouldn’t be a house. I immediately became melancholic looking around at the house. It just wasn’t going to work, and I felt horrible because I knew the house wanted to work, it just wasn’t.
Then there were the gems, the houses I will dream about tonight. One was so zen it’s unbelievable. The funny thing is I had refused to see the house because there were a lot of woods on one side of the house. We had visited the house initially last week at night and it was eery. On top of that I imagined that they would be building around the house for the next couple of years and didn’t want to be surrounded by construction for 2/3 of our stay here. But J urged me to give it another shot during the day, I’m so glad I did. At fist as we walked around the house I thought it was too trendy, almost cold, but I loved the greenery, and we were told that the woods were actually a protected forest that would remain that way – so no construction. Initially I chose another house as my number one – one with a beautiful kitchen but not big enough bedrooms (our king size bed would JUST fit in the master bedroom). However as the day went on I couldn’t get the woods house out of my mind. I started to love the kitchen, it was bigger than my previous number one, and so beautifully modern and spacious – a rarity in Europe. I also started getting inspired by the greenery and thought that if I used that greenery as my inspiration for decorating the house I could potentially create a very zen-like home that J and I would fit into perfectly. By the end of the day I fell in love. The bad thing is we have seven more houses to go so who knows if this will be it, but at least we know that if today was this good, there is no need to worry.
Belgium has definitely captivated me, the people, the country, the culture all have made me want to stay. I still don’t miss home and am actually worried about going back for three weeks. I wish we could stay and begin our life here immediately – but all good things come to those who wait.
Yoga the other day was fantastic. The people in class were more than welcoming, and practicing with such a variety of people was such a pleasure. There may even be an opportunity for me to teach on base when I return from India which is super fantastic. We’ll see if that works out, for now I’m just happy that the people in the yoga class and in general have been more than welcoming. A stark difference from my first few days in Saguenay.
Living yoga in a military wife's life 