Moving on

I do realize that I have been neglecting the blog for some time. Over the last months life has been a rollercoaster. Not just because of the world wide Covid pandemic, but for other reasons.

Since September I have been caught up in the process of moving our home and workshop. We have been living in a small, cosy appartment in Doorn, a small town in the middle of the Netherlands. Forty square meters of living space, filled with two people, two cats, a small library and multitude of materials for our many hobbies. It was small, but we loved the neighbourhood and had many contacts there.

Working in the old shop in 2017. (photo Niek Stam)

My workshop was at a walking distance, at a friend’s home on the edge of the woods next to the local castle. For a long time we wanted to move to something larger. A place to combine working and living. Initially we wanted to stay in our old neighbourhood. We have been involved with a lot of local volunteer work, not in the least the Little Free Library I made on the square in front of our home as a social art project. And was close to family and friends. We kept searching in our neighbourhood but it proved impossible to get a suitable home there.

So we broadened our search and found a lovely house in the next village of Driebergen-Rijsenburg. It’s at ground level of a 1950’s apartment block, with four rooms, a shed and a large back garden. Close to the highway and train station. Just next to one of the Carolingian main roads of the early middle ages. We got the keys in September and have been involved in an almost military operation called moving ever since.

With the help of our families we made the house ready for living in just a couple of weeks. Friends helped us to move all our stuff from Doorn to Driebergen. We cleaned up the old house and then the larger project started: packing up the workshop and building the new one. It took a couple of months, but finally I can start in a new workshop.

A panoramic view of the new workshop.

As you can probably imagine, my  hands are itching to start building and restoring again. There is a whole range of different projects and ideas from different cultures and times waiting for attention, so there will be more than enough to write about.

I love it when a plan comes together….

Over the last months I haven’t been able to answer all my mail and messages. I am very sorry for that inconvenience and am working on getting back at them. Even though the physical shop has been out of order, the online plan store has been up and running 24/7.

As for now: on with the journey!!!

Jan