Dear Readers. This week I reached a huge milestone: I paid off the loan for my Tiny House! My house is now completely, 100% mine!! Six months earlier than expected too, which is great. That is a piece of the old that is completed. On to the new! The design for my future garden is finished. The process went surprisingly smoothly and it makes me so, so happy! Today I would like to tell you all about it and of course show it to you!
My very own house!
But first let’s go back to that loan because that also deserves some attention. At the time, in 2015, I was able to get a loan from a friend to pay for part of the construction of my Tiny House. With a term of 5 years, and it involved just over 33,000 euros. My house is worth more than that, but this is how much I had to borrow for it. I paid off 600 euros every month and I am proud that, as a starting entrepreneur, I only asked once in those 4.5 years if I could postpone the term by a month.
I actually had six more months to go on the loan. But because the move to Olstergaard will also cost quite a bit, and it would be great if I could save that monthly amount from now on, my family has decided to help me with the last bit of debt. For which I am very grateful! <3 So now, December 2020, my debt has been completely paid off and my house is all mine. How wonderful is that! On to the next debt, hahaha! But that is also completely worth it – the mortgage for my own piece of land in the Olstergaard. Who would have thought that I would own my own piece of land! So you see, sometimes the road to your goals has some mighty strange detours. My road has never really been straight anyway;)
Tadaaaa: the garden design!
Then my garden design. Just like a couple years ago for the design of my Tiny House, I made an Excel sheet with ideas and wishes for my garden. I’ve put the “must haves” and the “nice to haves” in two columns and supplemented my garden inspiration Pinterest board a bit. I sent those two to Aart Knoppert of Buro Ruiter, along with the Olstergaard document that contains the rules for green spaces in the neighborhood. At the end of November, I drove to the office of Aart and Hilbert in Putten for a sketching session. That became much more than a sketching session, because in no time Aart had an incredibly cool garden design on paper that I really couldn’t find fault with. And even better, all my must-haves and almost all my nice-to-haves are included!
Aart has also adapted the design very nicely to the shape of my house and the terrace. I wanted wavy and round lines, but he rightly said that my house is angular and that it is better to have the garden connect to it. I have already learned with the design of my house that it is wise to listen carefully to your designers, so I took to this strategy again and I am very happy with the result. It was also very nice to see Aart and Hilbert again; the last time we met was a few years ago. The next day I received a colored sketch in my mailbox. He’s fast, Aart is! And here is the design:
Isn’t it gorgeous? I can already see myself fully enjoying this garden. Enjoy the swing behind the house, take a zen moment from time to time by the pond, which continues into the chicken run so that the chickens can enjoy a drink out of it, and of course plant, care for, harvest and share a lot of fruit and vegetables with the neighborhood. I am so looking forward to it; what a wonderful prospect! What do you think of the design? I’m curious! Let’s hope that the quality team of the municipality of Olst-Wijhe will be as enthusiastic about it as I am.
What’s next
Meanwhile, Antti Haninen and Aart are preparing the documents I need for the submission of the sketch design. Scale drawings of my house and the design for the garden. I have to submit this to the Olstergaard quality team, together with a description of the nature-inclusive measures that I will take to comply with the Olstergaard rules. We recently learned that the provincial permit for Olstergaard has been granted, so if everything will be approved and the environmental permit is granted, Marloes and I can move in July 2021. Each to their own plot, each with our own house. I’m really looking forward to it. Especially looking forward to start creating that garden.
I also need a planting plan. For this I have already created an extensive wish list of plants, shrubs and trees that I would like to plant, which I will discuss with Arjan and Esther from Eetbaargoed in Vaassen in January. Esther and Arjan have a food forest (permaculture) and only sell edible plants, shrubs and trees that they grow themselves without the use of pesticides. And what a great mission they have! They know much better than I do which species will do well in my garden. I’m really looking forward to meeting them! Is there anything more fun, then think about which plants and trees you are going to plant and sow?
I now also know my future street name: I’m going to live on Juttepeer! Never heard of it before, isn’t it crazy? I don’t know yet whether I will have a Jutte pear, but pears will certainly have a place in my garden. It would be nice, wouldn’t it? A Juttepeer on the Juttepeer. :)
Meeting the neighbors
We recently had the first virtual meeting with our future neighbors. It’s great to see who is coming to live there! We already have good contact via the Facebook group and the “Tiny (+)” Whatsapp group. Teams have also been formed that you can join, and that will investigate things in the field of construction, water and greenery so that not everyone has to reinvent the wheel. After all, most people still have to build a house in Olstergaard. As far as I know Marloes, Tim and myself are the only ones who already have a house and are taking it with them. If you are going to build your own house you have a lot on your plate. I speak from experience. So those teams are very useful. I think the social / communication team speaks for itself and is indispensable.
We have also created a small team of people who are really going to live Tiny in Olstergaard, and where the BENG standard causes some headaches. Antti is helping us with the equivalence arguments. That is so great of you, Antti! We appreciate it immensely and benefit so much from your expertise and experience.
I thought I’d write a short blog, but before you know it, I’m writing almost two pages haha! That’s what happens when a lot is going on that makes me enthusiastic. Such a wonderful feeling. Dear Readers, I suspect that I will not be writing a new blog before Christmas, so I wish you all a very happy holiday season. Enjoy each other and all the blessings we have!
Leave a Reply