I’m here for a longer time than I have ever lived in Amsterdam. I didn’t realise this until a few days ago. These are our last weeks in this small coastal village in the West. Yesterday afternoon a couple came to see the apartment. They probably will be the lucky tenants after us, happy as they were with the beautiful sea view. That’s how it began for us five years ago.

Holiday

It’s March and the “winter” calm still fills the air. When I’m home I try to enjoy these last weeks to the fullest. Breathing in the fresh sea air, absorbing the look of the sea, the calm of the beach. Now even more than ever before. Because it will end. You know that feeling when you’re on holiday, absorbing the atmosphere of that cute little town, soaking it all in because you don’t want to lose it when you’re home again. It’s a bit like that. “It was such a great holiday!”, we said to each other the other day. The end of the month we’re going to another place where we’ll still be lucky to see the sea, but only from a far distance. When I’m hopefully writing blogs from my desk the beginning of April I see the sea of Cala Comte from our window. Tiny, but she’s there. In a tiny home built by my happy builder who’s — surprisingly — still happy. Okay, the end of the week on Saturdays maybe a bit tired of all the puzzling over, thinking and constructing, but he’s doing it!

Bohemian

Our new tiny home is getting closer, step by step, day by day. Today I’m cleaning curtains that once belonged to a century-old hotel in d’Alt Vila in Ibiza town. Heavy, long, blood red velvet curtains. Dorus collected them from a friend a couple of years ago and saved them. Last Friday I found the dusty curtains with some holes in them, eaten by rats, but they seem all right. We tried to see how it fits and we were so surprised, it actually looks not bad at all. The holes are at the right places, we don’t need the whole length anyway. The rats were kind to us.. These heavy curtains give a bohemian look, cozy and warm. But first they need a real good clean!

Arch shaped doors, windows, the wood, almost all material in our tiny home is recycled. Dorus had found much material that people threw away, such as the arch shaped doors and the big steel windows. Sometimes people who were renovating their house called him to say he could have whatever he needed from the house. So much good stuff is thrown away. Obviously it takes a longer time building your own home when you get the necessary materials this way, but it makes it all worthwhile.

Dusty

These last weeks were dusty. The sanding and the pallets that had to be cut to make a bed, dresser and cub-bards caused layers of dust everywhere. So lately we have dusty hair and skin. Without the dust it’s a warm looking “woody” natural home which makes me feel at home. Another thing I’m really happy with is how softly the light gets in. How it will be to cook dinner, get electricity from solar energy and shower consciously with collected rain water, is too early to tell. I will definitely share these experiences on this blog.

The months are very, very dry; there hasn’t been any rain this new year, only a few rain drops, that’s all. However, there’s still plenty of water we can use. If the water is finished we can order a truck to fill the water tank, like Casita Verde does with her huge water tank and people who live in traditional Ibicencan houses. So, there’s no need to become dirty hippies at all..

Sweet neighbour

Nicky, who will be our new neighbour, surprised us yesterday by rubbing the pallet floor with bee wax and olive oil, a job which he started to help Dorus before he arrived in the morning. So sweet.

The wood gets even warmer this way. There’s still enough to do these weeks and we can’t wait to see our books, dreamcatchers and paintings in our new place. I can’t wait to test and experience this tiny house. That’s the mood I’m in right now. And let’s keep it that way. I will miss “our” little beach studio for sure, but change is good and we can make a place for ourselves now, which you can’t really do when you’re renting a home.

Here’s to change!

More tiny home living & pictures soon!

Con Amor,

Eva