I subscribe to Martha's a tip a day mails. Each day Martha tells me what to eat, what to craft and what for cookies I should bake. The pictures used in these e-mails are so lovely, white, crisp and clean just the way I like it. Martha doesn't know that I can't bake because I haven't got an oven, my house is dusty, brown and smelly and to make matters worse I do not have a kitchen roof in less than an hour. There's a mountain of dirty dishes in my improvised kitchen because the oil that heats our house was used up last night so I didn't have a bath either because there was no hot water. I can't shower because I'm scared I will slip and crack my head open and the shower curtains stick to my body and I hate that because I'm scared they are going to suffocate me, so I have to take a bath. There isn't one white, clean, crisp Martha room in my house anywhere.

My friend Femke told me that I can use a little bit more light in my kitchen and to take her opinion serious we did something today that will please her.

This is what my kitchen looks like now. Isn't it just lovely?

Do you want to see my old white, crisp and clean rooms? Go over to the lovely interview I did with Lisa from Pink Friday. And to Whitney's beautiful site where I talk about my desk - boy I miss white!

Thank you for all your sweet comments, e-mail and cards.

Now I have something to tell you that really excites me. Paumes is having a new children's rooms book out and I can't express how much I love these books. And because of that and because I'm really loving how great the book sales are going (and so are the Paumes people - thank you, thank you) I have an offer up for a limited time only.

And to make it really special, I have a gift for all the buyers of this fun pack.

Packs will be send out as soon as I have the books in stock early September.

I just had such an amazing tension falling off of me.

For the last couple of years it bothered me how my neighbors made so much noise that in a way it would be unfair to myself if I were to make noise so I kept awfully quiet. The Bo and I would whisper if we had something to share that we didn't wanted to share with the rest of the hood and basically we walked on our toes all the time just because we didn't want to go down in history as noise makers.

Today for the first time I found myself all alone in this big house, I already feel insanely happy in, and turned on my iPod speakers really, really loud and sang out loud to Kate Nash's Merry Happy and I just felt so utterly happy that I had to share this with you.

Read my post "I Don't DO Neighbors" to understand this post a bit better.

Oh and if you download Merry Happy don't forget to turn it on really loud and to join Kate in the Doo Doo Doo Da Doo Doo Da Da Da Doo Doo Da Da Da Dooooooooooooo oooooooo Da Da Da Doo Doo

I've made it! I'm in Belgium pretty much settled. I have to say that one adapts to a new home routine quite quickly. As the electricity network in the the house is quite a mess I can't do chores at the same time. For example when I run the washing machine I cannot hoover, do the ironing or run the tumble dryer. So I have to do everything in turns. Wash first, than dry and than do the ironing. I've been doing 3 days over 5 loads of laundry and saved all the ironing for today. The Bo is going to trigger the fuse box before the builders start this Saturday because I'm afraid we'll be out of power constantly if they use heavy machinery. Oh and we now have hot water - amen!!

We also mastered quite an organized living, as we do not have a running kitchen yet.

This is our current home plan. We set up an area to cook, eat, sit and work in the living and dining room. The office is under renovation as we found out that under two retro ceilings a true gem is hiding. It's a beautiful ceiling with 3D ornaments of birds and flowers. We're going to fix that up as the previous owners (we are the third owners of this house, the house is from 1896 so that's pretty unique) brutally smashed beams through the plaster leaving horrible holes. The piano room (the previous owner was a musician and kept that room for his grand piano) is currently our storage for stuff that needs to go to the cellar. And on Saturday the builders will start to work on a proper kitchen, a cloakroom and on the heating and electricity in the kitchen and conservatory.

This is what it should look like in a couple of months.

And this is how we are living right now.

I've made a temporary kitchen out of an old table and Bo hung a shelf for me because I can't go without a shelf.

And this is where we sat last night for the first time and watched Sweeny Todd on DVD - not such a great movie to watch on your first movie night in a new house. Beside that, great GREAT movie!!

Just a quick post as I sit in my underwear in the empty old house because we don't have hot water in the new house and took a quick shower in this house ... are you still with me?

in just 30 minutes I'm off to spend the first night of, probably, many nights in the new home. despite the mess, the old man smell and the poor condition the house is in right now I'm in love with it. I can't wait to turn it into something beautiful.

As from Wednesday, if the internet Gods are with me, I'll be back online with more time, renovating stories and photos.

The new old house and I like to say thank you for all the sweet comments you ever left us. I'll miss her dearly.

See you next week xox Yvonne