What to do about the Floors!?!?

Well we hadn't intended on pulling up the floors in the living room & dining room but on our last viewing when we saw the rooms empty, the floors that are there are not so great and are buckling a bit so we have decided to replace them and bang goes the budget already!!!  We found a great oak floor from a company in Zwolle (30 mins from Arnhem).  I think it will look great when its done.

To keep in our budget the plan is to pull up the existing floor carefully so we can reuse it downstairs in the bedrooms....yes you heard right!  Just to add to the confusing layout of the house the bedrooms are located in what was the original kitchen.  Below you can see where the old range was located and the original kitchen cupboards.  I think people must have been much smaller back in 1905 as the ceiling height is pretty low (not a problem for me being so short) but for Frank its a bit of a dilemma!  So we are going to dig down into the basement floor by 30cms or so and take down the ceilings which we think were added in more recent times to increase the head height.  Its messy, difficult and not cheap so not particularly looking forward to that part of the process! :(  We think it will be worth it in the end though.  Any advice from anybody who has done something like this is much appreciated!

 

The Old Range & Original Cupboard



Original Entrance to the Basement Kitchen



Lynda x

First Time at Auction!

So we go to our first antiques auction on Wednesday evening in the hopes of trying to secure a 1900's "potkachel" or cast iron woodburner in English!  Complete novices so hope we get it as it will fit it beautifully in the dining room fireplace!  It looks something like this....

Time for bed as there's a lot of work ahead and inbetween now and getting keys on 14th June we are travelling to Slovenia for Frank's cousins wedding so a lot happening! 

Lynda x

Arnhem as it Stands Today

Since the devastation of World War II the people of Arnhem have rebuilt and restored many of the buildings and here are some photos of how Arnhem looks today. 

There's still some work to do but people take great pride of the "work in progress"!

Here is a short video about the City of Arnhem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pRuOx3jHs0&feature=fvsr

The Battle of Arnhem

In World War II, during Operation Market Garden (September 1944), the British 1st Airborne Division and the the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were given the task of securing the bridge at Arnhem. The units were parachuted and glider-landed into the area on 17 September and later. The bulk of the force was dropped rather far from the bridge and never met their objective. A small force of British 1st Airborne  managed to make their way as far as the bridge but was unable to secure both sides. The Allied troops encountered stiff resistance from the German 9th and 10th SS Panzer divisions, which had been stationed in and around the city.

The British force at the bridge eventually surrendered on 21 September, and a full withdrawal of the remaining forces was made on 26 September. These events were dramatized in the 1977 movie "A Bridge Too Far". As a tribute, the rebuilt bridge was renamed 'John Frost-bridge' after the commander of the paratroopers. The official commemoration is 17 September.

The Bridge Destroyed in 1944

The current bridge is the third almost-identical bridge built at the same spot. The Dutch Army destroyed the first bridge when the Germans invaded Holland in 1940. The second bridge was destroyed by the US Army Air Forces shortly after the 1944 battle.

A second battle of Arnhem took place in April 1945 when the city was liberated by I Canadian Corps of the First Canadian Army.

Although it is generally said, as above, that the British Force at the Northern end of the Arnhem bridge surrendered, General John Frost, who as a Lt Col commanded that force, fiercely denied that. He and his men were overwhelmed and were captured.

The Bridge as it Stands Today

And here is a little video about this piece of history!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fg23B2Qb-k&feature=related

About the City of Arnhem

 Arnhem is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of Holland.  It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Rhine as well as the St Jansbeek which was the source of the city's development.  Arnhem has 146,095 residents (and one Irish girl!) ..... Ramdom fact for you is that Audrey Hepburn lived in Arnhem during World War II!

While in Arnhem, Hepburn attended the Arnhem Conservatory from 1939 to 1945 where she trained in ballet alongside the standard school curriculum. After the Germans invaded The Netherlands in 1940, Hepburn adopted the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra, a derivative of her mother's name "Ella,"modifying her mother's documents because an "English sounding" name was considered dangerous during the German occupation. Her mother also felt that the name Audrey may have indicated her British roots too strongly – an unwanted asset particularly as it could have attracted the attention of occupying German forces and resulted in confinement or deportation.

By 1944, Hepburn had become a proficient ballerina. She had secretly danced for groups of people to collect money for the Dutch resistance. She later said, "The best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performances."After the Allied landing on D-Day, living conditions grew worse and Arnhem was subsequently devastated by Allied artillery fire under Operation Market Garden . During the  Dutch famine that followed in the winter of 1944, the Germans blocked the resupply routes of the Netherlands’ already-limited food and fuel supplies as retaliation in railway strikes hindered German occupation. People starved and froze to death in the streets; Hepburn and many others resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake cakes and biscuits. One way that Hepburn passed the time was by drawing; some of her childhood artwork can be seen today.

Hello and welcome to our blog on renovating a 1905 house in Arnhem, The Netherlands!

Hi, I'm Lynda, I'm Irish and I live in Arnhem, The Netherlands with my Dutch partner Frank and our Irish cat Jamie!  We have just bought a very old house built in 1905 in the centre of the charming city of Arnhem and are about to embark on a renovation project to restore it to its original state whilst installing the comforts of 2011! 

Much of Arnhem was all but levelled during World War II if you have ever read or seen the movie A Bridge Too Far you will know what I mean.  It is a testament to the Arnhem people that they have restored much of the centre to its original glory!  The house we have bought thankfully was not badly damaged (so far as we know) and dates from 1905.  Pretty spectacular that it is still standing having witnessed two world wars.  We hope to uncover a few (nice) surprises as we pull back floor boards, knock down ceilings and open up the original fireplaces.  Here are some of the "before pictures"...

Lynda, Frank and Jamie x