Dirty Old Town

Nothing to do with the house, just snapshop of our new neighbourhood.  

Meet Taram and Vouzier, the two carthorses who do the daily round of the Schaerbeek streets to collect the rubbish.  They only collect the street bins - but that alone replaces a truck, and are cheaper to run too.  

Touch the Sky

Kanye West (2006)

This week, work on the back roof has started, under thankfully blue skies. 

In the spare room, we can now see the centuries of dust and grime...

... but also one of Brussels' landmarks, the Atomium, built for the 1958 Expo (World Fair) and now the symbol of an era.   The bedroom is also in line for some demolition. The window has been taken out, and next the brickword underneath will be removed.

Eventually, this will be French window leading onto the green roof.  You can also just make out the neighbour's illegal terrace, decorated with hanging plastic dinosaurs. More news on that in due course..

A room with a view

The kitchen is now taking shape, or more precisely the huuuge kitchen window.  The size of it has surprised us - despite all the plans and models, we had not envisaged quite how high 3m70 really is.  Well, there'll certainly be lots of light.  I just wonder how we are ever going to manage to clean up there.

Meanwhile, the new concrete column is drying out...

... and work has started on the roof. 

To begin with, they have removed the rotten cornice (they will make an identical copy, salvaging pieces from the original one where possible).















 


... and some of the roof tiles, revealing a stunning view of the Schaerbeek Town Hall, floodlit at dusk.   We won't be able to see it so easily when the new roof is back on, so something to enjoy while we can. 

Can I Kick It?

(A Tribe Called Quest, 1991)

Ta daa!

What you see here is the result of months of agonising, and the beginning of Things Actually Happening.

It's the planning application, in octuplicate, with detailed plans & photos. Details of what's inside to follow...

All going well, it will be delivered to the Maison Communale tomorrow morning. That starts the clock ticking for the Commune (Schaerbeek) and the Region (Brussels) to give us their verdict. Not entirely sure how these wholly separate institutions will manage to coordinate their views, but Belgium does excel at multiple overlapping layers of government (who needs a federal goverment anyway) so I'm sure it will all work out somehow.

If I understand correctly (a big if), within 30 days we will get confirmation that the application is complete, and then the Region and the Commune each take another 45 days. End of April by my reckoning.
But this doesn't mean we just just sit back and wait. If the building works are really going to start in August as planned, there's the terms of reference to draw up, builders to choose, wallpaper to peel, rubble to clear and bee boxes to hang. Watch this space...

Bruxelles

When I went to the notaire's office on Friday to collect the papers, I saw this plaque on the side of their building. Belgium's greatest singer was born in the Schaarbeek area of Brussels, which is where our new house is.