Emily: What a dream I had

more than a year later...

2010-09-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

Well. I have this blog thing. And a computer and keyboard and fingers and a brain that enjoys thinking and philosophizing and producing words for the blog thing.

But sometimes I don't use any of it. for a long time. for more than a year.

And then I re-discover it all and say to myself, my God! So much has changed, and yet so much has stayed the same.

***

I never went to the Rinpoche group in Amsterdam. I got a comment on my previous blog entry almost immediately, from a complete stranger (boy, I wonder how that happened...), warning me that Rinpoche was a fraud. I googled. I found enough questionable information to make me throw up my hands in despair.

I put down the book.

I got really angry at myself for being such a worthless channel that I couldn't even pick up the correct signals from someone sitting next to me.

I decided that every single person who appears at first glance to be relatively enlightened or spiritual is probably a fraud.

I decided that I wasn't going to read any more spiritual books or do any more meditation or hope to meet any other spiritual people. And I was going to keep my own channeling to a minimum because I didn't know what to trust. Basically, I was disillusioned and confused and frustrated and I decided to just leave and slam the door behind me.

I focused on other things. I worked more on the business proposal for the house in Bunnik. After a while, I gave up on that, too. We just weren't getting any support from "the Universe" for the project. I wondered if I had been mislead by a faulty intuition into pursuing the whole thing from the beginning. We remained extremely frustrated with the house we were living in and that whole situation. I went back to searching relentlessly on the internet for another place to live... and finally we found something, all the way in Belgium. That will be the topic for my next blog entry.

But here I am, back at the blog thing, and I have to make a segue from my last entry. Which means I had to actually read my last entry again. And... and.... It isn't so bad, after all. Did I really need to slam the door? The words I channeled from Rinpoche sound pretty wise, actually. The words from the man, about the spear in his back -- that resonates. I can try to remember how I felt at the conference, the "flattened by a boulder" experience. It was good. It was real. But ok, Rinpoche is apparently not the man he says he is, and apparently I couldn't feel it at all. So how is that possible?

Maybe the "enlightened" part of a spiritual leader is always (or often) counterbalanced by an "unenlightened" part -- so that they are all more or less schizophrenic. It would make sense, in a way. If a person's spiritual side (associated with their 7th chakra) is highly developed, but their lower chakras are not, maybe the lower chakras won't be able to "carry the weight" and they'll go all out of whack. This is a message I've heard a lot from my Guides and also read in various places. Tall trees need deep roots. We incarnate on Earth in physical form to have a physical experience, and if we only have a mental or spiritual experience, it is not healthy. Constant video gaming and text messaging is not healthy for children. Monks of all faiths don't just learn their scriptures by heart, they sweep their compounds and work in their gardens.

So maybe Rinpoche (and other spiritual leaders before him that I've become disillusioned about) really do have strong 7th chakra development, but their lower chakras are suffering from it. Especially the first chakra (physicality/grounding -- perhaps leading to weight problems and other physical symptoms), the second chakra (creativity/sexuality -- perhaps leading to the sexual perversions that are so common among spiritual leaders) and the third chakra (power -- perhaps leading to troubles with dominance, repression of followers, etc., also common among spiritual leaders.) And if I attempt to make a channeling connection to someone, naturally I'm connecting with them at the 7th chakra. Although I wouldn't have to, I suppose... it is just a default setting, I think. If I go into a library and I want information about plant diseases, I'm not going to head over to the murder-mystery section. Especially if there is a huge and complete display of plant disease books right by the front door.

I'm going to experiment here. What if I consciously make the intention to connect to Rinpoche at the lower chakras. Does it feel good? No. It makes me nauseous. And if I try again at the 7th chakra? It feels beautiful and wise and loving. Wow. What a difference. Now, I'm going to ask Rinpoche at the 7th chakra, does he know what is going on? Does he have any wise words?

"I could be dead tomorrow. It is important for me, in this incarnation, to bring as much love and light into the world as I can, immediately. I have chosen, at the soul level, to work only at the 7th chakra and to neglect the lower chakras, even though this will have negative consequences for me and perhaps for the people closest to me. I do not feel what is happening in the rest of my body. This is unhealthy -- but I have no choice. You tell me that I am diabetic and that various female followers have accused me of mistreating them, and that is quite possible. I am willing to pay the price for this, at the karmic level. You ask if I am sorry... but I have no regrets. It is so important, what I am doing for the world, at an energetic level. Any followers who are hurt by my actions have agreed to this, at the soul level. It is all in our contracts with each other. I love them, and they love me. I hope that they will learn what they need to learn from their experiences, as soon as possible, and change their relationship with me. They can safely connect to me the way you are now, via the 7th chakra, to experience the "boulder", to learn other spiritual techniques and lessons. Perhaps they can access my energy directly, so that we become "one mind", the way I did with the co-author of my book. Trying to connect with me at other levels is not wise for them, although if everyone was wise enough to avoid that kind of connection with me, it would be very lonely for me."

"And one more thing: I'm glad that you slammed the door and took a break from spirituality and channeling. I hope you can keep your lower chakras strong and stay connected with your whole body. It isn't necessary for you to develop the way I did -- you can have your boulder and eat it too!"

Ha. He has a nice sense of humor, up there at the 7th chakra....

So, ok, it all sounds kind of reasonable, and I'm glad about that, and ready to move on to a blog about our new house. After dinner.

update from Sunday 21 june

2009-06-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

Well, today is Sunday June 21st, the summer solstice. Another time for transformation? I don't know. I think transformation is overrated. Or at least not something to get too excited about, because you just never know where life is headed in the end.

One week ago, Sunday the 14th, I had a miscarriage. It threatened for 3 days, so I had some time to adjust mentally and emotionally. I spent the whole day Saturday just sitting outside in our garden, reading and enjoying the sunshine. It was actually very peaceful and lovely. I was reading "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" -- so much better than the silly novel I commented on in my last blog. I would set it down every few minutes in order to think about what the author was saying, and to share the thoughts with the baby. Very deep. So even though that weekend was one of the saddest in my life, it was also one of the happiest. I really felt like I was connected to what matters, that my perspective on life was expanded. The sea is still as rough and stormy as ever, but my lifeboat is larger and it doesn't toss and turn as much.

Since I took a few paragraphs to describe the silly novel in my last entry, I'm definitely going to take some space here to write about The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. This blog is ostensibly about our dream house in Bunnik, yes, but really this is the essence of it all. Living and dying. Living well and dying well. And moving to Bunnik and setting up a center there -- that is just a little potential adventure in this particular lifetime, and not really so important.

Sogyal Rinpoche is a Tibetan monk who left Tibet many years ago and now travels and lectures throughout the world. He wrote "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" in 1993 and it has lived for at least ten years in my favorite bookcase of favorite books (next to books by the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Deepak Chopra, Lao Tse, Joseph Campbell, Eckhart Tolle, etc.) But for some reason I had never read it.

On Friday June 5th, I went to the Hague to take part in a conference called "Leadership for a Sustainable World." The guest speakers included a member of the Dutch royal family, CEO's of Dutch banks and companies, a former Dutch prime minister, a famous Dutch TV celebrity, the Dalai Lama and Sogyal Rinpoche. It was quite impressive, seeing all those people together, everyone talking about how we need to take advantage of the current crisis, and see how our greed and short-sightedness is ruining our society and the planet.

But the presentation by Sogyal Rinpoche was the part that made the deepest impression on me. He didn't say anything particularly unusual or different (Spirituality is really "my thing" -- it would be quite amazing if a speaker could say something spiritual that I've never heard or read before.) Even the way he said it -- that was very good and very special, but also not different. But Who He Was as he spoke, and as he led the audience in a short meditation -- it was like a boulder fell out of the heavens and flattened me on the ground. What he said was True, and who he was himself did not contradict anything he said, at any level, energetically. Wow. I was shaking and tears were running down my face and it was all I could do to "hold myself together" until his presentation was over. Amazing.

So when I got home, I thought it must be time to read his book now. I was nervous though. It took me about a week before I got it off the shelf. I've had some trouble in the past with spiritual leaders and spiritual movements. What typically happens is that I connect with someone with whom I share a deep spiritual understanding (for example: attachment is the root of suffering) and we talk. The person says he studies and meditates with a certain group following a certain practice and wouldn't I like to join? I say to myself, cool, a community of like-minded individuals, that would be nice. Then I read some of their literature or their website or meet some others in the group and it gives me a knot in my stomach. The words are good, and some of the people feel good, but mostly the whole thing feels artificial. It is as if the disciples of the particular school have figured out that having a flashy expensive sports car which impresses all the neighbors will not get them to heaven -- so they've traded the car in for a signed photo of their spiritual leader and a certificate congratulating them for meditating 3 hours daily for the last 10 years. In order to impress all the neighbors with how rich... er, spiritual... they are.

Is it better to hang out with the owner of a fancy sports car who doesn't claim to be spiritual, or with man who has given all his wealth to charity, meditates hours every day, and claims to be spiritual even though I'm not sure I really believe it? Heh heh, I can answer that question already, thank you Rinpoche for reminding me....

Here is the essence of Rinpoche's teachings:
Everyone dies.
No one knows when they will die.
If you stay aware of those two facts all the time, you will appreciate every moment that you are alive. You will be present.
You will also have compassion for every person you meet -- that person, like you, could be dead tomorrow.

The answer to my rhetorical question above is very simple: Just "be" with the person you are with, whether he is a rich man who is learning about charity, or a spiritual man who is learning about authenticity. We are all mortals, learning about something. We are all going to die. We need to support each other.

Yes, eventually I found the courage to open Rinpoche's book and happily it hasn't given me any knots in my stomach. Happily it has also not turned me into a weak-kneed hero-worshipper. I haven't gotten any urges to shave my head, don orange robes, and study up on Buddhist folklore. I like what I'm reading. I feel like Sogyal Rinpoche and I were friends in past lives. I feel (through the energetic connection I make with him while reading his words) that we respect and understand each other, and that we both have the urge to laugh out loud... at the world and at ourselves, for how difficult we make things sometimes. Life is actually so simple.

But I am also inspired, because I see that I need to remind myself of the Truth rather often, and he seems to have continuous access to it. Here is an illustration: after his presentation, Rinpoche came to sit at a table in the audience. It happened to be the table next to the table where I was sitting (I listened very carefully to my Guides when I was choosing where to sit!) Our chairs were next to each other, so at a quiet moment I turned to him and thanked him for his presentation. We ended up chatting a while about nothing in particular -- that his main center is in France, but there are also groups in the Netherlands that he supports, and there are programs for regular folks like me as well as for serious followers. That sort of thing. At one point, another person from my table came over and asked very humbly if he could ask a question. First, he pointed out that young people these days are more and more selfish, and less concerned about the environment, and constantly busy with violent video games -- then he asked, how did Rinpoche think that we could work with these young people to make them more spiritually aware? Rinpoche gave the perfect answer: He smiled, he chuckled, he said he would sit with the youngsters, talk with them and play with them. Whatever the "answer" was, it should be even more fun/interesting than what is attractive to the children at the moment.

My response, in my head, was much longer and more troubling. I'm only coming to the Truth now, as I write about it three weeks after the fact.

In my head: why is this man being so obsequious? Boy, that would drive me crazy if I was some sort of spiritual leader, everyone treating me like a god. I hate it when some people are on pedestals or insist that other people get on pedestals. Why can't we all smile and say "namaste" to each other -- I greet the god-spirit within you. Humility isn't the same as groveling. And now listen to his question! Geez. He might as well ask, "how can we solve world hunger?" Does he expect Rinpoche to flip a switch and channel a perfect treatise directly from the Buddha? Any decent answer would require a half hour discussion, at a minimum.

But maybe he doesn't really want an answer... maybe he just wants to impress Rinpoche with a deep and meaningful question, because he is afraid of appearing frivolous. Or maybe he's like one of the people who questioned the Dalai Lama: why does he think the Chinese consider him a demon? You know the reason why someone would ask such a silly question -- because he wants to hear the Dalai Lama talk about how the Chinese are ignorant or misguided or materialistic, implicitly suggesting that the questioner is much more enlightened and open-hearted. But the Dalai Lama gave the perfect answer: he smiled, he chuckled, his raised his pointed index fingers next to his head and said, "maybe it's because of my horns?"

And look at the premise behind this new question: all young people today are selfish. I don't believe it. What a thing to say. We are aware and responsible, but they are not? That sounds very black & white, very judgmental to me. And now what? Now that we have judged them to be insufficient, we need a good way to punish them, and then a way to manipulate them into being the sort of people we want them to be? And of course, it shouldn't be fun or interesting... these youngsters are already too self-indulgent. We have to make life harder for them... ugh. What's wrong with this man? Is he bitter about how his own childhood was much harder than those of kids today? Does he have children of his own that he can't manipulate or control and he thinks the trouble is that he needs a stronger method for manipulation?

Ah. Rinpoche is giving a very soft and loving answer. He isn't buying into the premise that the kids are unreachable. He is answering with humor. His energy doesn't indicate that he was annoyed about being put on a pedestal, although it also doesn't indicate that he wants to be there. He doesn't have anything in his energy that seems to want to correct the man for his question, although his energy also doesn't indicate that he enjoys "life, the universe and everything" questions. His energy feels loving and kind.... but... but.... maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I can't really tell. Maybe he isn't aware of all these dynamics -- the false humility, the hero-worshipping, the negative judgments, the projection of one's own shortcomings onto others, the need for control. If he is actually aware of all that, how can he not show any annoyance?

So, as I'm writing this, I'm asking him (or his Soul, at some level, I'm not quite sure how this channeling stuff works) is he annoyed by these sorts of questions? Here is his answer:

"No, Emily, I am not annoyed. Yes, I see when people are asking serious questions in order not to seem frivolous. I see how they try to earn my attention and respect by insisting that I am a greater person than they are. I see how they long desperately for approval, for forgiveness, for protection. And I am a human being -- I can get angry or annoyed just like you. But when I feel it coming, or when I can foresee the possibility of these emotions arising in the near future, I focus on my boat (to borrow from your metaphor above.) If I remember -- I am a human being and this person is a human being and either one of us could be dead tomorrow -- then the inclination to get angry melts away. If I let myself get annoyed, and from that space I say something critical, the person will be hurt. If I let myself get annoyed, and yet through self-discipline say kind words, those words will ring false. If I recognize my annoyance and immediately let it melt away, then my kind words will ring with Truth, and that will help the "annoying" person much more than criticism."

So, I am thinking about this annoying man and his annoying question some more and trying to get un-annoyed about it now (realizing that ideally that process should take a second or two, not three weeks.) I'm concentrating on my lifeboat, my awareness of death, and imagining that this man is a patient of mine. We have an hour to let go of judgments, to look perhaps at his past lives and past deaths in a loving and non-judgmental way... and I'm asking him now, why did you ask Rinpoche that question?

"I know it was a dumb question. It was too complicated for anyone to answer in 2 minutes, even if they could channel Buddha. But I didn't ask him in order to impress him, or because I just wanted any excuse to talk to him. Can you see? There's this spear in my back. I'm in pain. I'm being driven forward by someone whose face I can't see." I see the spear, and I feel only love and sympathy for this man, who is about to die. He's been marching for days with no food or water, at the point of a spear. He's in a delirium. He is so exhausted, he wants to die, and yet he is afraid of death. I'm not annoyed any more. He needed to hear a kind word from a man who isn't afraid of death, in order to release the weight of this terrible past. It didn't matter what kind word it was, or what topic it was related to. Rinpoche probably didn't see these past life images, but it didn't matter because he is more continuously in touch with the Truth.

How can I be more continuously in touch with the Truth? This is something I want to figure out. And I know it doesn't require 3 hours of meditation a day. Rinpoche was very clear, in Chapter 5 of his book, that meditation is a technique for bringing the mind home, making the waters still, so the dirt settles out and you can see, think, and act clearly. There are techniques within the technique -- focusing on the breath or on a mantra, for example. But the goal is to be able to see, think and act clearly -- that's all that's important. If a person could reach that goal by pinching their left ear lobe instead of by sitting-down-on-his-cushion-and-meditating-for-an-hour, he should pinch his ear and throw away his cushion, for goodness sake. (and having pinched his ear, it would look to everyone else like he is in a watchful meditation, at peace, seeing clearly....)

For me, pinching my earlobe has no effect, but if I take a moment to "make a deep channeling connection" to "the flattened-by-a-boulder feeling I had in Den Haag" or to "a leaf in my garden", then I am already there. Shaking. Tears running down my face out of pure joy at being alive. If this experience isn't being in touch with the Truth, I don't know what is. I can't imagine anything more profound or amazing or joyful. But I can't stay there continuously. It is too overwhelming, for me and especially for other people, I would imagine. If I see a neighbor letting his dog poop in front of our house, right in front of the no-dog-pooping sign .... "you don't have to burst into tears and go hug the man and tell him how sorry you are that he was sold into prostitution at age 10 in ancient Greece!" Uh oh, Rinpoche is teasing me! "Don't panic, there are techniques for working with the energy you have contacted so that you can also live in the so-called real world. Keep reading in the book, and follow through on the Dutch contacts I gave you, and don't push yourself to contact that place if part of you is also saying, whoa, this is too much."

OK, I think that is good advice. Next week there is an open meditation evening at the Rigpa headquarters in Amsterdam and I'm planning to go....

Maybe I'll have something to write about it for the next entry? Or maybe something actually about the house in Bunnik?

update June 3

2009-06-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in front of the screen after 3 computer-free days. We were visiting friends in Belgium for the long weekend, and they do have a computer there that I can use, but it isn't QWERTY and that makes me crazy. So I took a book.

Although this doesn't really have anything to do with our house or our plans, I do have to write one paragraph (or two) about that book. "Stern men" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I didn't like it. Of course, I had to finish it, because I'm like that... if I walk into a room and there's a really stupid TV show on, I always get sucked in and end up watching to the end. But with a TV show, it's usually just an hour or two that's wasted. For this whole book, it was 6 hours or so, wasted. Very depressing.

Why didn't I like it? It was well-written, sure. But the plot was centered around a community of lobster fishermen, most of whom were small-minded, distrustful, arrogant, ignorant, etc., including the heroine. In the last chapter, the heroine makes a transformation, which in turn tranforms much of the community -- a "feel good" ending, even if it isn't very believeable. But 274 out of 287 pages were pre-transformation. Ugh. Nothing uplifting or thought-provoking. Just page after page, with me reading as fast as I can, hoping that one character or another will stop being so clueless. But no. Sigh.

My life, I'm happy to say, is full of transformations. It could be said that there are too many transformations, too much chaos, too many interests and activities. But at least I'm not in a rut, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting sometime to get a different result.

With the house in Bunnik, it even looks like the changes and developments are actually leading somewhere useful. And it looks like (with some adjustments to our planning) we'll still be able to do it with a new baby. THAT was quite a transformation -- after 5 years of trying to get pregnant, we finally gave up and decided to focus on other things, and then, surprise! I'm just 8 weeks along, and anything can happen, but so far I feel great.

On May 20th, we met with our contact at the Rabobank. He had read our whole plan and had a sheet with comments on it to share with us. First he said that the plan was just about the most comprehensive and detailed plan he had ever seen. If anything, it contained too much information -- only because of the time it took to read it. (But the parts that we could have left out, as far as a bank is concerned, are just the parts that make it unique and interesting to a private investor, so I don't feel like it was a waste of time to write it all.)

His comments were all useful and it won't be too difficult to make the changes. Some things, like a month-by-month liquiditeitsprognose for the first two years, need to be written up by an accountant. But happily, Koert-Jan (our investor-finder helper) is also an accountant and he said those tables wouldn't be hard to do. It will help, though, if we first figure out the exact worth of the house with an appraisal. So I am working on that now. Once we have an appraisal, we can figure out the execution value of the house (what it would raise in a forced sale). That is typically 85% of the fair market value, and the bank is prepared to loan 90% of that (or 76% of the fair market value). The rest (24% of the fair market value, plus our investment costs, plus or minus any difference between the fair market value and the price we agree on with the owners) is what we need to raise ourselves (with help from Koert-Jan.)

Now, because we are a start-up business, there is some extra help available from the goverment in the form of a state-guaranteed loan, which the Rabobank could arrange for us. It won't cover the whole remainder (we still need to bring in around 30%) but it could add a few 100,000's so that we would need less from private investors. The conditions are rather strenuous -- you have to be able to show that you can pay off all the bank and state-guaranteed loans within 12 years. Our projections show that we could do this -- but, our projections need a little more support, according to the Rabobank. They would ideally like to see a list of users who are willing to commit ahead of time to renting various rooms. I'm working on that part, but it is a bit troublesome. How do you get companies and organisations to commit to renting a space that they haven't seen and that doesn't even exist yet? I've got one guy, though, through LinkedIn, who says he's willing to "commit" to 50 days per year for his trainings. Apparently, they book all their trainings at least 6 months in advance and still have trouble finding locations sometimes and have to cancel their programs. So, I am hopeful that I can put together a list.

In the meantime, I've also talked with a few contacts (again through LinkedIn, what a useful forum!) about other possibilities. A woman who is an artist and trainer (Mieke) told me how art expositions typically work. In a building like Het Huis aan de Brug, we could set up new exhibitions every 6 weeks or so. We would arrange the lighting, etc., the publicity, the opening (which we could combine with a concert or other activity), and then we could ask for 15-20% of what the artist earns on sales. She also knows a woman who organizes art fairs, where many artists come together in one location, with booths and displays and such. That all sounds like a lot of fun, as well as a way to add a little income. And also a nice way to meet artists who might like to do a course or workshop in one of our rooms.

After talking to another contact, Sander, we've decided to set aside one of the rooms as a practice room and rent it out specifically to other therapists. At first I thought this would be a problem, because of course you can't ask a therapist (doing several one-on-one sessions with people for maybe 60 Euro per session) to pay as much as a business holding a team-building activity. But, I found a practice room in a location in De Bilt where they are doing just that: morning, afternoon, and evening blocks, 7 days a week, with therapists signing up for a particular block and commiting to 3 months of use. Their room is *completely* booked (except for some openings on Saturday and Sunday) and they have a waiting list. So.... we might not earn as much per block as we would from businesses, but we can make up for that with a very high occupancy rate. And then it would work, financially. This is very cool, because I really like the idea of having different therapists working together under our roof (sharing ideas, clients, advertising, etc.)

The last "transformation" happened yesterday, when Paulus was talking with our friends Edi and Annelies at the Ledig Erf. I sent them the link to the latest version of our plan, last week, and they've had a chance to look at it... and they are seriously interested in investing with us! Wow! For them, I need to do a bit more research, because they see a lot of unused potential. With their help (specifically guidance on how to hire people and run a cash register etc.) we could create a sort of tea house in the large downstairs hall, next to the terrace. It could be open from, say, 10 to 5 -- after the B&B guests have had their breakfast, and not in the evenings when we would do things like house concerts, expositions, lectures, etc. *IF* we are allowed to do this, by the city, it would probably be more profitable than renting that room out to businesses, simply because of the occupancy rate. So... I'm curious. I sent a long mail to the proper authority at the Bunnik city hall, asking what we are allowed and not allowed to do.

And when I hear back (from the City, from the appraiser, from Koert-Jan about other potential investors) I'll write again!

May 19

2009-05-19T02:30:00.000-07:00

Well, things are moving quickly now....

Yesterday, the 18th, we met with Koert-Jan de Weert to talk about investers. Of course he couldn't promise anything, but he was very positive. He's going to take our plan around to his circle of contacts and see what he can put together -- and perhaps he can even get more investers than we are seeking, so that we can borrow less from a bank.

He explained the advantages of working with investers this way: a bank is an institution that in general brings you an umbrella when the sun is shining, and takes it away when it starts to rain. But an invester (if you hook up with the right kind) is usually someone in their later years, who made a lot of money as an entrepreneur, and would like to use their savings to help new entrepreneurs. Especially now, when the alternative is to invest their savings in stocks and banks that are almost completely removed from the actual person or business they are supporting. If we could connect with this sort of invester, he or she would probably be someone who is personally excited about our vision, someone who would drop by regularly to see how it's going, offer encouragement and advice, talk up our project among his or her friends.... In short, it sounded totally in keeping with our way of thinking and working.

Koert-Jan also explained a little how investment contracts work. Banking laws prohibit investers in the Netherlands from lending money to someone for more than a year -- if you do that, then you are acting like a bank and cutting into their business. So companies like Koert-Jan's have set up ways to work around this, so that the loan is called something else. The invester gets a sort-of share in the project, which we can later buy back from the invester. The result is that we can be more relaxed -- the invester (being a former entrepreneur himself or herself) knows that the first years can be slow, and they are looking at the long-term. When it rains, metaphorically, they won't come pounding at the door demanding their payments, but will come with a hammer and nails to help secure the roof.

In short, a very positive and eye-opening experience. Before talking with Koert-Jan, I had the impression that investers were mostly worse than banks -- that in general they demand their money back more quickly, with higher interest, and are more likely to want to take over your show and run it the way they see fit. I'm glad to learn this is just a negative stereotype! (with perhaps some basis in truth -- I'm sure there are investers like that, as well.)

So, after talking with Koert-Jan, I made the last changes to the business plan, added our resumes and scans of the floorplans at the end, and sent it off to him electronically to take around to his millionaire friends. He doesn't have time until the end of this week, so I'm hoping maybe early next week we'll have some preliminary reactions from him....

Meanwhile, I had contact with someone at Triodos (after playing a lot of phone tag and message forwarding, to get to the right person for our project) and sent her the electronic version of the plan as well. She'll review it and get back to us in a few days to make an appointment.

And Wednesday (tomorrow) we go to the Rabobank, whose representative has been reviewing the plan since last Thursday.

I've told people at the shop that I definitely want to stop (even though I don't know for sure what will happen in Bunnik) and we're getting ready to tell our landlord that we are definitely going to move....

Saturday I turn 45, and we're going to have a party for friends and family in the garden (it is supposed to be beautiful weather -- I need to get out and do some work on the flower beds....)

And next week Tuesday I have an appointment with the local midwife. It seems that I am 10 weeks pregnant (and I thought I was just pre-menopausal....)

Life sure is interesting.

Now it is May...

2009-05-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot has been happening even though I haven't been blogging for a while....

I've been writing like crazy on the business plan, making more and more improvements to the content, and then every time getting native Dutch speakers to read it and make corrections... it is a long and slow process, and yet....

I'm glad that I'm doing it. Even if we don't get the necessary loans and can't buy the house. Because the whole process is a good reminder to me that I can do more than slice bread and order milk and check people out at the cash register. I can take initiatives, do research, organize my results, inspire other people to want to help me with extra information and ideas. Where this will all lead me, I have no idea, but at least it is leading me out of the shop.

I'm going to disturb the chronological order here a moment and describe one of the more recent chapters in this adventure. I made contact with a friend of a friend, Carole Anne. We met some time ago at a house concert at Anne Ku's. Anne reminded me that Carole Anne had a background at a bank, something to do with investing, and I decided there was no harm in emailing her to ask if she might be willing to read our plan and comment on it. Well, it turned out that Carole Anne is a very busy professional in Amsterdam, who used to read and evaluate 300 business plans a month for ABNAMRO -- now she does private consulting. And she would be happy to read the plan. !! I mailed it off, and about a week later, I got an email back: could we meet in Amsterdam on Friday May 8, to talk about it over lunch? Of course, I said yes. But I was nervous. Were there so many problems with the plan that she didn't want to take the time to write them all in an email? Easier just to name them all and let me take notes between bites of our sandwiches?

It turned out, in fact, that Carole Anne thought our plan was extremely well done, better than many she used to read each month -- so good, in fact, that if I were in an MBA program, I could submit it as my thesis. Wow!

And yes, she also had tips, which were very helpful and insightful and I've been busy adding them in. But even without the changes, she said it was already good enough to take to a bank. The changes will just make it better: I've added an index, and a one-page summary, and a "Sources and Uses" analysis, and a "break-even" analysis, and I've moved the mission statement back into the body of the plan.

But two main challenges remain. One, we are still talking about a huge sum of money, and Paulus and I can't demonstrate that we have experience handling that amount of money. And two, we don't have very much money of our own to bring into the project. If we could somehow hook up with an invester/partner who could help out in one or both areas, it would be a big help. So I continue to "broadcast" our dream in all directions.... Someone (or an organization) involved in hotels/lodgings/events management/restaurants & catering....

We met on Friday May 1 with one potential partner -- an organic caterer named Edsart, with his wife Ellen. All of us went to the Dorpsstraat and had a tour of the place together. We talked there, and later, about the possibility of us all working and living together in the house. Paulus and I would handle the treatments and the bed & breakfast, and Edsart and Ellen would handle the food and the room rental. But we decided that it would be too much: it is hard enough dividing tasks and taking care of everyone's needs in a relationship with two people -- but to do it with four adults plus two children, and at the same time start up an expensive business venture from scratch -- it just sounds like a recipe for disaster. So we agreed to keep it at a regular business level: Paulus and I do our thing, and hire them in as needed for the catering, from their current location. If we are totally busy and calling them 6 days a week, then we can all discuss the possibility of them relocating and getting "hired" permanently. Now... in the meantime I don't know if they want to invest financially... but we want to get positive word from a bank first before we ask people point-blank about money.

Plus Edi, the friend of Paulus' with two successful bars in Utrecht, remains a possibility. If he and his wife wanted to be partners/investers, I think that would impress a bank a lot. Again, we're going to wait until we have more details before asking them directly. But we know already that they are excited for us, and also that they know a lot of other people in the business...

Next Monday we go to meet with another friend of a friend, who runs a marketing and investment company. I sent him an introductory email with a brief description of the project and he responded very positively. His point of view was basically, if the plan is sound (ie it will make a profit) and if it is our dream and we are really passionate about it, there will be a way to do it. Where there is a will, there's a way.

A few other interesting events in the last weeks: We attended two events for Triodos shareholders. (Triodos is an independent European bank that invests in green and sustainable projects) One was organized at Antropia Cultuur- en Congrescentrum in Zeist-Driebergen (on the estate of Landgoed Reehorst.) Antropia is a very upscale yet new-agey/alternative sort of center (all the conference rooms are named after crystals and gemstones, their meals are all organic, etc.) which has received funding and support from Triodos. We heard lots of versions and perspectives on the Triodos philosophy... and kept nodding and looking at each other... surely they will like our project as well? We also heard about how fast they are growing -- apparently in the last year, with all the financial troubles, lots of people decided to take their money out of the banks they were using and bring it to Triodos. Their deposits grew an amazing 10%! I forget how many hundreds of millions of Euros that is -- but it is a lot, and all that money has to get put somewhere. Naturally, not all of it can get put into risky start-up projects, but maybe just a little....

business plan pdf? updated April 24

2009-04-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

I think, just maybe, I've made a huge technological breakthrough.... It would be amazing....

I've been so busy with the corrections and additions to our business plan, most of which involve adding more tables with numbers. The new and improved version now has 25 pages. I want to make it possible for people to access it online, but I wasn't looking forward to adding all the new material by hand again on our website. It is an interesting intellectual puzzle, in a way, building tables in html, but it takes soooo long.

I thought it would be much better if I could figure out how to put a pdf file on the website. Which meant first figuring out how to make a pdf file, and then getting it on the site. My version of Microsoft Word doesn't do pdf... but I found a free software package online called OpenOffice that was able to open my Word file and then save it as pdf, without mutating it too badly. And then, with one line of html text... on the very first try... voila! A functioning pdf download link on the front page of our website!!!

And if all goes well, I can duplicate that success right here, with a direct link to the pdf download: www.innerfireworks.com/businessplan.pdf

Oh well. Didn't work on the first try. Let's give it another shot....

Now it works, and it is even updated, and "all" I have to do is translate it into English now! Which is actually a rather big priority because we are having dinner with a professional American pianist on Sunday, and he and his wife might be interested in getting involved with our project somehow....

update through 7 april

2009-04-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm going to keep this short because I am still very busy with re-writing and improving our business plan. It has evolved a lot, thanks to great input and feedback (from Jaap and from Wendy especially, thank you!)

When I have time, I'll come back here to write some more about:

Peter de Wit and his advice about monuments, renovation, and subsidies.
Reaction from our friend Ron's colleagues.
Finding information about the "Energy Ball" on the internet -- a very cool modern wind-powered energy generator.

Meanwhile we are busy with tax returns and a few klussen -- I am helping Paulus with painting and sanding -- and Paulus is studying every morning for his pathology exams (he passed the first of three, last week! hurray!) We are getting more B&B guests and Shiatsu clients, which is good, because I am hoping to stop at Rio de Bio very soon.

update March 25

2009-03-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

More exciting installments in our quest to buy our dream house in Bunnik!

Tuesday March 24. In the daytime, I worked on the business plan, which is now posted in part on this blog, and complete with tables on our website. What a job! And that's just the first version, and without the attachments....

In the evening, I drove to Wageningen, to a sort of "open evening" at a health food store there called Buys & Ko. I've heard a lot about them and wanted to see it for myself. I was also hoping to see an old friend and colleague, Karl, who now works there... and I was in luck. Karl was there, and quite surprised to see me! (it isn't an easy drive from Utrecht, in the dark and rain... I'm impressed that he commuted every day for many months before finally moving to Wageningen.)

I asked Karl in particular about the "client card" being used at Buys & Ko. Approximately 300 clients signed up for this card a few years ago, when the store came up with this way to raise funds. Each client had to loan a minimum of 100 Euro to the store, interest-free. (150 for a family) They could loan more, but in practice almost everyone did the minimal loans of 100 or 150 Euro. Clients can ask for their loan back at any time, but until now only one person has done this. Each year, there is a renewal fee of 10 Euro to cover administration costs. In exchange for making these loans, the clients received a card that gives them 5% discount in the store, plus the right to participate in meetings to discuss developments in the store. Clients with these cards turn out to be very loyal shoppers -- when the weather is bad, regular customers stay away but the client card holders keep coming, to "their store." As a result, the store had dramatically improved sales figures since starting this service -- a nice extra benefit in addition to the interest-free loan of 30,000 plus Euro.

Karl also told about another store in the area that needed to raise money to pay for moving to a new location. They also turned to their customers for small, interest-free loans. Karl said they
needed 200,000 Euro but they could have raised 3 times that much. They had to tell people, no thanks, we don't need any more. His opinion is that there are plenty of people in the Netherlands, even in this economic climate, who want to do something worthwhile with their money. They aren't so concerned about making a profit, if they get a good feeling or some sort of social benefit from their investment.

But how could we use this idea with our fundraising plan? A card with a barcode and discount -- that's good for grocery stores but not for us. A gift certificate for 25 Euro, for every 500 loaned to us, would be a nice gesture (that's the equivalent of 5% interest, plus it brings us more customers) but it is probably not that interesting to our friends and family in America. I thought, what about organic cotton t-shirts with a copy of the old etching of Het Huis aan de Brug? I started to tell Paulus my idea that evening, but he stopped me -- HE had been thinking about what we could offer as a gift to people who help us with loans, and HIS idea was to use the etching of the house, on ceramic tiles. We laughed. It's crazy, we both work all day and when we get back together in the evening, the conversation always starts with "hey, I was thinking, what if we ...."

Wednesday March 25: I got up very early so I could go meet with Ellen Kok from Terecht Anders at 8 a.m. Ellen is another super-friendly person, who gave me an hour of her time and lots of useful information. Today she has sent an email with even more: documents on B&B rules and regulations, a power-point presentation with good tips on how to plan your remodeling and redecorating, a summary of some national research on B&B's... I'm still reading through it all. Great. My conclusions: I've lowered the prices on our two "luxury rooms" and my "best guess" for occupancy rate, to be safer, but it was good to hear that some B&B's in the area are as high as 85%. Plus that the whole group is friendly and cooperative. And that Terecht Anders is very busy with marketing and promoting, and membership is not expensive.

It was 9 o'clock and my next appointment was with Nellie and Victor, at 10:30, so I had an extra hour. I decided to go visit Samaya again. The same friendly receptionist was there as last time, and she invited me again to look around or take a walk outside. I decided to visit the garden, and one of their conference rooms that was not in use. Again, it was such a great experience. I can't explain it. Something about the place touches me so deeply -- I was actually crying, walking in the garden (luckily it was raining and no one else was outside.) The building is not very old, so I don't think that I am tuning into the emotions of previous tenants. And the tears weren't due to my own sadness or longing or whatever. I think it must be because of all the people who come there for their meditation classes and awareness workshops and such things. Cool, that the effect is so tangible. I wonder if that will keep happening every time I visit, or if the effect will wear off after a while.

At 10:30, I rang the doorbell at Dorpsstraat 1. I had another very nice visit with Victor and Nellie. They are really great people. I hope, if we don't manage to get it all together, that they find other good buyers for their house. I know they will be disappointed if they feel they have to sell to someone who doesn't appreciate the house as much as they do.

On this visit, I learned a few extra useful things for our plans, the most important being that we really need to talk to Peter de Wit. Peter is the restoration architect who did all the remodeling of the house for them when they moved in, plus the big restoration for the city back in 1980. He is an expert on the house, but also on Monument buildings in general and in particular on the subsidies that are available for Monument buildings. We have now made an appointment for Monday. (he's coming here! which means I need to clean up all the papers and maps and spreadsheets that are spread all over the livingroom...)

I need to say something about Netherlands and subsidies (although I will be able to say much more after Monday). I'm not an expert on this subject, but I know that Holland does it much better than the US. One of the reasons my mom is worried about this project is because she has been very active in historic preservation in Ithaca (and elsewhere.) In particular, there is a nice old building in Ithaca, called the Clinton House, which was scheduled to be torn down at one point in the 1960's. A group of people (Historic Ithaca) came together to save it. They borrowed money to make all the necessary repairs, and recovered the money later by renting out office space in the building. But they fell behind on the continued maintenance, and took out extra mortgages on the building to fund other restoration projects, and in the end it was a financial nightmare. Now the Clinton House is being sold to a developer. It's a pity.

The way it works in the Netherlands, if I understand correctly, is that someone can petition to get their building on the city Monument list or the national Monument list. There is a selection process, and it takes a while, but in the end if the building has historical or cultural or architectural value, it is accepted. Once on the list, it stays on the list, even if it is sold. There are some disadvantages to being on the list -- you aren't allowed to make certain changes that affect the "essence" of the building (for example, adding an elevator or a sunroom, hanging a modern plastic business sign on the outside, etc.) But the advantages of being on the list are many, especially if you get on the national Monument list. Then the government pays you to maintain the building. How much and how often is not clear to me yet, but apparently you can put together a "10-year maintenance plan" with a rotation of projects like exterior wall painting, new gutters, new lead/zink panels by the chimneys, etc., and get the plan approved, and those costs are covered. If you need to do a major renovation, there is also money for that. In our case, that isn't necessary because this house had a huge, million Euro renovation in 1980. All the walls have an extra wall built on the inside, with a space between the two walls, for insulation (resulting is lots of deep window sills, perfect for plants...) The roof is renewed and insulated. The electric and plumbing and everything are fine, also the emergency fire escape from the upstairs hall.

(update: I learned that the government used to actually pay monument owners for doing maintenance, but not any more. Now you get to deduct the costs, including the cost of your work hours, from your taxable income. Plus, for the maintenance of the building's exterior, you can apply for loans with very low interest -- around 1.5 %. So, it is still much better than living in an old house that isn't a registered monument.)

What is also interesting, this year, is that there is extra subsidy money available for improving energy efficiency (as part of an economic stimulus project from the government.) So we could apply to get a new, more energy efficient water heater (for central heating), for example, and custom made storm windows for the old ones that don't have them yet, and maybe even solar panels or a little windmill. I don't think there will be a subsidy for our new kitchen or bathroom, but who knows? Water-saving showers and automatic lights are good things... Or maybe someone will be impressed with the fact that we want to put in a handicapped-accessible toilet. Anyway, we wouldn't have to worry about outrageous maintenance costs (especially since Paulus can do most of the work himself.)

Another interesting new factoid: The Kromme Rijn river, which runs behind the house, is allowed to partially flood into a flat area each winter, just on the other side of the bridge. The flat area is set up with a mound in the middle, and benches, and lighting poles -- to make an outdoor skating rink! We saw it on our first visit, when it was still very cold. But later in the year, the water is drained away, and you are left with a big swampy area of ground -- a favorite resting spot for massive bird migrations in the spring! Cool! I went home and immediately added "birdwatchers" to our "target audience" list in the business plan.

Victor had some funny stories to share... Apparently, there is a group in Bunnik that likes to organize courses for the locals (I found their agenda already at the city hall -- lots of interesting things, like yoga and photography and music classes). They approached Victor when he first moved there and asked if he would be willing to give a course on restoring antiques. He said, sure, why not? Apparently that caused quite a disturbance in their offices -- lots of people were angry, because when they showed up on the first day to enroll for classes, Victor's course was already full! He ended up running 4 separate sections! He said the same thing about the local people as Michel said, from Bio Goed: lots of academic types, and a rather sleepy feeling in the town -- but very active when it comes to culture and music and so forth. I think this is a very good thing, in general of course, but in particular for our project.

I explained that Paulus wasn't with me because he was busy with a painting job -- in fact, he had painted all day Saturday and Sunday, because the weather was good. Victor said, it's a real advantage being handy with a big house, and Paulus would certainly get extra business in the area. Victor does the exterior painting himself mostly, and he has gotten several requests from passersby: "Can I have your business card, Mr. Painter? Do you have time for a project next month? My back wall needs painting..." Funny!

But the main reason I went by the house on Wednesday was to pick up some materials that Victor had collected for me -- some old postcards and books and articles about the house, including a small copy of an etching that was done of the house in the 1700's. Victor used the etching as part of the design on a wine bottle label (they make wine from the grapes in the garden.) I asked, could we use that etching as well, as part of a logo for the B&B? He said, why not? Copyrights expire after 50 years, and so the etching is public now. Cool. But the books and postcards were also very interesting. In fact, the cover illustration on a book about architecture in the area, is another etching of Het Huis aan de Brug! I'm going to make copies of everything, to use in our business plan, and take the originals back to Victor next week.

After our visit was over, I went back to the Shoemakers to talk to Geerke again. Again, such nice people! I discovered that she and her husband had just been written up in a book about Bunnik in 2008 (a sort of yearly report -- I later got myself a free copy at the City Hall.) Maybe we can get ourselves written about in the book for 2009? Or at least a line or two. The book mentioned a few events that happened at the antique business -- and of course there was a large picture of the house. I went around the corner to the local book store and looked for modern-day postcards of Bunnik -- and again, more than half of them included Het Huis aan de Brug! I'm going to scan a few and put them in the next blog entry.... It is just so amazing, to imagine living in an historic monument that people buy postcards of!

Until next time....

the business plan, in Dutch

2009-03-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

This entry is long and in Dutch and maybe I should put it as a page on our website or something, because I don't think the tables are going to work... but at least it is on the internet now so I can point people to it (Dutch people, that is....) Feedback welcome! I haven't ever written a real business plan before, so maybe I left out important categories or something. For sure there are lots of spelling errors because Paulus hasn't checked it yet.... English version coming soon!

update: no, the tables didn't work. I've adjusted it and put it on our website now: www.innerfireworks.com/businessplan.html.... I'll leave the first part of the plan below (the description) but the financial stuff is getting deleted. It makes much more sense with the tables!

updateII: I've gotten so much good feedback that I've had to re-write just about everything, so really the part below is not worth reading, unless you are interested in the evolution of our ideas and thinking.... look for a more recent version in the april blogging section.

Huis aan de Brug, Bunnik

Beschrijving Onderneming:

Bed & breakfast en ontmoetingscentrum aan de Kromme Rijn. Biologisch, ecologisch, rustig en gastvrij.

Uitgebriede omschrijving: Rijksmonument in Bunnik aan de Dorpstraat 1: privé woning, B&B, praktijkruimte en ontmoetingsruimtes voor besloten activiteiten. 100% biologisch eten, eco-vriendelijke producten, groene stroom, e.d.

Begane grond: privé slaapkamer, privé keuken, privé badkamer met douche en toilet, privé eet/woonkamer, praktijkruimte/ontmoetingsruimte 5x5m, ontmoetingsruimte 4x8m, eetkamer/ontmoetingsruimte 4x4m, ingang/receptie, gemeenschappelijke entree hal met grote eettafel, receptie zaal 9x10m met twee toiletten en uitgang naar terras, cateringkeuken en spoelkeuken.

Verdieping: 4 B&B slaapkamers (twee met eigen toilet en douche); badkamer met douche, badkamer met ligbad, en toilet op de gang, bergruimte, gemeenschappelijke woonkamer annex kinderspeelruimte, grote zaal 11x10m.

Buiten: terras, tuin, loods met opbergruimte, fietsstalling, hot tub en sauna, half-open schuren als bescherming.

Mogelijk gebruik van ontmoetingsruimtes:

- concerten of repetities (koor, kamermuziek, akoestische gitaar, piano, e.d), optreden, tentoonstellingen, exposities
- muziek / kunst cursussen of lessen
- yogales, meditatie groepen, seminars en workshops, trainingen, intervisie, behandelingen
- pilates les, dans les, bewegings workshops
- recepties, diners voor besloten groepen, proeverijen, kooklessen (beneden grote zaal)
- bedrijfspresentaties, lezingen, seminars
- trouwerijen (boven grote zaal)
- wellness arrangement (behandelingen + eten + hot tub /sauna gebruik + overnachten)
- combinaties van boven (bijv: trouwerijen + receptie + overnachten, seminar + diner + overnachten, schilderlessen + wellness arrangement)

Aansluitende activiteiten:
- kanohuur, fietshuur (evt. ook mogelijk bij ons)
- wandelen (bijv. naar Fort Rhijnauwen, Amelisweerd, de Moestuin in Maarschalkerweerd), picknicken
- uitstapjes in Bunnik (bijv. naar de Wapen van Bunnik)
- feesten in Bunnik (bijv. bij Hofstede van Beesde)
- bezoeken van de sauna in Houten
- toeristische uitstapjes naar Odijk, Werkhoven, Wijk bij Duurstede
- allerlei mogelijkheden in Utrecht en Zeist

Doelgroepen:

- eco-toeristen, natuurliefhebbers, vogelspotters
- internationale toeristen
- gezondheids-bewuste mensen
- mensen die een cursus of conferentie volgen in de omgeving, bijv. bij Samaya, Amadorra, Universitair Medisch Centrum, e.d.
- mensen op zoek naar rust en de mogelijkheid voor een wellness arrangement
- mensen die lijden aan chronische ziekten zoals kanker, asthma, HIV, CVS, suikerziekte, voedingsallergieen, e.d.
- familieleden daarvan
- bedrijven en organisaties die bezig zijn met het milieu, duurzaam leven, gezondheid, kunst en cultuur, muziek, biologische en streek producten, e.d.

Er wordt niet gerookt in het huis en om het huis. Dieren in overleg.

Onderscheidend:

Als B&B, zijn we anders dan een hotel: we bieden een aparte en uniek omgeving aan, in een Rijksmonument naast een natuurgebied, met veel persoonlijke aandacht.

Als B&B in een Rijksmonument en naast een natuurgebied, zijn we al anders dan de gemiddelde B&B. Verder spelen we in op de “groene” markt (met 100% biologisch eten, natuurlijke schoonmaakmiddelen, gefilterde lucht en water, e.d.) Mensen in de welzijnsmarkt kunnen we ook aantrekken door onze wellness arrangementen (behandelingen, wandelen, hot tub en sauna.) In onze keuken, bereiden we zonder moeite vegetarische of gluten-vrije of suiker-vrije maaltijden – alles kan.

Als ontmoetingscentrum, zijn we anders omdat we ook overnachtingen kunnen aanbieden. Bedrijven, organisaties en/of individuele therapeuten zullen de rustvolle sfeer, dichtbij de natuur, en onze lekkere en gezonde maaltijden waarderen. Ook uniek bij het Huis aan de Brug is de makkelijke bereikbaarheid: 100 meter van het oude dorpscentrum met winkels en postkantoor, 2 km van de A12, 10 minuten van Utrecht, goede verbinding met de bus of trein.

In de zomer, kunnen gasten en bezoekers gebruik maken van fiets- en wandelpaden en kanohuur faciliteiten. Met deze is het mogelijk om een overnachting of een seminar te combineren met een bezoek, bijvoorbeeld, aan het Bezoekerscentrum thee huis bij Amelisweerd of het Pannenkoekenhuis bij Rhijnauwen.

We streven er naar een informele sfeer van gemeenschap te creeren, door mooi ingerichtte gezamenlijke ruimtes. Bij de eetkamer horen grote tafels voor meerdere families en gasten. In de woonkamer zijn kasten vol met bordspellen en legpuzzels.

Onze vaardigheden:

Emily is Amerikaanse met veel ervaringen in andere landen en culturen. Voor toeristen die geen Nederlands spreken, bied dat een mate van vertrouwdheid. Zij heeft Engelse les aan anderstaligen gegeven en weet hoe ze haar taal eenvoudig en begrijpbaar kan houden. Zij kan zich ook als buitenlandse goed inleven in de ervaringen en interessen van internationale toeristen.

Paulus is heel praktisch ingericht. Hij heeft diploma’s en werkervaring als kok, hovenier, klussenman en therapeut. Hij heeft als chefkok en diëetkok gewerkt in restaurants en zorginstellingen, en ook zijn eigen catering bedrijf gehad. Ook heeft hij een aantal jaren makrobiotisch gekookt en gegeten. Nu heeft hij zijn eigen klussenbedrijf, “Paulus de Eco-kluskabouter,” en is aangesloten bij de VLOK, Vereniging van Klussenbedrijven.

Paulus zijn laatste baan was als technisch beheerder voor DOENJA dienstverlening in Utrecht. Hij deed alles, van kleine klussen naar zaalbeheer naar veiligheidstaken. Hij was hoog gewaardeerd voor zijn rustige maar zeer efficiente en doelgericht gedrag. Bij exposities of andere evenementen wilde iedereen hem erbij hebben. Hij heeft BHV en EHBO certificaten gehaald.

Emily werkt nog steeds bij Rio de Bio Natuurvoedingswinkel in Utrecht, waar zij 5 jaar geleden als bakster is begonnen. Nu werkt zij als assistent bedrijfsleider. Zij heeft veel contacten in de biologische sector en heeft bijna elke taak in de winkel gedaan, van roostermaken naar afdelingschef naar bestellen naar boekhouding naar personeelzaken.

Emily en Paulus hebben al jaren een Shiatsu praktijk aan huis, welke ze vooral ’s avonds en in het weekend runnen. Ze zijn leden van de NVST: Nederlandse Vereniging van Soma Therapeuten. Naast hun praktijk, hebben ze momenteel ook één logeerkamer voor gasten. Deze hebben ze aangemeld als B&B kamer in augustus 2008.

In 2007 en 2008, waren ze allebei bezig met de medische basiskennis examens voor hun beroepsvereniging, en met een jaar-lange cursus voor startende ondernemers bij de Utrechtse Ondernemers Academy.

Emily heeft zelf een website gemaakt voor de praktijk, het klussenbedrijf, en de B&B. Zij zorgt voor alle reserveringen, facturen, inkopen, marketing, en boekhouding. Paulus zorgt voor het onderhoud, niet alleen thuis en voor klanten maar ook voor familieleden en vrienden.

Emily en Paulus houden ervan in hun vrije tijd activiteiten te organiseren waarbij gasten, vrienden en familie in een gemoedelijke sfeer samen kunnen komen. Bijvoorbeeld, huisconcerten, groepsdiners, lezingen en workshops.

Omschrijving bouwplan:

Begane grond:

Waar een prive toilet met fontijntje, een bedrijfstoilet met urinoir en twee wastafels, en een bergruimte nu staan: wanden en deuren verplaatsen en voorzieningen uitbreiden naar: Prive badkamer met toilet, douche en wastafel; kleine schoonmaak wasruimte met gootsteen; een gewoon toilet en wastafel; een invalide toilet en wastafel. Uitdaging: heet water inbrengen van andere kant van het huis.

In huidige keuken, extra wandkasten en werkoppervlakken inrichten.

Extra deur installeren tussen ingang en het kantoor; daarvoor een balie bouwen en plaatsen.

Nieuwe catering-keuken en spoel-keuken inrichten waar huidige restauratie werkruimte staat. Als deel daarvan, het huidige lange raam (voormalig deur) aanpassen ivm afzuigkap en wasdroger. Uitdaging: heet en koud water en gas inbrengen van andere kant van het huis, riolering aansluiten. Tweede lange raam (voormalig deur) aanpassen ivm keuken installatie, raam inzetten dat we kunnen openen.

Dubbel deur naar terrasje installeren ipv huidig groot raam in receptie zaal.

Muziek /technische installatie (inclusief beamer, scherm, CD speler en speakers, draadloze microfoon mogelijkheid) in receptie zaal.

Verdieping:

Houten vloeren leggen in de vier slaapkamers.

Inbouwkasten in slaapkamers bewerken (MDF vervangen door hout, deuren toevoegen of weghalen, e.d.)

Een extra badkamer (douche, wastafel, toilet) installeren op het einde van de gang, met toegang op de gang en van de slaapkamer op de hoek.

Evt. brandpreventie/ brandveiligheid maatregelen nemen.

Houten vloer in overloop en trappenkasten afwerken (schuren, lakken, schilderen)

In grote zaal, extra zijdeuren maken naar de bergruimte. Nieuwe verlichting installeren.

Evt. nieuwe CV-ketel installeren.

Overal: gele en groene houtwerk schilderen: wit of neutraal. Wandverlichting en vloerverlichting (met spaarlampen.) Voorzetramen waar zij niet al bestaan – maar dat kan ook in de komende jaren.

Buiten: infra-rood sauna en dompelbad bouwen/installeren. Zonnepanels of kleine wind- of watermolen, afhankelijk van mogelijkheden en subsides.

Opstart plan:

Van tevoren: Zo veel mogelijk meubels en apparaten kopen, op marktplaats. Bedden, matrassen, lakkens, kussens, linengoed, nachtkastjes, borden, bestek, eettafels, diepvriezer enz.... Ook zo veel mogelijk wat we later gaan verkopen aan gasten: plattegronden, gidsen, kado’s, streek producten, souvenirs. Collectie van fietsen klaar om te verhuren. Alles kan opgebergen worden in de twee zalen en de loods. Logo, huisstijl, visitekaartjes, fliers, reserveringssoftware al klaar. Subsidies al aangevraagd (CV-ketel, alternatieve energie bronnen, schilderwerk) B&B aanmelding veranderen van Groenedijk naar Dorpsstraat met bericht dat we een periode gesloten zijn ivm verbouwing. Begin al met reserveeringen.

Eerste maand: B&B kamers aanpassen (schilderen, houten vloeren leggen, brandveiligheid, extra badkamer, meubels) Kleine aanpassingen in de privé keuken om deze te kunnen gebruiken voor de B&B. Kleine ontmoetingsruimtes inrichten. “Gasten” (klusser-vrienden uit Belgie e.d.) kunnen in de ontmoetingsruimtes, eet/woonkamer, en kinderspeelruimte slapen. Persberichten rondsturen, mensen uitnodigen voor openingsfeest.

Tweede maand: Reserveringen voor B&B accepteren als het mogelijk is. Emily draait B&B (ontbijt, schoonmaak, reserveren) Paulus gaat door met privé badkamer, toiletten voor beneden zaal, balie. Emily schildert in privé keuken, eetkamer, slaapkamer; eetkamer deur.

Derde maand: Paulus installeert cateringkeuken en spoelkeuken, verlichting in trouwzaal, deur naar terras. Emily regelt tatamis, meditatie kussens, terras meubels, catering meubels; schildert trouwzaal. B&B draait door.

Vierde maand: finishing touches: muziek installaties, tuin, kantoor, telefonie, kunst regelen.

Eind vierde maand: openingsfeest. Alles klaar, en mooi.

Over deze vier maanden:

Inschatting kosten: 50.000 aankopen, 20.000 verbouwing, 15.000 hypotheek/leningen, 15.000 maandlasten, verzekering, eten, openingsfeest, e.d. = 100.000 Euro

Inschatting inkomsten: 0 + 3000 + 4000 + 5000 B&B, 6000 borgsom van huidige huurcontract, 3000 levensloop regeling = 21.000 Euro

Inschatting spaargeld: 7000 Triodos aandelen, 11.000 geleend aan Rio de Bio, 14.000 aandelen Intel, 2000 deposito, 2000 betaalrekening = 36.000 Euro

Een typische dag bij het Huis aan de Brug:

Emily en/of Paulus begint met het ontbijt om 7 uur. Het wordt als buffet klaargezet in de eetkamer: yoghurt, muesli, broodjes, croissants, beleg, jam, fruit, iets lekkers uit de oven. Gasten lopen binnen tussen 7:30 en 9 uur. Ze krijgen dan verse koffee of thee en eieren naar wens. Ze kunnen aan kleine tafels in de eetkamer zitten, aan een grotere tafel in de entree hal, of buiten op het terras. We proberen een leuke sfeer te maken zodat gasten elkaar kunnen leren kennen. We bieden geen privé ontbijten aan in de kamer (ook geen televisies in de kamers, wel één in de gemeenschappelijke woonkamer.)

We ruimen de eetkamer op om 9:30, en zetten evt. koffie en thee klaar voor de pauzes bij de ochtend workshops of trainingen. Gereserveerde picknick manden zetten we ook bij. Misschien hebben we groepen in twee van de vier ruimtes. Ze kunnen de eetkamer gebruiken tussen 10:00 uur en 13:00 uur. Om 13:00 ruimen we het weer op en is de kamer klaar voor evt. gebruik als ontmoetingsruimte, of voor koffie en thee bij de namiddag pauzes.

B&B gasten zo wel als overdag gebruikers kunnen picknickmanden meenemen, tegen statiegeld, als ze van tevoren reserveren. Manden worden door De Veldkeuken dagelijks geleverd, samen met onze bestellingen voor de keuken (vooral broden.)

Tussen ontbijt en het regelen van koffie/lunch, zorgt Emily voor evt. afrekening van gasten die vertrekken. Ze ruimt de kamers op als er tijd is (anders gaat ze verder in de namiddag, of belt ze een oproepkracht als het heel druk is.) Paulus zorgt voor evt. klaarzetten van stoelen, tafels en aparatuur in de ontmoetingsruimtes, als dit niet al de avond daarvoor gedaan was.

In de namiddag, zorgt Emily voor B&B reservaties (die vooral door internet binnenkomen), en wat boekhouding en administratie. Een paar keer per week, zorgt zij voor bestellingen: groente en zuivel van de Moestuin en Kroon, melk en karnemelk van de Hondspol in Driebergen, broodjes van Zonnemaire, droogwaren en schoonmaakmiddelen van de Nieuwe Band of Varuvo, sappen en appels en peren van Kavel 55. Brood en picknickmanden en bloemen van De Veldkeuken worden dagelijks besteld. Afhankelijk van de hoeveelheid van de bestelling, wordt het aan ons geleverd, door ons opgehaald, of in samenwerking met de natuurvoedingswinkel in Bunnik (Bio Goed) geregeld.

Paulus zorgt voor het technische beheer. Alle onze meubels zijn tweede-hands (ecologisch verantwoordelijk, dus). Paulus doet evt. reparaties in de loods. In zijn vrije tijd, repareert of vernieuwd hij wat extra meubels in opdracht of gaat hij verder mijn zijn interesse in beeldhouwen. Emily in haar vrije tijd gaat verder met haar schrijven (als haar eerste boek bij de uitgever ligt, kan zij aan haar tweede beginnen...)

Iemand (één van ons, of een oproepkracht) blijft altijd bij de balie of in de omgeving om de telefoon op te nemen, de winkeltje te draaien, en/of gasten te helpen. De anderen kunnen buiten werken, in de tuin of in de loods, of de B&B kamers schoonmaken, of boodschappen doen.

In de namiddag kan ook Paulus of ik een behandeling geven. Tegen 17:30, als nieuwe mensen binnen komen voor het derde dagdeel, moet iemand weer stoelen e.d. klaarzetten. Als er geen avond reserveringen zijn, kunnen we iets extras maken in de keuken voor de “winkel” – een appeltaart of suiker-vrije brownies, bijv. Deze worden ingepakt in folie en liggen in de verkoop koeling naast de keuken. Hier kunnen mensen de hele dag een hapje of een drankje kopen, voor naast hun picknick lunch of voor later. (B&B gasten kunnen zelf thee en koffie maken de gehele dag in de gemeenschappelijke woonkamer boven.)

In de “winkel” kunnen B&B gasten en andere gebruikers wat biologische, ecologische, cultureel en/of kunst-gerelateerde spullen kopen. Sappen, noten, kleine hapjes en toetjes... wandelgids, kookboeken, boeken over het Kromme Rijn gebied, poezie... tandpasta, massage olie.... kunst artikelen, CD’s.... We zullen ook souvenirs van Het Huis aan de Brug verkopen (biologische T-shirts, briefkaarten, e.d.) Als er interesse is, kunnen we ook de water filters en lucht filters verkopen die we zelf gebruiken. (Deze winkel blijft heel kleinscalig; meer is niet nodig omdat er ook grotere winkels in de buurt zijn.)

Een paar keer per week krijgen we grotere partijen, voor een trouwerij of receptie of tentoonstelling. Voor deze, als het ook druk is in de B&B, bellen we onze oproepkracht. We nemen ook stagiaires van de Vrije School in Zeist. Waar mogelijk, gebruiken we De Veldkeuken of andere biologische catering bedrijven. Er is genoeg om te doen, met bloemen en muziek en alles in orde te houden – maar dit is ook juist leuk.

B&B gasten moeten inchecken tussen 18 uur en 22 uur (het derde dagdeel, dus) behalve als iets anders afgesproken is. Na 22 uur, gaat de voordeur op slot en gasten die al eerder ingechecked zijn mogen terug komen van hun activiteiten, maar dan moeten ze aanbellen. We hopen dat een meerdereheid van onze gasten bij ons zijn om te wandelen e.d. en niet om tot de kleine urtjes te gaan dansen, bijv. Als dat niet het geval is, dan blijft Paulus langer wakker en neemt hij regelmatig een middagdutje.

B&B gasten die weg gaan moeten voor 12:00 uitchecken. Dan hebben we minimaal tussen 12 uur en 18 uur de tijd om de kamers schoon te maken.

update March 23

2009-03-24T00:32:00.000-07:00

Whew. Today was a rollercoaster day.

My friend Wendy wrote with an idea for how we could raise money: sell "shares" of, say, 1000 Euro each, to friends and relatives, and at the end of each year hold a lottery and pay back, say, 10 people. I thought, hmmm, it sounds like something another friend, David, had recommended. I wasn't too hopeful that we could raise enough for the 40% that a bank needs to give a mortgage, but probably we could raise enough for start-up costs, if we could negotiate a rent-to-buy contract with the owners. It "just" involves convincing a few hundred people that we are a good risk, but I am quite certain we could do that -- this is a great project. Fun, socially and environmentally and culturally responsible, and my latest "best guess" for profit is 25,000 Euro per month (which we would then divide between banks, other lenders, and the tax man.)

I wrote back to her, and David, asking them to please tell me more.

In the meantime I had an email from Lilianne, Nellie and Victor's real estate agent. She was glad to hear that I am actively busy, but wanted to have a clearer idea how it was shaping up for us financially. The owners, she said, were not really that interested in any option other than selling the house. Reading between the lines, I got the idea that they were getting impatient and perhaps had other potential buyers. Oh dear. All my work and dreams for nothing?

Luckily I also had an email from David. He "scolded" me: what am I doing, putting limits on what is possible before I even start? Why do I think I can't raise 40% of two million in a creative way? He explained more, and I followed up with some internet research... (I hope I got it right, David...): his recommended way of starting up a new business is called working with seed capital. A person goes around to lots of regular folks, convinces them that he has a great business idea, and asks if they can lend a small amount of money to get it started. 500 Euro, say, or any multiple of that. If the person says yes, then you agree on the details: how long can they spare the money and can they lend it interest-free, perhaps in exchange for a gift-certificate at the future business? You put everything in a contract and sign it. Then, when you a nice collection of contracts, you go to bigger investors and see if they will join in. And after that you go to a bank. In the end, a typical division is 33% seed capital, 33% bigger investor(s), and 33% bank. And, David has a financial advisor whom he recommends highly, who could explain more and help us out. So....

I wrote an email back to Lilianne (with copies to Wendy and David and others) saying, we understand that a rent-to-buy arrangement is less than ideal (although if it wasn't 100% off the table, we could get some expert advice from Paulien in Deventer on how to set that up...) And if they have other potential buyers with money in hand, naturally that is more interesting than waiting for us to gather our finances. But that we still have hope, thanks to this seed capital idea. I explained the 25,000 per month expected profit, and that I am almost done with a first version of our business plan, which we will take to several experts for their feedback. If they can confirm that our numbers are realistic, then we can approach people more confidently to ask for seed capital. And PS to David: yes! please connect us with your financial advisor!

pictures at last!

2009-03-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Yippee! I figured out how to import several pictures into one blog entry and put text around them! And I got caught up on all the updates! So now I'm going to switch gears and send out some more emails. If you are just hearing from me now and checking out these blogs for the first time, here's a quick summary: Paulus and I are in love... with each other of course... but also with an amazing house in Bunnik. If all goes well we will be living there by next Christmas! (in fulfillment of a resolution/affirmation we made last Christmas...) It will take a few small miracles to achieve that, but we believe in miracles (and we are also willing to work very very hard.) I've been researching and writing and blogging and mailing like crazy, and some of that effort you can see here below. If you want to follow it chronologically, use the archive on the right and start at the bottom... "We've found a new house?"

This is the view of the house from across the Kromme Rijn. The little brick house on the side with the chimney was formerly a bakery -- it is now attached to the main house with a hallway. We would use that little house as our bedroom.

Here is what the bakery house looks like inside. Notice the old oven on the left.

This is the view of the house from the street. This is the dead-end section of the Dorpsstraat. To the left, outside the picture, is a cute bridge over the Kromme Rijn. Looking at the house, on the ground floor are windows to one of our potential meeting rooms and the dining room. Above on the left (windows blocked by the trees) are the B&B bedrooms. The midle area that comes forward would be our main entrance. To the right of the main entrance is the other half of the house, not visible in this photo. That's where the two big halls are.

This is the big hall on the ground floor (there's floor heating under the tiles.) It is a huge room. Try to imagine it without all the antiques! Although many of them are beautiful and if we have the finances to buy some, we will! Especially a few large wooden wardrobes and a long dining table... Victor Couwenbergh and his wife Nellie have put a lot of love and attention into their antique showroom and restoration business and you can really "feel" the good energy in the building. Who knows? Maybe we could arrange to "babysit" some nice antiques, in addition to a grand piano (via Anne and Robert... see previous entry)! And if we pursue the art gallery angle, with paintings and sculptures on display and for sale, maybe we could do that for some antiques as well. Everyone wins: extra sales and no storage fees for Victor and Nellie, nice ambiance for us and our guests....

This is the big hall on the second floor (or first floor, as they call it in Europe...) Again, imagine it without furniture! We would make it an open space, with folding chairs and mats and meditation cushions available in the storage areas under the eves. We would also change the color to something more neutral/meditative, and put wall sconce lighting and floor lamps. The window at the back opens out onto the emergency exit and staircase -- we would probably make that more available for people to use (but not to go out onto to have a cigarette!)

This is *not* from "our" house but from Samaya Conferentie Centrum, where I went for a visit. This is the kind of sphere I'd like to create, though, in the upstairs hall. Could be a challenge of course because we don't have all the windows...

This is the back of the house, with terrace. We would replace the big window with double patio doors into the large ground floor hall (an idea of the Victor's, which we thought was great.) There is another single door to the right, into the same hall. The door on the left goes into a work area that Victor set up with a temporary wall along one side of the large hall. We would probably keep that temporary wall (or most of it) and make the work area into a professional kitchen area. The door will be handy for deliveries. If we do catering or receptions in the large hall, that will be the perfect place for a kitchen. To the right, outside of the picture, is the vegetable garden and after that the river.

Here it is, the vegetable garden, with raised beds even! I've been wishing for a vegetable garden space ever since coming to Holland. We have a nice garden now (and all the bulbs and perenials will be lovingly dug up and brought with us) but we've never had sun and ground in the right place for veggies. So this is fantastic. Nellie said that this area could be dug up and covered with terrace tiles if someone didn't want to be bothered with the vegetable garden, and I said, no way! Beyond the garden is the bakery house (our bedroom) with its own little terrace and grape trellis. We would put our hot tub on that terrace.

There are more pictures at http://www.funda.nl/woningaanbod/koop/Detail/Fotos/?id=804edf5a-1a2c-44bd-b994-d4ecfd8d9499&objecttype=DetailKoopObject but I am going to stop with the downloading for now....

March 16 to 22! trying to get caught up!

2009-03-22T01:35:00.000-07:00

Well, there's still lots to tell, in our on-going adventure, trying to buy a beautiful old house in Bunnik, the Netherlands. And I know, I need to import some photos! But today is Sunday and I don't have appointments in the agenda, so I hope to make good progress.

Tuesday March 17: We went to a network evening hosted by the Utrecht Ondernemers Academy (a school for people starting a business, which Paulus and I attended last year.) They had several guest speakers tell about their companies, and then a networking exercise: we divided into groups, made circles, and had 60 seconds to tell the person opposite us about ourselves before the circles rotated. At the end, we had time to search out the people who were most interesting and have longer conversations. Like speed dating. Artifical, but very efficient and effective. As long as the moderator manages it all correctly. Our moderator had a microphone with a lot of static and he kept up a sort of running commentary (in Dutch, naturally)... "okay everyone, that was the bell, time to rotate, go on, finish up your conversation, keep it simple, don't forget to listen to the other person, don't worry, you'll get more time later to talk, isn't this fun?" It was not helpful at all. I had 30 seconds to cover who I am, what I do now, and what we're hoping to do in the future, in Dutch, while shouting to be heard over the moderator and not getting distracted by his chatter. I was torn between wanting to burst into tears and wanting to throw something at the guy. At one point as he was walking by, I asked him politely if he could please talk less because he was taking away from our networking time, and he just brushed off my request with a laugh and "you'll just need to talk faster!"

So it was a small miracle that we actually came away with some good contacts. Utrecht is full of coaches and trainers (for everyone from stressed-out housewives to workers looking to change career paths to CEOs wanting to improve company performance) and they all need a place to give their workshops, etc. Several of the ones we met asked, how soon will your rooms be ready? (they aren't so fond of the spaces they use now and are looking for something better.) We had to say, hold on, we don't even know yet if we can buy the house! We also met some nice graphic arts type people and caught up with some people from our own class.

Tuesday night I called my mom to ask if she had been following my blogs and if she had any feelings about the whole project. She loves the building, of course (as a life-long member of multiple historical preservation organizations...) but the financial scale is overwhelming for her. She could help us out a bit (enough to add a bathroom and kitchen, for example) but not enough to make a down payment. She and my dad recently got the opportunity to buy the land beside and behind their house, which they've been wanting to buy since they first moved there. (I remember that move: I was 4 years old, so that's 41 years they've been trying to buy that land...) Clearly it makes sense for her to focus on her own backyard and not a property half a world away....

She asked me, why don't we consider moving to Detroit? I laughed, but she was serious. Apparently there are a lot of good housing deals in Detroit because of the housing crisis. She sent a newspaper article about it, which I got yesterday. It told about a man who bought a one-bedroom house for 1000 dollars or so. It was in terrible shape (scavengers had broken in to it and stripped it of everything of value, including all the copper plumbing) but he was going to rebuild from scratch and put in solar panels. He contacted some starving-artist type friends who bought the four neighboring houses and together they put in a community garden and are working on a power grid to connect the whole little neighborhood to alternative power. It actually does look kind of cool.

So why not move to Detroit? It is worth thinking about.

If we moved to the US and bought a small, cheap, fixer-upper house, we wouldn't have the debt involved with buying a big, expensive house here. But we would still need jobs, to pay the monthly bills and the repair costs. What jobs could we get in the US, particularly in the communities where the housing crisis is the most severe? Paulus can do handiman work, but he wouldn't be licensed or insured. I could, well, work at McDonalds I suppose. I don't imagine that people in those communities would be banging down the door for Shiatsu treatments (people are lucky if they have insurance that covers regular doctors; insurance that covers alternative treatments is almost non-existent.) Translating from Dutch to English is also probably not in high demand. B&B? Not likely. Especially in a small house that would be filled with construction dust for several years. But living in a small, green, innovating community would be good. Nice neighbors, a roof over our heads even if it needs repair, and no major debts.

Contrast: Bunnik (or a similar large house in the Randstad): With a B&B and rooms for rent, we would have enough income to pay for the building and monthly costs without having to work other jobs. If we do it right. Of course, there is a lot of debt, and there is also the risk that the business would fail and we would end up in a really terrible situation. But, we would be doing work that we love and that we are highly motivated to do well.

I guess the big difference is the work. If we were just looking for affordable housing, with a few plusses like interesting neighbors, something like Detroit would be fine. But we are looking for our Dream House, or more accurately our Dream Situation. We want to make careers for ourselves as people who create The Right Kind of Space, for patients and guests and visitors. A place that supports good health, rest, community, the arts, the environment, international friendships. As a bonus, we get to live there also. If that is our professional goal, the location and setting are of primary importance. But yes, it is a Big Dream and not all dreams come true.

Wednesday March 18: We drove to Deventer, a city about an hour east and north of Utrecht, to meet with Paulien from the bedandbreakfast.nl forum. (www.vastgoedlocatiescout.nl) She gave us a tour of her bed and breakfast (two rooms, each 95 Euro per night) and looked at our photos and drawings from the house in Bunnik. Our first question was, as a B&B owner and a real estate agent specializing in B&B's and similar properties, would she recommend trying to buy the house in Bunnik? Or would she recommend another province, another city, another type of house, another price, another time....? She answered immediately, yes. The house in Bunnik. Now. It is a great time to be entering the B&B market, the location is perfect, the house is perfect, it would definitely work. She looked more carefully at my spreadsheets and recommended that we either lower the prices on the bedrooms with shared bathrooms or try to add extra facilities. A shared toilet in the hallway is not a problem for most people, but guests really prefer to be able to shower in their own space. We'll need to make some choices about marketing to the "eco-tourist" market segment versus to the "cultural elite."

Then we talked about finances and the news was less encouraging. Paulien said that banks these days are asking for "guarantie" (security deposits) of around 40% of the mortgage amount -- we're talking roughly 800,000 Euro! Geez. If we had that kind of money lying around, it would mean that we were already well-established, well-known, super-rich people (movie stars, lawyers, bankers) and I doubt that we'd be interested in starting up an eco-B&B-plus-more and working 14 hour days 7 days a week at it. Paulien encouraged us to keep working on our business plan and spreadsheets, though, because you never know how it might pay off in the future. She was very impressed with my full binder -- no one with the idea of buying a B&B has shown up to talk with her, with so much documentation and research. And I agree, I'm going to keep working on it, because it is quite possible that the University friends of Ron's, or Jaap from Non-nobis, might have some creative ideas about how to go further.

But Paulien also said, if we finish our plan and we have people who can help with the start up costs, that renting the house from the owners might actually turn out to be a good option, for everyone involved. She has a lot of experience writing up these kinds of contracts. You need to anticipate all the possibilities (how many years? do we get the option to buy, or are we required to buy, at the end of the rental period, and for what price? do we pay extra rent above what the owners need themselves, into a pot that then becomes our downpayment, or do we pay extra rent in exchange for a lower purchase price at the end, or neither? how do we divide maintenance and renovation costs? what if we get sick or die or discover we hate living there?) We had thought about renting earlier, and had mentioned it one time to Victor and Nellie, and it remains a theoretical possibility. But we had all put it on the back burner, because of all these complicated questions. Maybe with Paulien's help it wouldn't have to be so complicated. She could work with the owner's real estate agent, Lilianne, to lay out all the risks and options.

All in all, it was a great visit. Pauline was very friendly and helpful (and clear about her costs: we can stay in touch with her and if we decide to hire her to work out something, we'll make a contract beforehand.) We will definitely use her if we end up going further, and can certainly recommend her to anyone else thinking about buying a B&B.

Wednesday afternoon, I contacted our insurance company and they were able to estimate what our insurance costs in Bunnik would be. Everything together came to around 350 Euro per month: for the building, glass windows, the contents including hi-tech installations, the garden, "rechtbijstand" (legal coverage if you have to go to court for some reason) and "bedrijfsaansprakkelijkheid" (if the business causes any damage or is responsible for some kind of trouble). Quite reasonable, I thought.

I did some surfing at www.marktplaats.nl to see what kinds of second-hand furnishings were easily available. Answer: everything! 390 listings under business goods for sale > horeca > furnishings. 35 hotel beds for 50 Euro each. Lamps and tables and linens and place settings... everything, for reasonable prices. I also discovered a website called www.oplocatie.nl. It's a national site with every imaginable location for meetings, business events, conferences and so forth. It would cost 200 Euro to be listed there, which might be worthwhile -- but at least I can use that site to find out what else is available in the area, to help us decide how to set our prices.

Thursday evening we had B&B guests here again, Gert and Inneke, and told them all about our plans. They thought it sounded great. They travel a lot in Holland for work and recreation and always stay in B&B's because they like the contact with people. Gert also does trainings in and around Bunnik, so he was able to tell us a bit about that. At the Mercure hotel, on the highway in Bunnik, their company paid 1000 Euro to use a conference room for about 20 people. That was for a day (two "dagdeel"s) and included lunch. If you subtract about 25 Euro per person for the lunch, and divide by 2, that comes to 250 Euro per dagdeel. My estimated income for a room that size in "our" house was 150 Euro per dagdeel. So, maybe I can increase that number in my spreadsheet. Plus if we offered exactly the same package, we would also make a bit of profit on the lunches. Overall, good news.

But the best news from Gert and Inneke is that they are both amateur musicians. We told them about the small house concerts we've had here on the Groenedijk. They were really excited about our idea to continue and expand that tradition in Bunnik. Gert said to stay in touch, and he will bring his saxaphone and his jazz quartet up to play for us!

On Friday, March 20, I went to sing in the evening, with a choir made up of students and teachers (and former teachers, like me) from the Christelijk Gymnasium in Utrecht. (a school where I taught English for 3 months as a substitute teacher.) I was chatting with some of the other teachers, and learned that our conductor, Marina, also conducts a choir... in Bunnik! They sing at the church across the street from "our" new house! So I went to talk to her after our performance. Yes, it is a great choir, lots of nice people, and I would be very welcome to join. It wasn't clear to me if they needed extra rehearsal or performance space, but it was good to hear that people in Bunnik like music. I feel positive about being able to attract musicians and music-lovers to "our" house.

Our friends Anne and Robert, from www.pianoguitar.com, say they can probably get us a grand piano to babysit. They have a friend in Amsterdam who is storing 4 grand pianos in his house, for free, on the condition that he is allowed to play them and use them for house concerts. But this friend is going to move, and those 4 people will have to find new homes for their pianos. If we could take care of one of these, that would be so great! We would keep it in the large downstairs hall, which has floor heating under tile and opens onto the terrace. We already imagine using that room for receptions and dinners and small concerts and performances. (My Yamaha electric piano could live in the upstairs hall, where we imagine quieter activities will happen, like workshops, wedding ceremonies and meditation classes.)

Saturday, March 21: After work, I drove to Houten to visit a B&B that was having an "open door." That B&B is called Centraal Groen and is run by a super-friendly woman named Laura. I thought, I'm not going to pretend that I'm a local looking for a place for family members to stay. I told her our plans, and she reacted just the way I had hoped: very positively. It turns out she is a member of Terecht Anders, as well as the B&B website we already use, and she is very happy to work cooperatively with other B&B's in the area. In fact, a good friend of hers has a B&B in a neighboring town and had her own business cards there on a table. Awesome. I am so happy to be finding people everywhere who see us as potential friends rather than potential competitors. Certainly we can all help each other out -- there is enough business for everyone.

After visiting Houten, I drove back to Bunnik and explored some of the residential areas and the back road up to Zeist. I was amazed... I followed the road out of Bunnik going north, and after a few minutes there was a speed limit sign, saying to slow down because I was entering... Zeist? No it couldn't be, I thought, it is too soon, I just left Bunnik. There must be some other little town between Bunnik and Zeist. But yes, it was Zeist. The road from Bunnik is called Koelaan (cow lane) and winds through beautiful farmland. It enters Zeist on the south side at the Zeist Castle, with its lovely mote and park and tree-lined avenues. It was something out of a fairy tale almost. I tried to imagine what we'd say to international guests: "Well, you could rent a canoe today and go visit the old fort at Rhijnauwen, or the tea house at Amelisweerd, or Fort Vechten. Or you could go by bicycle to the castle in Zeist and explore their charming city center. A little further away in the other direction are Odijk and Werkhoven, two typical small Dutch towns, and beyond that is Wijk bij Duurstede, with its old church and windmill...." It is so idealic.

My last stop on Saturday was the moestuin (vegetable garden) at Maarschalkerweerd, near the stadium and canoe rental business in Utrecht. (www.moestuinutrecht.nl) Pieter, the manager, wasn't there, but I talked with the woman running the shop. I told her I used to be a volunteer there, back when there were basically just the two greenhouses, a couple of run-down trailers, and a breakroom with toilets. It has really changed in five years! Now there's a children's play area, a petting zoo, bee house, herb garden, carpentry workshop, picnic area and terrace and tea room and area to buy vegetables and fruit and other organic food. It is really nicely done, with large windows and attractive wooden furniture and a great ambiance (with flowers and newspapers on the tables...) The older of the two greenhouses, with grape vines and kiwi plants, is now in use as a meeting room for businesses and parties, especially children's birthday parties. I know Pieter had to work very hard to get the whole project off the ground, and he needed lots of sponsors and volunteers. I hope he will have some tips for us, and maybe ideas how we can work together.

I just looked at the map again with Paulus, and it turns out that the Kromme Rijn continues on, past the Moestuin and the canoe rental place, into the heart of Utrecht, and in particular right to the Ledig Erf, a cafe/bar run by Eddie, an old friend of Paulus'. Paulus had just gone by Eddie's to take measurements and stuff for some work that needs to be done there. Business is booming at the Ledig Erf -- roughly double what it was last year. Eddie has been wondering what he might do to next -- he doesn't really have a kitchen, and his terrace is already full, so he's been thinking about offering picnic baskets for customers, who could take them to the park area next to the river... I joked with Paulus, we should set up something with Eddie and the Veldkeuken and the Moestuin and the canoe place... cooperate with food and marketing... set up a tour... people stay at our place, have breakfast, get in their canoes with a map and a picnic basket, stop for coffee at the Pannenkoeken huis at Rhijnauwen, then tea at the Veldkeuken, then coffee at the moestuin, then a beer at Ledig Erf, then return their canoes and go home, or come back to us for another night.... I said it as a joke, because I don't really think of the crowd at the Ledig Erf as being the same sort of people who like canoeing and organic food -- but who knows? The sandwiches and foccacia and stuffed pita breads from the Veldkeuken are so delicious, I'm sure Eddie could sell them to his clients, and even people from our eco/organic market segment probably like a beer now and then, and we're all connected by the Kromme Rijn, so why not try?

Whew! Caught up! Now for some pictures!

update from March 15

2009-03-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday March 15th:

We went to the Onkruid Beurs. Some background for people from outside Holland: A beurs is a sort of exposition, with lots of different stands set up by difference businesses or services around a particular theme. Paulus likes to go to the Bouw Beurs (for the construction industry) where he can talk to all the different painting supply company representatives about what they have to offer, for example. (and make lots of people giggle at his "Paulus de Kluskabouter" name tag.) The Onkruid Beurs is targeted at a different group....

Onkruid means weed, in Dutch, and Onkruid magazine is well-known fixture in the Netherlands associated with the... um... hippie crowd. The granola types -- you know, with all the nuts and fruits. The crystal ball readers and incense burners. Or as they say in Dutch, the people with geiten wollen sokken. (goat wool socks.) These kinds of people and events sometimes make me nervous. I work with energy and intuition and lots of "crazy stuff" but my background is in the sciences. For me, there isn't a contradiction. But for some people in the nuts & fruits crowd, concrete facts and evidence and scientific method are all "evil." And for some people in the scientific crowd, all intuition and subtle energies and spirituality are "garbage." And I'm stuck in the middle, both at the same time and neither.

But we wanted to go to the Onkruid beurs to look for people who might have advice for us or be interesting in renting rooms from us in our future house. So we said goodbye to our current B&B guests and off we went....

I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, there were a few fortune-teller types who made my "inner scientist" want to say, "garbage! You don't know what you are doing and are just taking advantage of gullible visitors." And a few air-filter salesman types who made my "inner yogi" want to say, "whoa there, I know you've got your sales targets to meet but money isn't everything. " But overall, most people looked radiant and passionate about their work and more interested in making the world a better place than in becoming rich and famous.

Among the crowd, there were several people who stood out. One was Elisa, the part time administrative person at Rio de Bio whom I helped to hire and train a few years ago. I thought, huh, what is Elisa doing here? Then I remembered that she has been busy following a course to become a meditation teacher/leader. She was there to sit at the booth for her school. We talked a while and I thought, wow, here is a perfect person to make a partnership with. She has the perfect sort of activity to run in the upstairs hall, and she could help us a lot with marketing, communication, administration, design -- all the things she has been trained in. And we could use her on a flexible and freelance basis, adjusted around our needs and her needs and her work at Rio de Bio. I asked if she would be interested, and she said yes, certainly. Turns out she loves Bunnik and for many years wanted to move there.

(An aside: the idea of hiring people to work for us gives me the heebie-jeebies... In the Netherlands, if someone is on your payroll with a "vaste contract" -- a permanent employee as opposed to summer help, for example -- besides having to deal with all the payroll taxes and insurance and stuff, you are responsible for their livlihood for years. If the person gets sick or has a burn-out or gets pregnant and wants a leave of absense, they still stay on your pay-roll. Also if the company goes out of business. They only go off the payroll list if they choose to leave themselves or if they do something really terrible (and well documented) and get fired. That is just normal, and in general I think it is great, but the risks are high for small businesses. Of course, you buy extra insurance as an employer to cover your payroll costs in case something happens -- but it is all an administrative nightmare. And Elisa knows this -- one of her first tasks at Rio de Bio, a task that took several months to complete, was arranging to get a former employee who became sick off the official payroll list.)

Anyway, another impressive person at the Onkruid Beurs was Henning, who stood at the booth for Free Alliance. (This group has a two-year course, and also sponsors activities and lectures, around greater conciousness and harmony. I just glanced at their website briefly. www.freealliance.org. They seem to be involved in a very practical way helping families in the Gaza Strip -- one version of their website is in Hebrew, or will be...) We stopped to chat because I recognized someone else at their booth, and we ended up talking to Henning the most, and later meeting his wife. What an interesting and enthusiastic person! He lives in Zeist, used to work for years for the government, and is currently treasurer of their organization. Their group rents out meeting room spaces like we are planning to do, and Henning knows all about the demand, the standard prices, and so forth. He also knows about the "competition" because he frequently needs to be able to refer customers to other spaces if theirs are full. He explained that it is a niche market -- you need to know what is out there, because if you refer a good client who is looking for an intimate setting to a place that is severe and business-like, for example, or vice-versa, they won't be happy with you. I said, wow, this sort of expertise is something we really need. If we manage to buy the Dorpsstraat house, could we pay him for some training sessions? No, absolutely not, he said. He'd much rather work out an exchange for Shiatsu treatments! And in the meantime, he said he would be happy to put something on paper if we need it for our business plan, basically his expert opinion that we can earn roughly such-and-such with our meeting rooms given such-and-such circumstances. Awesome.

Another interesting person was Johan, from an organization called Amadorra (www.amadorra.nl) located in Houten (Bunnik is roughly half way between Utrecht and Houten.) Johan and his wife set up Amadorra and he gives ... wait for it... Shiatsu treatments there! And they have rooms that they rent out to other therapists and there is a range of courses and lessons that people can take -- in yoga, meditation, drumming, Shiatsu, other therapies. In essence, everything we imagine for ourselves, minus the B&B part. Johan is a really tall guy with an easy smile, like Paulus.... he was standing there with a drum in his hand (Paulus loves drums) and they looked at each other, discovered they both do Shiatsu... and it was as if nothing more needed to be said. We all exchanged business cards and said, we'll be in touch!

We also took contact information for several interesting artists, and for a group/magazine called Genoeg! (Enough!) They are all about taking care of the Earth through simpler living and less consumerism. The person at the booth (oh rats, I see that her name is not on her business card, just her photo...) was very nice and I bet we can do something with her in the future. We're going to try to furnish the whole house with second-hand things (except for the technical equipment, for power point presentations and stuff.... that has to be new and working 100%) Maybe her magazine or website will have good tips for us, or be interested in publishing an article about us?

Speaking of publishing, there were also many alternative/spirituality type publishers at the Beurs and I learned from 4 of them that they would be quite willing/happy to look at my manuscript. Even though it is in English and that could make it more difficult to work with. My favorite was Zwerk. www.zwerkuitgevers.nl I like their name, their energy, the fact that they are quite small, and located in Houten. So, once this business with buying a house, moving, renovating, and getting our businesses up and running is complete, I can work on getting published. (ha) I have the feeling that I will have to get inspired by Obama some more, and try to do everything at once. If he can work on the world economy, national healthcare, climate change and green energy, peace in the Middle East, etc., all at once, I can combine moving with getting published.

(did you see in the New York times? The Obamas are digging up part of the White House lawn and putting in an organic vegetable garden!)

Here is an interesting coincidence, not really related to buying our dream house at all: We had to leave the Beurs rather early, because I had an appointment with my friend Anne (in the agenda for months) to meet with a small group of her friends and ...um.... read aloud from our manuscripts. We are all writing or sitting on book manuscripts. Just a coincidence. That also makes me think that I'm entering one of those life phases where everything happens at once.

Next report: our visit with Paulien the too-good-to-be-true B&B real estate expert....

update from March 13

2009-03-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

Now, where was I?

First, some thank-you's:
to Wendy, who says she has read these blogs and likes them and has.... um, what is the lingo here?... bookmarked them? so that she can follow regularly. I have a "fan"!

To Veronika, for a lovely supportive email with lots of !!!!!!.

To Coco, who wrote with a few tips -- a friend who does solar panels, and another who works with investors interested in new projects. De Weert Marketing... I think I saw them at the last Kamer van Koophandel (chamber of commerce) network event?

To Coen, who wrote suggesting that we try to tap into the market for holistic/spiritual trainings for businesses -- when he was at IBM, they offered a very popular Zen Meditation course in Utrecht. That course was at Zentrum (www.zentrum.nl) and Coen suggested talking to the owner there about how he got started, etc. Great idea!

Now, the update from Friday, March 13.

I started off by driving to a small city called Wijk bij Duurstede, a fairly well-known tourist destination also on the Kromme Rijn river. (the river runs from east to west, passing Wijk bij Duurstede, Werkhoven, Odijk, and Bunnik, then the old Fort Rhijnauwen and the estate at Amelisweerd, before coming into Utrecht next to the soccer stadium.) I was planning to visit Terecht Anders, the organisation that supports B&B's and organic farms and artists in the area. Their office was supposedly located in the tourist information center, but it turned out they had recently moved, without putting their new address on their website. That was a bit disappointing, but I decided maybe they are a bit of a shoe-string operation (like us) and therefore quite likely to be interesting people, even if a bit disorganized. I noticed that their website has no English on it -- which could also be seen in two ways: 1) they aren't very professional or 2) they are new and growing and there is an obvious way for me to participate, by helping them with translations.

Since I was at the tourist information center anyway, I decided to look around and talk with the receptionist there. She says they keep a list of local B&B's (it costs 35 Euro to get on the list) and they give that information out to anyone asking for it. (It doesn't appear to get you on their website, however.) I discovered two printed B&B guides for the Netherlands, one from "Bed and Breakfast Netherlands" where we are currently registered, and one from the ANWB (roughly equivalent to AAA in America -- they sell traveler's insurance, maps, hotel guides, etc.) The selection in Utrecht province was decent, but not overpowering, I thought. The average price for a room seemed to be around 70 Euro, compared to around 50 Euro for places outside the "Randstad" (the central, more urban part of Holland, including Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and the Hague). But when 20,000 people come to Utrecht for an event in the Jaarbeurs (exposition center), and there's maybe 40 B&B's in and around Utrecht with maybe an average of 3 rooms each -- that's a lot of people who will have to stay at a hotel even if they would rather stay at a B&B. How can a B&B not be in high demand?

I had been on another website that morning, www.erfgoedlogies.nl. They specialize in lodgings and "arrangements" at houses/estates of cultural and historical significance, usually Monumental buildings. I called to ask them to mail me their registration information and to ask for some advice. A friendly woman in Drente told me that it is difficult to start a B&B. In the first 4 years, if you reach 35% occupancy, you are doing very well. But she did say it could be different if you also attract business clients. She herself is very much outside of the Randstad and only hosts tourists, and so business is very slow in the winter months. That was rather discouraging, which is why I was eager to talk to Terecht Anders. Oh well, something to look forward to for another day.

At the information center I also bought a bicycle route map for Bunnik and the surrounding area. That was very useful, because it showed the small back roads running from Bunnik directly to the University and the UMC (Universitair Medisch Centrum), which I explored at the end of the day.

I drove back to Bunnik to my next destination, the Monument Stichting, located in a building right next to our future house. (a stichting is a non-profit agency) In fact, the current owners explained to us that they had made a "deal" with the Monument Stichting, that the stichting employees could park up to 6 cars behind their building on property that technically belongs to Dorpsstraat 1. The owners, with their antique showroom, found this an improvement over having the cars on the street, blocking the view of their business.

The door to the Monument Stichting was locked, which I thought was a bit odd, but I rang the doorbell. A man came to open the door and seemed rather irritated. "What do you want?" "Well, I was just hoping to get some more information about Rijksmonuments... what one needs to do to maintain them and what the rules are and so forth...." That wasn't a good answer. I continued faintly, "you see... we are trying to buy the house next door, and I'm not from here, I need more information, maybe I'm at the wrong place...." That was a good answer. The man changed completely. "Oh, you might be our new neighbor! Fantastic! I'm Tom, please come in..." It turns out that I was at the wrong place, to get information on how to maintain Monumental buildings and so forth -- all that stuff is now handled at another office. But Tom said we were more than welcome to make a special appointment with him and he could advise us on everything. He was very busy at that moment but gave me his card. Whew. Turned out very well in the end.... and yes, he did ask if we had heard about the parking agreement :-)

My next stop was back at "Bio Goed", the organic food store, where I found Michael restocking the shelves. Could he point out the Mr. or Mrs. Schoenmaker, of the family somewhere across the street, the ones who used to have a B&B in Bunnik? He laughed -- it wasn't Mrs. Schoenmaker I needed to see, it was THE schoenmaker. Shoemaker. I had confused last name with title. But at least I'm not the only one: Paulus calls his business "Paulus de Kluskabouter" (Paulus the handy-gnome) and has occasionally gotten mail addressed to Mr. de Kluskabouter.

Michael said, shall I quickly introduce you? I said, sure, if that's possible, but what about your store....? He was already out the door. There were no customers inside at the time, and apparently Bunnik is quite sleepy, as he said! We walked briskly to the corner store (shoemaker, keymaker, dry cleaner, clothing repair and probably more...) and I was introduced to Geerke. She used to run "De Binnenplaats" B&B, with 2 rooms and 5 beds. I asked how it was. Very busy, she said. I said, you mean, like 60% occupancy? She said, no, full. Full. She was listed on the www.bedandbreakfast.com, the same site we use, and she always had customers, even after raising her rates to 75 Euro. Tourists from all over Europe, business people connected to the bedrijfsterrein (business zone) near the highway, people training at the nursing school. Companies would book both rooms for several weeks or even months. There are no other lodgings in the area, except for the Mercure hotel on the highway. It was madness. She had her shop to run, plus another business as professional photographer, plus 4 children, and it was too much.

I asked Geerke what she thought of our chances at Dorpsstraat 1, with 5 rooms and 10 beds. She said, you'll always be full, and you can ask more because of the house and the location. It won't be much more work than my 2 rooms with 5 beds, because there isn't much difference between making breakfast for 5 and making breakfast for 10. If you like having guests, and if you have some private areas in the home just for you, it will be fine. As long as you get approval from the gemeente. All the technical and logistical information on how to run a B&B is on the B&B website.

So. Later that night, I revised my spreadsheets to show a "realistic estimate for occupancy" rate of 80%, up from my previous estimates of 35% to 60%. 5 rooms, at 50-120 Euro per room, at 80% occupancy, comes to a projected income of 11250 Euro per month. That feels nicely reassuring. A mortgage/loan payment would be, at the worst, around 9000 Euro per month, and hopefully closer to 5000 Euro. And we haven't added income from room rental, extra meals and incidentals, the practice, or the handiman business. *I* feel 80% confident now that we can do it, which of course is a whole different thing from convincing a bank that we can do it.

On the way home, I followed some of the smaller roads in and around Bunnik. I drove quite unexpectedly right by the Hofstede van Beesde -- another one of Bunnik's 6 wedding locations. It looked like a country club -- wow -- quite in keeping with their fancy website www.hofstede-debeesde.nl and the super-glossy info packet they sent me. (Of course, I didn't ask for an information packet, I asked if I could make an appointment to tour their facility and talk to someone about possibilities for working cooperatively). Clearly they are in another league -- but still, it is walking distance from the Dorpsstraat, so people who are marrying or celebrating there would have the possibility to stay the night with us. Not a bad thing.

I drove past the University, and happened to see the Ronald MacDonald house, so I know where to go when it's time to ask them about getting on their "back-up" list.

I ended up at the canoe and bicycle rental place near the stadium. They are closed at the moment (it seems they are open from April to October), and the information in their display case was very faded and difficult to read. But it appears that they take their canoes and their customers to several different drop-off points on the Kromme Rijn, several times a day. The people can then paddle leisurely downstream back to the stadium. I squinted: the drop-off points seemed to be Wijk bij Duurstede, Odijk, Bunnik, and Rhijnauwen... and there were little photos pasted on a map of the river... and the photo next to the Bunnik drop-off point was our house!!! Incredible! It seems that the field of grass across the river from the house is where the canoes go in the water.

I revised our local marketing plan, in my head. Top of the list: not advertisements in the paper or posters around town. Sitting on the terrace eating lunch and waving. Tasteful sign in the yard:
Huis aan de Brug
Bed & Breakfast & Ontmoetingscentrum
Biologisch, ecologisch, rustig en gastvrij.

(translation: House by the Bridge, B&B and meeting center, organic, ecologic, peaceful/restful, friendly/hospitable). Easier than falling off a log.

But the bank thing and the "ontmoetingscentrum" part remained rather uncertain.

That evening, I found the registration information from Erf Goed Logies in my inbox. They do seem to be a good organisation, doing a lot to support their members and, indirectly, Monumental buildings and Dutch heritage. But I learned that membership for a B&B with 5 bedrooms would be 750 Euro per year! That would be worth it, of course, if our occupancy rate was 20% and we wanted to double it. But if we are already going to reach 80% easily? I suppose it could also be useful if we were very popular and wanted to raise our rates and cater to a more affluent crowd. But... but... we aren't really the affluent-crowd types. Not that there's anything wrong with having a lot of money, it's just that it's so fun to socialize with a wide cross-section of people. But perhaps the most important reason to still consider joining Erf Goed Logies is their emphasis on "arrangements." It would be nice if we regularly had visitors who, for example, wanted to celebrate their anniversary with a 3-day vacation including hiking, canoeing, picnic basket with a bottle of champagne, Shiatsu treatments, and sitting in the hot tub under the stars. If these people don't find us through the normal channels, we could always consider joining Erf Goed Logies later....

I checked back at the forum for members of www.bedandbreakfast.nl, where I had left a question about the economy, occupancy rates, and getting mortgages. 7 people have answered my survey: 1 said business was much worse, 2 said it was somewhat worse, 2 said it was somewhat better, and 2 said it was much better (compared to last year.) And one person had posted a written response: She has her own B&B, and she is a real estate agent specializing in unusual buildings, including B&B's. She used to work as a horeca real estate agent. She knows how to do exploitatiebegrotingen (how to translate... budgets for exploitation... basically how much money you can expect to make from using a building) plus the other stuff you need to arrange financially for a B&B, including a business plan. It sounded too good to be true, so I was immediately suspicious. Her last line, though, stated that a first visit was free. No 178 Euro surprises. I took a deep breath and called to make an appointment. Results will be posted in a few days, I hope!

But first, I need to write another post about Sunday.

update on "our" house in Bunnik: March 5-12

2009-03-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy the last few days, doing research, still staying optimistic that we'll find a way to buy the house at Dorpsstraat 1....

First, some "thank-you" messages:

to Renee, for the great tip that we talk to the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis (children's hospital) and let them know that we could host families if the Ronald MacDonald house is full. "Our" house is just a few minutes drive away from the hospital.

Norm: how interesting that you know the house from your childhood! Yes, we'd love to have copies of photos and info from the book you mentioned about Bunnik.

Manfred: great that you are willing to "spread the word." Yes, I think the networks from our Utrecht Ondernemers Academy will help us a lot.

Leslie: thanks for the encouragement and your own update and hope we can get together this week!

Wendy: you asked how the owners reacted when we asked if it would be possible to rent for a year or two...

I'll begin there. On Thursday, March 5, we had our second tour of the house and spoke with both owners. They said that they would naturally prefer to sell the house than rent it, and that they thought it would be a pity for us to pay a high rent to them without being able to call the place our own -- but, that they didn't really need all the money at once and they would be willing to consider alternatives. For example, splitting the house into two parts, on paper, and selling us half, if we could get a mortgage for that much, and renting us the other half for a few years. In any case, it seems that they like us and our plans, and we like them and their house, and we are all willing to be flexible. Just as long as they get their money eventually and we don't get in over our heads -- we all agreed that we need to be practical and give it up if it starts to look too difficult.

On Friday, March 6, we went to visit a woman who has a similar set-up in Baarn: an old house that she remodeled and uses for her practice and rents out to others. She said she had some ideas and could probably help us. (She didn't say that she would be sending us a bill for 178 Euro's afterwards. Her website did mention somewhere in very fine print that she gives consultations to businesses for 75 Euro -- I guess I should have asked explicitly, is that per hour or per session, inclusive or exclusive tax?) So, that left a bitter taste. Most of her advice was not something I would have paid for (like what colors to paint the walls and stuff -- that part we can handle.) I wanted to know about financing and reasonable expectations for how in demand our rental rooms would be. But anyway. We did get a little information on those points: meeting rooms are very much in demand (she says -- no specific numbers) and she has a feeling that we could get a mortgage if we could put a lot of money in a sort of deposit account -- what I described in my first letter to everyone. My intuition is that this one little piece of information was what we needed to get from her. I suppose, if it works out, those 5 minutes were worth the 178 Euro.

On Sunday, March 8, we went to an art exposition at "Concordia" in Utrecht and talked to quite a few artists. I collected business cards and contact info for the ones we liked the most, so we can invite them later to display artwork at our place, or give classes, or whatever. I like the idea of having art (and music) be part of our project.

On Monday, March 9, I met with our "loopbaan" group and shared my enthusiasm over all the developments. The others reminded me how much I've changed since I started going to those meetings. It was hard to remember. But yes, it is true: I'm focused much more these days on the statement sitting on a postcard in front of my computer screen: "Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams." It is exciting and fun to research all the possibilities. Even as we open the mail to find a parking ticket, which we won't be able to pay until Paulus collects the money owed to him from his last handiman job. Crazy, thinking about buying a 2 million Euro house when you don't have 50 Euro in the bank.

I wrote the letter that is the second entry in this blog.

On Wednesday, March 10, I finally had a whole day free to go off researching. I started by going to Samaya Conference Center in Werkhoven. (www.samaya.nl) They have (more or less) 6 conference rooms and 40-some bedrooms in an old cloister, which they rent out for conferences, and they also offer organic meals. One of Bunnik's 6 approved wedding locations is in their chapel. The receptionist said she was quite busy and all the conference rooms were occupied but if I wanted to guide myself around the hallways, I was welcome. So I did. I knew already from their website that it was a pretty cool place -- but wow, in person it was 10 times more special! Beautiful flower arrangements, artwork and photographs and garden spaces... just the whole energy of the place. I was literally in tears. I stopped by the reception again on my way out and learned that (a) they have absolutely no shortage of people who want to use their space and have seen no effect from the current economic situation, and (b) rather often they have more seminar participants than can be accommodated in their guestrooms, and for that situation there is a list of back-up hotels in the area, and they would be very happy to put our B&B on that list. Great!

Then I drove into Bunnik and went to visit the organic food store, Bio Goed, located on the same street as "our" house. The man by the checkout, Michael, turned out to be the owner. His first question, when I told him I wanted to start a bio B&B, was, did I realize I was in Bunnik? He walked me to the door and pointed out all the empty store fronts up and down the street. The only reason he is still in business, he said, was because he has no employees. He runs the whole business himself, the way he likes it, because that's the way he likes it. But if I really wanted to do it, he would be very happy to have us there. In fact, he'd be happy to have a Lidl across the street, he said, laughing. Anything to liven up the place. (Lidl is a chain of discount stores, where you can buy, for example, 12 liters at a time of off-brand cola. The polar opposite of one-man owned and run organic food store, dus.) Bunnik is apparently rather sleepy. Many residents work at the University and shop in Utrecht. He told in a very animated way how they have a vrijmarkt (open air flea market -- a Dutch tradition) on Queen's Day -- it starts around 10 a.m. and is all over by noon! Queen's Day in Utrecht, of course, starts the night before, goes on all night with music and partying and games and TONS of people. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Of course, as we're talking, customers are coming in and out. He knew most of them by name and greeted them with, "hey so-and-so, this woman wants to open a bed and breakfast in Bunnik, what do you think of that?" I think I was there for an hour and a half.

I learned a bunch of useful things: He'd be happy to order for/with us, and not at the "advertised price." There's a short cut over to the warehouse for one of the local important suppliers; we could take turns with him driving over to pick up our orders. We could leave fliers, etc., in his shop. He doesn't have time to provide recipes and samples for his customers and would be happy if we brought soup or snacks down to his shop. He'd be very happy to organize events in cooperation with us. If we want to rent bicycles, there's no one else doing it in Bunnik and we could get a nice supply of good cheap bikes at the police auction. He recommends getting stagaires (apprentice-type people) from the Vrij School (Waldorf school) in Zeist to help out when it is busy. And he knows a family across the street who used to run a B&B and we could talk to them about how it went -- unfortunately they had already closed their shop. His idea was that their B&B didn't go so well, but a client in the store was pretty sure that it was successful and that they stopped for other reasons.

My last stop that day was at the jeugdherberg (youth hostel) in Rhijnauwen. They have rooms to rent (family style with bunk beds and also dormitory style, I think. Plus several conference-type rooms.) I talked to the two guys at the reception. Have they noticed an effect from the economy? Would they recommend opening a B&B in the area? Would they be interested in cooperative efforts? Sadly, it seems that things are not going so well for them. The number of reservations there is much less than it was last year (although last year it was already going down, so I don't know if the problem has to do with the economy entirely.) They said that many hotels are having a hard time and it is quite easy to dig around a little and come up with a big discount at a 5-star hotel, and pay about the same as what they charge at the hostel. They would definitely not recommend investing in a B&B right now. There had been a B&B in Bunnik but it didn't make it. So. That was all a bit sobering. But as Paulus said that night, the youth hostel crowd is absolutely not the same as the B&B crowd.

On Thursday, March 12, I went to the gemeentehuis (city hall) for Bunnik, which is located in the nearby town of Odijk. I found a wall there full of interesting fliers (local choirs performances, agendas for small courses like drawing and yoga, etc.) and spoke with one of their workers. I learned that with a B&B of 5 rooms, we'll need to ask for a gebruiksvergunning (permission for particular use of something). Someone from the city hall would then come by and check for things like emerency exits, etc. But in general, she reacted positively to our idea. I pointed out that I thought a B&B would be good for Bunnik, and she agreed. I also asked about a horecavergunning. It turns out that a horecavergunning is permission for serving alcohol, and only for serving alcohol (although the name suggests that it is about horeca in general: hotels, restaurants and catering.) If we don't serve alcohol (for a payment), we only need a gebruiksvergunning. We can still serve alcohol for "closed" parties and receptions, or for example as part of a chamber music concert during an intermission, as long as the cost is part of the entrance price. I don't think this is how they do it in America, but fine... I think I understand what the rules are now, even if they don't make sense to me.

At the city hall, I also asked about the wedding situation. We had heard from the owners that the city wanted to continue using one of the rooms for wedding ceremonies. I learned that yes, the upstairs hall had been used for weddings before and we could probably continue that. If it is something we enjoy doing and we put some effort into it, we might end up hosting more than the current owners have. But, Bunnik is not like Utrecht and there isn't a huge waiting list for getting married. They do about 50 weddings a year in Bunnik, and that is including Fort Vechten, which is quite a popular location. My conclusion: we aren't going to be doing weddings every month -- but with a good website and outreach, we might be able to appeal to the Utrecht market a bit. If you are free to go to another gemeente to get married, and Utrecht has long waiting lists and Bunnik is very close by.... it doesn't take a rocket scientist...

At the end of our talk, the woman told me about a new organisation in the area that might be interesting to me. She found a full-page ad in the local paper (and here is the website: www.streekhuiskrommerijn.nl) The ad was to promote their opening ceremony on April 4th, but when I read it, I thought, I need to drive right over to their offices now! So I did. They were very friendly and helpful. Apparently, Streek Huis Kromme Rijn is an organization (with a large budget from the national government) to care for the whole Kromme Rijn region -- focusing on the environment, agriculture, history, tourism, and quality of life. Of course, they don't have money to give to an individual B&B, but it is good to know that they are doing things that are likely to make our B&B more successful, like adding more bicycle paths and promoting organic farming. I think we could arrange some sort of open door event, or a canoe or bicycle tour, featuring eco-friendly companies and farms, etc., and apply for a grant to cover our expenses. The people there also suggested that I contact a group called Terecht Anders (www.terechtanders.nl), that works specifically with B&B's, tourist-oriented businesses, farms, producers of organic products, and artists in the area.

My last stop on Thursday was at Amelisweerd, where people I know through Rio de Bio have a tea house (called the bezoekerscentrum -- it is coupled on their kitchen, which is called the Veldkeuken.) I spoke with Juliette there, who was also very helpful and friendly. At their tea house, they haven't seen any negative effects from the economic situation. They have a conference room upstairs that they rent out for 50 Euros for a "dagdeel" (part of a day, usually 4 hours) and it is no problem finding people who want to use it. Frequently those people then eat lunch in the tea house. They have a loyal following, people who are very disappointed when they hear that the room is taken. If Juliette tries to refer them to the youth hostel, they aren't very happy ("it's just not the right atmosphere" -- I think Paulus was right...) Juliette said they would be very happy to work with us, refer their clients to us for the B&B and/or our meeting rooms, and do catering for us (their food is all organic and really delicious -- we'd be crazy to try to make the same products ourselves.)

I really like the way they have set up the tea house, with rough wooden benches and tables, displays of local products and books, flowers, nature drawings on the walls. Like Samaya, it feels friendly and peaceful. And it is also right on the Kromme Rijn, so I'm sure we could cooperate on hiking, biking and canoeing events.

That was Thursday... I still have to report on Friday, but it is already my bedtime.... until tomorrow!

Extended background: how I came to be in the Netherlands in the first place....

2009-03-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. I just got a message from another old high school friend who found me in Facebook. She asked, how did I come to be in Holland? And of course I realize that my annual Christmas newsletters stopped happening when the kids were little, and the yearly visits back to Ithaca stopped being yearly some time ago as well. If I'm going to get properly networked (which is definitely The Thing To Do in 2009), I'd better give a little more than 5 years of background on this blog...

Can I compress my life since graduation into a few paragraphs? Not very easily, but I'll try.

I graduated from Ithaca High School in 1982, and went off to college in Minnesota, eager to "rebrand" myself a little. I'm not sure how successful that was, but in any case I loved Carleton. I graduated from there in 1986 with a BA in geology and a concentration in Natural History. (My senior thesis for my geology major was about flow and sedimentation in a bend in a river, and my thesis for the natural history minor was about sustainable agriculture and land stewardship. Two topics, both of which appeared to have absolutely no relevance to the rest of my life up until this month, oddly....)

In the summer of 1986, I got married to Graham Pugh, a physics major from Cornell whom I had met during one of my summer vacations. Getting married right out of college was not one of the smartest things I've ever done, but hey. It could have been a lot worse. Graham and I were divorced in 2002 or 2003 and we are now very good friends. He lives in Washington DC, is remarried to a wonderful woman, and works for the US Energy Dept as a climate change expert. Our two kids (Alan, 17, and Mara, 13) live with him and his new wife, and they spend a part of each summer with me (or me with them.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In 1986, shortly after getting married, Graham and I went off to Kenya to work for the Peace Corps. We taught in two different rural schools, incidentally both in the Luo community where Barack Obama's family is from. It was a life-changing experience in many ways. We were glad to get home, and our families were glad to see us in one piece (much skinnier than when we left but still one piece.) This was before cell phones and internet and everything -- it's hard to imagine.

We returned to Ithaca and lived there a while (we bought a small house in Danby). Alan was born in 1991 and we went for the "divide and conquer" plan: I would handle parenting and household and try to do freelance CAD work and writing and Graham would get his masters in Engineering and look for a tech job that paid decently. We ended up a few years later in Portland OR, where Graham started working for Intel. Portland was nice, I eventually made some good friends there, but life was hard. Graham had to work long hours and for a supervisor he didn't get along with at all. Mara was born in 1996. I was exhausted and depressed and suffering from chronic headaches.

In 1998 we moved to Austin, Texas, on assignment for Intel. My headaches got worse and I eventually ended up at the acupuncture clinic of the Academy of Oriental Medicine. There, to my surprise, I actually got relief. And I started to realize that I was exhausted and depressed (those are things you often don't realize you are experiencing while you are experiencing them....) I decided to enroll in acupuncture school, because I wanted to know how it worked. That was great -- I learned a lot and made new friends who knew me as Emily and not as wife-mother-of-two-housekeeper. But I only completed a year before we moved again.

Graham got a new assignment in Belgium. We were there for three years. It was really hard for me -- no school, no colleagues, no friends, and lots of housekeeping. But I found some small courses to take, in England, that were alternative-health related. I also took a trip to China with friends from the acupuncture school in Texas -- my first time "on my own" without child responsibilities in ... oh... 10 years. That trip made me realize that I needed to take care of my own needs a little better. After returning to Belgium, I arranged to rent a practice room in a nearby town, find a nanny and a housekeeper and actually "be me" for a few hours a day.

Being me turned out to be an interesting adventure. You can read more about it on my website, www.innerfireworks.com. In a nutshell: I started trusting more in my intuition, and weird and exciting stuff started happening. I liked the changes I was experiencing, but Graham didn't. I can't really blame him -- it's not what he signed up for. But I didn't want to go back to the way it was before. So. We separated. Intel wanted him to go back to the US, and I thought/felt: not again. I can't move again. I finally had a little idea about who I was and a circle of friends who supported me in that, and I knew/felt I needed to stay. And I also knew I was in no position to take good care of the kids (still being exhausted and depressed most of the time) so Graham and I arranged for him to take the kids back to the US. Whew. That was a hard paragraph to write.

So, there I was, in 2003, 39 years old, divorced, depressed, and certifiably wacko. I had just channeled a 60,000 word manuscript on self-discovery and spirituality (yes, still unpublished, but I'm going to get around to it!) I was living alone in Belgium without any clear idea why, just a bunch of intuitive impulses. It was rough. But luckily one of those intuitive impulses sent me off to a summer Shiatsu course. That's where I met Paulus. Paulus was living in Utrecht, the Netherlands. We did the long distance relationship thing for a while (until his car died) and then I decided to move again. We got married in 2004. Maybe it isn't so smart to get married to someone you've only known for a year -- but we've been together 5 years now and we're both really happy. No regrets at all.

And in Utrecht, I met another alternative healer who was able to figure out why I was so tired and depressed and prone to headaches: apparently I'm hypersensitive to environmental toxins. Now, as long as I keep on top of things and don't let the pseudo-estrogens or the benzenes or heavy metals build up in my system, I am full of energy and good spirits. Plus my immune system is great -- I got a cold last week but it was the first time in over 4 years.

And now you're pretty much up to date.

Paulus and I moved all my stuff from Belgium to Utrecht in 2004, to the house he had been sharing with Willy (his previous partner, who passed away from cancer just before the Shiatsu course where we met.) We moved all his stuff from a separate apartment he had to that house (including many belongings from his mother who had passed away a few years before.) We moved all Willy's artwork and furniture from out of an artist's studio she had been renting. It was horrible, all that moving! And then the owners of the house where we had moved ALL that stuff into, said we couldn't stay there. We had to get out right away, which is a difficult thing to do in Utrecht because of the intense housing shortage. That's how we ended up here on the Groenedijk. But that was 5 years ago, so the painful memories of endless moving boxes and things getting lost and damaged are quite faded, and I think I'm ready to face it again. Especially if we only have to move across town, and we'll be able to keep our current circle of friends.

And now it is time for a fresh post, with the updates on our potential future home in Bunnik.

we've found a new home?

2009-03-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of a letter that I'm sending around to friends..... I haven't figured out how to insert photos the way I want... maybe in the next post!

March 10, 2009

Dear friends,

I am writing you with an update on our lives and “the house” – in English, because I’m also sending this letter to my parents and friends in America. (a word file with this text is attached in case that is easier for you to read.) Ik ga er van uit dat Nederlandse-talige mensen het ook goed kan lezen – als iets niet duidelijk is, vraag maar!

First, the background (for those of you who need catching up….)
We’ve been living on the Groenedijk for almost 5 years now. It is a pretty house, with a nice garden, on a scenic street in the middle of a rather ugly, newly built suburb of Utrecht. We pay 1500 Euro per month (around 1900 US dollars) in rent, which is A LOT to pay for a 3 bedroom house in the Netherlands. We use one bedroom for our Shiatsu and Energy Healing practice, and one bedroom for a Bed & Breakfast, and work hard at our day jobs (handyman service & organic food store), and it is manageable. But not great. The house is in bad repair and the landlord won’t do anything (we’re still in legal proceedings over problems we identified the week we moved in….) Lately we can’t get hot water in the shower. The window frames are rotting away and they leak when it rains. We are frustrated. Last Christmas, we resolved: Christmas 2009 we will celebrate in another house.

The search begins.
We started to think what we would like in a new house. Ideally, we wanted something “bigger and better.” More bedrooms for guests (we like the B&B business a lot), more green (because nature makes us feel good and is also good for our patients and guests), a decent garage for Paulus so his tools never have to hang out in the living room (he has so many that if they are all in his work shed, there’s no room to breathe in there.) But if we’re busy fantasizing anyway, we thought, why not came back to the dream we had when we met? Namely, to create a sort of center/retreat/hospice for stressed-out or chronically ill or terminally ill people, where they can come with their families and loved ones. We would offer healthy food, clean air, relaxing massage/Shiatsu, emotional and spiritual support, etc. It would be fun and fulfilling and financially realistic – that was our dream, from 5 years ago. We had made some steps in that direction over the years but hadn’t gotten very far. Maybe it was time to try again, with more effort and focus?

(Um, yes, and with less pain and desperation. The people in my personal/professional development support group reminded me last night: it didn’t go well before because I was so focused on creating the perfect future situation. Now it feels different: I know we can be out of here by December, one way or another, and it feels like a nice adventure, waiting and watching and exploring how it manifests.)

Good connections
I started surfing the internet a lot in the evenings. Following links from our “green” bank, Triodos, I came to the site http://www.non-nobis.nl/. Non-nobis is a non-profit organization that acts as a sort of property management service for socially responsible enterprises. They buy interesting properties and rent them out to, for example, people who want to create a daycare center for handicapped children or a residential center for people recovering from drug addiction. The renters often get the opportunity to buy the property over time if their enterprise does well. Or they leave and Non-nobis looks for new renters. It looked interesting. If we could “rent to buy”, in cooperation with a “like-minded” organization, maybe we could actually manifest our dream. I mailed their director, Jaap van der Haar, with an outline of our idea. He reacted immediately and positively and we’ve had two in-person conversations, also with his wife Jessica. Wow. They are people of incredible warmth and integrity. We learned that Non-nobis at the moment is not buying any new properties, and all their current properties are occupied until the end of 2009, but there could be possibilities for 2010. Jaap and Jessica are in Brazil at the moment (where they regularly go to work with the street children there) but we have another appointment with them in April.

We get motivated.
Before we met with Jaap, we had to spend quite some time getting our ideas solidly on paper. That was good. Then, hearing from Jaap that he liked our ideas, and that he knew people who could help us with our business plan… well, that was very good. So when it looked like Non-nobis might have something for us in 2010 at the earliest, we thought – good, but maybe we can keep looking on our own in the meantime, since we are feeling so positive and motivated.

We go crazy.
My late-night internet surfing brought me to a house that was for sale, in Bunnik (a cute town/city just south and east of Utrecht.) The pictures of the outside were beautiful, the pictures of the inside were confusing, the price was astronomical – but I was so curious. How does it really look inside? It has 14 rooms, it could be fantastic for a B&B, I suppose. We could never afford it. But. I wanted to see it. It wouldn’t cost anything just to go look, right? The little voices in my head said, “sure, why not? Go have a look…” Oh those voices, getting me in trouble all the time….

The house.
You can see it at http://www.funda.nl/woningaanbod/koop/Detail/Default.aspx?id=804edf5a-1a2c-44bd-b994-d4ecfd8d9499&objecttype=DetailKoopObject&hbx=1
It has a name: Huis aan de Brug (House by the bridge). It is the oldest house in Bunnik – the date on the front is 1674, but that is actually the year it was restored after the invading French army burned all of Bunnik to the ground. Since that time, it has been used as an inn and café, up until the 1930’s. There are several history books written about it. In 1980, the house was bought by the city and completely restored, and functioned as the Bunnik city hall until 1996. The current owners bought it from the city and have an antique showroom and restoration business in it, as well as their own living quarters. They want to (semi-)retire now, and have already bought a smaller property in Zeeland. They get the keys on May 1, but will have to do about 6 months of restoration there. So, the Huis aan de Brug would be available anywhere between May and December. The house is on the market for 1,875,000 Euro – with closing costs and a bit extra to cover remodeling, we’re talking 2 million. Whew. CRAZY!!!

Oh, and I should mention that the bridge (from the name) crosses the Kromme Rijn river (seen in the pictures) and then you are in one of the nicest nature preserves in the whole province of Utrecht. Walking trails and biking trails and an old fort to explore and a pancake house for tourists….

Reality check
I open my spreadsheets and we look through the floor plans and scratch our heads – could we actually live there and generate enough income to pay the bills? 3 rooms for private use (a bedroom, the kitchen, and living/dining room), 5 rooms upstairs for the bed and breakfast, 2 rooms downstairs that we could rent out as small meeting rooms – one of these would have our massage table etc in it and could be rented out as a practice room. One room downstairs as a dining room (buffet style) for B&B guests and other users. A large main entry way, where we could put a reception desk, just outside another room that would be the office. A large common space upstairs, which we would make into the living room/lounge for guests and other users, with a side area under the sloped roof that would be perfect for a children’s play area. Plus – two huge halls – each around 10 x 15 meters! Which we would use… as…. as…. The possibilities were overwhelming… Our brains shut down.

Thinking bigger
We decide, clearly we need to take a new approach. This place has too much potential. A B&B plus Shiatsu treatments only uses about a third of the space available. We need to think bigger. How can we use whole building in a way that (a) is fun, (b) pays the bills, and (c) contributes somehow to making “the world a better place.” We don’t like the idea of putting in a restaurant or hosting late-night parties (that wouldn’t fit with our other goals) but really, everything else is possible. Art expositions. Theatre performances. Concerts. Yoga classes. Lectures. Workshops. Trainings. Wine tastings (organic, of course). Catered dinner parties. Gift shop. Ladies evening knitting circles. Everything.

One possibility that already exists is to host wedding ceremonies (the house is one of only 6 approved locations for weddings in the city/region of Bunnik). Adding the possibility for wedding receptions seems logical. We would want to get a “horeca vergunning” (permission to run a kitchen and serve alcohol), and those can be difficult to get -- but we know that the city is very eager to use the place for weddings again, so I think we can make a deal with them.

Getting help
By now you’ve realized that this is *way* more than Emily and Paulus can do alone. We need help. We need ideas for how we can use the space and people to help organize it. I have a colleague who is an artist with lots of connections – she’s already said she’d love to help us plan art shows, etc. (Thanks Bea!) A friend of hers gives weekend residential art classes at scenic locations – often in France or Switzerland, but with the economy these days she is very open to doing something more local. We have friends in the musical community. And the health and healing community. And of course friends in the organic food sector (through my job at Rio de Bio) In fact, several of our suppliers at the store are located in that area. Through the Utrecht Ondernemers Academy (a school for people starting businesses which Paulus and I attended last year) we know caterers and events organizers and graphics designers and lots of talented people. Another friend, a teacher, has already organized all the business and economics teachers at his college to critique our proposal. (Thanks Ron!) With everyone’s help, I think we can put together a good plan, and one that benefits everyone involved.

The money side
The success of this project depends on a good plan – and also a Good Amount of Money. We are going to try to get a regular mortgage, rather than a business loan, because the terms are much better. We don’t have money ourselves – not in a Good Amount, anyway – but I think/hope my parents do! (I’m going to call them in a few days, after I have my spreadsheets assembled.) It is tricky that they are not Dutch, and I don’t want them to have to give or lend me the money, but I think it would work if they put the money in a sort of security account here in Holland. Then it would be in their names and earning them interest (just like it does now, in the US), and acting as a buffer if we get in trouble. (which we won’t, because if there is a chance of that, we aren’t even going to start.)

If anyone has more information about getting a mortgage this way, we’d be glad to hear it! It is also possible that we will need actual Dutch citizens to act as guarantors (as a back-up for the bank, in the highly unlikely situation where we can’t make our payments and can’t sell the house and all of the Good Amount of Money gets used up.) If anyone has any ideas who we could ask, we’d be glad to hear that, too.

Information
Really, information of all kinds is what we need most, and what I’m going to be gathering all week. How much does it typically cost to rent rooms like these? How fully booked are rooms like these at comparable locations? What would we have to pay to rent or buy video equipment, organic cotton mattresses, a new stainless-steel professional kitchen, good quality terrace umbrellas, etc.? Can we find a cleaning service that works exclusively with natural/organic products and what would that cost? Would it make sense to rent out bikes as well? (there’s a separate bike storage area behind the garage/workshop). We want to add an infra-red sauna to go with our hot tub – what would that cost and do we need to get permission from the city? If we want to add solar panels or a wind turbine, are we allowed and what would that cost? Would patient support groups (for cancer patients, diabetes patients, etc.) be interested in using our spaces and do they have journals where we could advertise our B&B rooms to their members? What about environmentally-oriented groups and services?

Staying connected
I’m *so* full of questions and I can’t wait to start researching – but I know it is really important to stay connected. Our friends are really the ones that are going to make this possible – and you are the ones we want to share it with when it is ready (and boy are we going to have a fantastic openings feest!) Even a simple, “this sounds great, good luck!” reaction from someone is great motivation to keep working. (Thanks Jim and David and tante Riek!)

What I’m going to do, to help with the “staying connected” piece, is to post this letter, plus some photos etc., on a blog site I started last December. http://www.emilyfinnadams.blogspot.com/. I’ll also use the blog as a central place to put updates. Plus thank-you messages. So, stay tuned and feel free to tell anyone else who might be interested!

Until next time,

Love, Emily and Paulus

In 10 minutes I open a blog

2008-12-26T03:44:00.000-08:00

Is this really how a blog works? Am I happy with the template I chose? And the title... I could easily take a week to try to come up with the perfect title.

But I don't want to spend a week on that, I want to get straight to writing. About my dreams. No, not the ones I have at night -- those are usually not very interesting. I want to write about my dreams for the future... with, now and then, a bit of background so that it makes some sense to any people who might read this.

I don't know, but maybe some people will read this -- anyway, it is my intention to send the address around to the many, many relatives and friends with whom I've lost contact, because otherwise I will have to write a 10 pages to each one of them to try to explain what I've been up to, and that just isn't feasible. Especially if I want to devote most of my time to manifesting my dreams.

And now... I will click "publish" and have a look at what I've got so far.....