Now: May 2023

I’ve been offline for awhile, but all’s good.

We moved to a new house, which became an all-consuming project, and we had no internet for awhile. So I took the opportunity to unplug for a bit.

I’m hoping this is our “forever” home. The prospects of us moving back to Ukraine look less and less likely, and I can’t really picture us moving anywhere else at this point.

The new house is on IJburg, which is a fascinating place — a string of artificial islands on the edge of Amsterdam created over the past 25 years. Living in a newer building puts a lot of things in perspective:

• Our solar panels have completely covered our electricity needs so far
• A properly insulated house stays really warm, I expect our heating costs next winter to be a fraction of what they previously were
• Indoor air quality is such an important and often overlooked thing; this place has mechanical ventilation throughout the house, meaning constant fresh air, even with the windows closed.

There are so many interesting things happening with newer home designs now. It’s really neat to think that future houses will be super-energy efficient, likely generate most of their own electricity, and be much healthier places to live in.

We’re also right by my favorite park in Amsterdam, Diemerpark, which is one of the few bits of mostly natural landscape left in the area. I enjoy taking walks there in the evening to look at all the rabbits, birds, and other little creatures.

Yes, there’s a lot of painting, fixing things up and such ahead, but I’m really excited about this place.

Now that I’m getting back into my routine, I’ll be be back here more often too.