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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
It is official we are moving to Amsterdam
and actually have a date. DH's boss wants us to be living in Amsterdam by Sept 1 or shortly there after.
Now where to live...DH's office is moving to central Amsterdam so we want to live near his office. I think his office is the big glass one next to the Maritim Museum near the central train station. We don't want to have to by a car to taking public transportation will be key. Any recommendations?
DH would like to live in a canal house, but I am not sure how much rent is for an apartment in a canal house. We pay 1200 Euro here in Spain and hope to pay no more than that in Amsterdam.
We don't have children, but have a dog. So some green space close by would be nice.
Re: It is official we are moving to Amsterdam
#1-BFP 08-22-09 ~ M/C 08-31-09 at 5 weeks 6 days
#2-BFP 08-6-11 ~ Due 04/18 ~ born via c-section April 22, 2012
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Bless your heart, but wonderful Spain to Amsterdam LOL Being silly, I loved loved loved Spain.
I just returned, sounds like Hubby is gonna be working in a nice part. I couldn't find anything I liked in Amsterdam itself for under 2000, more around 2500-3000. We moved to Haarlem and our rent was 1850. Its super nice, we're moving out next week if your interested LOL
Congrats!
Exciting! I think you may need to be more realistic about housing prices, though. Living in the center will definitely be more than what you're paying in Madrid... But SO worth it
I'm assuming that one of the reasons you're moving is a better compensation package, so you'll need to allocate more to rent if you want to live close to his office. Congrats and good luck!
Congrats! Amsterdam is awesome.
You're probably not going to find much in the city center for 1200E. You are going to need double that to be in the canal area. BUT on a positive note, the city is so tiny that you can bike anywhere in 30 minutes or less so you probably will be able to find something for that budget, just not in the city center.
www.funda.nl is a really good website to look at to find housing. We paid 1500E a month for a two bedroom apartment in the Beethovenstraat area and from what I understand, that is unheard of. Our apartment was crap though - old and falling apart but we got pretty much everything we wanted out of it (two bedrooms, ground floor, garden, washer/dryer, etc).
Is your husband's company hooking you up with a makeelar (apartment finder)? As a piece of advice when you talk to them, tell them you want to stay inside the Ring Road (that is the large highway system that goes around the city....outside the ring is MUCH cheaper but starts to get into not so desirable neighborhoods - other people will argue with me that they are OK but it isn't really ex-patish and I think you'll lose a lot of the experience of being an ex-pat if you move out of the ring).
When searching for an apartment, basic words are woonkamer (living room), slaapkamer (bedroom), and badkamer (bathroom). Te koop means for sale and Te huur means for rent. Stay away from unfurnished apartments - that means there is NOTHING in it - no appliances, no flooring, only drywall, no light fixtures, no hanging rods in closets or the shower). You probably need to look at either semi furnished (those have the flooring, painted walls, light fixtures, etc included) or furnished (which includes what semi furnished has plus actual furniture like a bed and sofas and stuff).
I did a quick two second search for an apartment around your price range and found one in a good area location.
http://www.funda.nl/huur/amsterdam/appartement-47317952-overtoom-546-4/
So your price range is possible but just not in the city center. The one that I posted below is actually a really good location within spitting distance of the Vondel park, right near lots of good shops, restaurants, an awesome gym (I actually belonged to that gym when we lived), and you can bike to Leisdesplein in about 5 minutes. Central station would be much more of a hike but this is easily bikeable and about 15-20 minutes on multiple trams.
Again, keep your mind open and remember the city proper is so small, living outside the canal area doesn't mean you can't still enjoy the canal areas. Bikes get you everywhere QUICKLY.
Please feel free to ask any other questions. I love amsterdam and miss it every day. It was hands down the best experience of my life. Frustrating at times but amazing.
Good to know...I wasn't sure if 1200E is reasonable or not. I guess we might have to up it. We live in Barcelona near the sea (like 1 block) and a 5 minute walk to DH's office...yeah we are spoiled.
Yeah I am going to be sad to leave Spain. We are in Barcelona...great weather and the sea...nothing beats that.
Wholly crap...2500-3000 is much more than what we wanted to pay. I guess we will have to make some considerations.
Thank you for this information. It is very helpful.
I believe we will have a relocation person helping us out. I know we did when we moved from Chicago to Barcelona, but I can't remember what his Amsterdam contract says.
DH's office is moving from Utretch to Amsterdam July 1st so I am not sure if people at the office will be of help right now. I will have DH ask around when he goes to the office next week for his monthly visit.
Loving that kitchen, especially for a Euro flat!
I'm hardly ever on here anymore, so didn't see this sooner. Congrats!
REgarding all that Obsession said, partially furnished (carpet, curtains, lights, stuff like that, but no actual furniture) is called 'gestoffeerd', actual sofa's, beds, tables etcetera is 'gemeubileerd'. Might be useful in your search.
With that location for an office, you can certainly live anywhere in the city and have public transport going there, or just ride a bike. A fun area to look at as well might be the Czaar Peterbuurt and "Kattenburg" and "Wittenburg", those are really cute neighborhoods, a stone's throw from YH's office. The "Oostelijke Eilanden" are very hip and happening at the moment. All those places are more affordable than a canal house.
Regarding the squatting, those laws have changed significantly. First off apartments never became the squatters when the actual owner would start using it again, but those rules were too complicated to explain now. New rule is it's illegal to squat, so if people would, they can be thrown out by the police immediately, as soon as you report it. No concern for you though.
Regarding rent and stuff, unless YH's company is taking care of it, keep in mind that most rental agencies have the demand that your monthly income is AT LEAST 3.5 times the rent, a bunch even ask for 4 or 4.5 times the rent. If his company signs the contract for you, that isn't an issue, but if you have to take care of this by yourself, it is something you'll need to consider.
Regarding the ring road, if he works in the center and you're not planning on staying here for a long long time and don't have children, I wholeheartedly agree that you should stay within the ring, but make sure to mention within the ring and not in the north part of town (that's on the other side of the water and you'll need to take a ferry to get home, which gets old after about 4 weeks. I lived there, believe me, it gets old FAST!) IF you're staying here for many years and are planning on having children, getting outside the ring is fine (I live there) but then you'll really need to make sure you know which neighborhood you go to. We live outside the ring and it's super safe and awesome, but other neighborhoods (Even closer to the center) need to be avoided like the plague! (Buitenveldert and Osdorp are safe).
Good luck with your search and move and everything!
My food blog
What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DWe just moved here and used JLG real estate, they only charged a $250 fee once we settled on our place, which is cheap compared to some places.
Funda is good and cheap but the apartments can have really long waiting lists and can be hard to get.
FYI, we live just south of the pijp by victorieplein, 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 floors for 1600 euros... and LOVE it, but it is a little outside of all the central craziness. Accessible by trams 25, 4, 12..etc
GL!