It’s not any ordinary day when we walk into someone’s house and a few hours later get to call it our own.

After going over countless paperwork – all handled to my utmost relief and eternal gratefulness by Teko – and months of waiting, the day finally came to do a final inspection of the house we saw listed for sale in March, immediately made an offer for and ultimately bought the same month, leading us to today’s visit. Once everything was checked off the list, and the last few documents signed, we were officially handed the keys to our castle and with it a new life ahead of us.

Far enough from crowded Amsterdam town and closer to the country life we’ve been envisioning for many years now, our three-storey, standalone house – which isn’t as common here as it would be in the U.S. – is in many ways a dream come true. Our first visit to Elburg last December was memorable and such a far world away that any notion we would be living here was illusory at best. With all the changes that happened in the last 18 month, with personal and professional circumstances dramatically changed, the chance to live in a special house in an equally special town was too attractive to pass up.

What makes the house even more fascinating is its history – at 250 years old the house sits perfectly in medieval Elburg and has been through so much it’s been tagged as a National Monument. Houses like these are far from common, certainly unheard of in most parts of the world, and something like it coming to market even rarer. The fact that we were able to now call it ours, we of average means and simple origins, is nothing short of amazing.

Today wasn’t a normal day by any stretch. We now own a house with beautiful, large windows, wooden floors that creak, and a scary basement I may never set foot in. A new chapter has begun for us in small town Elburg and even the angst-ridden pessimist in me is excited by the possibilities ahead. We have a new project that could last us a long while and I’m looking forward to seeing how this all goes.