Renting or Buying

When I was here on vacation, in August 2002, I kept seeing signs that said either, "Te Koop" [pronounced Tuh Kope] or "Te Huur" [pronounced Tuh Hoor - with a pure u sound]. I kept asking, "What does that one mean again?" One means literally to buy (or for sale) and one means literally to rent (or for rent).

It seems like there were a lot of signs up back then, but there's plenty up now as well. I almost took a third picture of a Sold sign, but I didn't. It says, Verkocht.

Fred and I went to look at an apartment today. Just the outside. And just because he'd seen it online and it looked interesting. And just because we needed to get out of the house for a while and ride around. It was by the harbor. Sort of by Centraal Station.

It feels really far away, although it's really near the Center. I've grown so accustomed to where we are now. We're in a section called Oud Zuid - literally Old South. Not exactly plantations and people sitting on their porches watching the grass grow as they smoke a corn cob pipe. It's more like Brooklyn Heights, in my humble opinion. (Of course that reference may mean nothing if you're not familiar with NYC.)

It's definitely not downtown. It's one of those neighborhoods where you're not in the Center, but you can be there in 15 minutes or so.

We probably won't buy this new apartment, although it's got some nice features. One of the nice features is the view of the harbor. I'm crazy for a water view. But our view now is so nice that I hate to give it up unless we're going to get something really nice in its place.

So we'll be looking for Te Koop signs, which means For Sale, rather than the Te Huur signs, which mean For Rent. We're in no rush. It'll happen when it happens.