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04-25-2012, 11:56 AM
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Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
2,490 posts, read 2,509,103 times
Reputation: 1483
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Comments inserted
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
Thanks for the specific areas to look into and to avoid! This is super helpful as I start looking at housing options. Excuse my ignorance-- but is parking an issue?
Depends on *where*. If you get good in parking half of your car on the sidewalk, and can parallel park with only 1 foot clearance, you will not have problems ... (take this answer with a bag of salt !)
Is there typically parking spots if, for example, we get an apartment?
As Davy said, in the more recent apartment complexes, you may have one available, usually not covered either, so you will end up scraping ice from your windows in winter , once and a while.
What is the norm when renting in terms of it being furnished vs. not? Also, is it typical to have a washer/dryer/dishwasher? Are appliances usually included (stove/fridge/etc)?
Again depends on the building--- new, old, ... Not sure if you will encounter this but I have seen apartments that had bare walls in the kitchen and only a couple of tubes on the wall that you could hook up your appliances to. Most bedrooms do not really have closets either, at least not the ones you are used to ... Your 20+ cuft fridge/freezer combo, is probably not available or you have no room for it !
As part of our relo package (check your Private message center), I know we definitely will have a "look and see" type trip to get to know the city, as well as a separate "house hunting" trip.
I know international school is part of the expat program in our case, but again, considering we're not even decided on when we'd have kids at this point, that's a long ways out.
We had our kids in the local schools. When we returned, they were way ahead of their counterparts, so make your own decision. We were glad they did attend the local schools and thus became fully fluent in both languages (the local one and their *mother's tongue*), plus the foreign languages the schools taught ! Since having children is so much cheaper as a start, and if you say those little ones will be part of you sometime on the future, it actually makes more sense to have them while you are there, due to the low cost involved with it, no ? Just a thought ...
It's definitely good to know about the comparison in terms of cost/ treatment of giving birth there vs. here. I know the healthcare is phenominal and we will have benefits, so it's definitely a consideration. Any information of mat/pat leave?
No idea, since we only lived in Holland for 6 months (Blaricum - Talk about leisure living !!) and thus did not have to participate in the local health care services. Home base was still Southern Germany in our case. Check when you get there. You really can not go wrong either way !
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Having a car (company furnished) is a plus, but as stated before, where do you get rid of it, when not being driven, in Amsterdam ? A car is good for taking trips, and according to what I have seen of the Dutch, they seem to get issued a camping trailer on the border ...  I have no idea where they park those trailer type campers *at home*, with so little room anywhere ... 
Altho The Netherlands is getting more *worldly*, many areas still observe the week-end as a couple of days of rest (for everybody !!), and thus some stores are not open on Sundays, and often only open half a day on Saturday, plus often they roll up the sidewalk around 18:00 hours ...
So you will learn quickly to *plan ahead*. There *will* be some culture shock, but you get used to everything after a short time, just like getting hung by your neck ...
Last but not least, since you do live in NYC, the western part of Holland is called *Randstad*, and that means it is one large sprawling city, from Rotterdam in the south to a bit above Amsterdam in the north. The only difference being the skyline, and more green scattered all over. I prefer the skyline in Holland over the one in NYC.
Do not bring any furniture ... IKEA (Pronounced EE Kay Yah) can furnish your whole abode !!!
Last edited by irman; 04-25-2012 at 12:20 PM..
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04-25-2012, 02:58 PM
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501 posts, read 322,877 times
Reputation: 890
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Quote:
Originally Posted by irman
Comments inserted
Having a car (company furnished) is a plus, but as stated before, where do you get rid of it, when not being driven, in Amsterdam ? A car is good for taking trips, and according to what I have seen of the Dutch, they seem to get issued a camping trailer on the border ... I have no idea where they park those trailer type campers *at home*, with so little room anywhere ...
Altho The Netherlands is getting more *worldly*, many areas still observe the week-end as a couple of days of rest (for everybody !!), and thus some stores are not open on Sundays, and often only open half a day on Saturday, plus often they roll up the sidewalk around 18:00 hours ...
So you will learn quickly to *plan ahead*. There *will* be some culture shock, but you get used to everything after a short time, just like getting hung by your neck ...
Last but not least, since you do live in NYC, the western part of Holland is called *Randstad*, and that means it is one large sprawling city, from Rotterdam in the south to a bit above Amsterdam in the north. The only difference being the skyline, and more green scattered all over. I prefer the skyline in Holland over the one in NYC.
Do not bring any furniture ... IKEA (Pronounced EE Kay Yah) can furnish your whole abode !!!
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Lots of answers—thanks! I responded to your PM also.
I am not too concerned about the culture shock… I tend to be able to go with anything. I am concerned about the weather though. My favorite thing about Latin America was the 30 degrees C temperature average. I know that’s not the case at all (which is fine), but how bad/rainy/gloomy is it? The sun stays our fairly late if I’m not mistaken.
Interesting about the skyline. I love the NY skyline, so it will be nice to experience a new (possibly rival) one!
Ah, Ikea… we brought all our furniture (non-Ikea) in the last move, and supplemented anything missing with some things from Ikea. Since we are able to move our furniture as per policy, we may just do that because Ikea tends to not move well, so to sell our non-Ikea furniture to purchase essentially ‘one time use’ things may not be the best solution. Those are all details that will come later though.
Car-wise… as I mentioned—it’ll be company provided. That being said, we do want to look into importing our car. Is that completely ridiculous? The company will give us monthly payments in lieu of the actual car, and our car here is a very nice car (which happens to be German) which we bought outright, so rather than sell it, we’d prefer to bring it with us and take the cash monthly! It's an SUV though-- this could not be a very user-friendly car for the city. This is just a passing thought... thinking out loud really—haven’t looked into the feasibility of this AT ALL though, so it could be absolutely not worth it when we factor in taxes.
We also have pets that need to be imported… 2 cats—poor things, they’ve flown 4 times already and have lived in 3 different countries; more than most (almost all) Americans I know! From what I read, it’s a fairly straightforward procedure and entails what each of their moved have needed—no big deal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2360039
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Thanks for the sites!
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04-25-2012, 07:00 PM
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Location: God's Gift to Mankind for flying anything
2,490 posts, read 2,509,103 times
Reputation: 1483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
I am concerned about the weather though. My favorite thing about Latin America was the 30 degrees C temperature average. I know that’s not the case at all (which is fine), but how bad/rainy/gloomy is it? The sun stays our fairly late if I’m not mistaken.
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1- The Netherlands has a pretty mild climate due to the Gulf stream flowing near it. So OK summers, which are not half bad, and rather mild winters. You will not see many 30 degree C summer days.
2 - The latitude of The Netherlands is around 50 degrees, so about halfway up Canada ? Yet way milder due to reason in (1). So, short winter days and long summer days.
Rainy ? Yeah, some rain, but often just that misty kind of drizzle rain.
Gloomy ? Matter of perception ! Lots of cloudy days !
Just for info, you are now in NYC, which is the same latitude as Rome !!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
Interesting about the skyline. I love the NY skyline, so it will be nice to experience a new (possibly rival) one!
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What I meant with *skyline*, is that you see a heck of a lot more *sky* in Holland then you would in NYC ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
Since we are able to move our furniture as per policy, we may just do that
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This should help you in deciding how much *space*, you will need to put all that furniture back into a *Home*.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
we do want to look into importing our car. Is that completely ridiculous? The company will give us monthly payments in lieu of the actual car, and our car here is a very nice car (which happens to be German) which we bought outright, so rather than sell it, we’d prefer to bring it with us and take the cash monthly! It's an SUV though-- this could not be a very user-friendly car for the city. This is just a passing thought... thinking out loud really—haven’t looked into the feasibility of this AT ALL though, so it could be absolutely not worth it when we factor in taxes.
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Since you have been doing *this* before, no need to tell you that a *company furnished car* will be added to your tax base.
Interestingly, we did not bring our car to Germany (there was already one car there from our predecessor), but we did bring our two cars to Switzerland. When you do ship, find out about *below deck shipment* (if you do not ship your car inside a *container*), and do NOT leave anything loose in it, including floormats etc !!!
A German made *SUV* is not rare in Europe (I think ..., since I do not know what kind you have). Most vehicles designed for European use are usually on the small end due to the space availability in most of the cities.), so really not too big of a problem there. Just like I said before, you may find that the parking spaces are a wee bit on the small end, so you may have to search for one that will fit your car when you are just toodling around shopping or so ... What WILL shock you will be the price for Petrol !!
In Germany I had an *Oetiker* VW van for the wife, and a BMW for me.
In Switzerland we had a Honda Accord and a Toyota Van for the family.
We did own both outright, so we did what your hubby will do and that is accepted substitute pay.
The Toyota was actually easier to park anywhere in Europe because that thing could turn on a dime while giving you a nickel in change back !!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaFemme86
We also have pets that need to be imported… 2 cats—poor things, they’ve flown 4 times already and have lived in 3 different countries; more than most (almost all) Americans I know! From what I read, it’s a fairly straightforward procedure and entails what each of their moved have needed—no big deal.
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Never had pets, so no help from me here. I apologise.
One last thing.
Shipping things from the USA to Europe goes by weight.
Shipping things from Europe to the USA goes by volume.
One of the best movers we used was ITO. They have international experience.
1020 Highway 70 W
Alamogordo, NM 88310
(888) 869-8343
Interestingly, the people who packed/moved us from Germany to the USA, were the same ones who packed/moved us from Switzerland to the USA, 9 years later !!!!
We had some minor damaged goods going to Europe both times, but no damage whatsoever going back to the USA.
Make sure (you should know this) that you throw anything away (or give away) that you will not be shipping, because those packers pack everything in sight !!
My wife's parents took care of the kids while the movers packed. You know old people have their *own* pillows !!! When it was all done, no pillows anywhere. Imagine trying to find the exact kind of pillows your in-laws had for umpteen years. It was a disaster !!!
When we unpacked we did find the pillows AND an old office trash can with trash in it !!!
So I threw the trash can in the truck that has all the packing stuff in it ...
Four days later, I receive a box in the mail with the (now empty) trash can in it ...
Last edited by irman; 04-25-2012 at 07:12 PM..
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04-26-2012, 10:29 AM
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501 posts, read 322,877 times
Reputation: 890
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Quote:
Originally Posted by irman
1-
One last thing.
Shipping things from the USA to Europe goes by weight.
Shipping things from Europe to the USA goes by volume.
One of the best movers we used was ITO. They have international experience.
1020 Highway 70 W
Alamogordo, NM 88310
(888) 869-8343
Interestingly, the people who packed/moved us from Germany to the USA, were the same ones who packed/moved us from Switzerland to the USA, 9 years later !!!!
We had some minor damaged goods going to Europe both times, but no damage whatsoever going back to the USA.
Make sure (you should know this) that you throw anything away (or give away) that you will not be shipping, because those packers pack everything in sight !!
My wife's parents took care of the kids while the movers packed. You know old people have their *own* pillows !!! When it was all done, no pillows anywhere. Imagine trying to find the exact kind of pillows your in-laws had for umpteen years. It was a disaster !!!
When we unpacked we did find the pillows AND an old office trash can with trash in it !!!
So I threw the trash can in the truck that has all the packing stuff in it ...
Four days later, I receive a box in the mail with the (now empty) trash can in it ...
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Thank you for all the previous answers! Helps a lot!
Funny about your shipment! I've heard about people getting their trash packed multiple times! Hilarious! I made sure to empty all my trash cans because I was warned of this very thing!
We may be going next month just to check out the city for a few days (not an official look and see, just a trip they've offered to help us make up our minds!). I'm sure I'll come back with more questions than answers though!
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06-01-2012, 03:01 PM
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Location: Amsterdam
Reputation: 10
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We just moved here 2 weeks ago from NYC and love it! Its cleaner, quieter and friendlier. Good luck.
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