The House On The Berg: Living & Working In Nuenen as an Expat

Welcome to the house that started it all

And welcome to Amy Harper Fotografie. Some of the most important things in my life is my home and family. So for a behind-the-scenes, I want to share some of the favourite details of my old house. I mean its like Fixer-Upper with Chip & Joanna Gaines with zero budget. The ultimate adventure. The first Autumn after we moved to the Netherlands I was supposed to begin a language course paid for through Tom’s previous employer. But there was a delay in paying the tuition, so I opted instead to search for a home for my family. I could see the housing market was getting very competitive, our rental home was only available for one year, and my children needed the stability of a place they could safely grow up in. Not only that, but we needed a place where we could comfortably gather. Many Dutch homes aren’t built to fit a family of six, let alone visiting friends or family.

I looked high and low through Eindhoven with the awareness that my husband, who was raised on a farm, was not adjusting to life in the city centre comfortably. We rented then in Het Witte Dorp, a family friendly neighbourhood in the Stratum area of Eindhoven but the daily commute & school run was through downtown and it was busy.

It was the last house before I gave up

After spending a few months looking at homes in and around Eindhoven, I broadened my search and made a definitive list. If we did not find a house we wanted within that list, then we’d need find another home to rent instead. The house in Nuenen was literally our last house before I gave up with the house search and took a break. And the house listing did not give much to hope for. It didn’t specifically list enough bedrooms and it was very dated. In fact we’d later learn that it dated to 1860 with a 70’s vibe update – still grateful the toilet was moved inside from the outhouse in the garden. Still, shortly before visiting it I had a sense that maybe this fixer -upper would be the one we’d settle on.

Between a museum & a boutique… with no garage

It was how liveable the house felt that moved me, along with the idea of exposing the original wood beams in the ceiling. Little did I know those beams would need to be exposed anyway to be treated for woodworm & to put a new roof on the house. We visited the house in October & November, put in our offer in December, and closed on the house the 1st of April. Wary of whether this whole house would be a huge April Fool’s joke, we excitedly accepted the keys and began making our home on the Berg, the street that runs in front of our home.

Not only had I fallen in love with the house, but I’d also fallen in love with the village of Nuenen. Whilst we began cleaning & painting the house before moving in, our neighbours brought us a bouquet of flowers & a box of chocolates. Before I’d even considered living in Nuenen, I’d brought my children & my Chinese friend Emma to visit the Van Gogh Village Museum next door. I knew this village was small enough to raise children well in, and big enough to be comfortable. It also had good access to the hospital & our church in Eindhoven – well within cycling distance. In the summer it smells like strawberry jam when you cycle passed the ripe strawberries in the fields. Just a piece of heaven on earth.

We peeled back the layers of time

The house needed massive cleaning. More than cleaning, it needed maintenance and updating. We began before we moved in but quickly realised that the task of perserving the history of this home and its upkeep would take a much longer time than we’d anticipated. But first the dust baths as we redid the roof & pulled back literal layers upon layers of time to truly understand our home.

And at that same time we struggled to make sense of our lives

You know when you think you’ve come to the end of your troubles only to discover you really hadn’t experienced trouble yet? Remember that 1 April closing date? Later same year that we bought our home, I was diagnosed with incurable stomach paralysis & Tom lost his job of 20 years. Things went from finally wonderful & stable to incredibly bleak. That Thanksgiving we looked at each other, we looked at our home, our cats, and our children. And we decided to stay.

There’s only one direction at rock bottom

But the decision to stay was the best thing we could have done. I turned to photography to remain active and positive with my health, starting Amy Harper Fotografie in May 2021. Tom started Harper Metrology and began working as a freelance measurement scientist.

Upwards

Liefs, Amy