This weekend we had some typical Amsterdam weather, meaning that it was gray, cold and rainy on Saturday, then sunny and wonderful on Sunday.

On Saturday KC and I steam cleaned the entire apartment. I somehow stumbled across this website that does peer-to-peer rentals here (to be honest, I didn’t know that was what it was when I found it, I actually just thought I was renting a steam cleaner from a store), so a guy who lives nearby stopped by on Saturday morning to drop off his steamer that we had rented for the day. The whole concept is kind of random but totally genius, I think.

We steam cleaned the couch and all of the floors (and OMG, you should have seen the amount of dirt that came off these floors!) KC did most of the steaming, while I vacuumed and cleaned every surface in the apartment. This place was supposedly “professionally cleaned” before we moved in, but yeah…. not so much. I don’t know what “professional” cleaned this place, but it wasn’t up to my OCD standards, that’s for sure. (The first thing I did when we moved in was wash every single dish in the kitchen here.)

After Prim’s nap and our marathon cleaning session, we headed out to Albert Cuypmarkt. It was kind of crazy because it was Saturday, but we picked up some peonies for the apartment (they’re so cheap here. So. Cheap.) We headed over to Par Hasard to try their “famous fries,” but I can’t honestly say they were any better than our go-to cheapie Chipsy King fries here.

After fries we wandered around in the rain (P was snug as a bug in the Cameleon with the rain cover — such a local!) and picked up a few groceries. That evening we had some friends over and stayed up way too late chatting and drinking.

On Sunday Prim woke up super early (because kids always know when you’ve been up too late!) so we hung out for a bit and then all took a nap a few hours later. After family nap time we headed over to Haarlem and wandered around, which was so fun. We hit up IKEA afterward, because we apparently can’t go one weekend without needing something from that place.

The best news is our apartment is so close to finished now! Our main floor is done and we just have a few more things to deal with upstairs in the bedroom and bathroom (water pressure in the shower is an ongoing battle here, and I’m not giving up without a fight!)

A few photos of the main floor are coming up later this week — stay tuned!