<aside> 🐋 Welcome to The Whale, your temporary new home!

We don’t invite just anyone into our home. But you’re reading this, so you are very lucky! We’re excited to welcome you and would like you to make yourself feel at home as much as possible.

To do so, we’ve prepared this digital booklet as well as an album with ‘how to’ videos 🎥 for you. It includes a few requests from us ánd everything you need to know to get the most out of your stay. Have a look ánd never hesitate to contact us through a dedicated WhatsApp group anytime with your questions!

All the best,

Maarten ~ 0031 6 3434 9453 Anna ~ 0031 6 4193 4646 Boas & Nora

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🦘 From farmhouse to a kangoeroe home

In 2017, we jointly purchased and transformed a 1910 farmhouse into a modern 'kangaroo living' concept with Anna's parents. Which means we live in harmony next to each other, share the garden but still have our own private home. Even though Anna's parents are retired and travel often, we kindly ask you to respect their privacy while you stay with us. They also joined HomeExchange recently and might have people in their home when you’re here.

The renovation of the farmhouse into our extraordinary kangoeroe home took us around 2,5 years. It was lots of work but all worth it. We feel very lucky to live in this beautiful home and hope you will enjoy it like we do.

Have a look at these pictures to get an impression of the journey we took to create this place, and see if you can recognize some parts of the house 😀:

🪴 Home is where your plants are

Staying in our home means… befriending lots of plants! We water the (inside) plants on the weekends, so they’re used to this timing. They might sing for you if you listen carefully. In the garden, we water the grass & plants twice a week in summer. You’ll find a sprinkler beneath the garden shower, that can be attached to the shower to automatically water the grass and plants. If you change its place a few times, it’s easy to water the whole garden without much effort.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Please water the plants inside & outside once a week. We always do this on Sunday night. If it’s hot weather or when you see they’re very dry, please water them twice a week.

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🏡 The garden is your living

• ☀️ The terrace in front of our garden doors is exclusively yours to use. The other terrace in the back is shared with the neighbors (during holidays, there might be other guests instead of Anna’s parents), so please use this respectfully, and kindly check if it is free for you to use.
• 🦮 Our neighbors (Anna's parents) have two lovely medium sized dogs called Kato & Pippa who can have access to the communal garden too. She might bark when meeting strangers, it’s completely innocent, out of fear for the unknown.
• 🦥 We’ve bought a new lounge set in the garden!! If you intend to use it, please store the pillows in the box every evening - don’t keep them outside during the nights, as this would bring moist and make it less sustainable to enjoy the loungeset.

🧽 We like it fresh, safe & clean

• 🚭 Our home is a non-smoke place. If you fancy a smoke, please do this comfortably in the garden and please leave without a trace of your smoking habits.
• 🔒 Please lock all doors and windows when you leave, even for a short moment. Castricum is a pretty safe town and no crazy stuff happen here, but we rather be safe than sorry.
• 🧽 Please leave the house like you found it. This means, properly clean and tidy. You can find all our cleaning tools and a vacuum cleaner in our storage area.