Operation “Open Kitchen”

The renovation of the roofs was not the only time that residents performed a job among themselves that would normally be taken up by a landlord or housing association. The inside of this house tells a similar story: the kitchen of Mr. and Mrs. Bastiaan is the result of a somewhat cheeky neighbor and a borrowed container.

In the photo book, Mr. Bastiaan points to a photo of what the living room looked like when Loes and he moved in: lots of wood, and a door in the wall to the kitchen. When he turns the page, there are photos of a beautiful open kitchen, with the caption 'after the renovation'.

Shaking with laughter, Ton tells the story of how one day, one of the neighbors walked into his living room with a sledgehammer, and unceremoniously hit the wall between the kitchen and the living room. “Hey Ton”, he said, “you said you wanted an open kitchen, huh? There is a container at the beginning of the street, and it’s only half full.”

No sooner said than done, and the open kitchen became a fact.

Was Ton surprised that there was someone standing in his living room all of a sudden? No, they never locked the doors in the street, you could always walk into each other’s houses. At best, he remarks, it was the sledgehammer that surprised him.