Creating the Sociometric Research Foundation
After speaking with several people about our situation with respect to research possibilities in general and at the University of Amsterdam specifically, I decided to create the “Sociometric Research Foundation” (SRF), in Dutch the “Stichting voor Sociometrisch Onderzoek (SSO). I became president of the SSO and the other members of the board were Professor Tom Wansbeek of the University of Groningen and Dr. Henk Stronkhorst of the Central Bureau of Statistics in The Netherlands.
The idea was to look for commercial research and to invest the money earned in this way in pure scientific research. The place where this research could take place was our own house if we would be able, after 5 years, to remove the tenant out of the house. This would mean that the basement and the ground floor could be added to our living space. This was the obvious next step.
Protection of tenants
The law in the Netherlands protects the tenants against house eviction by a new owner of the house. Only 5 years after the purchase of a house the new owner may start a juridical process to remove the tenant from his property but the decision had to be made by the court. We had bought the house along the canal in Amsterdam in 1979, therefore at the end of 1983 we contacted the court to make an appointment for such a trial. We thought that we had a good chance because the tenant occupied more than half of the house while he was not really living there.
The law in the Netherlands protects the tenants against house eviction by a new owner of the house. Only 5 years after the purchase of a house the new owner may start a juridical process to remove the tenant from his property but the decision had to be made by the court. We had bought the house along the canal in Amsterdam in 1979, therefore at the end of 1983 we contacted the court to make an appointment for such a trial. We thought that we had a good chance because the tenant occupied more than half of the house while he was not really living there.
Our house at the Blauwburgwal
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He was using this work space as work place for painting. He was living with a female friend in the house next door. We knew this because we saw him come in the morning and go in the evening. However he had a table and a bed in the main room to pretend he was really living there. These two pieces of furniture were the minimal requirement by law to indicate that one was living there.
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More space
During the trial we explained this situation to the judge but the tenant, of course, denied that this was the situation. One judge said that he would visit the building to look at the situation but also suggested that we better could make a deal because both of us could lose. The tenant was not willing to make a deal at that moment but after the judge visited the house he came to us and suggested that he would be willing to leave the house if we helped him with the installation of his new workplace in the other building. The costs were 10.000 guiders but that we were mostwilling to pay for the extra space we would get. So far we were living together in less than 45m2.
However this were not the only costs we had to make because this house, built in the 17th century, had a room in the basement which was less than 2 meters high while the room at the ground floor was rather high; close to 3 meters. For future use this was not very attractive. Therefore we spoke with the carpenter, Fred, and the plumber, René, who had helped us with the renovation of the house what they thought of moving up the ceiling of the basement room around 40 cm. First they had to open the floor and move the bearing beams of the floor 40 cm up. Only after that they could construct the floor again. After careful inspection, they said that this was possible. We agreed a fixed price for this work and they started with this big reconstruction.
It was not so simple
During the trial we explained this situation to the judge but the tenant, of course, denied that this was the situation. One judge said that he would visit the building to look at the situation but also suggested that we better could make a deal because both of us could lose. The tenant was not willing to make a deal at that moment but after the judge visited the house he came to us and suggested that he would be willing to leave the house if we helped him with the installation of his new workplace in the other building. The costs were 10.000 guiders but that we were mostwilling to pay for the extra space we would get. So far we were living together in less than 45m2.
However this were not the only costs we had to make because this house, built in the 17th century, had a room in the basement which was less than 2 meters high while the room at the ground floor was rather high; close to 3 meters. For future use this was not very attractive. Therefore we spoke with the carpenter, Fred, and the plumber, René, who had helped us with the renovation of the house what they thought of moving up the ceiling of the basement room around 40 cm. First they had to open the floor and move the bearing beams of the floor 40 cm up. Only after that they could construct the floor again. After careful inspection, they said that this was possible. We agreed a fixed price for this work and they started with this big reconstruction.
It was not so simple
January 1, 1984 the tenant had left and some days later Fred and René started to open the floor. After a while this led to the detection that under the floor there was another floor and when they removed that one, they detected one more. These new floors were introduced because the house had moved slowly down through the centuries especially at the far end of the room. To make the floor again horizontal people had put a new floor on top of the old one. The third floor was the original floor of white and black tiles one could also see on the paintings of Vermeer.
Very problematic was that they used at that time sea shells as cement between the tiles but this material was completely pulverized. The removal of this floor was a terrible work as can be seen on the picture. We had made an agreement with them to pay a fixed price for this work but now we thought that they really had to do a bit too much work for their money. So we suggested them that for compensation of their extra work, they could sell the tiles and keep the money. They put some tiles on a pile in front of the house and within an hour the tiles were sold because they were still very popular in the old houses in the center of Amsterdam. Now there was a big hole in that part of the house and they had to install a new floor.
A message of the local government
At that time we were surprised by another law of the local government. The law said that one could not simply change space used for rent into personal property. Based on this law, we got a message of the local government that by February 1, 1984, the space of the prior tenant was assigned to a new tenant and the name of the new tenant was already mentioned. This was a big shock for us. When we bought the house we were afraid of this possibility, therefore we asked at an office of the local government whether we could use the rented part later for our own purposes. The official told us that this was indeed the case but we had no official paper of this promise. Asking what to do in this situation, people told us that we had to write a very strong letter to the local government mentioning the judgment of the official five years ago. To make our opinion very clear we also promised the local government that we would fight up to the highest court to realize this right. It seemed that this was indeed the right thing to do because two weeks later we got another letter which said that we were allowed to use the whole house for ourselves.
At that time we were surprised by another law of the local government. The law said that one could not simply change space used for rent into personal property. Based on this law, we got a message of the local government that by February 1, 1984, the space of the prior tenant was assigned to a new tenant and the name of the new tenant was already mentioned. This was a big shock for us. When we bought the house we were afraid of this possibility, therefore we asked at an office of the local government whether we could use the rented part later for our own purposes. The official told us that this was indeed the case but we had no official paper of this promise. Asking what to do in this situation, people told us that we had to write a very strong letter to the local government mentioning the judgment of the official five years ago. To make our opinion very clear we also promised the local government that we would fight up to the highest court to realize this right. It seemed that this was indeed the right thing to do because two weeks later we got another letter which said that we were allowed to use the whole house for ourselves.
An interesting discovery
One day the carpenter came to us with some pieces of paper which he had detected in a hole in a wooden beam. In the construction of the house connections in wood were not made using nails but by wooden pins. Due to an earlier reconstruction some holes were not used anymore. These holes were filled with papers. The papers they found were pieces of a newspaper form the 18th century. One report was about the arrival of ships in Jakarta and other towns in the world. I did not know that they spread this information at that time. Another piece was an advertisement like the ones of our time that a large mansion along the river “De Vecht” including the stables and horses and a boats house was for sale. At that time the rich business people bought such houses along this river as their living outside the busy town Amsterdam.
One day the carpenter came to us with some pieces of paper which he had detected in a hole in a wooden beam. In the construction of the house connections in wood were not made using nails but by wooden pins. Due to an earlier reconstruction some holes were not used anymore. These holes were filled with papers. The papers they found were pieces of a newspaper form the 18th century. One report was about the arrival of ships in Jakarta and other towns in the world. I did not know that they spread this information at that time. Another piece was an advertisement like the ones of our time that a large mansion along the river “De Vecht” including the stables and horses and a boats house was for sale. At that time the rich business people bought such houses along this river as their living outside the busy town Amsterdam.
The final result
The reconstruction took approximately half a year during the time that we had trouble at the University as mentioned before. Now we also had a hard time at home because of the dust, dirt and the noise. But when it was finished we had a lot of space for our own work and for the the people who came to work for the SRF. We had bought some new furniture and some art works and the rest of the space Irmtraud decorated with some copies of a famous painter, Jan Sierhuis. The video below shows that we had realized a very pleasant space to work for ourselves and the people who worked for the SRF.
The reconstruction took approximately half a year during the time that we had trouble at the University as mentioned before. Now we also had a hard time at home because of the dust, dirt and the noise. But when it was finished we had a lot of space for our own work and for the the people who came to work for the SRF. We had bought some new furniture and some art works and the rest of the space Irmtraud decorated with some copies of a famous painter, Jan Sierhuis. The video below shows that we had realized a very pleasant space to work for ourselves and the people who worked for the SRF.