suburban bliss / a boring suburban existence / bourgeois life
[phrase]
[huis-je-boom-pje-beest-je] 

‘Huisje-boompje-beestje’ symbolizes leading a nice and quiet conventional family life. You have a nice house (‘huisje’), a garden (‘boompje’) and probably a pet (‘beestje’). It is not necessarily a suburban life although the phrase is often used to imply exactly that. I don’t know why we use ‘boompje’ instead of ‘tuintje’ (with ‘tuin’ translating as ‘garden’), but this phrase may in fact be derived from the typical children’s drawing of a family, a house, a tree and a dog. Note that a pet is a ‘huisdier’ in Dutch (literally ‘house animal’) and not a ‘beestje’, see Related words below.

‘Huisje-boompje-beestje’ is often used as a pejorative, emphasizing the perceived boring aspect of living such a life. A related noun is ‘burgerlijk’: conventional, bourgeois. The epitome of ‘huisje-boompje-beestje’ is having a station wagon and living in a ‘Vinexwijk’, see Extra below.

Examples:
– “Sander heeft zaterdag een keuken gekocht. Hij is nog nooit zo dicht bij huisje-boompje-beestje geweest!” 
(“Sander bought a kitchen on Saturday. He has never been this close to leading a conventional bourgeois life!”)

– “Heb je gehoord dat Annette een huis heeft gekocht met haar vriend? En ze is ook nog zwanger!” – “Wauw, ik had niet verwacht dat ze nu al voor huisje-boompje-beestje zou kiezen; zij was vroeger echt een wilde!” 
(“Have you heard that Annette has bought a house with her boyfriend? And not only that, she is also pregnant!” – “Wow, I hadn’t expected her to choose a suburban life this quickly; she used to be a wild one!”)

– “Ik hoor altijd van die stoere verhalen over de wereld rondreizen en zo lang mogelijk van je vrijheid genieten, maar ik heb eigenlijk maar één wens: een huisje-boompje-beestje-leven! En wel zo snel mogelijk!” 
(“I always hear such tough stories about travelling around the world and enjoying one’s freedom as long as possible, but as it turns out I have only one wish: suburban bliss! And I want it now!” Lit. “And (in fact) as quickly as possible!”)

– “Mike! Dat is lang geleden dat ik jou gezien heb! Hoe gaat het man? Is die station wagon van jou?” – “Het gaat goed! Ja, die auto is van mij; ik ben helemaal huisje-boompje-beestje geworden, erg hè?” 
(“Mike! It’s been a long time since I last saw you! How are you doing man? Is that station wagon yours?” – “I’m doing fine! Yes, that car is mine; I have gone completely suburban, terrible isn’t it?”).

Related words:
– Burgerlijk: conventional, bourgeois [adjective].
– Ingekakt: boring, quiet [adjective]. From the verb ‘inkakken’: to doze off, to become slightly lethargic (temporarily).
– Nieuwbouwwijk: new housing estate, new housing development [noun] [de nieuwbouwwijk, de nieuwbouwwijken]. Also see Extra below on ‘Vinexwijk’.
– Voorstad: suburb [noun] [de voorstad, de voorsteden].
– Buitenwijk: suburb [noun] [de buitenwijk, de buitenwijken].
– Huisdier: pet [noun] [het huisdier, de huisdieren].
– Tuin: garden [noun] [de tuin, de tuinen].
– Huis: house [noun] [het huis, de huizen].
– Boom: tree [noun] [de boom, de bomen].
– Beest: animal, beast, bug [noun] [het beest, de beesten]. The diminutive is almost only used in the translation of ‘bug’ or ‘insect’.

Extra:
A word that has almost become a synonym for new housing development in the Netherlands is ‘Vinexwijk’. Not every new housing development area is a ‘Vinexwijk’ though. Vinex is short for ‘Vierde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra’, a (spatial planning) policy briefing note issued in 1991 detailing the designated areas in the Netherlands where massive new housing development were to be built. Well-known examples are ‘Ypenburg’ in The Hague and ‘Leidsche Rijn’ in Utrecht.