diff --git a/pyicon/params_default.json b/pyicon/params_default.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..84371d245d4e5ce0380eb69e800508a052e1a953
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyicon/params_default.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "path_grid": "~/pyicon_data/grids/",
+  "path_example_data": "~/pyicon_data/pyicon_example_data_download/"
+}
diff --git a/pyicon/pyicon_params.py b/pyicon/pyicon_params.py
index da436aa7f9e485e77c9ff841271f6880890634f0..d69b87e883914055d88d13d4a47f6c4e845cc182 100644
--- a/pyicon/pyicon_params.py
+++ b/pyicon/pyicon_params.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ fname = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'params_default.json')
 #else:
 #  print(f'File {fname} does not exist.')
 try:
+  print(f"Loading default parameters from {fname}.")
   with open(fname, 'r') as f:
       params_default = json.load(f)
 except:
@@ -15,11 +16,12 @@ except:
   HOME = os.path.expanduser('~')
   params_default = {
     "path_grid": f"{HOME}/pyicon_data/grids/",
-    "path_example_data": f"{HOME}/pyicon_data/pyicon_example_data_download/"
+    "path_example_data": f"{HOME}/pyicon_data/icon_example_data_download/"
   }
 
 fname = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'params_user.json')
 if os.path.isfile(fname):
+  print(f"Loading user parameters from {fname}.")
   with open(fname, 'r') as f:
       params_user = json.load(f)
 else:
@@ -30,3 +32,6 @@ try:
   params = params_default | params_user
 except:
   params = params_default
+
+for key in ['path_grid', 'path_example_data']:
+   params[key] = os.path.expanduser(params[key]) 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/quickstart/00_do_all.sh b/quickstart/00_do_all.sh
index e9865413a774ee4cb973aa54435c9d50eda5ee38..3ca39dd8939dab3183ac9828eff8ee5f4ec0b51d 100755
--- a/quickstart/00_do_all.sh
+++ b/quickstart/00_do_all.sh
@@ -24,3 +24,4 @@ cp path_data.txt ${path_data}/pyicon_output/
 ./06_quickplots.sh
 
 echo "Output written to ${source_dir}/swift.dkrz.de/example_data_r2b4/pyicon_output/"
+echo "All done!"