Friday 11 January 2008

My 6 month itch?

I am the first to admit that our current choice of home doesn't really measure up to our expectations. But, if you consider that our inital plan when moving here was to buy a big house in this part of the country and to renovate it and hopefully make some money, so we put an offer in on a gigantic house 1h by car outside our new home town, but we pulled out due to, well basically it was a dump we decided to move here anyway..and we now live in a rental flat on the 2nd floor, still waiting for the key *not passively I might add* to the gorgeous private garden on the other side of the street, 6months after moving in. We are renting unfurnished and the landlord is still using the only large storage space in the flat for himself and since October we live under a partyboy out of any league I've met before. He starts his partying around 1am and usually finish around 5-5.30. He usually doesn't choose his partying nights at weekends, but can just as well be a Sunday or Tuesday. This morning O was up with J who, understandably was up between 3 and 5..

*My itch to go has started again*

Next move would be to buy something, but our months of city living (and C starting a good school) has made us realize out of town is out. Having started a company we are not exactly swamped with mortgage lenders throwing offers at us, so ideally we should be staying put for for another year, but..well,we have started thinking of our next move and we are not exactly known for miss an opportunity.

So, I have been thinking today of all our homes and here it is. In 12years we have been living:

Ok, my house wasn't this picture post card, but it's similar. I lived on top of a tobacco store and my brother next door on top of pet store.

My first flat, a 1bed 1st floor flat of 49sqm in western Gothenburgh, Sweden.
Reason to move: Getting something together.

Our first flat together, 3bed top floor beautiful flat of 105sqm in central Gothenburgh*although a tad expensive..* I have been missing this flat a lot during the years to come. It was being refurbished and I got to choose all the wallpaper and styles and it was all included in the rent.
Reason to move: A bit too expensive.

Not our house, but the same street

A dormer (vindsvaning) 1bed flat of 92kvm in eastern Gothenburgh.
Reason to move: I got a job on the other side of town, however having lived in Big City it feels a bit riciulous to find that kind of distans an obsticle. plus we realized that we wanted to go abroad and didn't have to hang onto a first hand rental contract.

A 2bed strangely patched styled flat in central in Gothenburgh 80kvm. 3minutes walk from work. That was nice. We also had a very nice Christmas in that flat.
Reason to move: After some half hearted jobhunting in San Francisco, we decided Stockholm was the correct move for us. I got a got a job there.

Studio Flat of 30kvm in central Stockholm on the fourth floor without lift with shower in the basement! This was a temporary solution as we were going to sub-let a 3bed flat, but the owners had not gone on their trip yet..
Reason to move: We were told by all our fellow Stockholmers that we were crazy to pass on a first hand flat, so we gave up on the beautiful sublet (mistake)

2floored flat in large villa in very nice area of SW Stockholm.
*Reason to leave: Horrible landlord who constantly walked into our flat whenever we weren't home. They lived in the house as well and his wife threw a tantrum *this still scared me to this day thinking of that absurd moment* when I couldn't attend their barbeque because of a very bad migraine *truthfully I had one...*

Googling on the area, the first picture I found was actually of the house we lived in, it was just behind the tree on the 1st floor.

1bed flat of 50kvm in very small village in the country side north of Stockholm. A very standard flat by Swedish standards, I cannot begin to tell you how booring it was to live there. We didn't live in the idyllic village, but outside. The little community of houses had their own news paper and if you entered the communal laundrette without taking your shoes off, chances were high you would get some bashing in the local paper..
Reason for leaving: Moving to Big City abroad

Not our house, but same street

2bed flat 1st floor flat of ca 40sqm in very hip part of City. We didn't have a clue of what was hip or not when moving there, it was simply the only area we knew. All Swedish tourists come to this area. I walked to work and we enjoyed all the take aways, shops and cinemas of the area. We loved this flat and the area.
Reason for leaving: My brother joined us and we decided to try some co-living.

3bed flat in the Western part of the Big City. 1st floor, ca not sure of size it felt very small, maybe 70sqm? A bomb went off 2 blocks from our flat.
Reason for leaving: I was pregnant.

3bed flat Garden Flat with own studio flat thing (120sqm), in SW part of Big City. This is were C was born (well not in the flat, but we lived there when he was born). This is also one of my favorites.
Reason for leaving: Thinking we should live in the country side now that we were parents. So, SO wrong!! Also we bought our first home and since money wasn't exactly flowing we ended up 60miles outside of Big City. Why, we LOVED it there!

Our mini living room. We installed the wood burner, laid the floor, repainted. It was small, I hated the town but it was ours.

3bed semi of 69kvm in small town where they generally didn't like people from other parts of the country. Imaging how nicely we melted in there.. Longest stay in history, 3 years. We started our company and J was born while living there. We changed every inch of this house.
Reason for leaving. 1 million, I can now say I know what racism is like. It was terrible there.

4bed house of 160sqm with annex, playroom, own driveway lovely garden in favorite outskirt area of Big City. Reason for being able to rent it, they were building a house next door....
*Reason for leaving: Well, the patio and utility room flooded everytime a little rain fell. After this rental experience I am also now a firm believer of ghosts.

5bed superexpensive house down the road from the earlier one, of 180sqm on private road with a football pitch sized garden. We cried every time the rent was to be paid, so we started looking to buy again and that's when we got the idea of moving north

...and here we are.

So..should we stay or should we go?

7 comments:

Larssons said...

Ja du, inte vet jag men USAs östkust kanske lockar.
Tänker efter hur jag har bott:
Korridorsrum på nation i Lund
1:a i utkankten av Halmstad i ett ruffigt område
Greklägenheten(luktade som en pizzeria)i Gbgförort
Underbar 2:a på 85kvm i Gbg city. Tyvärr 2:a handskontrakt
2,5 br två kvarter bort. 4 våningen utan hiss dock med dusch:)
Köpte sedan huset
Mögellägenhet med lååååång mööööörk korridor i Leamington
Dockskåpshus i Leamington med fantastisk trädgård
och nu är vi här i megahuset a la USA

Mia said...

larssons: Det har lockat lange. :)

Skulle inte tacka nej till megahus i USA...

1st Lady said...

Well, I would say stay a wee bit longer but having a noisy upstairs neighbour really must be difficult. Have you tried talking to him? I know a very good solicitor if you ever need one for a purchase!

1st Lady said...

Oh, and BTW, that's a LOT of moves!

Mia said...

1st lady:

Oh, thank you, it might be needed, however we were in contact with one in Kel*o in june when we almost bought an old hotel, which we planned to convert, in the middle of nowhere... As for now, we have decided to investigate the market here in this City *which I think is half the fun..*, we don't now much of the areas etc, so hopefully we will stay here for a little bit longer. We have started to get an idea of what we would like/would be able to get.

We have moved an awful lot and I am truly tired of it.

Regarding neighbor, we have spoken with him twice, but he is very apologetic but doesn't really understand that playing really loud music, partying and jumping around until 5am is disturbing. If we are lucky he moves out, he wasn't here when we moved in the 4 people upstair were brilliant neighbors.

May I get back with you for advice regarding buying here?

1st Lady said...

You may certainly ask for advice with purchasing. I've bought 2 properties in the city in the last few years. Might be able to help!

Anonymous said...

I can confirm through first hand experience that they have moved A LOT.
With a 200 kg oak cabinet and a piano!!!

Generally to appartments on the top floor, without a lift, or to houses with TINY staircases.

;-)