All posts by Rodney

23 hours and counting

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Well it seems that I will win the bid for the apartment that I am in love with!  Nothing is final until the contract is signed, and I will sign the contract tomorrow 🙂

I made some compromises on the apartment, including the fact that the kitchen does not open up directly into the living room and the glass wall between the kitchen and bedroom feels a little “bathroomy” as sipho puts it 😉

But I can live with this because the living room area in my view is so nicely done.  The kitchen is fabulous…the bathroom is very well designed (and it has a jacuzzi bathtub…yay!)

After tomorrow, there are much bigger questions I need to answer like understanding what appliances I need, where to find a good living room set, a nice bed, etc, etc, etc.  It is also a good thing that after this week I will be in Stockholm for 5 weeks so that I can make all of this work together.  I have a stash of extra money just for renovations and moving in and the like.  I also need to work on insurance and all of this other good stuff as well (including fire alarms, security alarms, etc,etc).

Any idea on where to go in Stockholm to get some decent furniture?

Apartment Hunting

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I just have to tell you…this apartment hunting is exhausting. Not that I can afford to take a break from me. I had printed out 12 listings to go and see, but it turns out that I was waaaaaayyyyy too optimisitc. Everyone seems to be impressed that I got to 7 viewings. But you enter in the apartment, take 5 minutes and you know whether you want it or not. Really…nothing much more to it than that. It’s that traveling to each apartment takes 10 minutes when it is close, 20 minutes when it is far. So I do have a system and it works quite well, but I feel like if I work harder I can get up to 9 viewings in a weekend.

But not next weekend…I am going to Zurich. I need a break before the audit season begins in full force and I need to visit friends up there. But apartment-hunting is a full-time job to be sure.

On the downside, if I don’t get the place at Flemmingatan, I am going to have to ask my landlord here at Riddargatan for a 2 month extension. However, taking a look at the amount I would pay in my monthly loan if I buy my own place, there would be no savings (1000 kronor but that is nothing)…so the impetus to move because things would get cheaper has been removed. Now it is just because I don’t wanna pay such high rent to someone and I want ownership.

Another Day…Another Billion Apartments to Look At

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Today I look for more apartments. This is not nearly as exciting as it sounds like. If I plan my route correctly, I will get to about 7 apartments. But this time I am smarter about it. First, I won’t look at apartments under 50 kvm. Second, I won’t trust the pictures or the floor plan as much. And third…well, I will keep an open mind to see what gems I might find.

After all, I am going to spend up to 3.5 million kronor on something, I have to really really like it.

My New Phone

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I got a new work phone

It is better than my old phone…it is GSM and 3G so the calls don’t drop anymore.  And even though our corporate subscription doesn’t allow access to Vodafone Live!, it is still a nice phone to have.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the apartment thing is stressing me out?

And the bidding has begun!

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This bidding experience is stressful.  IT is even more stressful because I just arrived into Frankfurt this morning to work here for most of the week before I go to Copenhagen later this week.

This is the apartment that I have placed a bid on.  I think that is a very nice apartment.  I currently have the SEK3.000.000 bid, but it is early in the bidding.  And the bank just approved a higher loan so that I can look at some other places next Sunday.  This looking for an apartment thing is fun! 🙂

For you, the three readers of my journal, let me know what you think 🙂