Getting settled in our new house, our new home! And it sure already feels like that for all of us, including the cats!
I guess it would be appropriate to tell you how we ended up here, so I'll just start at the beginning and work my, or our, way up from there.
It all started, when we had just arrived here in Sweden. We moved into Esther's parents house, or a large part of it, and pretty soon found ourselves browsing the housesellers' sites and homepages. We had no fixed plan yet, so kept a bit of an open mind as to where we would wanted to live and work on a permanent basis. Offcourse we did look for local housing too and we soon found the advert for this house. Looked nice, but the pricetag was way to high for us, even if we had been able to get a loan. So it was put aside and we searched, compared and dreamt on......
Somewhere along the line our list of demands our future house and home would have to meet, materialised. It had to be not too large, but roomy enough for all of us to have a place of our own. That meant at least 4 bedrooms. It also had to have a garden, large enough so we could grow vegetables and fruit, maybe even have a henhouse and a beehive or 2 would be fantastic. It also should enable us to live our life in a simple and basic way (off the grid and independant if the need would arise), meaning heating with wood and maybe even cooking on a woodstove and a watersupply of our own. It had to have an guesthouse, in which we could house guests and if possible it should have a rootcellar (jordkällare), so we could store what we had grown. It would be great if we had something like a small barn or something in order to facilitate room for our hobbies and other things. Clearly you can see where this was leading to; a wishlist wayyyy to long to fit the bill. For all of this we would need a fullsized farm, which would be out of reach financially and which would be way to much to cope with for us Dutch cityfolks.
As time went by we were able to get a foothold. We both found a job; Esther on a 50%-basis and me on a hourbasis. Nothing to get rich with, but it was a start and, given our history, we are used to do with very little. It also became more and more appearant that, because of the support and help we received from this community, we all wanted to stay here and not move away. We really had started to feel at home here and feel a connection with the village and its people. Taking the kids to another school was a big NO-NO. They made that very clear to us! And so our search gradually narrowed itself more and more towards the direct area in and around Stora Skedvi with a radius of up to 15km.
The house, and some others, came up with every search, but remained out of reach, because of the price and because some of the requirements we had set, were not met. By the time we got actively involved with the charcoalkiln, it turned out that the house was en route there. So I stopped to have a quick look. House looked nice, area too... Too bad... *sigh...* And than.... the price dropped! Significantly! But still out of reach... just, but still... Ahhhh the frustration!! It did rule out all the other options with one blow, though.
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| The only picture from the original salesadd that i saved, befor the broker removed the add... |
It was build on top of a rise in the terrain, with the high side facing south and the low side facing north. This way it had the broadside with the livingroom, the balcony and 3 bedrooms exposed to the sun, which would reduce heating in wintertime, while the northside only had one bedroom and the kitchen exposed to the cold.
And than one day, after we had dismantled the kiln, we stopped with the whole family here.... just to have a look. Only this time something had changed. There was something different about the house, but I could not put my finger on it. A feeling emerged, which, by the time we had gotten home, had turned into a knowing; that house would be ours. I just knew it. Don't ask me why or how, I just did.... We were going to live there. Our children were uniquely unanimous; they wanted to live there, too!
But still..... the price was too high for us to afford. We had previously contacted the broker with the question if we could not rent the house first, so that we could buy it later, when we had the possibility. She would contact the owner and see if he would agree. We did not hear from her for a while, untill suddenly something happened. Esther wanted to show her mother something on the broker's homepage and noticed that the house did not show up in the list of hits in a certain pricerange. So she adjusted the range and the house showed up again.... but this time again significantly lowered in price! Something we might be able to afford!!! Esther immediately called me at work at told me the good news. I urged her to contact the broker and even the bank, to see what our options were. Luckily for us, the bank and broker are linked and part of the Swedbank here. And I have to say that I am mostly impressed and very pleasantly surprised at how they helped us in finding a sollution. With their help, and from Esthers' parents, we were able to finance the purchase of the house! we made an appointment with the broker to visit and view the house and we were quit excited that day. After we were let in, the kids all rushed to different bedrooms and each claimed one. Without any form of consultation or planning with us or with each other they exactly claimed the rooms we had had in mind for them. They practically bought the house!
Some impressions;
After that things evolved at breakneckspeed. A million and one things had to be done and arranged, contracts had to be signed, insurances compared and bought, our few belongings packed... again, only to find out that they were not all that few.
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