No apartments to be found... We might have taken a very big risk

21:22 Pi is the new bitcoin 1 Comments

Our search for a cheaper apartment continues. I have now registered at some 15-20 websites that post advertisements for rental apartments. But so far we haven't had any luck. Seems like we are looking for an apartment at a wrong time. There are so many people looking for apartments at this time and our number in the queue (yes, queue. Sweden loves the queue system 😉) is somewhere around 150-200. Also the recent refugee crisis have made the situation even worse. I am all in for helping the refugees as it is each one of our's moral responsibility, but at the moment it feels like we have a competition for finding an apartment. Well, cheaper apartment that is, as there are still bigger and expensive apartments available that no one wants to have due to the high rent.

In the beginning of this week I had given the 3 month notice (usual notice period in Sweden for almost every rental service) for my current apartment. Today we received the confirmation from the company that our notice had been received and our current apartment is now listed as available from 1st of February 2016 onward. So the countdown for leaving our current apartment has started, and it feels like we are now sitting on a ticking time-bomb. Either we find a new apartment before February 2016 or find some other alternative (which I don't have any clue of at the moment). It seems like we have taken a very big risk by giving the notice for the current apartment without finding another apartment first. Now I am going to have nightmares every night when I sleep, until we find an apartment to move in temporarily.

Speaking of nightmares 👻 , today is Halloween and my son has dressed up as a ghost. Here is his picture. Happy Halloween 🎃 everyone!!


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Visit to our Tomt (plot in Swedish)

20:43 Pi is the new bitcoin 1 Comments

Now that we have paid the first invoice, we thought of visiting our tomt (plot) and take some photos of the place to add it to the blog. It would also serve later on to do a before and after comparison when the house is ready.





This is where the house will stand in a few months time. 


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First payment for the house 🏡

21:10 Pi is the new bitcoin 1 Comments

Yesterday was the day we received the flowers... And today is the day we received our first invoice for the house 🏡.

Good timing Myresjöhus 😉.

So, the first payment has been done and the invoice and payment receipts have been filed in the file for the house. This is the payment for the initial diagrams and sketches that are needed to get the building permission from the municipality (aka Karlskrona Kommun).

It's very important to keep all the payment invoices and receipts which can then be used to evaluate the value of the house later when it is ready.



Also, we would need to show the details of the money spent during the first phase to the bank when we start the second phase.

If I had not mentioned it earlier, our plan is to use our own savings in the first phase which will be 3-4 months long, and then take the house loan from the bank just before the second phase when the actual building work starts. This way we won't have to start paying the interest to the bank during the first phase, thus saving some more money 💵. (This actually was a great tip from Magnus at Myresjöhus).

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Flowers 💐 from Myresjöhus

21:18 Pi is the new bitcoin 0 Comments

Today we received flowers 💐 from Myresjöhus as a thankful gesture for confining in them to build our house 🏡.

The initial sketch and diagrams for the house will be ready next week. Which means the house building process has officially begun. \☺/

We are very happy and believe that we have made the right decision by choosing Myresjöhus to build our dream home. 

Thank you Myresjöhus!! :-) 

Now need to find a temporary cheaper apartment as soon as possible. 

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Search for a cheaper apartment continues...

10:24 Pi is the new bitcoin 0 Comments

It's been a week since last post, so I thought I will just give some updates.
There haven't been any changes actually since last week. I know it is very boring without a change.
But the intermediate plan to cut down the running costs is still ongoing. We are still trying to find another apartment and the search goes on.
This weekend my wife made a roll-cake, and as I do not have any real updates, please enjoy the picture of the roll-cake.


0 comments:

The Challenges.

16:02 Pi is the new bitcoin 1 Comments

The decision to build the house also comes with a lot of other challenges. Building a new house is an expensive task and frankly speaking we never thought of spending so much amount of money on a house. But when you like something, especially a house, you just go for it, no matter the challenges.
The challenges are tough, we barely have enough to be able to get the house loan from the bank. After nearly 7-8 meetings with the bank, and trying to squeeze out the initial amount from where ever possible, we finally managed to get the approval for the house loan from the bank.



Next we need to get into cost-cutting phase as we need to save on the current expenses in order to be able to manage and save some money for when the house is ready, so that we can buy some furniture and also start paying off the house loan as soon as possible.
Currently it is just one income source in our family, me. My wife is still finishing her course to become a professional chef, and hopefully she should have a job next summer, well before our house would be ready to move in. So for now we need to cut all unnecessary costs and save as much as possible.
The first thing that comes to our mind for cost cutting is the rent of our current apartment. We live in a very nice locality in Karlskrona. Our apartment is quite big, has a very nice view of the sea,  is close to the market, schools, bus stop, etc... Here are some pics from our current apartment.








But all this convenience comes at a hefty price as well. A similar apartment, a little far away and with not so good views, comes at half the price of the rent that we currently pay. So the first priority is to find another cheaper apartment where we shall stay until our house is ready and save the cost on the apartment rent. And it is not going to be easy, as we are currently used to a very nice lifestyle.

I know it is going to be difficult and whenever there are difficult situations faced I just remind myself of this...

1 comments:

And so it begins...

14:49 Pi is the new bitcoin 5 Comments

Today (12th Oct 2015) is a very special day for us. We finally signed the contract with Myresjöhus to build our own house. After almost two years of house hunting and all the frustration that came along with it, we have finally made the decision to build our house. But reaching this decision wasn't easy. As I said, it took us two loooong years to come to this decision.  We had to fight against all odds, financial issues, personal issues, you name it. Initially we thought of buying an already built house which was not new, but there was always something or the other that changed our mind about buying it. Some houses were great some other were not so great, I liked some houses but my wife did not, and vice-a-versa. There were some houses we both liked, but due to the bidding system which is the common way of buying a already build house in Sweden, there was always a cut-throat competition between buyers. And in most cases the bidding price of the house would go way beyond our budget and me and my wife used to look at each other's face in frustration, knowing that we couldn't do anything about it.

So after almost 2 years of struggle and hitting road blocks, we finally decided to go ahead and take a plunge... we dared to build our own house. Now looking forward to the challenges.

Below is the preview of what we would eventually build, and also a pic of me and my wife along with Magnus from Myresjöhus.



5 comments: