Chez Larsson

Open House Update

On Sunday we had the first of two open houses. Our realtor Mikael was a busy bee before then and aside from posting our house online on Hemnet he also put a half page ad in the real estate section of the Friday newspaper, a four page pamphlet which was distributed in all the local mail boxes (a lot of locals scout properties for friends  and family) and on the actual day he gave out a beautifully printed 24-page booklet to all those who came to the open house.

Check some of it out below:

 

 

I was pretty impressed by it. Completely different to the Xeroxed copies I received at our new house.

 

 

While the open house took place Wille and I enjoyed the best weather we’ve had so far this winter at our new house. We opened the patio doors, went outside, peeked at the snow covered plants and met some neighbors. We are so lucky! A family with super nice and polite teenagers on one side and a lady with a nine week old puppy on the other. The lady was worried that her pup wouldn't be able to tell one garden from the other which was music to my ears as I’ve been worrying a bit about Mini and Bonus walking through neighboring gardens. Wille and I immediately offered to puppy sit any day!

 

After the open house was over our realtor called and said 40 people had viewed the house which was a pretty good turn out according to him.

 

Wille and I spent the second open house at the local pizza place, had dinner and waited eagerly for the realtor’s call to let us know how it had gone. Four couples had taken a second look and there were also two more couples who viewed for the first time. He told us that the next day he would call those who were interested and hopefully the bidding would begin.

 

Today’s Thursday and so far the house hasn’t sold. We were unlucky in that another house in the neighborhood had an open house on the same very day we did (different realtor than us) and that house has a more “modern” feel (new kitchen etc.) to it and was slightly larger which seems to have appealed to the crowds more than ours.

So now we wait patiently, keep the house clean and tidy in case any spur of the moment viewings are requested and hope for better luck. Will keep you posted on the process.

Our House Listing is Up!

 
 

So, our listing us up in Hemnet. So exciting!  You can either click on the Hemnet link and click your way further from there or go straight to our realtor Bjurfors' website to see it all.

For those of you who are not familiar with Swedish kronor, 4 900 000 translates into roughly US$700 000. Oh and our next door neighbor at number 5 sold just the other day. 5.4 million kronor... That's A LOT of money.

New House Floor Plans

So I thought I’d share you our new house floor plans with you today and how we intend to use the rooms. That may all still change when we actually get there but it’s our starting point.

 

This is the entry level. You enter at the yellow arrow and to the left there’s a small WC. What I love about a lot of 50’s houses is that they are on several half levels so to actually get to the first floor there are a few steps up. To the right there are stairs leading to the basement.

As you can see it’s fairly open plan as the previous owners (henceforth called the PO’s) took down a wall already to make the living room larger. What you can’t see on this plan is that there are still remnants of that wall to the right of the staircase. That little (tiny actually) niche is going to be my bedroom.

The plan is to take down the wall of cabinets between the kitchen and living room and make the kitchen part of the living area.

Kök = Kitchen

Vardagsrum = Living room

 

Here’s the second floor but before you arrive up there there’s a half level where the bathroom is at. It’s under the eaves so it has a window in the sloping ceiling. Once up there there’s quite a large open space (where the POs again removed some walls) where I’ll probably set up my home office but the idea is that this floor is mostly for Wille. His room is quite large and he’ll also have the tiny attic room off it. When he has friends over I’ll bring my laptop downstairs and they can have all of the upstairs to themselves.

Duschrum = Shower room

Allrum = Den

Sovrum = Bedroom

Vindsrum = Attic room

Balkong = Balcony

 

Downstairs (obviously…) is the basement. It’s a great space with plenty room for storage, carpentry, crafts and laundry. Because of those fun half levels upstairs there’s a not as fun half space down here. Where it says “Förråd” it’s basically a crawl space but I’m sure I’ll find a way to use it for something. The great thing about the rest of the space is that it feels fairly clean as is and a few coats of white paint on the walls and ceilings and grey on the floors will turn it into a fresh basement in no time. I’m getting us one of those paint sprayer things, overalls, masks and goggles and Wille and I are going to have a blast spraying our little hears out!

Förråd = Storage space

Tvättstuga = Laundry room

Matk. (Matkällare) = Pantry

Hobbyrum = Workshop

Allrum = Activity room

 

So there you have them, our new house floor plans! Great potential, huh?!

House for Sale!

So It thought I’d share the photos that our realtor’s photographer took of our house now that it’s up for sale. As you can see we still have a lot of snow and it’s a pity you can’t see how awesome and private the garden is in these shots but I sent some of my own summer photos so they’ll be included also when the house goes up on Hemnet on March 11.

 

 

The hallway

 

 

The living room

 

The dining area

 

 

The kitchen

 

 

The bedrooms

 

 

The bathrooms

 

 

The utility areas

So it’s all very exciting. Can’t wait to see what the selling process brings. Due to the fact that schools are out here in Stockholm this week (it’s winter break and people leave the city to go skiing) the house will go online March 11 and the open house will take place March 20 sometime during the day and on the 21st in the evening. Hopefully by then a bit of the snow has melted and some more features in the garden can be seen.

Oh and of course if you’re house hunting in Bromma/Norra Ängby, like what you see and are thinking of moving in May don’t hesitate to get in touch with our realtor Mikael Flobecker if you’re interested in viewing our house!

Purchase Contract Signed!

Wohoo!!!

So early on Friday morning I posted my list of house hunting frustrations. By Friday afternoon I was actually well on the way to having signed and confirmed a contract on the house (above) which we viewed last Sunday. I couldn't mention it in the comments because I still had to talk to the building inspector (the deal could fall through in case anything regarding the inspection was iffy) and she didn’t call until late on Friday evening and I also had to put our current house up for sale and meet with our realtor about that (more on our sale tomorrow!)

Wille and I are super excited!

Let’s see how our new place does based on my priority list:

Top Priorities

* Safe surroundings for Mini and Bonus. No heavy traffic right next to the house and preferably some woodsy area or similar nearby. No woodsy area but a park just behind the garden. Check!

* Walking distance to the west bound “green” subway line so Wille can get to school fairly easily and get to his friends easily too. A 3 minute walk to the nearest stop along the green line. Check!

* Not further out than Vällingby, which is 3-4 more stops on the subway from where we are now. It’s in Vällingby. Check!

* A house we own rather than a condominium type of home. We’ll own it. Check!

 

Other than that we’d like

* 70 square meters (750 square feet) or larger (our current house is 82 square meters + basement). It’s a two story row house with a basement and the total size is actually a bit bigger than our current house. 99 square meters (1065 square feet) of living space and 53 square meters (570 square feet) of basement. Check!

* Large room for Wille so he can easily have friends over who can stay the night. Larger than now ideally. Check!

* A garden. I’d prefer smaller than currently (which is already small at 450 square meters / 4800 square feet). It’s tiny at 216 square meters ( 2325 square feet) so check!

* Proximity to a grocery store. A three minute walk to a giant super market. Yay! (We don’t have a good food store nearby right now) Check!

 

If I could pick and choose but still be realistic I’d like for the new place to

* Be built pre 1970 or after 1990. Ideally 30’s through 50’s or earlier than 1930’s. It’s from 1954. Check!

* Be around 100 square meters. 99 is close enough, don’t you think? Check!

* Have had major renovations done already such as electricity and roofing. It’s a fixer upper from 1954 and it’s been in the same family since it was built. It’s been vacant for almost two years. The roof was re-laid fairy recently (Check!) but I need to get a contracter, plumber and electrician in to see if the whole place needs rewiring and for some bathroom and kitchen work. There’s also a huge amount of cosmetic work that needs doing. Can’t wait!

* Be open plan or the have possibility to make it into open plan. It’s got a lot of potential, so check!

* Have a bathroom with a window. Happy dance!!! Check!

* Have nice neighbors who like cats. Haven’t met them yet so fingers crossed!
EDIT: Turns out a reader, Sarah, lives just across the street (How fun!!!) and it's a very cat friendly neighborhood. CHEEEECK!

I’m pretty amazed at how everything has fallen into place so quickly. I would never have guessed that we’d find, fall in love so quickly AND be the winning bidder.

So when are we moving? Our preliminary date for getting full access to the house is April 29. The house is empty so we could move in sooner but need to sell our current house first and we hope to have the new people in here by mid May. That leaves us a couple of weeks to get workers in and to do a bit of painting ourselves before bringing our stuff there. 

The great thing is that because the house is empty we’ll get keys as soon as our down payment has been transferred to the sellers. We can’t actually start any renovations but we can bring contractors in for estimates and we can take measurements and plan our layout etc.

Yay!