A beautiful new home

After almost a year of searching, one loss to forkjøpsrett, one loss to indecisive, greedy sellers, price peak after price peak, we finally have a new apartment. And despite the frustration and tension we have been through, I can honestly say I think we have found our dream apartment. It was renovated just last year, and it needs nothing done at all. It’s just perfect and I absolutely love it.

The apartment is on the first floor of the building, which from the perspective of most Norwegians is a bad thing. However, it is a high first floor, with about ten steps up to the front door once you enter the main building. This means that we could move into the area we loved, without having to worry about climbing flight after flight of stairs with a baby and all the paraphernalia that goes with one (Torshov is lovely, but the buildings are quite old and elevators are rare).

The top floor consists of an amazing kitchen:

A large living and dining area:

and a toilet (or half-bathroom, as the Americans would call it):

Downstairs in the remodeled basement are two bedrooms:

a washroom (laundry; also a rarity in Oslo), and the most amazing bathroom I’ve ever seen:

And yes, that is in fact a TV on the wall on the left. It’s a “Tilevision” bathroom TV which is built into the wall behind mist-proof glass and it even has a waterproof remote control! On the other side of the room is a shower with no less than four different water settings; shower, hand-held shower, power jet and waterfall. I can’t wait to try it out… once I’m done with the whirlpool bath tub with built-in scented oil disperser.

When we went to the contract signing, the agent told us that after he put the ad for this apartment on the Internet, he was contacted by an interior design magazine asking if they could do a piece on it. So I guess I’m not the only one who thinks it’s beautiful. And unlike so many apartments that we’ve looked at in the last 9 or so months, it actually looks better in real life than it does in the pictures.

We pick up the keys on 6th April, and will be moving in the following weekend.

Now we have the grueling task of preparing Chris’s apartment for sale. We have a photographer coming Tuesday to take pictures, so while I sit here blogging away, I know I should be creating lovely clean surfaces for that minimalist look Norwegians so crave. Unfortunately as I am now in my third trimester, I’m finding it harder and harder to be useful around the house. However, I will do what I can…