A dream apartment

As of right now, Liz and I are subletting an apartment in Uppsala, in an awesome location, with lots of character (wooden floors, high ceilings, etc.). However, we know we can’t rent this apartment forever. The living situation in Uppsala is horrible with really expensive prices when it comes to buying apartment (which is a normal thing to do in Sweden – basically you can either rent/sublet a house or an apartment, buy a house, or buy an apartment.

Since we’ve decided that Uppsala is gonna be our home base, where we eventually want to own our own place, and then later on also have a place in the States as well where we can go every now and then to, I’m checking the Internet and apartment market pretty much every day. I check it for various reasons: it’s fun, I want to learn what the market looks like, and I want to be as prepared as possible when it’s our time to purchase a home. When you do this research on a regular basis, you also come across some amazing places where you could pretty much move in right away because you love it SO MUCH! That has happened now. This apartment has many of the things I really love. Of course, there are also things I wish it had, which it doesn’t, but it’s pretty rare you find THE one, with everything you want all in one place. However, I thought I would share this dream apartment of mine that’s for sale right now here in Uppsala, and a place I so dream about owning. Gaaaaaah, if I only had some more money right now. First some explanation about the stuff I like.

Location
This apartment is located downtown Uppsala, on one of our favorite streets full of cafe’s, restaurants, independent stores, pubs, and our favorite pub really just around the corner. It takes about 2 min to walk to the main shopping street and about 1 min to get to the beautiful river. It’s a dream location pretty much, according to us.

Size
Since our goal is to have a second home in the States eventually, we really don’t need a big space. This is a one bedroom apartment (2 room as we say in Sweden), and is a little bit more than 470ft² (44 m²).

Floorplan
I really loved the open floorplan in the apartment we had in the States, where kitchen/dining room, and the living room, were all combined. And this one has the same. It’s perfect for socializing when someone is cooking food, and the other one or guests are hanging out comfortably in the living room area.

The building
I either love older apartments with plenty of character or modern, new-built apartments. This is a combination since the building is from 1810-1906 (it was probably built in different stages and additional parts of the building was added due to the huge span of about 100 years!), but modern inside, with still some character when it comes to the windows for example. I love that you go through a gate of the building on the street, walk across a backyard/courtyard, and have your own entrance to the apartment. It gives you a house-owning feeling, but it’s an apartment. Think: pumpkins on the doorsteps and a Christmas wreath on the door, and other holiday-related decorations that you can actually do even though you’re living in an apartment downtown!

Style
The apartment is like a blank white canvas where you have the chance to put your own touch when it comes to decoration and interior design. I want my place to look clean, but yet have a personal touch with textiles, and decorative things based on our two cultures – the American and Swedish culture. The windows, again, are f a n t a s t i c!!!

Ok, so there are a few things I do wish this apartment had. First of all, a balcony! However, it’s only a two floor story building, where you can always hang out in the common backyard areas – grill out and sit at a bigger table etc. If you live in a house, you have to step out of a door, down to the grassy areas anyway. I also wish it had a walk-in closet because I really would like to be able to see and have all my clothes available all year around and not have to pack them away due to season. But as long as I have some more space than I have now, I’m fine. Dressers could be a good solution. In my dream world, it would also be amazing if it actually was a two bedroom apartment instead of one bedroom, so we could have a separate office/guest bedroom. But, again, we don’t want a big apartment anyway.