Hey y’all, HAPPY 2013!! I’m so happy today that nothing seems to be able to bring me out of my space (that is not a dare Life, just an observation of gratitude!). I’d intended to fill y’all in about my incredibly awesome holiday experiences – each year just get’s better – but I can’t seem to find my camera’s USB cable; thus, I can’t access those photos right now (and what’s a post without photos, right?! :)).
Of course, while tearing the apt apart looking for the cable, it dawned on me that this is our 3rd residence in 1.5 yrs in Austria and we’re still not fully unpacked, lol! Course, that lead me to looking back through some shots of our old apt and the prepping our current. I’m still learning how this whole “renting, downpayment, renovation (yup, one can renovate one’s rented apartment), & compensation for said renovations” thing works, so I’ll have to fill you in on that very important topic later. FYI, it’s nothing like what I’ve heard of or experienced before and should be a part of some ‘Welcome to Austria’ manual somewhere.
Anyway, enough talking – here’s those shots! Enjoy, be blessed, and “keep blooming where you’re planted” this 2013 you guys!
A Bahamian In Austria 
I can’t wait to start with the garden, do you wanna go to a garden center together in a couple of weeks? 🙂
Yes please! 😀
Wonderful, I’ll get in touch as soon as I have recovered fully from this stupid cold!
You’re SO lucky to be able to renovate in a rented place. I think it’s the same in Germany, and I’m so jealous. Here in the UK, the leases are usually only a year and we had to get special permission to even paint. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it is (especially as an interior designer) to have to live with someone else’s (bad) design decisions and oversized furniture.
I also feel your pain about the bathtub, in my very first flat I didn’t have a bathtub OR and oven lol. Looking forward to more photos!
Hey, thanks for reading and commenting.
Wow, you’ve got the total opposite situation going on. Here, leases (I think it depends on which type of apt you rent) are more long-term and the apts provide just the basics (a 2-burner, a sink, toilet, shower) – everything else, the renter puts in. Of course, the floors, windows, etc are in but most are not furnished to my knowledge. Of course, my knowledge on this stuff is really and truly confuddled. I’m really going to have to do some research and post on that because I find it so interesting.
However, concerning living in someone else’s designed concept (which to me is very different from just a bland, beige apt designed by the complex management) would be trying, to say the least, and I feel your pain. I wish I’d taken photos of what it looked like before we started tearing things out but I was totally jazzed to be able to design our spot – especially my kitchen. I just love, love, LOVE this kitchen.
Yeah that’s amazing! I do think that eventually here we will shift to that model, because its now becoming near impossible to get on the housing ladder in London (unless you are very wealthy or have recieved and inheritance) because of the size deposit needed. So I think in the next 7-10 years it will be more like Germany, Austria, etc where it’s the norm to rent on long leases rather than always feeling like you’re borrowing space until you can buy your own…
Hej from Sweden!
So fun that you are able to renovate your new apartment! this way you get the living space you really will enjoy. I’m not sure about other apartments in Stockholm, but here in the countryside we own an apartment building and do the renovations ourselves for our tenants. Sometimes a tenant will want to change the wall paper and that’s ok also. Very different experience for me who comes from USA. All apartments here also come with a locked storage. Our building that we own has not only locked storage for each but also a second freezer for each. To me such a luxury I would have loved to have when I was an apartment dweller as a single mother.
I do hope you will enjoy the results of all your hard work! Can’t wait to see the finished project photos.
I also am late getting in my holiday photos. Trying to get current events down as they happen and tend to the business and goats, it’s a bit difficult. I have all my photos in my iphoto, just can’t get to them…yet. Like today for instance, I need to do a follow up to my “Global Warming at Gullringstorop”
Happy New Year to you and your Family!