Yep that’s right we are moving … moving to another apartment … just across the courtyard (playground) – basically the same place, just the next block. This new place is on the second floor, with a pretty view of the mountains on a clear day 😀
There will be no terrace/backyard/garden in this new place, just a balcony but it’s ok – seeing how we did not use the terrace as much as we should have. The kitchen is much smaller but it is an open concept plan living/dining/kitchen so i think it will be fine. Overall it is a smaller living area but i like the fact that the apartment is the top one so that means we have a little area outside, near the stairs, where we can put all our shoes & other potentially muddy things.
We have been looking for another place since April – so it is nice to at last know that we got one! *grins from ear to ear*
For those who are not familiar, apartment hunting in Switzerland is much dependent on whether the renters like you or not, or whether you are the first in with your application, or whether you qualify under certain conditions (eg no debts, no pets etc…). So this means that you don’t necessarily get the first apartment you apply for. And sometimes you need to wait up to a week for a reply as to whether you got the apartment or not. Needless to say, we have been rejected, we have also missed out on a couple as we were too late. All in all i think we viewed about 5 apartments & missed out on about 3 others. It was frustrating at times to have found a nice apartment, only to find out at the viewing that there is no play area for kids & or the play area is not safe or the rooms are way too small or there are no other kids in the building etc…
There was also the consideration that we wanted to stay in our village if possible & ours is a very popular village so there is very little available – this makes it even more precious that we not only managed to stay in our village but we got a place in the same quartier 😀 – this means that Tobias will get to keep the friends he has made over the last year at the playground & would be going to school with some of them as well.
i also think it is definitely God’s provision – we had viewed this apartment a couple of weeks ago but i was in doubt as there is no lift – which might mean lugging my heavy book boxes up & down 2 flights each time i had a sale to do. Then we asked about a Bastelraum (hobby room) which is located in the basement but was told that none was available. Then darling Walter came up with the idea of getting me one of those tall dolly trolley (like the ones they move bottles drinks with) – mainly cos there were a couple of apartments we were looking at which had no lifts. So i felt better about it & as the days passed, i felt better & better about this apartment.
After waiting almost 5 or 6 days for a reply, i finally got hold of the lady in charge who then said that the apartment was available only 1st Aug – not 1st July as stated in the ad. There was a mistake in the ad. We had already given notice & had to be out of our current place by end of June so… God had it all planned – this lady was also in charge of our current place so she said that she could give us 1 more month in our current place & then we can move over to the new place. And when i asked about moving in & getting more time to clean our current place (we need to give it a super thorough clean, as is the law here), she said we could possibly move in near the end of July & she could give us a week more to clean our place as the people interested to take over from us here will only move in 1st Sept.
So it all worked out!! i can’t believe how well it has worked out. Thank You God!
Now we are just waiting for the contract & letter to come so we can sign & confirm the new place is ours 😉
Then it’s onto packing, moving & cleaning – praying hard that all goes well & that there will be no problems at our apartment handover (cleaning inspection).
syc
trippingdifferently 