Buying a house in Viken

We have thought back and forth. Should we really just leave Sweden without any anchoring in our homeland.

A decisive factor was that our eldest daughter, who herself had lived in Malta and Florida for several years and who now lives in Stockholm, found it a little strange that the whole family would live abroad – except her. Our younger daughters have traveled most of the world and currently live in Portugal. However, everyone is very positive that we bought the house in Italy, but also agree that we need a base in Sweden.

We searched on Hemnet and immediately found a house that at first glance felt completely wrong, but over time we realized that it could probably be perfect. We contacted the real estate agent and go on a viewing. Already at the door, he stops us and wants to warn us that there is a lot that needs to be fixed. He points out all the faults and flaws which felt superfluous because it was quite obvious that this house had not been given any thought at all. We left the house with the feeling that we will never set foot there again.

But... we didn't give up. They wanted 4.3 million, so we made a modest bid as usual. 3.3 million. It was not accepted so we raised to 3.8 million and still managed to haggle it down half a million. The house was ours with access on 1 July.

During the inspection, it can be mentioned that no really bad things emerged. The roof is old but intact and good. No moisture. The attic looks very good. The foundation was good and the cellar stores were dry and fine. It was really only the surface layers that were bad. Really bad. And ugly... The kitchen counters were low, worn and of poor quality. In the living room there was a beautiful parquet, but it was so worn that it was just sticks of everything. The ceilings were covered with wooden tex... We tore out all the ugly, worn and disgusting stuff.

We started by tearing out the kitchen and floating the entire downstairs. It sounds brutal, and it was, but even though building maintenance is important to us, we had to get the house in order. The disgusting pizza wallpaper in the living room and hall was taken down and the needle felt carpet in the stairs was torn out. We repainted the facade, oiled the front door and planted new grass.

We can only state that with six garages rented out plus a whole house rented out, we don't have to be too stressed financially.

But enough about this – it is the house in Italy that has our focus.