CRITERIA for a NEW HOME I What I m LOOKING for I SIMPLE LIVING

In my previous video I shared 8 reasons for downsizing and why I'm moving to a smaller apartment. I promised that I would tell you about the criteria I have when looking for my new home and that's what I'll do in this video. First I thought I'd answer a question that I get quite frequently. Why don't I rent instead of buy an apartment? I live in Stockholm, Sweden and contrary to most other big cities around the world there's almost no rental market here. Unless you've queued up for 40 years or more there's almost no chance to rent in the city center so it's as simple as that. I've been pretty open minded in my search for a new place to live. I've looked at quite a few places and my main criteria and non-negotiable has been nothing newer than 1930. When I moved last time to this apartment some people couldn't understand why I would want to move from a newer build to something this old and in their eyes worn. For me the age of a building is everything. I love the character of an old house, the cultural history and the materials that were used. I much prefer if something has a bit of age and during my search this time around the majority of the buildings I've viewed have been from the 1920s. That's when a lot of this neighbourhood that I want to live in went up and coincidentally it's my favourite era in time style-wise which is why I also love to play June's Journey, the sponsor of today's video. June's Journey is a beautifully crafted mystery game set in the glamorous 1920s. June travels the world as a detective and you play scenes where you look for hidden objects and search for clues that allow you to decorate your island with the rewards you win along the way. I'm on level 884 and have been playing June's Journey for years at this point and it's just such a fun and enjoyable part of my day. I'm someone with pretty lousy memory and playing keeps that brain of mine engaged. There are some games within the game too and my favourite one is the Daily Puzzle Challenge. It's the perfect little extra brain teaser and I also love it because there are some great rewards you can win to make headway in the game. If you want a fun and aesthetically pleasing game to play, download June's Journey for free by clicking the link in the description or scanning the QR code. June's Journey is available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets and on PC. Just as I was planning this video I got an email from a viewer who asked what criteria I have for my new place since she's also in the process of moving so I'll answer some of her questions too. She mentions moving due to disturbances in her current building like loud neighbours and cooking smells and asks if I've had similar issues. My current building is 110 plus years old and that often means that it's poorly insulated against noise. I hear my neighbours daily. There's a newborn baby under me, a lady who sometimes wears shoes indoors above me, an old man sneezing next door and some guy practicing an instrument further up. And I can also hear people walking up and down the stairs so yes, it's a bit noisy compared to my previous place. I knew it would be though. My previous apartment was a newer build and as such much more soundproofed. But when you choose to live in an apartment building of a certain age you need to be prepared to hear your neighbours. And it's not just me hearing them, I'm sure they hear me too. It comes with the territory and I'm totally fine with it. Whether stripping your front door will help a bit against the noise from the stairwell but I think the rest is just something you have to accept to a certain extent when you choose to I was also asked if I'm considering the direction the windows face when I look for an apartment. I do but I haven't really ever disregarded a place I like a lot due to where the sun goes up and down. It's part of the equation for sure but not a deal breaker. Another question was if I would consider main floor, as in ground floor I guess, or top floor. My one criteria when it comes to which floor has been a two floor walk up at the most or if higher up there needs to be an elevator. I'm not opposed to being on the ground floor though. It all depends on where the windows point towards. Like if it's a busy street, a parking lot, a pretty building or a nice courtyard. This time around I'm looking in the same neighbourhood where I already live, Vasastan. I want to stay close to family and friends and in particular my granddaughter Saga can walk and look after her easily. I'm branching out slightly to the nearby parts of Normalm. One area where I'm determined at some point to live, if not this time around, is around St Johanna's church. It's on top of an esker dead centre in the city but a bit higher up and it's the area where I went to school for 12 years despite living in the suburbs. We had assembly in the church and gymnastics in the fire station and I've loved the area ever since. Aside from the age of the building and the area which are non-negotiables for me, the features I'm looking for in my new place are a separate bedroom or the option to create that. It doesn't need to be big at all, all I do is sleep in there but I do want some separation between my sofa and my bed. I'd like tall ceilings but that's almost a given considering the age of the buildings I'm looking at. Ideally I'll have big windows and natural light. I also want there to be period details like old cabinets and built-ins, cast iron radiators, stucco and other original features. One thing that's pretty important to me, especially in a smaller place, is uniform floors throughout or the possibility to make that happen. Having the same floors throughout makes for a more cohesive space and gives it a good flow. I much prefer old floorboards to parquet but parquet was pretty common in the 1920s so I'm open to that too. The size that I've been looking for is around 45 square meters or 613 square feet but I have looked at smaller and bigger within my budget. It's not all down to the square footage, a lot has to do with the layout. Some tiny places feel pretty big because they're so well planned out while other places are so poorly laid out where a big chunk of the living space is taken up by a corridor and unusable. When I view places aside from the basic furniture placement I look for where I can roll out my yoga mat for exercise and where I can fit a desk for work. I do have some items on my list that aren't necessary but more nice to haves. A balcony falls into that category. I don't want to pay a premium for one since I hardly use my current one. I mostly just use it to air things out but a lot of the older buildings where there are no balconies will have small airing ones in the staircase. Also, since balcony season coincides with the summer house season I can't really make it nice and lush out there because then I'd need to have someone look after it when I'm not there for weeks at a time. If there's no balcony I'm looking for a building with a nice courtyard where I can sit outside if I want to or a nearby park. Luckily the area that I'm looking in has lots of that. In my current place I don't have a washer and dryer and if there were some in my future home I wouldn't mind but it's also not necessary. I really don't mind using the communal one once a week and get all the laundry done in one fell swoop. Some of the places I've viewed have had some type of a fireplace and that would be amazing to have. A proper working tiled one would be the dream but again not something that's necessary, more a super nice to have. You pay a premium for something like that and places that have them will usually involve bidding wars which is probably my least favorite part of buying a home. Most of all I would like a project. Since we got the summer house a couple of years ago I've come to realize that I thrive when I have a lot of projects going on. With projects I mean house related ones. Building, redecorating, problem solving, creating storage solutions, organizing etc. In my current apartment I have none of that left to do. What there was I already fixed during my three plus years of living here and to be honest I'm a bit bored. It's so nice and cozy but for me it's a bit too nice and I'm ready for a new place that perhaps needs a bit of work or TLC. Apartments that need completely doing up are few and far between and most places have already had a lot of work done by previous owners. I'd rather buy something that's old and worn than something that's fixed up but not to my taste or liking. I'm quite open minded and for me a project can mean a new kitchen or bath, moving up walls or new electrics with a contractor involved. Or it can also mean redecorating, sanding floors etc. Some apartments I've seen and one I actually bid on lacked storage so a project in that case would be to create some built in storage solutions. So a project can be on the smaller size or almost a gut job. It all depends on where the apartment is situated and what feeling I get when I walk through the door. That feeling of I could live here is so much more important than any of the other criteria. That feeling can totally make me set aside some of the other criteria because getting good vibes from a place is much more important than uniform floors or possibly space for a washer and dryer, in my mind at least. The home I'm looking for is most importantly a cozy place to live and work. It's a place I can transform into something it might not be at first and just something lovely over time. And if it's something I've learned from having our summer house is that I will let it take time. I'm usually someone who does things immediately, quickly and efficiently but I've learned that taking things slower and not rushing the process is so much more rewarding. I'm also really inspired by the house style wise and look forward to experimenting a bit with materials and possibly a bit of colour in my new home. So stay tuned for that! Don't forget to download June's Journey through the link in the description box below or by scanning the QR code. Thanks so much for watching, I'll see you in the next one! Hej då!