15%

I have now lived in my fabulous flat for over six years. The house has four flats and my share is 22% of the house. This means that I should roughly have that percentage of the cost. However, the first few years I had heating cost way above my share, up to 34%, but it took me some years to realize that.

First of all, we only get the numbers once a year so it was only after three years (year four) when I did a comparison and realized I was way above where I should've been. I had a guy over from the heating company to adjust my heating thingie, and to explain to me how the cost could've been so high. Turned out that it probably was because the balcony door was open (for the cats) too often, and when the floor heating was on the heat disappeared through to the balcony and the system was working hard to keep an even temperature. Expensive little hairy monsters!

So since a few years I have strived to not only be restrictive with the balcony door, but also to not switch on the heating too early in the autumn. This years it's been off since April and I still haven't switched it on. Despite that, I have around 22°C in the flat (thanks surrounding neighbours and the hot summer).

And today I got the reconciliation papers for the past year, and I'm down to 15% of the heating cost for the whole house! Pat on back big time!

Googlemaps

Hahahahaha, I'm on googlemaps. When "my" house was being built a pic was taken by googlemaps, and for some five years it's been there as a construction site. Now and then I've been looking it up to see if it's been updated, and today it had. And I was on it! How funny is not that?

There is me with my handbag and my Denner bag, going shopping. Mind you, I didn't like the way it was presented, since I looked fat. So had to move the pic around a bit, and voila, there I was slim and if not beautiful so at least normal looking. And they photoshopped my face, probably just as well :).

Five years

Yesterday we had a party to celebrate that tomorrow it was five years ago we moved into our house. I have mixed feelings about it, since on one hand it feels like yesterday. I remember the build of the house over 20 months and then finally moving in day came. On the other hand it feels like I've been living here forever.

One thing is clear though, I have never felt so at home as in this place. And I plan to remain here for the rest of my days. Hopefully a long time.

So while the guests were celebrating and having fun and interesting talks, I was being pestered by a five-year-old with questions why I didn't have chalk or coloured pencils to make drawings with. Told her this is not a child-friendly flat, thinking that would put her in her place. But she persisted with questions like "don't you have any children?" and "don't you have a man?". Seriously! Told her I have two cats and am very satisfied with that. Guess she didn't get the irony.

So I took her by the hand and led her to the guest room, telling her how inviting the guest bed is. I even switched on the lamp by the bedside, only to hear "is purple your favourite colour?". Duuh. We've been neighbours for five years and I wonder what kids learn these days.

But all in all, a very nice evening. Now I look forward to two new neighbours, who will rent the attic flat, and not only add two new nationalities to the house but I'm also told they have two cats! Soul mates I'm sure.

Vandalism

Friggin vandals! Our house has been attacked. These people should be rolled in tar and feathers, and be forced to walk around the city wearing a sign around their neck saying "I'm a vandal, I damage other peoples houses"!

New building

There is a new house being built in my hood, containing approx 15 flats and today when I passed by a sign said "welcome". Ha! I love seeing other peoples houses, and either marvel over their choice of interior, or be disgusted when I see what they have chosen.

All of the flats were different (yes I checked out all apartments in one of the three buildings). No way would I've chosen the flats on the ground floor, with a living room and kitchen next to a street so that everybody can look in, unless you choose to have covering curtains, but then what's the point of having windows there?

And that bright shiny red kitchen? What could they possibly have been thinking? Or those tiles in one of the bathrooms?

But all in all, they were all new, spacious and smelled fresh. One had a very big wash-room which I thought was very nice.

But the top floor was a bit funny. First bedrooms and then you had to walk around like 180° to get to the living room and kitchen. I think they might be cooks or bakers, since they had two normal ovens and one microwave, as well as a sorta cupboard that can be heated up for plates and stuff.

All of them had terraces or balconies with a half-decent view. Lots of wooden floors, none of them as nice as my granite ditto :).

Nah, I prefer mine but if I had had the cash I would've bought one of them to let. It's a good location, and as the city grows it'll probably only go up in value.

Flat evaluation

The last couple of months I've been going to and fro about getting an evaluation of my flat. I know, it's not like it's been on my mind all the time, but it's a nice-to-know. And I do keep myself updated of what's happening on homegate.ch out of pure interest.

And tonight I decided it was the time. Ok, so it's just a general evaluation of the price for a measly 29 francs provided by homegate and my bank, but still. It's an indication whether I'm rich or not. On paper. I have no intention of moving, when I leave it'll be feet first.

So I had to laugh when the site only accepted Visa or Mastercard, not even the card that my bank themselves issue. Now I look fw to tell them that (and to receive a free evaluation for my effort), if only I could find the email of the new bank contact.

GV

Tonight we have the yearly meeting for the building association where I live. I expect it to be a fairly calm event.

It was different when I lived in my first own home, and was part of the board. There we had a number of different opinions, occasional arguments and one time we were even dragged to court by an exceptionally repulsive person, who wanted to lower the fees for his own apartment, in order to raise the price.

Mind you, we were 26 apartments back then, and now we're only four whereof at least three are in agreement.

My balcony

Very strange to see my balcony from the neighbours house. It looks small (well I guess it is in comparison to their monster-big garden), and not as cozy as from a shorter distance.

Also, the neighbours have re-painted their house in a very nice grey. Looks almost hip!

Tile painting

One thing I've been disappointed with ever since I moved in, is my choice of shower tiles. It happened since the store didn't tell me I needed different tiles for the shower when I was there (should've known you cannot have big shiny tiles in a shower...very, very slippery), and then sent me a sample saying it would fit perfectly with my other tiles. Did not.

In hindsight I really should've gone back, and trusted my gut feel rather than trusting the store, but it's a bygone.

Then today I read that you can actually paint the tiles. Fab idea. Will visit my paint shop, who taught me how to paint the fireplace and the walls, and did a good job.

And no, don't think I will choose purple.

Handcuffs

Since I moved into my new place, I have become a real home lover. I much rather have people over than go out to see them in the city. If I didn't have to go food shopping once in a while, I probably wouldn't go out at all. I know, there is internetshopping, but let's not go there.

I was thinking about punishment in this context. There are certain crimes where you instead of going to prison get like an electronic handcuff, but on the foot (footcuff?) and you are supposed never to leave your home. They keep track of you.

Now I just have to think about an appropriate crime to commit, 'cause to me it wouldn't be a punishment to stay in all the time. It would be a pleasure!

2 year jubilee!

Can you believe it's 2 years ago to the day I moved into my new and still fabulous flat? Funnily enough, it feels like I lived here a small lifetime but still remember what it was like moving in, after waiting almost 2 years for the house to be built.

Happy days. So glad I chose to buy this particular flat, in this hood and with these neighbours (despite some flaws in taste here and there :).

And tonight I am invited (well, I gently suggested one might say) to one of the neighbours for dinner. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about the experience of buying and designing a flat.

Had I had the experience and wisdom (!) today I had when I was a teenager, I would have chosen another career path. One as architect or designer.

But better late than never I guess, even if I actually had to buy the place in order to get some influence.

2-year guarantee

As difficult as it is to understand in September I have lived in my new place for 2 years. I cannot believe how time has flown.

And after 2 years the first guarantee runs out, and we are required to fill in a list with what we think is still missing or needs fixing. It is to be sent to the architect firm who built the house.

My letter was adressed to Anika, who I don't know. I spell my name differently. And it was also adressed to a "Herr" and my surname. What?

As far as I know I haven't married since I bought the place. It's like you cannot owe a place alone being a woman. I know ze Swiss are oldfashioned, but this is just not on. And of course I wrote an email to them pointing this out! I am tempted to add some stuff to the list just to make a point!

Untypical

In a week or so we will have our second annual meeting in the building association. Already (!) we have received the actual cost with a comparison to the budget. Overall it is not a bad outcome, almost spot on but the individual charges vary quite a bit. Turns out that we in the house use more than 60% less cold water than planned. This doesn't mean we use more warm water, but that we use less water overall. No wonder, since we only have one kid in the house and responsible people like myself (!) have chosen not to have a bath tub but showers only. Higher charges are for heating, which all of us think is too high anyway. We cannot really regulate it individually in our apartments, since it's done centrally. I cannot, however much I try, get the temperature lower than 23°C in my living room. This will be discussed at the meeting, I can assure you. And I very much like the fact that we are an untypical type of people. No wonder I feel I belong here!

Soon 1 year!

On September 1st it is one year since I moved into my fabulous (!) flat. To celebrate I have invited the neighbours tomorrow. Am planning an apero.

But already today one of the neighbours is having a party, and I was helping her to prepare. Like a training session for tomorrow.

Chairs

Finally! After nearly 4 months I'm with chairs! No more borrowing from neighbours when having parties. And we were lucky enough to get the very last 6 ones. Only of course when coming home one was defect and needs to be changed. Have a feeling it'll take ages to fix.

Draught

I have a steep learning curve when it comes to my fireplace. I have eventually learned which knob is for the airing and the other one which is opening the shaft (haha, did you notice I managed to get the words knob and shaft into the same sentence...I am clever!). Anyway, I had the "incident" some months ago where smoke went into the flat and darkened the walls covering the fireplace. Yesterday the same thing happened, the air just turned and in 30 secs flat was filled with smoke. Tonight friend was pointing out that perhaps it was because the kitchen fan was on. Then I remembered that the neighbours having the housewarming said the same thing last Saturday. "We cannot have the kitchen fan on at the same time the fireplace is going". At the time I felt pity for them, after all, an expensive flat and you cannot be cooking at the same time you have the fireplace on. Now it dawned on me that I am in the same position. Darn! But sure enough, as soon as I switched off the fan, the fireplace was rockin'. Mind you, I'm gonna have the construction guys repaint the walls for free!

Christmas present

Today I treated myself to a little Christmas present. A stand that holds equipment for my fabulous new fireplace.

Things like a stick to move around wood with, a brush, a little spade to scoop up ashes and a grip thing...could also work as a weapon!

Congratulations!

As much as I am not very child-friendly, I am very happy for my neighbours who became parents to a beautiful little girl this morning. This baby have really chosen her parents well, and I look forward to see her. From a distance :) Warm wishes to the new parents from everybody in the house.

Imelda Marcos

While at the neighbours I couldn't help noticing that I live next to Imelda. When I mentioned Imelda to neighbour I realized that neighbour is too young to remember, but Imelda is apart from being known for slaughtering people having thousands and thousands of shoes. I think that perhaps neighbour is a relative?

Ventilation

It seems to be a woman thing to ventilate and air when something upsetting occurs in your life. Like a burglary or an attempted such. On Thursday evening the neighbour and I did so for about 6 hours, trying to get our heads around that we had been targets for a lowlife thief. Some of the things we talked about were how disappointed she was that the "CSI" technician was an ugly old fart. That she had come home on Wednesday, gone to the bathroom sitting there doing what was necessary, noticing a lot of clothes on the floor without thinking about why they were there (yes the idiot/s had gone thru their wash-bin!). That he/they had invaded her privacy. That when the police woman came to take my report on Thursday, and the two police advisors arrived shortly after they started to kiss-kiss-kiss like having a mini-reunion. Glad I could be of service! How happy I was that I choose to invest in extra secure doors and glass, so that they couldn't get in. How her boyfriend who opted to go out with friends on Thursday evening could expect the silent treatment from her for a really long time. How one of the neighbours told the police that he'd seen a suspicious car on the street. 8 weeks ago! How angry she is with the owners to the flat she and her boyfriend rents for being cheapo and just installing basic doors and windows. On the ground floor! How good it is to talk to somebody who understands and share the same feelings. And how nice it is to live in a house where people care about each other. This is really an experience I could've lived without, but since that is no longer an option I'm choosing to learn from it. And bask in the feeling that I'm not alone in this. There are people around me who care, and will look out for me and my flat when I'm not around. And the police advisor was really cute!