Contracts to be written on Wednesday but feeling pushed over by the estate agents and sellers. They wanted to use our survey we paid for as part of an insurance they will buy to protect them from hidden faults we could process against them in the future. Bit miffed they had the nerve to ask and expected us to comply without hesitating! It's not like we are paying them peanuts for the house anyway but to be asked to pay THEIR survey, which it would become, and then they will use it in an insurance against us was a bit strong. I've asked around for advice and it seems that if they are buying this insurance the survey needed comes with it in the packet price. But I'm a bit concerned that one of the sellers also is an estate agents so she knows all the tricks and turns and that they might not sell to us if we don't agree on this, it is all hanging loose now before the contract is written. But I told estate chap on the phone that we could share our survey if they agreed to pay half of it or else they could have an own survey done. He sounded thoroughly surprised we didn't agree with them.... Are we to be worried?

The survey man has been and done his bit and the conclusion was that part from a few minor things there wasnt anything wrong with the house! So we are moving slowly along and going to set a date for when the contrac is to be signed and set a date for when we are going to move in. Sometime around 25 may sounded possible. Got to ask for vacation as well so we can move in peace and quiet without hustling and stressing about. Not that there will be moments of stress and whatnots, including the selling of this place. Am thinking possibly we should have an agent doing it for us, but we really need to sell it quickly so we dont want it stuck at some agents for god knows how long.

We got the house!
It is ours if we sign the contract, I cant believe it!
A house... oh let me get started on a To-Do-List, no the mother of all To-Do-Lists! I'm sure I'll scare James with the amount of things I'd like to be done to the house. Even though it is much finished I would like to change the colour scheme from the nice and neutral magnolia heaven it is now to something a bit more vibrant. But it is an old house and it has an old house charm to it so mustn't spoil that with shrill orange or green. I did notice though that one of the old doors had a coat of pale green to it underneath the magnolia. There is so much to think about now, moving to another town and all. But lets get through the survey on Wednesday first before jumping all over the place.

It is looking down on the house bidding front. We are up to 1 million Swedish kronas - £75 757 (our last bid today) and its still 5 parties bidding for it. The bloody house is too popular! We went to the bank and they said ok to 1 million, which is a huge sum for us two. We just have to see what the estate agent says tomorrow. I'm sure it will have gone past our limit bye then, we've said we'd go for somewhere around 1,050,000 kronor and if it has we'll just have to keep on looking for other houses, cheaper, more run down ones again, bleeh. It's been an experience anyway so far, much quicker then I've ever thought it would go from viewing a house to the bid on it.

We are bidding for a house today...
Can you feel the nervous tension spreading..?

Snitched from Marie.

Just now I got a phone call from a estate agent wondering if we still was interested in having a look at this house in Källviken. I thought it had been sold or at least under offer since we never got a return call when we enquired about it before we went to England. We agreed on viewing it on Thursday at 4.30 so that will leave us with 45 minutes to check the Järlinden house out before going to have a look at the other one in Källviken.

I've had a closer look again at the pictures of this new house and it seems quite poor and much more to do in it compared to the Järlinden house. The Källviken one is in a posher place so I'm sure that is why the price is so much higher, plus you get a view of the lake. Mind you, its only a view and not a lakeside property so if you have really bad luck they might develop the land between this house and the lake and then you wont even have a view. But considering how much more land you get in Källviken and the fact that houses there tend to keep their value and even increase more then in other places in Falun might be a thing to keep in mind. Oh well, we'll have to see what the other half says as well. James likes the idea of no close by neighbours and a big yard but considering that it would need more work to it then Järlinden house I think speaks against it.

Gran is coming home today. Nothing was broken she just had a bad fall where she landed on her hip. Haven't heard anything from mum so she might have her second operation today to fix the annoying bit that didn't work and which has kept her at the hospital since Thursday. It will be such a relief to have at least one of them home, possibly mum can go home today as well, we'll have to see.

I am home, feeling quite tired and exhausted even though I haven't done much. Maybe it is a mental tiredness of being worried. I phoned my boss yesterday saying I wasn't coming in today either, don't think I would have been of any use anyway as distracted as I feel right now. I want that phone to ring so I know what's happening! Relax, calm down...BREATH! So much for the cool and collected Maria. ;)

The weekend has been quite the rollercoster.
Well it all started last week Thursday when my mum went in for a seemingly simple and straightforward operation. She is still in hospital as the outcome wasn't what they wanted. So while keeping mum happy and preoccupied so she doesn't feel too home sick I've also gone to my gran as well since she is still recovering from her cold. On Friday she was in bed and said she was tired, come Saturday she said she was still tired but fine, leave me alone type of mood, but yesterday all of a sudden she said she couldn't walk. So I panic a bit thinking what now but she insists its nothing wrong, knowing how stubborn she is I didn't know what to do. I go home feeling quite guilty not forcing her to go to hospital and to try to get someone to come see her on a Sunday seems almost impossible but in the end after a lot of fretting and phoning I got to know that the home care was going to go by and have a look. That settled me down a bit and then this morning grans caretaker phoned to say gran couldn't get out of bed to open the door so could I surrender my key to them which I did. I just have had a phone call saying gran cant use her left leg and is going to be taken into hospital. I've just called work saying I'm not coming in and in a minute going to phone and see where gran is at the hospital. My guess? She has had a fall on Thursday evening/night and didn't want to worry anybody, just like she did the last time when she broke her wrist. Sigh

On a completely different note, we got 2 houses to view, one in Borlänge next Monday and the robot one in Falun on Thursday. Still haven't heard anything about the one in Enviken. Possibly they've already sold it.

There's a house...
To see more pictures click on the tab Fler Bilder. It looks like a robot from the outside front, but inside it looks just like something we would like. It is at the top end of our budget though and I'm sure there will be quite some bidding over it, but it is an exciting house. I have just fired away an email that we would like to go on the viewing next Thursday. But got to talk to our bank as well and see what they think of our chances moneywise to get this one. We had a woman here from Sparbanken (the other bank) to have a look at our apartment and value it for us so we know what we could expect to get when selling it. She thought around 250 000 Swedish kronor which is converted £18,900 - $35,450 - €27,540.

Go on, have a look and see what you think.