cimorene

I delivered our end of lease notification today, so our last day to vacate this flat will be 1 September.

We looked at three flats in the past week, all rent-controlled. Finland has rent-controlled developments, all(?) owned by private companies: one downtown is part owned by the city and the one we're going to move to is (part?) owned by a non-profit.

That makes these the closest available parallel to the projects, but rather than the depressing, dilapidated air given off by completely un-rent-controlled developments in some areas of the city (like Runosmäki and Halinen...), the development in Jyrkkälä reminds one most strongly of a sinister utopian colony set from Star Trek, with immaculately-maintained lawns, gardens, gazebos, playgrounds, and bushes and trees in the spaces between each building. The buildings at the front of the development are slightly ugly, but way less horrible than the worst of the 60s-80s monstrosities that infest this city right up to the most visible areas of downtown, including our current building. And the building we're moving into is currently in the finishing stages of a facade renovation from which it (and the buildings immediately visible from it) have emerged looking shiny and beautiful, complete with a tall panel of decorative mosaic on one side. This building is also nestled up against a beautiful, idyllic forest, so the overwhelming impression is tweeting birds, not traffic like here. From that (back) end of the development, you wouldn't even know you're relatively near two big highways.

Our future flat was also recently internally damaged by a plumbing problem, so the walls have been freshly paint/papered and the floors are all new. The kitchen cabinets are horrible, and the layout is stupid, but not as stupid as this flat's, and at least we're getting a spare room and a walk-in storage closet for less money than our current rent.

(We looked at a 1-bedroom flat in the same development - hence even cheaper - and it had a nicer kitchen and much better layout, as well as a larger livingroom, but

waxjism rejected it because it was on the first floor with big picture windows looking right onto a park area with a playground and walking paths, liable to wake you up early with playing children or nosy retirees.) (The development is amply supplied with retirees, who have their own chess club in the development's communal building.)

The big drawback of this flat is the commute, which is still about max 10 minutes by bus to downtown or to my brother-in-law's house. We've been spoiled by living so near downtown for so long, though, that that seems like a long way to me, haha. It is about equally accessible by bus to

waxjism's hated workplace, though the hilliness of the aforementioned forest makes biking impossible.

The facade work will have gone far enough to put the railings back on our future balcony in approx 2 weeks, at which point we can take possession and start moving all our crap, and we are SUPER EXCITED. We spent all yesterday evening with 3D room planners.