Domicile aka. our new home.

"Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is."
Charles M. Schulz

We were very happy when we first moved to Stockholm. We had a nice apartment on Sodermalm, peace and quiet, lots of space. That space however was mainly unused. We had a huge living room which was not occupied 98% of the time, decent sized bedroom that became very small after we put two computers in there, spacious kitchen to make more mess.
Because of the huge and  impossible to move computer desk in the bedroom we could not occupy the space as we wanted to. When we knew for sure the lease is not going to be renewed for the next year we had to look for a new place. Luckily we are somewhat very fortunate with the apartments... The first one we had our eye on was gone in a day, before we were able to go and see it in person. We made 3 more appointments but after seeing the first one, we kinda already knew we want it. I went to see the other two, out of curiosity and to compare. There was absolutely no competition. We were happy to be accepted by the board and move in.

There is few things we discovered after moving in, that we are not very happy about, but all on all - it was a good choice. I will give you a little tour with commentary. I decided to show you some parts, since I am still working on making this place a home. In the previous flat we kinda didn't care that much, but after a year in Stockholm I figured that even if this place is only for a year - I want to make it my own.

This process is not very problematic in general due to everything being white. This is a main theme in Sweden when it comes to apartments. I guess it makes sense since the market is very dynamic, it is easier to sell a flat that is not heavily customized. Not everyone wants to have purple walls and yellow ceiling...

Not everything is finished yet of course but I am doing my very best to geek the place out! My dream apartment would be much more customized and focused on few themes, but since I am not a millionaire I think I will still have to wait a bit to do it.

Nice rack.

This is basically what you see when you enter the flat. Few hooks for your coats and hats and umbrellas and bears.. I do not like our coats hanging there, they live in the closet, so I mainly use this space for decoration and occasionally for guests. The bear was found on a car boot market in Täby few weeks ago (25 SEK!), he is called Robert, his joints are connected to his body with buttons and are movable. A absolutely love this bear so he always greets me when I come back home.

I assume girl lived here before... So we have a huge mirror. There is a little space right before the bathroom door, where I installed my vanity table. There is no pictures of it yet, since it is not finished. I am still looking for a proper mirror. I had one that would be PERFECT, but it got stolen from my cart in Ikea, before I got a chance to pay for it. Adorable lamp with huge light bulbs (which are not easy to find, or cheap) was already here when we moved in and I am very happy with it, so if we ever move out I will have to look for one exactly like that.

Here is another thing that was here already, which we really like as well. I have to be homes, having those shelves installed like on the picture would probably never come to my mind. Most picture frames are empty for now. As you can see, we have a collection of robots. The small robot on the bottom shelf is called Robert and he is standing next to his twin brother Robert (painting). The posters of robots at the top were a gift from Nathan, he bought them on a funny market in Seattle. There is a poster of Dalek blueprints on the floor. So this is what you actually see when you enter the apartment. The space is divided from livingroom with a build in closets. 

No, we are not huge fans of Jimi Hendrix. That poster was already here when we moved in and sadly we can not remove it for now. At night his face is reflected in kitchen windows, which freaks me out a bit... That little space you see is the back of the build in closets I was talking about. We are planning to add this pretty Star Trek LCARS print on the back of the closets (200x75 cm).

On Etsy!

My PC is standing to the right, but since my desk is small and ugly I am not showing it off :D
The rest of the room is pretty much just a couch and TV corner.

Ideally I would get rid of the ugly plastic table, probably the candle holder and replace it with book shelf.
But for now it is really empty without curtains. I am not planing to add them either. The room stays very bright all day long!

TV corner. We do not watch TV at all. I plug the TV to either one of our consoles or my PC to watch shows or movies. Both Nathan and me do not like to keep DVDs. I have only Battlestar Galactica (cause you just have to watch that in good quality) and Game of Thrones which was really nicely released in Poland. We have few games that either came with the consoles or we got for some special reason. I don't think we could start a collection. We believe in downloading on demand :D

 All the books you can see there are Terry Pratchett. The rest of our books is in the bedroom closet waiting for a new shelf. There was just no space. Sadly we had to throw away some books when we were moving. Not something either of us wanted to do, we just left the near paper recycling garbage bin. I hope someone took good care of them. Ah yes... almost forgot to mention this. I really do not like to keep silly memorabilia that is just basically dust holder so we have only very few of them. As you can remember Robert the Bear, Robert the Robot plus mini Deathwing from Blizzcon 2010, Toby the gryphon (unfinished Warhammer model), Tyrael from Blizzcon 2011, Creeper on the windowsill and vintage Mickey Mouse from Minecon 2012.

My favourite part is of course the balcony. I like to sit the in the mornings, with my coffee and a cigarette. I read books and enjoy the Swedish summer. I started to grow some plants, dill for fresh potatoes and some parley for starters. Sadly it was really late in the year so I don't think we will be able to enjoy it anytime soon. But no rush, this is only an experiment. Behind the chair there is a huge pot full of lavender, which grows very slowly so I am not expecting to see anything anytime soon.

We also have a kitchen, bedroom and a bathroom. Bedroom needs some more work but since it has built in closet it doesn't give me a lot of options. I guess since we only use bedroom for nighttime activities it is not a big deal not to keep it super geeky. I do have my spare screen and a laptop there to watch some shows before bed and my pretty Jouets poster (see below) and of course a nice comfy bed!

I have few things I do not like in my apartment. Not this one particularly, just in general. This is something that was planted in my by my mum and I don't really mind. So as I mentioned before, I do not like coats hanging in the hallway (if you start with one it just piles up!), I don't like cables lying around in the middle of the floor (they have to be neatly stuck to the wall) and I don't like bath towels and robes hanging on hooks in the bathroom. I have seen a nice rack for rolled up towels on Pinterest but could not find one to buy here. So I bought a wine rack in my favourite Swedish second hand - Stockholms Stadmission for 50 SEK.

I think it looks pretty neat there!
Bathroom requires some work. I already bought a new mirror with shelves, it is waiting for Nathan to install it. I would like to change the lamps, the ones we have give almost no light. I need something nifty to cover the sides of the bathtub and maybe some additional hooks and shelves for bath stuff!

Kitchen is just kitchen for now, there is few bits and bobs to remind us that we are geeks, like Star Trek pizza cutter or Ctrl, Alt and Del cups!

My vanity table requires some more work, maybe a little curtain behind it to cover up the door to the kitchen that are permanently shot. A nice mirror mirror on the wall and pretty small chair. For vanity.

Few minuses we discovered so far:

- This flat has a specific scent of the last owner. It is not horrible, but it takes time to get rid of it. 

- It is a lot noisier here, with the window open you can hear traffic basically all day and evening.

- Dishwasher is weird and refrigerator is loud. 

- Bathroom is a bit loud too, due to some weird ventilation system, but it has a WINDOW! 

I think we can live with all that. Not sure if we would like to buy this place if we had a chance. 

Housewarming was fun!

Few weeks ago we had housewarming party with some friends from work, so the apartment is properly warm now. It was nice to see how the entire space changes when there is 12 people in it, not only 2.

Hopefully we will be able to enjoy it with friends more often. Our board games are lonely in the closet.

As usual thank you for reading!