Apartment Hunting

Finding a permanent apartment here in Trondheim was quite an adventure.

We started looking for a place about six weeks before we needed to move. There are several sites here that people post ads to (www.finn.no and www.hybel.no), so we were checking those. As we saw an apartment we liked, we would send an email to the owner of the posting. About 75% of the time we didn't hear anything back. If we did hear back, it was usually telling us that the apartment had already been rented to someone else. Definitely a bit frustrating!

We had been told that it might help if we posted our own ad. That way potential landlords could see some information about us before they contacted us. So Daniel put together an ad for us and posted it to one of the sites. We had quite a few responses through that ad, however there wasn't anything that we were really interested in at first (an apartment on a main road in the middle of the University area, a house on the hill out of town a 15 minute drive in to town during the summer longer during the winter, a very expensive apartment, etc). So we kept looking. I was sending emails to people about apartments every day. Daniel was replying to emails we got from our ad every day as well. I was starting to get worried that we weren't going to find a place.

Then one day Daniel got a call at work from someone who saw our ad. She had an apartment very close to Daniel's work available and it was within our price range. We set up an appointment to go see the apartment that evening (Friday). On the same day, I got a reply to one of the emails I sent out about an apartment and set up an appointment to go see that apartment on Sunday.

So, we had two potential apartments. Of course there were pros and cons to both the apartments.

Apartment one was in a great location. Very near work for Daniel and a bus stop for me. Very near a shopping center with a post office and grocery stores. It had a wood stove for heating in the winter with wood provided by the landlords. It was a cute apartment, however there were a few things that I didn't like about the apartment. It had an old house smell that I didn't enjoy. I didn't like the fact that the bedroom was so small. I also didn't like the fact that the entry wasn't private, it was shared with the in-laws who had their laundry room and an office on the first floor.

Apartment two was brand new and fully furnished. I will admit that I had an idea of what type of place we were going to end up in here and this apartment was almost exactly what I had imagined. It was a great apartment but it was in a fairly inconvenient location. Daniel would have a more difficult time getting to work since he would have to go up and around a steep hill to get there. I would be riding the bus and the bus stop was not very close. Also, we were one of nine couples being considered for the apartment.

So we just had to wait. We knew we needed to let the landlady of the first apartment know if we were going to move in but we wanted to wait to see if we got the second apartment. I was very emotional during this period of time. Daniel was very supportive. I preferred apartment two but knew that we didn't have a good chance of getting the apartment. I was unsure about apartment number one (I couldn't decide if I didn't like apartment or if it just wasn't what I have originally imagined). Daniel called the landlady for apartment one and set up a time to go look at it again. That way I could have one more chance to see the apartment and we could wait to hear about apartment two.

Later that evening, we heard back from the landlord of apartment two. We didn't get the apartment. I was definitely disappointed. At least we still had apartment one. We were set to go back to look at it on Tuesday evening. I felt like we needed to take it no matter what, it had taken so long for us to find these two possibilities in the first place. Daniel kept telling me that I could say no, that he wanted to make sure that I would be happy wherever we ended up living.

On Monday evening, Daniel got an email about another apartment. It was a new listing and the landlord had just started sending out inquiries. Daniel called the landlord and set up a meeting to go see it that night. The location was great, about 1 km to work for Daniel and an easy 15 minute bus ride for me. The apartment was very nice but it was unfurnished. It also wasn't available until October 7th. The landlord was very nice and told us to go home and think about whether or not we wanted the apartment. He said that he wouldn't show the apartment to anyone else until he heard back from us on Tuesday. We didn't really need time to think about it. I loved the apartment, Daniel said he could see that right away. It was in a great location near work, a bus stop and grocery stores. So Daniel contacted the landlady for apartment one to tell her that we had found something else and we took apartment number three!

So after a long and emotional journey, we have an apartment! I am very thankful that Daniel was so supportive and understanding through the whole process and that we were able to find a place where we can both be happy.