When the housing market in The Netherlands became increasingly heated and we felt like we were more and more ‘done’ with the crowdiness everywhere, we decided to realize our dream. We concentrated on the province of Värmland because we have been coming here for eight years now and the environment appealed to us.
We turned again to Hemnet, the Swedish houses-for-sale website, and found another suitable looking plot in Värmland. This piece of land was located in a different part of the province of Värmland than we had visited before, but we were also open to that. At the beginning of October 2020 we drove to Sweden again. The plot was right at a lake, but consisted mostly of rocks that sloped quite steeply towards the water's edge. The village was also not what we expected. Time to search further!
After waking up our daughter who had fallen asleep, we got out of the car. Where did this path lead to? Was this the right location? This couldn't actually be an access road to a plot. We walked along a forest path towards a stream. Holding a phone with Google Maps in one hand, we knew we were getting closer. It felt like we were walking in the middle of a forest. So how could we be close to a plot that was grassland?
We crossed the stream via a small bridge and walked out of the forest. A field appeared in front of us with the plot for sale immediately to the left. 300 meters from the lake was a beautiful piece of land that offered many possibilities! And the best part was that there were two plots for sale. Slanted next to each other, both with lake view. We decided to pick up the car and drive to this place via a different route - which was intended for cars. We hiked to the lake, walked around the area and got the drone out of the car for some aerial photos.
We had found our new place to live: Acksjön!
What were we going to do? Did we want to temporarily rent something in the Netherlands? And then rent something in Sweden until our new house was ready? The best, nicest, most convenient and ultimately cheapest solution turned out to be buying an existing house in Sweden to bridge the gap. Our only requirement was that the house in Sweden should be a reasonable distance from Acksjön so that we could visit our plots regularly.
We have been living in Sweden since April 2021 and we really like it here. Our house in Persberg was located directly on the nature reserve Högbergsfältet. Within 50 meters we walked in the vast forest where we hardly ever met anyone. The gigantic Yngen Lake was just around the corner. It was wonderfully quiet there. We bought our daily groceries in Filipstad, an 8-minute drive from Persberg. We have renovated the outside of the house and have also replaced the wooden terrace. In July 2022 we sold our house and handed over the keys of our nice yellow house in Persberg to the new owner.
After the houses were finished on the outside, we took on most of the finishing work on the inside. This did not cost us hours, days or weeks, but months of work. Fun, educational, interesting, sometimes annoying, sometimes tiring, but always thinking about the ultimate goal: soon we can live in this beautiful place!
And that moment has arrived! The holiday home was ready at the end of April 2022. Our own house was (mostly) ready on July 1, 2022. The only thing missing was the necessary heat pump. However, this had worldwide delivery issues and our delivery date took a long time: unknown. Finally the heat pump arrived a few months later and our house was completely ready!
We ourselves moved to Munkfors, a 45-minute drive from the cottage. We wanted more space, especially in the house, and we found it. We live just outside the village but still have everything nearby (school, grocery store, etc.).
Med vänliga hälsningar,
Nina & Thomas
Sjö och träd