105th Corona diary entry / The New Normal

We're doing a bit of a toasting.

We bought a house yesterday - in Finland. Huge house.

The decision was made over a year ago to go back. We would have left in April / May I think if it wouldn't have been for the infamous virus that took all our lives by surprise.

I've been sending stuff and clothes to Finland since September. So our corona isolation was spent is quite empty house with very little to do as we were expecting to leave the country during April or May. Regarding how we felt.

I have to say that has added some extra anxiety this spring, but all and all we've been in good humor.

So now what is left to do - as life is returning - to handle all the matters and paperwork in Spain and handle all the paperwork in Finland and then DRIVE :-)

We've had the best time of our lives in Spain. Honestly. But it's time to go back. If we don't go now, we never will. And we do miss our relatives and our son. Terribly.

This Spanish house will be our holiday home for the time being. My in-laws will come use it this winter. I'm giving away all my flower pots to friends who will hopefully keep them alive. I also have some of my flowers with my mum waiting for me to take them back again. These were sent with the van my husband and his brother drove to Lithuania couple of weeks ago and my in-laws came to meet them and they exchanged cars. So we will drive my in-laws car back home with us.

The new house. Wow. All the interior renovations that are waiting for me. I'm more than excited. I have to renovate the whole house.

I have looked through about 200 - 300 houses online. Read lots of technical reports. This was the 3rd I got really excited about. 1st one was sold. 2nd one was in so bad condition that we just didn't want to touch it. This one: Jackpot!

We bought the house without visiting it. My parents and our son went there this Wednesday. Niklas showed us around with a video. It was good on paper (I studied the technical report of the house) and it was good IRL.

It's an old group home for disabled kids. It has 6 bedrooms and huge living room with a fireplace. I will try to open up few rooms to add to the living room/kitchen area. I have a plan for all the rooms. And I will finally get my walk-in-closet <3

There was 2 identically floorplanned houses to choose from. 1 had already been sold. We took the one with better equipped kitchen (just newer appliances) and better sauna / bathroom area. It will need to be renovated in few years, but not immediately as the other one should have been. So we will have the middle house of the 3. Which is pretty good. After living in Spain for nearly 5 years, I'm used to people :-D And we have nice sized gardens all of us.

It's about 120km from Helsinki. Smaller place with lots of nature around. Nearest beach (by the lake) 5,3km away. Lots of beaches to swim in the area.  Also room for a pool in the backyard if that is needed.

It's very practical as it's been made for a group home (for disabled kids) rather than home. It has some nice features like huge vestibule before the actual hallway (Here we have neither). My guess is that they've needed a place to rinse the mud off from wheelchairs, so there's a handy hand shower in the vestibule. How convenient for muddy dogs and bicycles! My gosh my prayers have been answered to.

Big windows. Higher ceiling in the living room / kitchen area. Nice backyard, which I can build from the scratch.

I have million ideas!

So it's kind of celebratory blip for our new adventures ahead.

We still have like a thousand things to take care of in Spain, but as soon as we have our things in order, we will head back to north.