A wishlist for our next apartment
In about three years, our son will start going to school. Unfortunately, the public school he’s assigned to has heaps problems. We really don’t want to send our son there, so we’ve only got two options: find a private school or move to a new district.
I’ve already detailed what our ideal place to live would look like, but I haven’t yet outlined what sort of apartment we’re looking for. That’s what this post will be about.
It is worth mentioning that we’ve been living in our current apartment for many years and that it is located in a rent-controlled district. As a result, our monthly rent payment is incredibly low. But any move, even to a similar apartment in the same district, will at least triple our current rent. If we’re going to pay so much more money for an apartment, then it better be worth it!
We would only move to a different apartment, if it has the following things:
- Good insulation: the building we live in has no insulation at all. Thus, in winter the outside walls are always cold and mold tends to grow on them. To make this happen less often, we need to keep all outside walls free of furniture, ventilate frequently, and keep the temperature above 21 degrees. All of this is fairly annoying.
- Bathroom upgrades: we only have one small bathroom ventilated by a small fan. That’s fine as long as the kids are small, but once they get older and need more time and privacy, it would be great to have a second, larger bathroom with both a window and an actual bathtub.
- Additional bedroom: We have three rooms for a family of four. That’s fine as long as the kids are small and can share a room, but eventually it would be great to offer each their own room. Without that, we’ll have to get creative and merge our parent’s bedroom with our living room.
- Balcony or shared garden: Having the ability to have meals outside in the summer would be awesome! A decently-sized balcony would do it, although having access to a shared garden would be even better.
Of course, there’s a lot of nice things we’d consider as a bonus:
- Fewer stairs: We currently live in the fourth floor without an elevator. In general, this is good exercise that keeps us fit. But occasionally, we’d really love to have access to an elevator (e.g. when we carry both groceries and our kids up).
- Sustainable: I’d love to move to an apartment block powered mostly by renewable energy (solar panels, heat pumps). I’m not sure how many of those apartments exists, but I’ve seen several pop up over the last couple of months.
- Lots of light: Our current apartment has high ceilings, big windows facing south and a nice view. This makes for a really nice atmosphere in the apartment, which is why we don’t really want to give up on it.
I think this list pretty much covers it! I realize that it’s unlikely for us to find an apartment that ticks all these boxes, but one can dream!