We found a house!!!

We are very happy to have found a lovely house!  Head Office in Pretoria has already approved the house and drawn up the lease contract.  We are now just awaiting approval from the owner.  As all the legal issues involving the renting of a house by foreigners are not yet completed, we cannot put photos of the inside of the house on the blog yet.  The house has 5 bedrooms and a fairly large backyard that goes all the way down to the sea with a beautiful view of the surrounding islands.  We even have our own small jetty (which Alex can use to tan on and Dirkie to jump summersaults off during summer).  At the moment the water all around the area is frozen solid which makes for a great skiing opportunity!  The house is a bit far from central Helsinki.  This doesn’t bother us as the city centre is still very easily accessible.  The underground Metro line is approximately 1 km from the house next to the Itis Shopping Centre (the largest shopping centre in Scandanavia).  See the map of Helsinki below.  Indicated is where our Hotel, the South-African Embassy (both in central Helsinki) and our house is (in the outer parts of Helsinki, Marjaniemi suburb).

 

Marjaniniemi

The house is located in a suburb of Helsinki called Marjaniemi which means Berry Peninsula.  The area is known for being very beautiful during summer time.  One can go for long walks through forest like parks, pick fresh berries and chase the wild rabbits. 

Yesterday Dirkie went out and did some exploring around Marjaniemi.  Just a few days ago Dirkie got very lost (one of his marvellous qualities).  So Dirkie made a plan.  I wrapped our newly purchased TomTom GPS in a Jiffie bag for protection against the snow, programmed various addresses and walked around with it.  I got a few odd looks from people passing me on the sidewalks as the TomTom gave instructions (“in 50 m turn left and remain in the right lane” .... ).

I walked through a lovely park which is close to Marjaniemi.  Unfortunately I cannot find out what the name of the park is, it’s not even indicated on Google Maps.  But what’s a name anyway, the scenery was beautiful!  The atmosphere was so peaceful and quiet with small snowflakes falling from the sky.

 

Walking to our house

After walking through the forest park I reached Marjaniemi.  This area has big open spaces and very little apartment blocks.  Most of the houses are either row houses or free standing.  As I walked through the streets trying to find our house I took some random photos of the area.  I can just imagine how beautiful this area must be during summer time.

 

 

Our house

The following photos are of how I came closer to our house.  The photo below is of the street that we’re going to be living in.  The street’s name is Marjaniemenranta Road (Marjaniemi Beach Road, or Berry Peninsula Beach Road).

 

This is the entrance off Marjaniemenranta Road going down to the left (red brick house).

 

The following photo is of a small driveway to our house (our house is the one at the end).

 

And finally, in this photo is the front of our house.  We are very privileged to have our own garage (so no more digging when we want to use the car).

 

The following is a picture of our backyard.  Notice that the water in the distance is completely frozen.  One can ski from our house to the surrounding islands.  Dirkie’s first mission is to build a gigantic snowman in our backyard!

 

The following two photos are of the see and islands which surround our house.  I took these pictures from two houses on to get a better view.  In the first photo you can see our jetty. 

 

We hope to be moving in on 9 January 2013!