Moving to Denmark: Our First Apartment

Moving to Denmark and finding an apartment was a very exciting part of our new lives.

Renting an apartment was a smart choice for us, since we had only been in our new hometown only once before (and only for a few hours) before moving there. I could tell from those few hours, that it was small, quiet and safe. I really hoped that it proves to stay that way, because, believe it or not, that is something I’m looking forward to the most.

I grew up in a small town in Ohio, and I have many fond memories of walking or riding my bike to different places in town. I also liked knowing people. In a big city, I think it is harder to meet people. Small towns are great places to meet people in the grocery store or the library, which is actually what I did during my first week there. I’m eager to see what else this town has to offer, but for now, I’m going to focus on my new pad!

Where are we?

We chose to rent rather than buy because we didn’t know after those first few hours of visiting if we would want to live in town or venture to another. We also didn’t want to buy a house that we only saw on the internet. You can’t get a smell from a picture or a vibe. I’m a vibe type of person when it comes to buying things. Like chocolate for example. Chocolate gives me nice vibes! We needed time to find the perfect home, so renting allowed for that extra time. However, we had a hard time finding a place to rent online. Someone at my husband’s work got us in contact with some people, and we ended up taking the apartment they had…unseen. Worse than that, we didn’t know anything about it beforehand. I was a bit apprehensive about taking the apartment, but when the lady emailed us saying that we had less than a week to decide, we said, “what the heck” and went for it. I just imagined that the place was in the slums with only one room with a dirty, fly-buzzing toilet in the corner of a very dark concrete room, smelling of mold and urine. The mind is a funny thing sometimes! 🙂 After we agreed and signed a 3 month contract, we got the address and looked it up online. We were a bit shocked that it was located outside of town and the online map app said it would be a 50 minute walk to the city center. That would make things difficult during the first month there when we would be living without our bikes. Can you imagine walking that far to get groceries every few days with my two kids? Not to say that my kids are horrible, but they are in fact, kids, who are used to be driven everywhere. (Side note: I had not idea that the path from the apartment to town would be down a huge hill. I’m not exaggerating either. This was large by San Francisco standards. Oh, Boy!!) Luckily, my husband let me have the car when he was at work, which allowed me and the boys to feel a little less trapped at the apartment.

Location is key…right?

At first, I was really negative about the apartment…mostly because of the location and not knowing anything about it. Let’s be honest! I was downright awful, acting like a spoiled princess with no hope in the world. I have issues. I know. I just need a better way of adjusting. I know that I don’t transition well with things. This move hasn’t been any different, but I’m trying to be a big girl. After moving in with just what we could fit in our suitcases, I realized that it would be fine. Baby steps. It was better to have less to focus on than to be overwhelmed with all of our stuff. The fact that it had a playground on site made the place much more desirable. 🙂

Our new hometown of 8000 people doesn’t seem to have large parks like what I am used to in the states. In the U.S., you can find tons of playgrounds, even in the smallest of towns. Where I grew up wasn’t much bigger this town, and we had tons of outdoor playgrounds. I was counting my blessings with this apartment. It seems that in Denmark overall, the playgrounds are mostly found in neighborhoods. During my runs around town, I managed to find a few other places. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know where I was, so getting back to these places may take some time.

We were located at the far end of the apartment neighborhood with no buildings behind us. We had one apartment on either side of us and lots of green space in the back. A small hill blocked us off from a busy road that was behind our apartment building, so we didn’t see any of the traffic that passed there. It was also pretty quiet for the most part, since all around us were fields.

Apartment Layout

Our apartment was two levels. As you walked in, you were in the foyer that had a cabinet (closet) with no door. There were also light switches, but there were no lights. The tenants had to buy them and install them by themselves. It was dark in that foyer for a few days. 🙂 This, however, was the same for all of the other rooms, so we were pretty much in the dark for a long while, since we didn’t get lights right away. It is so crazy how things work in other places. I have lived in a few apartments in the US and there are always lights on the walls. If not, there are outlets for you to plug a lamp into it. We borrowed my MIL’s floor lamp, which we seemed to take with us wherever we were at that time in the apartment. The kitchen and bathroom had lights, though. Stairs leading up were on the left, a door leading to the living room in front and a door leading to a utility room was on the right. The utility room had a tall storage cabinet and a sink, and the floors where the
same as the foyer. It worked as a mud room of sorts. A sliding door connected the utility room and the kitchen, which had cabinets on the left with a sink and cabinets, fridge and stove on the right. The cabinets were white and very dated, not the best quality either. You can see in the picture that one of the cabinets is partially open. This is because it was broken. We mentioned it to a maintenance man, but apparently it wasn’t high on his list of priorities. Hahaha! No big deal! No microwave and no dish washer. We really had the bare essentials. We also had very few dishes. We managed to borrow pots, pans, baking dishes and silverware from the summer house my husband’s family has. I also bought a few plates and bowls from the second-hand shop to hold us over until our container came. It was like we were back in our camper, living with just what we needed.

The refrigerator was small, but it was not a bad size really. If you compare it to an American refrigerator, it is tiny, but if you compare it with other European refrigerators, I would say that it is normal. I was pleased by the space. Since we were borrowing kitchenware from my MIL, we didn’t fill up any of the cupboards. The oven was also small compared to what you would see in the U.S. In my old oven, I could easily have three racks of food in there. In Denmark, you could fit two racks, but it probably wouldn’t always cook right. The stove tops are often electric instead of gas. I know that not everyone in the US has gas stoves, but we did. It is kind of nice to see it turn red when it is in use, much like you could see gas on the stove in the US. Who cares, though. It worked, and that was good enough for us. I once rented an apartment in the US that had a very old stove. It was olive green with a stove/oven below and a toaster oven up top. The oven didn’t work very well, and unfortunately, I found this out after making a cake for someone at work. The middle was still gooey and the outsides were crispy. How embarrassing! Hahaha! Oops! This little stove worked well, so we are all good. I just wished we had a microwave. It is hard to give it up after a lifetime of having one. Baby steps again!

At the end of the cabinets was a small area that would fit a table for two. We didn’t put anything there at first, since it is also where a large glass door is. This door leads to the outside and backyard, but the weird part about it is that there isn’t a handle on the door from the outside. I guess you’d either keep it open or lock out whoever wanted to go out there. That is tempting when I want to get the kids out of the apartment! 🙂 We might have to play with different scenarios to see what feels right!

There is another sliding door that is between the kitchen and the living room. This is interesting with all the doors, but I guess that is how they roll! From what I know of the Danes, they like their privacy. Coming from a country of open-concept floor plans, this was a bit odd, but with such little space, I think I might like separating myself from the kids when they are playing or watching a loud show. Man! I sound like a whiner!!! Knock it off, Kelly! 🙂

Upstairs

Upstairs, there is a bit of space at the top of the stairs, which is in front of a window. We ended up

putting bathroom stuff here, since there wasn’t any storage in the bathroom. It is interesting that the only bathroom in the apartment is upstairs, but we have to make it work. The bathrooms are nice in Denmark, because they usually will have heated floors. That is a big luxury in the US that is often left out in houses. I don’t really know anyone with them. It is pretty much standard in Denmark, since this tiny apartment in the country has them. You can tell by the knob that sticks out of the floor. Our bathroom only has a shower. No tub. This isn’t a big deal for us now that the kids are a bit bigger. When they were teeny tiny, I would have preferred a bathtub, and still do actually, but it isn’t a big deal. The boys are getting used to taking showers. The weird thing about showers here is that they aren’t separated from the rest of the bathroom. That means that the tile you stand on to brush your teeth might be wet if someone is in the shower. This can catch people off guard if you aren’t used to it. Having a shower curtain makes a difference and really allows more than one person to use the bathroom at a time. You will have to use a squeegee to scrape all the water off the walls and the floor to the drain, which is common-knowledge in Denmark. Again, this isn’t a big deal, but it is not what Americans are used to doing. My major pet peeve about the bathroom is that there isn’t any storage besides the small window, that is just to the left of the shower, and where we put our shampoo and body wash. You would need to get some type of cabinet for the wall or floor, but it would need to be off the floor enough not to get wet from the shower. Apparently, we need to make a trip to IKEA one of these days.  After all, where else Do the Scandinavians buy their furniture! 😉 (Jk. I’m learning that they actually have other places, too!)

The bedrooms are small, since it is an apartment. Many times, though, you’ll get a cabinet in them, since they don’t have closets in most European bedrooms. That’s right. No closets. The boys’ room has a small cabinet and ours a large. That is how I decided who would get which room. I was curious to see how it would all work out once our jam-packed, 40sq ft container came with all of our stuff, since the apartment size was roughly 970sq ft. in total. Keep in mind, 970sq ft already has a few cabinets in various rooms, not to mentioned all of the stuff in the kitchen. Taking away the space we need to open said cabinets and walk around, there really isn’t much room left. I tried to eyeball the rooms and make an assessment of which items of furniture would fit and how to arrange them. It is safe to say that we will have to get a storage unit for the rest. There is just no way! (Stay tuned for an exciting post when the container arrives! We might have to play a fun game of Where’s Waldo with my kids!)

Other Spaces

In front of our apartment, we have a storage shed. This is a decent size considering how big the apartment is. 🙂 In Denmark, the sidewalks often extend a bit with a different design, which is usually a parking platform. I don’t know how else to explain it. You just know you can park there, which is what we have in front of the apartment. If no one is parked there, that is where we put our car!

Across from us, luckily, is a small building where you can have large gatherings. I believe you have to reserve it. It also houses the laundry. There are two washers and one dryer for all the residents (as far as I know) to share. Some people have their own washers, since I was told that by one of my neighbors. It isn’t common for people in apartments to have a dryer. Danes like to hang their clothes out on the lines. To the side of our main door that leads into the apartment, there were hooks to connect a clothes line. We weren’t aware of this before, so we borrowed a dryer rack from my MIL. I’d rather have that in case it rains. Using the laundry machines was very easy. The apartment people gave us a special key for this building and room and a card that works as a debit card just for the laundry. A sign in Danish, explained the process of doing the laundry. Luckily, I had a human translator! 🙂 I had to memorize what to do, since I didn’t know what anything said. I’m sure I could have tried to translate it, but it really wasn’t that hard to memorize.

Overall, our apartment wasn’t too bad those first few weeks. After the first few days, my husband put up a light in the front foyer so that we could see what we were doing at night. Other than that, life in our little place was very relaxing. The days weren’t so cold in March, so I took the boys out to play on the playground, play in the backyard, or to go exploring. All the fresh air helped them fall asleep right away at night, and they slept so soundly. Their comfortable little bodies made the place really feel like a home, even though they were on mattresses on the floor. My husband and I would stay up after they would go to sleep and sit on the folding, camping chairs at the camping table we bought to hold us over so that we didn’t have to sit on the windowsill and eat on a cardboard box. We would chat about our new town, about finding a house, and about our days. There were no distractions, and we were actually able to relax. The togetherness that I felt with my family was the best part of the move so far. I know that some days or mornings or afternoons would get me down because of the frustration of not knowing the language or how things worked in my new home/town/country, but those nights and days spent with my three guys made all the frustration worth it.