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We have a mortgage!

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By the time March rolled around, we decided it was time to figure out our mortgage once and for all. Our list of places that work with Americans despite FATCA requirements had grown smaller compared to last year, so we only had 4 banks to choose from compared to the 30+ that most Swiss have available to them.

Still, Kay went to all of them (ZKB, UBS, CS and a local bank Linth) and told them we wanted to see some offers for either 100% Libor mortgages or 100% 5 year fixed mortgages.

Unlike the US, 20-30 year mortgages don’t really exist here. The highest model offered to people is usually a 10 year fixed mortgage. As I’ve said before, the point of your mortgage is not to pay the whole house back by then. After 10 years, you simply have to refinance your mortgage for another 1-10 years, depending on your plans. If you would secure a 10 year mortgage, it is usually not in your interest to try to “sell off” the mortgage with the house. Unless interest rates have skyrocketed, a 10 year fixed rate is usually more than what buyers would be able to find on their own for the same amount of time left on your mortgage. Buying a place with a 30 year mortgage and then selling it off? Forget about it. It doesn’t work like that here.

Since we are coming to a crossroads in about five years, we do not want to be tied to the flat longer than that. Five year fixed rates are also MUCH cheaper than 10 year fixed rates, so that’s a bonus too.

Kay went back and forth between the banks and let the bankers battle it out… we were just interested in getting the best rate possible, which we made clear from the start! It came down to a very exciting hour as Kay was calling me telling me he’d had both guys on the phone and needed to call one of them back and make a decision…. soooo, we went with the small bank!

Bank Linth bent over backwards to meet our goals and they were very excited that we promised to move all our money over to them. I am a little sad to leave English online-banking and paperwork (ugh, German paperwork… ugh!) but it will be good for me. (Hopefully.) And the advisor at Bank Linth was really the nicest out of all the people we met with.

UBS? I was really disappointed. We have almost all our money with them now and then sent this stodgy old man to talk to us. He didn’t even try offering us a first-time buyers mortgage like ZKB did. And when he heard we had better offers than him, he just said “Oh, that’s too low! We can’t do anything about it.” Not really a salesman in my eyes. I’d much rather work with a small bank and receive the care and attention we deserve. (Ok, I think we deserve it…!)

Homebuyers, did you go for a big bank or somewhere local? How did you make the choice?

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How to Pass on Your Rental Lease

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Normally in Switzerland you can only move out in April or September, so despite giving our rental agency 7 months notice before moving out… we were responsible for finding new tenants.

The agency told us that they would list our flat on one of the popular listing sites, but when we reached the typical 3 month mark before moving, our flat was still not online so I decided to make a fancy PDF to distribute among friends and family workplaces.

I made sure to highlight our address and set up a gmail account for the replies from the ad. We wrote all the important flat details in both German and English and I included lots of pretty pictures taken in the flat or from the balcony. I included some from when we were moving and the place was empty and some with furniture to give people a better sense of space.

I also took the time to measure out the entire flat and draw a floor plan so that people would know the approximate size and layout of the flat.

Thankfully we did have a fair amount of interest regarding the flat. So much that I set up two visitation days for people to come view the place…. which meant I had to clean pronto!

Kay was gone during the week before the visitation so I cleaned up the dining room, living area, laundry room… tidied my desk and then attacked my open wardrobe.

My wardrobe does not have space to have the doors because of the exposed beams in the room, so it was extra important that it be tidy. I took a few tips from my friend Jeannine over at Small Chic Home and took 1/5 the clothes out of the wardrobe and rearranged everything to look neutral (dark) in the drawer area to the left.

…yes, I only ever keep pretty bags on my wardrobe shelves and I never stuff them full of clothes. Cough cough.

It’s pretty much the cleanest my wardrobe has ever looked!

With everything put in its place, the place looked great!

I took out the orchids from the bathroom where they live and placed them around the flat to add some greenery.

All our laundry was hidden away in the laundry room as well… usually it’s hanging out next to the balcony door up there.

And last but not least, I made Kay sweet rolls for breakfast on Monday and they just happened to come out of the oven right before the visitors arrived… (because I am evil like that.)

We did advertise the place as a 2 room (or 1 bedroom in US), but some people saw the floor plan I drew and really thought the laundry room could be a second bedroom, making the place a 3 room flat. Alas, the ceiling is all attic in that room and there is a big washer and dryer taking up a lot of room… not really a bedroom by any means!

But we did have people who loved the flat and wanted to apply right away. In the end, we were able to find a tenant to take the place over immediately after we move out so we can avoid paying double rent!

What kind of tactics do you use to get out of a lease on time?

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Neubau Progress: Bathroom

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After we signed for the flat we had to get down to business. Building was on a schedule and we needed to decide all of our customizations asap. Obviously the whole bathtub/shower switcheroo didn’t really work out like we wanted it to, but we could still change a few things in the bathrooms. We started out with drawings of the bathroom plans:

The guest bath above and the master bath below.

The architecture firm gave us a load of bathroom options online, but really we needed to head to Sanitas Troesch to “bemuster” or pick out all our customizations.

Since we couldn’t have a fancy bath, we went with the standard D-Code tub, but for the shower we upgraded the evil sliding doors to a solid glass wall on one side and a glass door on the other side. The thought was “Less moving parts, less mold”…

I was surprised again that we had to specify that we wanted a shower bar in the bathtub so that we could put the shower head high enough to shower. Um yeah, you didn’t let us swap the shower and the bathtub, but I still feel it is important to be able to actually shower in my damn master bath. Crazies.

If you’ll notice below lots of the pictures it says “kostenneutral”. This became a very common word in my German vocabulary because it means “cost neutral” and it meant those choices were included in the base price of the flat. Anything else had a price… and as we found out with the electric, everything would have a parts cost + labor + general contractor fee + builder’s tax + VAT tax on all that. Guh. But anyway, we were still going to make some changes!

It was a little scary though, because in Sanitas Troesch they gave us a million options and decisions to make and it was really easy to say “Let’s add this” here or there, not knowing what it would add up to. Some of the original picks were also no longer available because they were discontinued, so sadly sometimes we had to choose options that cost more that we didn’t even like as much (like our towel hooks, argh!)

It was nice seeing the fixtures in real life though. Kay really liked one of the more modern looking faucets that was cost neutral, but it had a very strange hinge attachment that I could foresee dirt/mold/soap scum collecting in and being a pain to clean. Everything I saw for the bathroom fixtures was being judged on my “cleanablity” scale. I do not want mold in our new flat! I convinced Kay that I didn’t want to be jamming q-tips up into the faucet handle to clean it, so we were going with the “boring” standard faucets. I think he’ll get over it.

Some bits were confusing too… Swiss have this thing about built-in soap dishes, cups, etc… that I find a bit strange, but they are in literally every house here. The sales man just sort of asked us what we wanted and where, but I kept wanting to know, “How much does that extra soap dish cost??” It was a bit stressful.

Toilets and sinks were an easy decision. We picked the prettier (rounder) cost neutral toilet. Not paying $2250 for that boxy toilet up there. And while I’m not necessarily in love with our double sink style, I also didn’t want to pay thousands to upgrade that either.

Our “chosen sink” came with a pretty naff cabinet underneath. Check that out? What is that space for?? Gathering dust? I wasn’t having that. Knowing me, I’d squish tissue boxes and bath supplies in there and it would totally ruin the clean, tidy look I’m hoping we’ll have in the bathroom. Not to mention, it would be a bitch to clean around those sinks. No, no this was not the cabinet for us.

Since we were picking everything out in as much detail as we wished, we were able to look through Sanita’s catalogue and I decided I wanted to go for a more traditional type of cabinet, while Kay was sad not to have more modern ones. The big drawers above seemed like they would be a pain to organize and I really wanted more drawers and some traditional hinge cabinets, so we came up with the option below. I just wanted everything to be practical!

But after we signed for everything, Sanitas came back and told us the cabinets above would be impossible with our double sink because the drawers would run into the faucets in the middle. We could change it slightly and put drawers in the middle and cabinets on the outside or all flat cabinets, but it ruined my idea of splitting up drawers between Kay and myself, so we said “screw it” and went with the original giant drawer below:

And honestly, I can’t really remember if it is the one above or if it will really have two drawers… the decision came after the bathroom contract and it’s been so long since we decided everything that I’m afraid when we check the finished flat, we’ll have forgotten what we even chose if we don’t have the proper documentation for it. I’m only left with the plans that still include the cabinet and drawer combo above. (Things like this keep me up at night…)

For the half bath, we were surprised to learn that it didn’t come with an under sink cabinet at all. That just wouldn’t do. I mean, I plan on putting toilet paper and crap for guests under there. And tampons. You know, IMPORTANT stuff.

We went with a simple two door cabinet because they don’t make the gianormous drawer cabinets in this width. I am happy.

I am even happy with our giant drawer. I was unsure how I felt about it when we first decided everything, but now I think it will be nice an streamlined and hopefully not too hard to organize…

Along with the master bath and guest bath we were surprised to learn this was when we had to pick out our basement cellar sink for the wash room. A small dinky sink came with the flat price, but we upgraded it a tad (at least I think we did…!) bigger sink. Kay convinced me that we don’t need a crazy laundry sink with ridges for scrubbing, because let’s be honest… how often do I hand wash things?

After a few rounds, all the bathrooms were sorted and we were on to bigger, bolder decisions.

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Two and a half vacuums

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Exciting news everyone! I’ve finally bought a new vacuum! …but not just one. I’ve bought two. And a half. Sort of.

Listen, this is just what happens when Kay leaves. I go out into the world and decide it’s a good idea to buy multiple vacuums and carry them home on the bus by myself. I lead a very exciting life, thank you.

Thankfully the employees tied the packs up with little handles so I could manage, and they weren’t Dysons so they didn’t weigh a bajillion pounds.

Meet the old vacuum. An obscure Miele given to us by friends.

I’m not sure how old the Miele was, but I was sure that it wasn’t great at vacuuming anymore. This vacuum also drove me crazy with how hard it was to store. Below is the best you could do to hook the head into the body and usually the huge tube was flailing about everywhere.

I used to store it on it’s end, extend the tube all the way and lean the tube and head against the wall but it would fall down all the time. Cursing, I swore at one point that our next vacuum would be an upright but after a few years living in Europe I conceded that the canister vacuum is more practical for apartment living.

We don’t have so much floor space that we require an upright to push around. It would quickly run into our coffee table, dining set, etc and would probably be much more of a pain to use the attachments for cleaning under the sofa and in the corners than just using a canister vacuum with their handy hoses.

Kay and I went looking for vacuums in the new year but we were a bit overwhelmed by all the options and prices so we chickened out. I have been thinking more and more about the vacuum situation and finally found a solution that should work for now.

Tristar SZ-2190: 69.95CHF

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This is going to be our “main vacuum”. I had a few requirements for the vacuum: Bagless, Small, Affordable, High Power

I wanted to go bagless because Kay and I are both lazy about replacing and buying new bags and it seems like emptying the canister will be easier than dealing with bags. I have heard that bagless vacuums are not quite as good at suctioning, but for 69.95CHF I am willing to give it a shot.

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The Tristar seems like it is a little better about storing itself. It’s not as good as those Dyson’s that wrap around themselves, but its footprint is not too large and it seems easier to tame the hose than the old Miele.

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Another plus is that there are new attachments to use! The Miele didn’t come with any and the two small ones above have attachment points on the vacuum so they are always handy! I already used them today to help clean the dust out of the bottom of my wardrobe and I am a fan.

I chose the Tristar not only because it was 50CHF cheaper than the Dirt Devil I was contemplating buying, but because the canister was a lot easier to get in and out. You just grab it like it’s a coffee mug and out it comes.

And see this? The head and hose profile are so small that it fits underneath our TV stand, something the Miele was incapable of doing. Score!

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This right here is why a canister vacuum is invaluable compared to an upright. If I had an upright, I would just be down there with a tube and hose as well, hoping that they fit under the table. The canister vacuums are just so much easier to maneuver the whole vacuum body around. You don’t have to worry about the canister because it just rolls along with you.

In addition to the main vacuum, I also really wanted to try out a handheld cordless vacuum, which surprisingly was more than twice as much as the main vacuum but still way less than the 399CHF Dyson cordless vac.

ELECTROLUX Ergorapido ZB2933: 179.95CHF (It is SO 20 bucks cheaper online too, argh!)

The Electrolux is so small and light, and it is 2 vacuums in one! You can pop out the mini vac below:

Maybe the novelty of this will wear off if I decide later that it doesn’t do a great job suctioning but for now I’m really excited to either pull this out and run it quickly in the kitchen or pop the handheld out and use it instead of our sorry dust pan. (Which is really due for an upgrade too… the brush is ridiculous.)

And this one comes with attachments too! Maybe I am overly excited, never having owned my own vacuum attachments before…

You can store them inside the stand. I am a big fan of the stand as well, which is like a docking station for power.

See, I was so eager to use it when I got home that this picture you can already see it has dirt in there. Woo. Cleaning.

I thought the Dyson is probably better and has more power than this, but honestly the cordless Dyson’s do not maneuver on the floor as easy as the 180º swivel in the Electrolux and you have to hold the trigger down on the Dyson the whole time you are vacuuming. The Electrolux works more like a normal vacuum cleaner with a simple off-on button so that you don’t strain your trigger finger while cleaning.


Together I feel like these two vacuums take up about the same floor space as the old Miele and I don’t have to worry about any vacuum hoses falling over and attacking me or my limited laundry room floor space. They still cost at least 300CHF less than a standard Dyson vacuum would, which leaves us more in our budget for getting a nice robot vacuum. Three vacuums for the price of one Dyson that give me the ability to vacuum my floors, hand hold and have a robot do it for me too? Yes, please.

When we move we are looking into buying a robot vacuum to clean our floors while we are at work, but for now I’m really happy to have a new vacuum and a handheld. Maybe, just maybe… having two vacuums will spur us to hoover a bit more than we normally do. 🙂

…as for the old Miele, we’ll be moving it to the cellar in the new place where our laundry room will be so that we can use it for cleanup down there from time to time. (But it better keep out of my way… or else!)

How many vacuums do you have?

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Larger than life office lamps

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Out of the blue, Kay agreed to go housewares shopping with me last weekend. I wanted to look at pillows and we ended up trying out beds and looking at options in 4-5 different stores around Dübendorf. The man even suggested going to IKEA. He must love me. 🙂

We browsed the lighting sections at a few different stores and are trying to figure out what to do in the living/dining room when we came upon these really funky lamps:

Stehleuchte NEW YORK 169CHF from Micasa Stehleuchte NEW YORK schwarz 169CHF from Micasa

I bet you think they just look like normal desk lamps, right? Well they are huge… see if you can get a sense of the scale from these pictures:

See that dude in the back? He sort of gives you a little idea of the scale. These things are huge floor lamp versions of their desktop counterparts.

At first I thought they were strange… and then I thought they were really cool. I want an oversized desk lamp in our office! And 169 is a pretty fair price for such a large lamp in Switzerland. Anything to avoid spending 400+ on a lamp!

Would you go for a crazy lamp in your home?