Our (barely) furnished apartment in Finland

With the move to Finland, the company provided us with a furnished apartment.  We finally moved in last week, and after living in a hotel for six weeks it was good to have a home again.

With so many ex-pats here, apartments are hard to come by.  We saw one place right after we got here, available immediately – a one bedroom right on the sea, with a front yard, in an area that we were sure would be gorgeous come summer.  But it was about 3km from town – not all that far, certainly, unless you consider I would have to walk 6km round trip to go to the grocery store.  We wanted to be closer in to town, so we chose a 2 bedroom apartment, but it wouldn’t be available for a month (last week).

Technically, yes, it is a furnished apartment.  But barely.  A bed, a couch, a coffee table, a sitting chair, a desk and chair, a kitchen table and four chairs, a nightstand, another small side table, and assorted dishes, glasses, and other kitchen supplies.

And really bad drapes.

But, we have a great view from the 6th floor, overlooking the football (soccer) field (and some factories in the distance).  You know how they say it’s the smog that gives LA such beautiful sunsets?  I think the smoke plumes from the factories on the coast give us great sunsets.

I wanted to do before and after shots of the apartment, because it looks so depressing in the before shots, but it’ll be a few more weeks before the after shots happen, so I’ll go ahead and share.

Entering the apartment - a long wide hallway to the living room.

In the living room looking back to the front door.

Big master bedroom - big window to the left, built in wardrobe to the right.

The kitchen. Window to the left, very little counter space, no dishwasher (but big draining cabinet - more on that later).

The second bedroom - very small, no closet space, so definitely more of an office.

The balcony

The football (soccer, for Americans) field across the street (Photo taken from balcony)

Sunset view