Some people might say "oh you need to buy/rent a bigger...

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Some people might say "oh you need to buy/rent a bigger apartment/house". Well sure...

The rent for my farm which has around 170 square meter house IIRC, and a huge empty barn, and about circa 4x4 kilometers of a "garden", costs around 100 thousand ISK per month. (and that's excluding some discounts I got because thank god for nepotism).

The rent for my 45 square meter apartment in Reykjavík is around 150 thousand ISK per month, and that's cheap as it's student housing.

Like 15 Mar 2023 at 11:03 | Open on merveilles.town

6 comments

Esi Jóhannes G.

And the rent for my 12 square meter office downtown is around 45 thousand ISK.

15 Mar 2023 at 11:04 | Open on merveilles.town

Esi Jóhannes G.

...downsizing is mentally taxing :(

15 Mar 2023 at 11:04 | Open on merveilles.town

Esi Jóhannes G.

Two other things that got me thinking also.

1. I can't attach anything to the walls, so I can't have high bookcases or shelves, (I have a 4 year old daughter. Anything higher than a meter or two is a no go as it can fall, especially in a geologically active area.

2. My apt. storage is about 2 sq meters. If I want more I'll have to rent a storage unit several km away. Oh, and it's not in the same direction as my office.

You can't have your things nearby, but everything else is nearby.

15 Mar 2023 at 12:15 | Open on merveilles.town

Esi Jóhannes G.

This also got me thinking. All services I mostly needed were located in one small town 25 km away from my farm. Pharmacy, school, bank, post office, etc. I could drive there, park the car, and walk to all of these and do my errands and then drive home. (plus, no traffic).

In the city the post office is several km away in one direction, my office in another, the grocery store in another direction, etc. They all require dedicated trips in traffic.

15 Mar 2023 at 12:17 | Open on merveilles.town

Esi Jóhannes G. replied to Esi Jóhannes G.

Now there are obviously a lot of positive sides about living in a city, but I don't think I need to list them as 99% of people are well aware of them.

But people don't often see the less visible positive sides of living rural or in smaller places. We often see the obvious ones like "oh, so close to nature" and "everything is less stressful". But there are loads of other things that we don't really realize until we've tried both and compared.

15 Mar 2023 at 12:18 | Open on merveilles.town

Esi Jóhannes G. replied to Esi Jóhannes G.

I think the only thing I would really miss about living in a city/town is the following. The ability to go to the pub for a beer and not need to worry about finding a driver. 🍻

15 Mar 2023 at 12:20 | Open on merveilles.town