A photo tour of our new home...

Our belongings finally arriving to our new house! We were
lucky to be able to ship quite a few things and furnish the
remainder of our apartment from where else, Ikea!

I've had several people ask me what are the houses like in Switzerland? Honestly I don't think they are that much different from what you find in the U.S., especially in the larger cities like Zurich. There's a wide range of styles and ages of buildings, and I have yet to still stumble across any cookie cutter neighborhoods like you find in some new developments in the U.S. There might be a few buildings or houses that look alike but never more than just a few.

Here are a few consistent housing traits that I've come across in my time here:

• Cement walls: Everything is cement here, not just floors but walls as well. It does help you to feel extra secure, but it does make it extra difficult to hang anything on your walls.
• Lack of air conditioning: Most of the year it is not a big deal, and some people do buy window air conditioners, but central air conditioning is very rare. Switzerland is blessed with moderate temperatures (at least as far as heat is concerned) and not much humidity. I'm sure there will be a few warm days to contend with this summer (upper 80's on a hot day), but hopefully nothing a few room fans can't help.
• No air vents: As far as I'm aware there are no air vents in buildings here (I'm guessing it has something to do with all the concrete). At first it was quite a change, but we've adjusted to constantly having at least one window open in our house. During the winter it was only open a few minutes a day to get some fresh air (and to prevent mildew which is a concern of most landlords), but now that the weather is nicer we always have the windows open and I think it's a welcome change from the constant hum of the fan or air conditioning. And in case you're wondering how the heat works as a result, most of it is through the floors.
• Little carpeting: Nothing shocking here, and not necessaily uncommon in the U.S. either, but I still have yet to go to someone's house that has any carpet. Hardwood floors are the norm here, or in our unique case - some marble floors as well!
• Outdoor window blinds: Most of the newer, moderner buildings all have heavy duty metal blinds built onto tracks on the outside of their windows. If you're lucky as we are most of our blinds are actually electric as well - just like turning on a light switch. I'm still not sure what the purpose is of making the window blinds this way, but I've come to quite like them. Not to mention on a rainy day simply close your blinds and your windows don't get all water spotted!

Ok, well enough of the boring - the real reason you're reading is to see the photos of our new place! Here you go...

Outside of our apartment building - there are 7 total apartments inside. Ours is on the 2nd floor (3rd according to American standards - Europeans count the floor you enter on as just the main floor, not the 1st floor). You can also see the outdoor window blinds in this photo.

Entry way

Front hallway

Master bedroom (complete with two sleepy cats)

Master bedroom

Master bathroom (not common to find here - we feel pretty lucky - and it is the one thing that is bigger than our house back in St. Louis!)

Guest bathroom

Great room

Great room looking back towards balcony and kitchen

Great room

Dining area

Kitchen

Balcony

Nursery!

Nursery

Nursery

The garage with not our car...

Another photo of one of our neighbors' expensive cars. We don't worry about our neighbors stealing from us when they drive cars like this! We don't even have a car!