*** Note: For obvious security reasons, this post is backdated several weeks. It was written late March 2025. And for less obvious practical and logistical reasons, I'm just way way way behind. On everything.
Let's talk housing. Fair warning: this won't be a positive post.
From the moment we stepped into Apartment #1, we agreed we had to find a house asap. We would look at everything that might be a possibility and be as flexible as possible and do our very best not to be picky. Our minimum requirements were:
- 3 or 4 bedrooms (bedrooms are generally small and not sharable)
- 2 bathrooms
- decent sized yard for the dogs
- near public transport / school bus
- 225 sq m (2200 sf ft)
We really have tried to be open minded and easy about this and not compare too much to housing in Texas. If we wanted our house in Texas, we should just have stayed there. So I really do believe we came into this with a good attitude.
It's honestly hard to know where to start or explain how terribly all of this has gone. I'll try.
We spent the first four weeks here in an 80 sq m apartment. We call it Apartment #1. It was uncomfortable and difficult to function with everyone so squished in like that. We didn't have the dogs yet, and that was our only saving grace. We looked at EVERY property in Oslo that might possibly be a fit for us. All one of them. And then another one that had only three bedrooms. I checked the rental listings every day for new properties. They didn't come. We started to hear a little about timing, and how January / February isn't the best, the market will wake up in April as we get closer to summer. Ok... well, why didn't anyone tell us there would be nothing available? We could have waited until summer to move. Our patience and hope were draining quickly. We also started learning about how the tax laws have changed recently. The new laws are now taxing rental owners at a much higher rate, making it less appealing to own a rental property. The effect here is that as rental houses reach the end of their leases, they are getting listed for sale now, instead of rent. The only remaining rental properties are almost exclusively in one of two categories. 1. Inherited property (old and not updated or maintained) 2. Norwegians abroad for a few years that intend to return to their homes.
So we waited. And we dug deep for more patience and distracted ourselves with some of the things the city had to offer. After one month, a larger temporary apartment became available, so we packed everything up and moved into what we have been calling "Apartment #2", or "The Palace". We don't have a car, so this was two days of me packing and unpacking suitcases, ski gear, and everything else we've accumulated since we got here, and hauling it two bus stops and up two flights of stairs (no elevator), while everyone else was at school / work. I'm being brief, but this was a significant effort. With housing looking so bleak, the hope was that this larger apartment would be more comfortable for a longer wait.
Apartment #2 was nice! Much larger at 150 sq m, space for us to spread out a little bit and live comfortably enough while we waited for a house to pop up. It was only three bedrooms, but the girls were understanding enough about sharing a bed (not a bedroom, a bed) for a little while. And yes one bathroom. But the kitchen was good sized and while limited, definitely doable for the short term. We expected to be in The Palace for 1-3 months, but of course were hopeful for a house sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately, things don't get better from here. Long story short, the person in charge of booking the temporary apartment for us forgot to extend our booking past one month. So after only two weeks, we found out that in just two more weeks, we'd have to move again. Y'all, we are not ok. Kerry is trying to work a demanding job, and the kids are in school and trying to start a life here. We cannot keep moving every 4 weeks. And what's more, no one could find a place for us to go. I have been through all the emotions at this point. Meanwhile, no new houses are coming up for rent. Less than one house per week in the entire city of Oslo. Everyone spent a week or so scrambling, trying to find us a place. Zero three bedroom apartments available. No houses for rent. We did look at the few houses that were out there, and actually put bids on two of them, but didn't get them. Both houses were well out of our price range set by SLB, but this is such a complex issue that I can't get into it right now.
As we were nearing the end of our time at The Palace, we were also in the final stages of negotiating a lease agreement for a house that was way too expensive and not very nice. But out of desperation, we were going to try to make it work. The kitchen in this house is about 40 years old, and the electrical wiring is so out dated, that if you plug in your toaster, sometimes it trips the entire braker and the whole house goes black. Yes, the housing situation here is that bad. In the end, the owners decided they really didn't want kids and dogs in their house, and they wanted renters that would remodel the kitchen for them at the renter's expense, so needless to say, this one fell through. Last I checked, the house is still available if anyone wants to pay $6000 / month to live in a house with questionable wiring and an expensive kitchen project.
Moving on. Well, literally I suppose. We checked every airbnb in the area, all of them. None are available until summer. There are no temporary apartments available over 80 sq meters. At this point, we have already been in suitcases for 7 weeks and we are tired of it. SLB should not have brought us here if there was nowhere for us to live. And now, the dogs are coming. Because we couldn't drag this on any longer. My mom had already taken two months of her time to stay in our house with the dogs, and she needed to move on. Not to mention we are still paying for that house, so we needed to get renters in and stop the money drain. It was time to get the dogs here. So we are getting kicked out of the palace, have two big doodles on the way, and nowhere to go!
The only solution anyone could come up with was two separate apartments in the same building. Laughable, right? We looked at them anyway, and said no. No, we cannot split up our family and live like this. It's not vacation y'all, we have work and school and regular life going on. Each apartment was about 55 sq meters, so they weren't huge, and we had no guarantee if they would be on the same floor or not. BUT, remember that expensive house I was mentioning? At the time, we thought it was going to work out. So we took the two apartments, because there was literally no other option, and thinking it would only be for 5-6 days, and then we'd be in a house. Three days into it the dual apartment set up, the house deal fell through. This was a devastating blow to an already fatigued and increasingly hopeless family. More than once I asked to be sent home, and there were some very serious talks about that being an option. We want very much to be here in Oslo, but if there is nowhere for us to live and function as a family, then we need to go somewhere else. However, we didn't really have time to dwell too much on any of this, because guess what? The dogs are coming. In two days. And we need dog food, and leashes, and a plan for how to get them and their giant crates from the airport to these tiny apartments where the crates alone will take up 1/10th of the space.
And so, that brings us to the present. Two of the children (guess which ones?) have moved out. They live next door, with their own TV, fridge, and it appears this particular apartment comes with food and laundry service (funny how mine doesn't). I feel like I have college kids living next door, college kids that haven't outgrown legos yet. Most days I walk in to find Pringles and Froosh (yummy little smoothies) trash mixed with toys all over the living room floor. They don't seem to be hating this set up nearly as much as I do...
Is this acceptable? Does anyone think this is ok? We are completely at a loss over here. While the odds are low, if something were to happen in the other apartment, day or night, I wouldn't hear it and wouldn't know about it. Doesn't this seem unsafe and entirely inappropriate? I don't understand why a company would do this to a family. I do understand that the housing situation is both unexpected and unprecedented, but I don't see how that justifies splitting up a family. From where I'm sitting, no one wants to take responsibility for putting us in this situation, and certainly no one is prepared to do anything to fix it. In fact I have many more opinions on the subject and those who have had a hand in this, but I have been strongly advised not to post them on the internet. For now.
We expected challenges when we moved here, but this is really beyond anything reasonable. This is negligence and a gross lack of preparation on the part of the people whose job was (and is) to coordinate this international move for us.
Well there you have it, our housing story recap, as ugly as it is. Next, we'll fast forward a few weeks, and I promise better news!
And just for fun, some photos out and about:
