Ellinor was a wonderful host, whom we wholeheartedly recommend! From the moment we started communicating with her before deciding on booking her place until the end of our stay in July, she was extremely warm, friendly and prompt in her responses, as well as very thoughtful in preparing her home for us and our little children. She had lots of very helpful information for us regarding a variety of things, and always wanted to help. On a day that we realized how long a realistic commuting length would be from her house to the city centre, she advised us to avoid some construction delays along one subway line and helped us get a taxi. Her house is beautiful, and looks like the pictures. It has a LOT of space, it is well-designed, nicely maintained, clean, organized, tidy, and safe for little kids. The deck outside is large, and the presence of the safety gates at both ends encouraged us to let our children run around and play freely out there while we cooked or relaxed. The house also has safety gates for the stairs inside that we put up with the help of Ellinor's very friendly babysitter who checked us in. We, the adults, also enjoyed the deck with some wine on the wicker lounging chairs in the corner when the kids were asleep. We made good use of the outdoor dining table on the deck. Her garden is also nice, with lots of outdoor toys, which the kids enjoyed thoroughly. The kitchen is very spacious and had plenty of spices and dishes that allowed us to cook meals very easily. The upstairs bathroom is huge, and welcoming - the giant bathtub made the kids' bath time so easy and so much fun! Ellinor also demonstrated her thoughtfulness by keeping 2 ice creams in the freezer for the kids when we arrived (very kind!), covering the windows in the kids' room with an extra blankets to try to keep the light and extreme heat out, setting up her splash pool for us before we arrived, and buying a fan for one of the rooms, as the house does not have air conditioning.
This leads to some observations of ours that could make future stays better. Due to climate change, and much of Europe getting much hotter along with many homes not having strong cooling systems, we did find the house to be uncomfortably hot rather often. During our stay, the temperatures inside the kids' bedrooms (and on the last night, inside the master bedroom also) were 28.5 degrees Celcius, despite our opening the windows during the less sunny hours to air them out. We chose to give the kids the one fan to use at night to prevent them from overheating, but if a fan could be provided for every bedroom in the future (at least during the summer months), that would definitely make things better. :) Secondly, it is important to note realistic commute times from the house to Stockholm central station, and vice versa. It usually took us anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour to the central station (this also factors in walking and waiting times for the combination of the bus and train). The bus that is a short walk from the house is infrequent; then, it usually took about 15-20 minutes to get to the Alvsjo train station, from where we took an easy 10 minute ride to the central station. So, we ended up taking multiple taxis (which vary from $35 to $50 per ride through the Taxi Stockholm company, depending on the time of day) to/from the centre, depending on the heat or how the kids and we were doing. A taxi ride usually took us around 20 to 30 minutes. If you are traveling with kids, or even as adults who want to reduce your commute times, it is wise to budget for extra money for frequent taxi rides.
Still, Ellinor's house is one of the rare ones that we would actually recommend for even a 'stay-cation' (a vacation where you stay in/stay at home), due to it being that inviting when you see it in person! The check-in and check-out process was extremely clear, easy and smooth. Thank you, Ellinor, for your warmth as a host, and an enjoyable stay at your beautiful house!