Month: July 2012

Next in the house hunting saga comes the negotiation phase. We are still looking at other places: in fact, Carter and I saw a beauty today, but it doesn’t have as much character as the place that is still our #1. It’s hard to explain: it’s older and not nearly as nice, but it’s bigger and has a really nice flow.

Tomorrow we meet with the landlord and hand him our wish list. They tell you at the housing meeting to ask for anything. If you don’t like the tile in the kitchen, ask them to replace it. If you want a home gym, ask them to provide gym equipment. If you want a pool and there isn’t one, see if they’ll put one in for you. Whatever we want, now is the time to ask. Since military members are desirable tenants (the landlord is pretty much ensured a 2 year occupancy with guaranteed monthly payments) they are likely to be pretty accommodating.

I feel weird asking for stuff, but since there isn’t much furniture in the place and we are renting it “furnished” we will start with things like beds for the kids, a living room sofa, locks for the doors and gate that lead to the pool and an American size washer/dryer (the European style machines wash and dry small loads and take 4+ hours to complete a cycle).

If we get ambitious we may ask for the carpeting upstairs to be replaced with some sort of hard flooring — the boys are hard on carpet and if we get a dog, I’d much rather have hard floors. Oh, and with a potty training toddler in my future, hard floors are much better.

We meet with him tomorrow morning and then head to check out the church services on base. I have to get used to an entirely different weekend since we’re now on a Friday/Saturday schedule. I spent all day thinking that because Josh has off tomorrow that it would be Thursday and we had another day before church. Just when I was finally getting used to Oman’s weekend . . .

It turns out the the front desk people were misinformed and something was wrong with the internet up here — repair people came and dug around in the ceiling crawlspace with wires and tools and now I’m up and running. Not a moment too soon. My iPhone is magnifying the deterioration in my eyesight as I find myself subconsciously moving the phone away from my face so I can read the tiny print. I’m not really supposed to need reading glasses before 40, am I?

Anyway, after the horrors of house hunting this morning, we may have found an acceptable option this afternoon. We’ve realized the biggest problem with our housing budget is we’re trying to house 6 people on the same allowance that most people are housing 2 to 4. Add to that the shortage of housing in the neighborhoods we want (close to base) because people have been moving away from the areas with all the protests, and you get these choices:

an “eat in” kitchen

 junkyard next door — perfect for picking up spare auto parts

 

an inviting death trap right outside the living room door

 

this house was special: dining room

 

kitchen — great, right?

 

look where they are in relation to each other: the kitchen was a room on the landing and you had to go down a flight of stairs to the main house and up a flight to get to the bedrooms. 

 

these stairs were steep!

But we finally found our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The pot was half empty, but it’s enough. There’s something about seeing cockroaches the size of your thumb that really makes you appreciate semi-clean carpet when you find it. This house may not be my dream house, but it’s livable and I think it will be perfect for us. Either way, it’s a hell of a lot better than anything else we saw. 

 

living room

 

kitchen

Not horrible. Yes it has a pool (sigh), but we found out the base will do an inspection and require them to put in a fence across the side yard and a locking mechanism on the sliding glass doors to limit access. We’re going to sign some paperwork that reserves it for us for 7 days and keep looking in the meantime. At least I can go to sleep knowing I don’t have to live in any of those other houses.

And now, to add a little levity (since I certainly need it):  Little miss was tired and crabby and needed a boost. 

 

 

She was flopping on the table at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and fussing

until her chocolate croissant came 

 

 

fistfuls of chocolate makes it all better

I’m going to show you the best house we saw today. This will explain how far we’ve fallen — I seriously considered taking it (and still might have to).

I found out we don’t have wifi in the Residence Tower. I might have to go to the lobby to edit this post on a computer because some of these photos need captions.

Since I don’t know how they are going to come up, the one with the patch of grass is the backyard, the run down play structure is on the side of our unit and from the underwear hanging on the line I think there are laborers living in the shack under the stairs. No lie, this was the best house. Excuse me while I go weep.

I’ve decided that Bahrain is Muscat’s less attractive cousin. I’m sure she’s very nice, but not exactly my first pick for a date to the prom.

In case you were romanticizing it, this House Hunter’s International thing is not easy, or really very fun. Part of it might be because we have to haul a hot, tired, and cranky toddler in and out of the car every few minutes or because I actually had to say “get off that BRAND NEW TABLE!” when my child didn’t realize that the wooden platform in the living room was not a stage, but a table that didn’t have legs yet. I hope the new occupants don’t mind dusty footprints with their dinner.

I also may have lost it and screamed, “We are not getting a house with a pool! Pools equal DEAD BABIES!” when the boys wouldn’t quit arguing over which pool was better of two houses that I equally hated (mostly because of the stupid pools). That rendered them silent for about 30 seconds so it was worth it.

Other house hunting gems: the agent (from India) telling us, “White Americans make the most beautiful babies — they look like toys.” (Ohhh-kaaay.) And upon hearing the price of a place, pre-negotiation, Caleb burst out, “We have that!” Thanks kid. Great poker face on that one.

So that about sums up today. Minus the kid bickering and toddler screaming that I left out for your enjoyment. Happy house hunting! May the odds be *ever* in our favor!