Author: Robin Chartier

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!

The problem with living in such a nice hotel suite is everything else looks like a shack in comparison. We went and looked at many different places today: villas with private pools (out because there are no gates to keep a toddler OUT of the pool), a two-story apartment in a high rise (fully furnished in Asian inspired old lady — glass and flowers everywhere), a very small flat in a complex with amazing pools/water slides/gym/hot tub that didn’t allow pets (I wish we could have made it work), a 3 story unit in a compound which had good sized bedrooms, but a closet of a kitchen that was closed off from the rest of the house. Nowhere near school/work has any outdoor space. Even the ones with pools are hot tub sized bodies of water on postage stamp slabs of cement . . . Ugh.

I do much better when we are just told where to live. I’m good at making the best of any situation, but if you give me a choice I can find fault with anything. That’s why it took me 9 months to name Calvin. Every name suggestion had a reason to veto it–I didn’t like ‘Calvin’ either because it reminded me of a kid from middle school who used to throw fits and spit on the floor. I eventually got over that and I guess I’ll get over any negatives that our future house has too.

So now to choose the least ugly name for my baby, I mean the location with the least amount of “issues.” We’re meeting with someone else tonight to see another place and looking at a location a little further out tomorrow. We aren’t in a rush to find something, but we want to see what is available now so if something really great opens up we’ll know it when we see it.

We have 45 days to find a place to live, but this place is no Motel 6 so there isn’t much incentive to move out.

We are in adjoining suites: 3 big bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens (with ovens and full size refrigerators), and 2 living areas. If the kids would quit sniping at each other every 30 seconds I would be perfectly happy.

Today Josh was at work all day and we played at the pool. I foresee a lot of that happening over the next few weeks. Then tonight we went to our first base event: a pre 4th of July BBQ with Josh’s new unit. It is so strange to be back at a base after 4 years — 2 1/2 in a school environment and 18 months in embassy communities.

I’m not doing a good job describing what it’s like here, but I’ve been SO. TIRED. I’ve even crashed in unintentional naps the past 2 days. And what little energy I have has been used up in my new full time job as referee/mediator/arbitrator/judge/prison warden/parole officer. I’m sure it’s all related to the stress of moving, but they better get over it soon before I lose my mind.