Apartment #2

Before choosing a long-term apartment, we wanted a chance to get to know our new city, so we rented a place for a month as we got settled. Soon after arriving we found a wonderful, long-term condo, but it will not be available until November 1st. We thought we would just stay put in apartment #1 until then, but there was a 2 week window when it wasn’t available. So that brings us to apartment #2.

There actually weren’t a lot of places available, but we found a place, still on the beach, just 450 meters from apartment #1.

This place has pros and cons.

One of the advantages is that we now have 3 bedrooms. The boys are excited to have their own rooms.

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This apartment also has a much larger kitchen, with many more dishes and pans and a larger refrigerator.

Most exciting is the oven. Apartment #1 only had a stove top. We decided to make the most of the oven.

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Buried in the cupboards I found a crockpot, so we had to put that to work as well.

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Now we have a freezer full of goodies to take with us when we return to apartment #1 next week. Hopefully, that will hold us over until we move into our final home (which has a large and well stocked kitchen).

There also is no elevator. No more folding the bikes up and squeezing into the elevator, waiting for it to get to us, suffering through the smells of someone’s fishy garbage or arguing over who pushes the buttons. We just have to walk up one flight of stairs.

Our landlord lets us leave the bicycles in the hallway, just inside the door, which is much more convenient.

We also have 2 laundry rooms (instead of just a washing machine in the bathroom). One room has the washing machine and the dishwasher (it is weird having to go into a different room to load the dishes). The other has the dryer. Yes, the dryer! We still hang all of our clothes outside, but if those soccer socks aren’t dry for practice, we can pop them in the dryer.

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The water heater is also much larger. So we can actually all get a shower after returning from the beach without having to turn off the water in between applying shampoo, conditioner and soap, and the last person running out of hot water.

The walk to the beach is probably a third of the distance as it was from apartment #1 and we only need to cross one one-lane road (instead of three road crossings from apartment #1).

Our commute to the grocery store is much improved as well. Previously we had to walk or bike along one of the bigger roads in town, Avenida Andalucia, which wasn’t too pleasant. Now we get to go down the cutest little alleyways.

Since it is not next door to Leo’s school, he can’t come home on his own. That really isn’t such a downside since it is fun to ride bikes to/from school with him.

Being on the second floor, as compared with being on the 10th floor, we do not have as much privacy. We kind of feel like we are living in a fishbowl.

This lack of privacy extends to our neighbors as well. Last night, one of neighbors was having a very loud argument. As we peeked our heads out to see what all of the yelling was about, we noticed that there was a head sticking out of every house in the alley as well.

On the positive side, this afternoon while Leo was hanging out on one of our patios that overlooks the alley, a friend from school walked by and they had a little chat. Turns out a lot of friends live just down the alley.

A big downside is we only have one bathroom. Why is it that everyone needs to go at the same time?

We also miss our view. While we do have a view of the beach here, it is obstructed.

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Probably the biggest issue we have had is the age of all the furnishings. The beds all creak and aren’t too comfortable, neither are the chairs or the couch.

The first hour we were here we had to wipe down every surface above six feet (they were covered with dust that was giving us all headaches). We also took down most of the curtains and put them into garbage bags. After that we all could breathe easier.

Surprisingly, we are all very excited to return to our little 2 bedroom apartment that we refer to as home. We pass by it daily as we go to school or downtown.