The Search for Home

Well, it's been a rather dull week since I last wrote.  I did have the surgery to put the teeny plate and 4 screws in my toe.  That went as well as could be expected.  I spent the rest of the week in the apartment, basically.  I had to go back on Thursday for them to change the dressing (painful!!).  The office charge for that was $200!!!  Frankly, if they'd just charged me $200 more at the hospital for the surgery and then told me the subsequent office visit was free, I'd be much happier.  (It's like charging me $5 more for an item with free shipping - way better than charging me $5 for shipping!)  I go back on Monday to have the stitches out, and I'm sure that will be another 3 digit bill, grrrr.

Anyway,  if I were you, I'd be sick and tired of hearing about my widdle toe.  :-(  I'm certainly sick and tired of the whole situation!

So, on to bigger and better, (yet strangely, similarly frustrating) things like house hunting.  Right away I can tell you that we've come to the decision to eliminate houses from the list.  We looked at several and loved a couple of them.  However, none of them are close to the mrt (subway), none of them had amenities like a pool and gym.  We could find a pool in the neighborhood/community center, but we haven't found a good gym that we could join.  There are only 2 YMCA's, and they're in the wrong direction from Erin's work.  (In Houston we would go work out and Erin would go on to work from the gym and I'd go back home.)  So we've decided to only look at places with a decent gym.

My original #1 criteria was that the place be near the mrt.  But we're having trouble finding something in our price range and square footage range that's close to an mrt.  There's basically one candidate left in the running that fits that category:  Leonie Condotel.  Not only is the 2nd half of the name kinda corny, the place is about 20 years out of date decor-wise (not unlike our house in Baton Rouge.....).  The decor is so outdated that we both noticed it.  Yeah, it's that bad.  If any of you came to visit, I have to admit that I'd be a little embarrassed.  Which is not a good feeling to have about a prospective home.  The square footage is great (the largest in the running), and it would be all one level.  Erin thinks the drive to work would be o.k., even though it's the furthest left in the running.  I don't like that it's on the 19th floor, (Not a big fan of high places.)  although I'm sure I'd get used to it after a few weeks.

Other choices left in the running:  2 "cluster houses" or town houses.  Both of these are about 1/2 way between the shopping/activity area and Erin's work.  There are buses that run near both that would carry us to the shopping places in about 30 min.  Both are 4 stories, with 2 or 3 rooms per level.  So LOTS of stairs!  Both are in gated communities with pools, gyms, etc.  One community is called Teneriffe.  The main downside to that place is there can be no dishwasher (or if we beg, we might get a tiny under the sink one).  Also, the real estate agent told the story of how one of his clients found a COBRA in her kitchen cabinet there!!!  (The community is across the street from some woods.)  Yes, there are 2 kinds of snakes here:  cobras and pythons.  I know Erin was sending telepathic messages to the agent to lay off the snake stories.  I was in the back seat of the car thinking, "19th floor = no snakes!".    The other cluster house community is called Glentrees.  I'm not sure, but it seems a little newer than Teneriffe.  We first saw it over a week ago, and I want to go back to it.  At the time, I mentally crossed it off when I learned it was over 30 min. walk to the mrt.  I do remember that it had a cool pool and splash zone for the kids, and that the interior was more "clean" than Teneriffe.  (That's not really the right word, I need something that means modern, classy, but not fancy, or art deco.....)  Teneriffe is a little more 'jazzy' than Glentrees.  Are you completely lost?!?  Ah well.

The kitchen at Glentrees.  I can't remember if there's a dishwasher or not.  That could be it to the left of the sink?

Sorry about the quality here.  Taken from the kitchen. 

The window from the master bedroom (3rd floor) that over looks the living room on the first floor.

See the master bedroom window? The furniture would go.  

The Greco Roman inspired Leonie Condotel.

Lobby/covered drop-off

HUGE den/dining area

bay window on 19th floor

Better pic of dining area

Kitchen at Leonie Condotel

More kitchen

Hannah's bathroom (I think)

Boy's room

Master bath. Big tub = + and dual sinks! Do you like the tile?

Boys' bathroom.  Owen wants a tub.  This may be his only chance.

Pool at Teneriffe.

Pretty typical bedroom "closet".  This one is at Teneriffe.  You can just glimpse Peter (our agent) on the right.  This shows how narrow most of the bedrooms are.

bedroom with ensuite potty

Hannah's room

dual sinks in the master bath = yea

Note:  The electricity has been turned off in this unit (long story), so we couldn't see it real well.  The light you see is all sunlight and flash.  Sorry for the picture quality. 

Kitchen at Teneriffe.  I like this kitchen the least of all the finalists, and it doesn't even have a cobra!

One of the family rooms at Teneriffe

Blurry pic looking toward other family room/dining room

Erin has heard about a couple of other places.  We are planning to ask the agent to show us those as well as take us and the kids (they haven't seen any of these) back to the 3 I've mentioned so that the kids can vote.
Now you're up to date on the whole house-hunting saga.

This is why I can't believe people read blogs.