House Hunting

Lately, we have been in the throes of house hunting. This can be one of the most fun, and at the same time the most frustrating, experiences. I think that we have looked at close to 40 houses in the last 2 weeks, and have only found 3 that have been ones we have seriously considered. A pretty depressing percentage actually! But it’s fun finding the parts we like about each house. It’s getting the qualities all together that is sometimes a little difficult. Some of our wants include the following: in an area of town closer to our language school, a nice yard (i.e. larger than postcard size, hopefully with some nice vegetation), a hot water heater (none of these electric duchas – the typical way of heating water in Latin Amercia is to have water heated by running it through an electric heater, not the safest or most effective way to heat water in my opinion!), 4 rooms with closets (2 bedrooms, a guest room, and a study), a nice kitchen (i.c. clean and with cabinets), a living room and dining room that is big enough for small groups, a space for a washer/dryer, and hopefully a fireplace and a view (not to mention this house has to be within our budget). Needless to say, we’ve been hard customers to please. We’ve seen it all, from brand new with no yard, to a run down bizarrely painted house with a nicely shaded yard, and everything in between. We’ve been to about 5 different real estate agencies (one agency 6 times to see the same house, and we’ve never been able to see it), and been treated royally at some, and snubbed at others. We’ve driven all over the city in various taxis looking for these houses, scoured the paper every day to see if there are any new bargains out there, and prayed hard for wisdom. We even were shown one house by a real estate agent, and the renters returned while we were looking at the house and hadn’t even been informed that their house was up for rent! That was a pretty embarrassing situation. Regardless of all of the headache involved, our prayers have finally been answered. Praise God! We found a house that fits the bill! Below are some pictures of our new home, although we won’t be able to move in until the middle of March because of some painting and repair work that needs to be done.

The kitchen: The house was previously rented by American missionaries with the New Tribes missions. Because of that, it even has a built in spot for a microwave, a gas hook up for a dryer, and extra security.


Living room/dining room: The area is spacious enough for small groups, but not overwhelmingly big – and it has a fireplace!


Yard: The yard has several fruit trees including fig and lemon. It also has a great spot to put a swing. Not to mention a wonderful storage shed for Josh’s tools!


Patio and garage: The garage door has even been put on an electric remote, thanks to the previous renters as well.


A bedroom: The bedrooms all have wonderful built in closets. One of the things we like about this house is the amount of storage space.



A bathroom: Some of the houses we looked at didn’t have a bathtub, but this one does!


A view of the upper level overlooking the living room: This “balcony” gives the house a very open, spacious feel.


From the outside: Right outside our gate is a beautiful jacaranda tree. The wall is tall and reinforced with electric wiring. The house itself is situated in a very quiet neighborhood, with all types of housing. It is right near a university and directly across from a park containing a basketball court, a soccer field, and a playground. Our neighborhood is situated between 2 major streets which means that finding buses into the center of town will be very easy. In addition, several little tiendas (stores) are close by and we are only 6 blocks away from IC Norte, a nice supermarket.