So, as it sometimes goes, the first place we had chosen to live fell through. This happened for multiple reasons:
1. I was never truly in love with the whole place, just really the master bedroom closet =)
2. The landlord was not only not willing to negotiate almost anything on our list (which we were fine
fine with), but he also did not want us moving the furniture around. Um, hello? Who does that?!
3. Our realtor showed us two perfect places after we found out about the "no moving furniture" thing!
First, I liked the villa, we liked the villa, the villa was really nice. It was great! Yes, it had 4 bedrooms but it was still too small for entertaining (which I plan to do plenty of!) The main floor just did not have enough space in the living room to have any significant amount of people over. I figured we could make it work but I am glad that we decided to go in a different direction.
Secondly, the landlord not being very willing to negotiate really put a damper on the whole thing. I swear, our list may have looked like a lot but, believe me, it was not compared to some! He agreed to give us the cleaning of the whole villa, the pots and pans, dishes, silverware, a lamp for the living room, and that was about it! The most important thing to me was really the bookcases since we sold ours before coming here (our own fault.) He said no to those. The second and third most important things were being able to move furniture around and painting the neon yellow bedroom! He said no to both of those as well. He did not even want US to paint the bedroom on our own.....ummmm no one wants a neon yellow room! Those were the biggest issues and the painting I did not want to compromise on.
The same day we found out what our landlord was not willing to compromise on, our realtor took me to see some more houses! The first was a 3 bedroom flat in Adliya and I fell in love with it! It had a huge living room, a very nice kitchen, and a decent sized dining room as well as huge bedrooms! It was perfect, or so I thought. This place ended up falling throughout because they have a 25% rule here that means that there can not be a percentage of more than 25% military living in a building. This place had 6 flats total and there was already a pre-contract on one of the flats. Someone had already previously tried to get a waiver and it was denied so we were out of luck. Our realtor, Annette, tried to find out if the person with the pre-contract was going to actually take the place or not but to no avail. We were even talking to the building manager trying to figure something out but no luck.
The second place that Annette showed me that day, is the one we will now be living in! It's a mansion. Ha! No, but really....It is a 3 floor villa with a pool, huge living room, one huge kitchen and a second one as well, a giant master bedroom on the second floor with three other bedrooms on that floor, 2 bedrooms on the third floor with the laundry room, and one bedroom on the first floor! Yep, that is 6 bedrooms in total! It also has the garage that my husband wanted and it is rather large as well! We could probably fit 2-3 cars in there if we really wanted to! The living room and dining room will be perfect for having people over! I cannot wait! This was the second, but not last, place I saw that day.
The next three places I saw that day just could not stand up to the first two I had seen. All of them were great and very beautiful places but they were either too small or just not quite what we were looking for.
I get our pre-contract back from our realtor tomorrow to take to the housing office for our 2:30 pm draft appointment! After this, our inspection is on the 18th and our lease signing is on the 20th! I am hopeful that this means we can move in on the 20th as well!! Yey!!!
I will post more as soon as we know what is happening tomorrow! We also have to file our first Temporary Living Allowance (TLA) claim tomorrow and my hubs told me earlier that apparently it is a pain in the butt.....great. I will write about it all tomorrow!
1. I was never truly in love with the whole place, just really the master bedroom closet =)
2. The landlord was not only not willing to negotiate almost anything on our list (which we were fine
fine with), but he also did not want us moving the furniture around. Um, hello? Who does that?!
3. Our realtor showed us two perfect places after we found out about the "no moving furniture" thing!
First, I liked the villa, we liked the villa, the villa was really nice. It was great! Yes, it had 4 bedrooms but it was still too small for entertaining (which I plan to do plenty of!) The main floor just did not have enough space in the living room to have any significant amount of people over. I figured we could make it work but I am glad that we decided to go in a different direction.
Secondly, the landlord not being very willing to negotiate really put a damper on the whole thing. I swear, our list may have looked like a lot but, believe me, it was not compared to some! He agreed to give us the cleaning of the whole villa, the pots and pans, dishes, silverware, a lamp for the living room, and that was about it! The most important thing to me was really the bookcases since we sold ours before coming here (our own fault.) He said no to those. The second and third most important things were being able to move furniture around and painting the neon yellow bedroom! He said no to both of those as well. He did not even want US to paint the bedroom on our own.....ummmm no one wants a neon yellow room! Those were the biggest issues and the painting I did not want to compromise on.
The same day we found out what our landlord was not willing to compromise on, our realtor took me to see some more houses! The first was a 3 bedroom flat in Adliya and I fell in love with it! It had a huge living room, a very nice kitchen, and a decent sized dining room as well as huge bedrooms! It was perfect, or so I thought. This place ended up falling throughout because they have a 25% rule here that means that there can not be a percentage of more than 25% military living in a building. This place had 6 flats total and there was already a pre-contract on one of the flats. Someone had already previously tried to get a waiver and it was denied so we were out of luck. Our realtor, Annette, tried to find out if the person with the pre-contract was going to actually take the place or not but to no avail. We were even talking to the building manager trying to figure something out but no luck.
The second place that Annette showed me that day, is the one we will now be living in! It's a mansion. Ha! No, but really....It is a 3 floor villa with a pool, huge living room, one huge kitchen and a second one as well, a giant master bedroom on the second floor with three other bedrooms on that floor, 2 bedrooms on the third floor with the laundry room, and one bedroom on the first floor! Yep, that is 6 bedrooms in total! It also has the garage that my husband wanted and it is rather large as well! We could probably fit 2-3 cars in there if we really wanted to! The living room and dining room will be perfect for having people over! I cannot wait! This was the second, but not last, place I saw that day.
The next three places I saw that day just could not stand up to the first two I had seen. All of them were great and very beautiful places but they were either too small or just not quite what we were looking for.
I get our pre-contract back from our realtor tomorrow to take to the housing office for our 2:30 pm draft appointment! After this, our inspection is on the 18th and our lease signing is on the 20th! I am hopeful that this means we can move in on the 20th as well!! Yey!!!
I will post more as soon as we know what is happening tomorrow! We also have to file our first Temporary Living Allowance (TLA) claim tomorrow and my hubs told me earlier that apparently it is a pain in the butt.....great. I will write about it all tomorrow!
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