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| Living room |
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| Kitchen | |
I haven’t seen an episode of House Hunters International in
a long long time, but we had our own house hunting experience today. Months ago
on Facebook we found a lady who moved from Northern CA to Belize. She’s been
living here for a year now and started a property management business called
Red Roof Property Management. Since all our efforts to find houses on our own
came up empty we decided to email her. Turns out Sharon is back in the US for a
couple weeks! But her boyfriend could do some research and show us some houses.
We met up with Nigel in the morning and for $50US he’d spend 2 hours showing us
houses, showing us around San Ignacio, etc. We headed out of town toward the
Belize/Guatemala border to see house #1. Nigel needed to call him when we got
close so he could meet up with us and we could follow him to the house. We got
out there and they guy didn’t answer his phone. Not wanting to waste any time,
Kris said we’d try him later and move onto house #2. House #2 was in San Ignacio,
a single story house, with a gated driveway and fenced in yard. It had two
bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and washing machine. There weren’t
any supplies for the kitchen (dishes, pots, silverware, etc) and no internet
was currently hooked up. Kris was ready to say yes, but I said I wanted to wait
until we saw house #3. Well then Nigel tells me that house #3 isn’t even
furnished, so it’s not an option for us at all. The owner of house #2 starts
backpedalling when he finds out we can only rent for one month, maybe 2. We
said we’d be in touch. House #1 guy
still wasn’t answering his phone. I was pretty discouraged at this point.
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| Bathroom |
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| Boys' room- Aaron's bed |
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Nigel picked up a
copy of “Buy and Sell”, the same type if classified magazine that we have at
home! He asked if we’d consider an apartment. We agreed and he called on an
apartment in Santa Elena (which is just across a small bridge from San
Ignacio). We met Abel and his wife Ruth and saw their second floor apartment.
It had 2 air conditioned bedrooms with queen beds in each, one bathroom,
kitchen, living room, and deck. It was beautiful! It was also at the top end of
our budget. He was asking $1500BZ/month, so $750US, and utilities were not
included, but once a week maid service was as well as internet. They also have
3 dogs (kept in a gated area outside)and we have a gated parking spot for the
car. He was more than willing to work with us as month-to-month renters. We
drove away without committing but only got a couple blocks away before calling
him back and saying we’d take it and could we move in today? We agreed to meet
up in a couple hours. We went back to the hotel and packed up our stuff. Then
we had lunch at Rosita’s. Kris had a super large fajita, I had chicken with
rice and beans, J had a hotdog, and Aaron had a slice of pizza; we also shared
a Sprite, horchata and bottled water= $21BZ (11.50US). Then Abel called and
said that they’d be putting two twin beds in the boys’ bedroom for us! So nice
of them! They really are great people! Abel,
Ruth and their daughter Monica live downstairs in a 4 bedroom 3 bath house and
we live upstairs.
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| Boys' room- J's bed |
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| Our room |
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When we got there their cleaning lady was giving the place a
once-over. Abel set the water heater for the bathroom, turned on the gas for
the stove, etc. By the end of the week he’s going to install a washing machine
for me on our deck. Ruth let me use her washing machine last night because we
were nearly out of clean clothes! It was such a comforting feeling to unpack
the suburban knowing that we won’t have to pack it again for at least one
month, hopefully two. We had a 5 gallon jug of water in the back of the car
just in case and it tipped over on two separate occasions soaking the back rug
and some of our boxes. Kris spent most of the afternoon pulling up the carpet
from the trunk area and removing the water.
The boys were thrilled to have all their toys out and happily played in
their room. The hours passed quickly as I unpacked bags, boxes, and bins making
this house our home.
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| Back Deck |
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| Side deck |
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We’d brought quite a bit of food with us so for dinner we
made hot dogs, with chili and chips and water- tons of water. It is so hot and
humid here we won’t have any problem drinking enough water each day! Thankfully
the water in Belize is safe for drinking; we filled up our many water bottled
and got them chilling in the refrigerator. Our kitchen also has a microwave,
coffee maker and stovetop with oven. We only have one skillet and Ruth lent us
a stock pot with a lid.
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| Stairs and Suburban parking spot |
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| Master closet |
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After dinner the boys enjoyed a long and cool bath. While we
tried to get the a/c unit working in their bedroom. Abel came up and determined
that the breaker for that unit had been shut off. He quickly fixed it and soon
their room was cooling down. I think the
boys were in bed by 8pm and Aaron fell right asleep. Jonathan came out a few times
before finally falling asleep around 10pm. We kept hearing thunder and seeing
lightning maybe we were in for a storm?
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| Boys' closet |
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