We finally found a home! by Jodi
We spent the morning driving over an hour to a house in the jungle a lot further south than where we are now, at a beach called Playa Negra. The house was great and the guy said Howler monkeys come and sit on the roof and there were mango and banana and papaya trees in the backyard. Plus, the beach was just down the road. So, I thought we'd found the perfect house. It had great internet capabilities, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and was right by the beach for Kevin. But, as we drove out on the dirt road that took a good 10-15 minutes just to get back to the main road, we realized that it wasn't in the area we were hoping for, it was pricier than it should be for the location, and it was really small. Plus, the owner needed to store all his stuff there, so he'd kind of taken over one of the bathrooms and showers with all his storage. It also didn't have air conditioning and the window coverings weren't very well sealed to keep mosquitos out.
Kevin has been doing all the online house hunting, so when he told me that most homes in the area are rented during the holidays already, making the long term rentals few and far between, I just lowered my expectations dramatically and figured I'd just be happy with anything we found. But Kevin felt like he could find something better. So, we came home, he talked to a guy in our branch who does real estate, and he told us there was a home in Villareal. It's in land a little, but close to the school I want the kids to go to and not far from the church, which is ideal since we have to drive to one of those two places every day except Saturday. In Flamingo, the school is a good 20 minute drive each way and church is 45 minutes each way. So, I'd kind of been hoping to find a place in Villareal because I don't want to spend so much time commuting everywhere. But, since it isn't on the coast, Kevin wasn't as interested in it.
Anyhow, we just got back from looking at the house and it was absolutely perfect--and cheaper than the other house we saw today. It was a very Americanized home--a lot like your standard townhome in the states. It had a covered parking area with family room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom on the main level. Then 3 bedrooms and a landing area upstairs with 2 more bathrooms. It had a big fenced backyard, a rarity here, with a community pool right in front of the house. Plus, it's in a gated community, so hopefully that will help with the petty theft that's apparently so rampant down here. And, the guy who's renting it right now is moving out on the 15th, which is the day our vacation rental time is up. So crazy.
So, it had everything we were looking for...except for the ocean in the backyard. But, after having looked at several pretty disappointing homes and finally finding this one, we were ecstatic. We told our new friend to book it for us and we're really hopeful that everything will work out and that we're finally done dragging our kids all over the coast, across super sketchy dirt roads that never seem to end, looking for a home.
The only thing that we keep thinking is, so far, Costa Rica is not cheaper than living in the states. Groceries are just as expensive and much more expensive for anything that's imported from the U.S. Eating out is more expensive. Cars are about 30-50% more expensive. Gas is 80-100% more expensive. Sales tax is 13%. Plus, we've got to pay to send our kids to private school, which will run us a minimum of $300 a month per kid at the cheapest school, in addition to all the registration and uniform fees. So, we've been trying to reevaluate why we wanted to come here since the monetary benefits are not panning out the way we'd hoped, which is hard for me because that was one of my biggest motivations to do this whole crazy adventure.
But, aside from the disappointment of the lack of financial savings, we are giving our kids a great cultural experience along with the opportunity to become somewhat bilingual (I hope). We'll have more and different opportunities to serve and do missionary work than we would have otherwise. We're able to spend more time just focusing on building our little family's relationships. And, we're living in paradise.
Kevin just walked past me naked and I lost my train of thought.
Anyhow, so our plan now is to move into this home and keep looking for the perfect beach house to snag as soon as the high season is over. And, if you get into a long term rental during low season, you can secure a rental rate that's a lot cheaper than you can if you start renting during the high season.
I'll post pictures after we move out of this house. The internet is so slow, it takes an hour to upload a few pictures.
Kevin has been doing all the online house hunting, so when he told me that most homes in the area are rented during the holidays already, making the long term rentals few and far between, I just lowered my expectations dramatically and figured I'd just be happy with anything we found. But Kevin felt like he could find something better. So, we came home, he talked to a guy in our branch who does real estate, and he told us there was a home in Villareal. It's in land a little, but close to the school I want the kids to go to and not far from the church, which is ideal since we have to drive to one of those two places every day except Saturday. In Flamingo, the school is a good 20 minute drive each way and church is 45 minutes each way. So, I'd kind of been hoping to find a place in Villareal because I don't want to spend so much time commuting everywhere. But, since it isn't on the coast, Kevin wasn't as interested in it.
Anyhow, we just got back from looking at the house and it was absolutely perfect--and cheaper than the other house we saw today. It was a very Americanized home--a lot like your standard townhome in the states. It had a covered parking area with family room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom on the main level. Then 3 bedrooms and a landing area upstairs with 2 more bathrooms. It had a big fenced backyard, a rarity here, with a community pool right in front of the house. Plus, it's in a gated community, so hopefully that will help with the petty theft that's apparently so rampant down here. And, the guy who's renting it right now is moving out on the 15th, which is the day our vacation rental time is up. So crazy.
So, it had everything we were looking for...except for the ocean in the backyard. But, after having looked at several pretty disappointing homes and finally finding this one, we were ecstatic. We told our new friend to book it for us and we're really hopeful that everything will work out and that we're finally done dragging our kids all over the coast, across super sketchy dirt roads that never seem to end, looking for a home.
The only thing that we keep thinking is, so far, Costa Rica is not cheaper than living in the states. Groceries are just as expensive and much more expensive for anything that's imported from the U.S. Eating out is more expensive. Cars are about 30-50% more expensive. Gas is 80-100% more expensive. Sales tax is 13%. Plus, we've got to pay to send our kids to private school, which will run us a minimum of $300 a month per kid at the cheapest school, in addition to all the registration and uniform fees. So, we've been trying to reevaluate why we wanted to come here since the monetary benefits are not panning out the way we'd hoped, which is hard for me because that was one of my biggest motivations to do this whole crazy adventure.
But, aside from the disappointment of the lack of financial savings, we are giving our kids a great cultural experience along with the opportunity to become somewhat bilingual (I hope). We'll have more and different opportunities to serve and do missionary work than we would have otherwise. We're able to spend more time just focusing on building our little family's relationships. And, we're living in paradise.
Kevin just walked past me naked and I lost my train of thought.
Anyhow, so our plan now is to move into this home and keep looking for the perfect beach house to snag as soon as the high season is over. And, if you get into a long term rental during low season, you can secure a rental rate that's a lot cheaper than you can if you start renting during the high season.
I'll post pictures after we move out of this house. The internet is so slow, it takes an hour to upload a few pictures.
Yay for finding a new house! Can't wait to see pictures...
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