Monday 25 March 2013

Pressing on

I am so tired tonight, for some reason, I don't know why.  I think I got plenty of good sleep last night but I can barely keep my eyes open.  I don't even want to go out to get something to eat.  Now you know I am really tired.  Given my present condition I'll try to be Joe Friday and get the facts, but spare you the ever-so-interesting details.

The search continues for the Irish Casa De Vance (or téach Vance, in Irish).

There seems to be some momentum picking up in the quality and quality of the housing I'm seeing, but I am still not convinced I have found "the one" just yet.  There have been several properties I get a little excited about only to find they're already taken.

The first place was very accessible to work and was overall suitable, but frankly was in no condition to be shown to potential tenants.  It still had old food in the cupboards and was all-around very dirty.  Again, the rooms were so small we'd have to put the kids on the floor even if we got bunk beds.  I am still a little hesitant to even ask if we can pull out the landlord's existing furniture to put in our own.

In between my first and second appointment today I was able to walk along the beach (yes, they call it the beach, not the shore).  The wind was blowing very hard but my jacket is actually an excellent windbreaker, so it was still pretty enjoyable.


The pathway eventually winds its way up to a park and nature preserve, the Irishtown Park:

Second viewing.  Nicer place, but no master bathroom?  I can't imagine what Sunday mornings would be like.  It was also the first time I looked inside a clothes washer.  I think you could fit a dishtowel inside it, maybe two if they're small.  Also unfurnished and above my price limit.  Out.

Back to the command center for lunch and more searching and phone calls.  Get one setup for a place in the northern quarter of town.  This is going to be good because I get to ride the Dart and see how long it takes.  If it's under 45 minutes it's tractable, given the time necessarily spent walking to and from the train would still give you a commute of an hour door-to-door.  In this case it was about 35 minutes, so we're in the green there.

The place itself was a typical 3 bedroom townhouse, overall pretty small but at least the master bedroom had  its own bathroom.  It's compelling because it's very close to the Dart, the ocean (Bull Island), and a gym with very reasonable rates (yes, I checked).  Also, across the street is St. Anne's park, a pretty impressive collection of walking paths and sport fields.  


Even more impressive were the kids out for soccer practice is temperatures barely above freezing.  

I'm trying to coordinate with Liz on whether we should throw the dice on this place or hold onto the chance of something better coming along.  

I don't have any viewings set up for tomorrow, but I do have two setup for Wednesday.  

After the viewing I headed back here, where I now try to type out the day's events without dozing off.  I'll skip dinner tonight and make up for it by eating extra tomorrow for breakfast.  Included with my stay is the hotel's "Full Irish Breakfast".  Admittedly it's really good, and there's plenty of ordinary stuff there if one is too shy to try blood pudding (yum, just don't think about how it's made).

With a completely empty calendar for tomorrow, I'm wondering what to do.  Should I continue to pound the streets looking for homes?  In all honesty what's out there is pretty disheartening; it's all small, run down, and way, WAY overpriced.  But this is one of those cases where you can't quit.  Family on the way, we've sold nearly every single thing we owned to make this transition happen.  The Rubicon has been crossed, the ships of Cortes have been burned, and the Vances are coming to Ireland.


1 comment:

  1. I think you are jet lagged, delayed jet lag. sounds like the house hunt is going better. it also sounds like you need to be on International Househunters, but of course you have to find a place first.

    ~pk

    ReplyDelete