Our house

The kids and I have been here two and a half weeks now (Mike got here several months ago). 


We moved into a beautiful house, with a 3-year lease.  It is a 4Bd/5Ba, with the master bedroom and common areas upstairs, and three small bedrooms downstairs, along with a small living room and kitchenette.  Jesse and Morgan each chose a bedroom, and the remaining area will be for our family and friends who visit.  

When these photos were taken, the only furnishings in the house were those belonging to the owners.  Since our own household items were delivered, it's a lot more cluttered, and we're still working on getting organized.

The picture below is taken from the front door.  We're maybe a football-field length away from the sea (or less).  For the first few days, we left all the windows and doors open, and enjoyed the outside sounds and the constant breeze.  But it wasn't long before we decided that the humidity was too much of a problem.  The floors and surfaces were always wet, and we knew our furniture and electronics wouldn't hold up to the salt air.  So as soon as the movers left, we closed all the windows and set the A/C at 79, which seems to do a good job keeping the climate controlled inside the house.

With electricity costing 51 cents a Kilowatt hour, (compared to Phoenix, which is less than ten cents/kWh), we've been told that this house costs as much as $1,000 a month for electricity.  Ouch!  Many houses don't even have air conditioning, but the humidity and general climate is different, depending on where you live.  Where our house is, it feels like the waves are breaking right into the front door!

The front windows have electric hurricane shutters that come down with the touch of a button, or if there's a power outage, with a manual crank.  This is supposed to be a busy hurricane season, so I'm sure we'll get to use them.    Hurricane season is from Jun 1st to Nov 30th, so although airfare is less expensive during this time frame, it might not be the best time to visit.  Oh, it would be fun if you were already here safe and sound, but the problem would be delayed and cancelled flights and such. 

Also for hurricane protection, the front porch has a roll-down screen that is installed at the beginning of hurricane season, and removed after the season has passed.  When there's a hurricane, you unroll it and clip it into permanent anchors in the floor.  This prevents damage from flying debris, mostly.


The house has plenty of windows, which helps minimize the feeling of being shut-in.  You might notice there isn't much on the walls.  They're ALL made of concrete (as is the floor between the levels), so we can't just tap a nail into the wall.  I've never been in such a solid house before this, I'm sure it'll be unfazed by the hurricanes.

The kitchen is small, but gets the job done.  We haven't used the dishwasher yet, in order to minimize our water consumption.  We've learned to wash everything as we go along, which was a real pain for the first few days, but now we're used to it.  If you leave even the tiniest crumb on the counter, or juice in a glass, the ants will stream onto the counters. Everyone is doing their part, washing, wiping, drying, and putting away.  

Below is the view from the window above the kitchen sink, looking out at the very heavy vegetation of the unused lots behind us.  You can also see the top of the garage, and the solar hot water heater.  It does a good  job - the water is always scalding hot, and we've never run out, even when we all four takes showers after returning from the beach.

 

Speaking of showers, our water supply comes from the rain.  There are two huge underground tanks that fill up with rain run-off from the roof.  Then it goes through some kind a filter and is pumped throughout the house, just like with a pump in an RV.  Many people just add bleach to sanitize the water in the cistern, but Mike bought and installed a UV filter so we don't have to use bleach.  The water is soft, clean, and with the addition of a carbon filter in the kitchen, it tastes very, very nice.  

Of course you want to know where you'll be staying when you come visit.  The guest room currently has a nice set of bunk beds, and there is a queen bed in the lower living room.  I hoped we'd be able to fit the queen bed into the guest room, along with the bunk beds, but all the rooms are too small.  When we have the guest accommodations just right, I'll take pictures and dedicate a post entirely to planning your visit, including packing suggestions, airline options, etc.

I'll leave you with a picture of our driveway.  Just driving away from the house, with this view straight to the Caribbean, evokes excitement about all the beautiful and wondrous things that we might be on our way to do or see. So... have you planned your visit yet???

Until next time,

Laurel