Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

When Sweetie and I were forced to downsize in March (when the rent on his house virtually doubled), we looked at quite a few houses. There was the "Italian House," which was absolutely gorgeous, but entirely too small for us. It had no laundry room, no storage, no basement, etc. There was a large open area on the first floor, a small-ish kitchen, and a yard with a heated lap pool. Upstairs, it simply had 4 rooms (two with walk-in closets), each with a toilet and shower, but two of the rooms were QUITE small. That was it. There was no place to put a washer and dryer, etc. It was a shame because the house was absolutely beautiful. Brand new, great attention to detail. Imported everything from Italy. But, we declined because it was too small.

The house remained vacant for MONTHS. But finally, about a month ago, we saw that some diplomats had moved in. Then, a week ago, I noticed that a flag had been erected and a sign put up declaring it the residence of an ambassador. So, we turned down an ambassador's house.

Another house we looked at was a semi-detached (aka duplex) on a somewhat dilapidated street that seems on the upswing. The house was big enough and though it wasn't perfect, it was the only acceptable one we'd seen so far (it too was brand new, and actually not even finished yet). We put a bid in on it, only to find out later that someone had already signed a contract on it (such the Israeli way to keep showing a house after someone else has sealed a deal on it). Anyway, we found out later that the people who had been living in the house we eventually took (and live in now) moved into THAT house! Interesting.

Well, we took a walk by it the other day and low and behold, but a HUGE house is being built right next to it! Vindication!!! We were so pleased. Yes, there's a house being built behind us, but it's only two stories (no basement). And it's sort of diagonally behind us, not directly behind us. On the other hand, the house being constructed by the duplex is ginormous and has a basement (ie: more construction, more noise). Because the house is a duplex, this new construction will effective block out many of the nice views in the house and lots of natural light.

So, even though the construction we've been dealing with has been a nightmare, we've learned that it could always be worse....:-)