Just a small part of this huge garden with several tree huts!
Garden
I'm longing for this cool garden and pool where we could spend some hours a few weeks ago at our friends' house in Granada. We went there on Sunday and I wish we lived a bit closer so we could be there more often. My gosh, only looking at these pictures makes me want to go back right now, haha. For some such a normal thing to have, a garden and a pool, for others something they dream about for a decade or so. Before We lost our home in Holland, we had a garden but it was not one utilized very much, the weather was often shit and when it was good, we just didn't use it as much as we should because that outside area became something normal. We all know when something becomes normal, at some point, you stop using it or just don't use it too often.
Life in Spain is different than life in Holland where they are much stricter with bedtimes for example, a child of this age should be in bed by this time if you walk outside at 10 PM with a young child, people would chat behind your back with disgrace and judgemental comments. While here in Spain, it's very normal to be out late with kids, even babies simply because they start eating around 10 PM.
Spanish people also spend a lot of time outside, having tapas in the afternoon or going to the beach, etc. Having an outside space here is important because of this lifestyle. We enjoyed it to the max the first two weeks we arrived in Spain a year ago. Our Airbnb had a wonderful terrace and every moment we could, we sat there to have a drink, eat or just enjoy the view. This is how I envisioned our Spanish adventure from the beginning, being outside a lot. Yet we ended up with an apartment without any outside space and feeling locked up for more than a year now.
Time to set things in motion
We decided that we're going to take the fine for leaving early and breaking the contract if we leave this year which is a waste of money but as we had no choice a year ago, what's the point of feeling bad about it instead of just accepting the situation as it is and deal with it?
We went back and forward in terms of our plans, first, our plan was to move to another part of this area and not give up on this coast just yet but now that we went back a second time to Granada and the surroundings, we are drawn back there again. We really love nature over there, it's much greener and here everything is sandy and dry. We had the same feeling last time and I think we should listen to these feelings as there are several pros that make it more appealing to live there than living in this desert coastal area.
Yes, we wanted to live by the sea, but now that we're here we don't think we should have focused on this but a pool instead. I would be very surprised if my boyfriend ends up going kitesurfing once before we head back to Granada. I think we will end up driving from Granada to the nearest coast instead to get him back on the water. Which is great for him as he will have a buddy to go kitesurfing with.
Househunting
I hate the househunting part of moving, why? Because most of these real estate agents don't bother to respond unless you contact them exactly at the right time when they look at their phone otherwise you're just put on the pile of interested people and I don't believe they work with a first come first serve method at all. Meaning you could fall madly in love with a house just published and end up not hearing anything while you see the agent who publishes it is currently still online while you contact them.
Either way, if we want to get out of here, I will have to deal with it. I try not to get sucked into hours of searching though but instead, just limit it to the last day's ads and check out if there is a new listing suitable and then forget about it if not. We felt a huge spark last week or so. A house we both do not like but really want! The thing is, it's 1,5 hours drive away and that makes the hunting slightly more difficult.
One of the tree huts, ain't that cool?
The house
Unlike most listings we find good enough, this was not an apartment, it is an actual house! Which is of course much better because it means having a garden and garage and just more space in general. It's very big, at least twice the size of this apartment and there's even one bedroom more than we requested. It's unfurnished though. We already agreed that this is a better option because we are quite tired of dealing with other people's furniture as it's mostly not to our taste and often also comes from dump stores where they just take a brief look without actually thinking about if it's a good match with the home and then buy it because it's cheap.
In this home, I have to admit we were luckier than other homes before this in terms of the furniture, but there are huge cons that I really wish to avoid for our (hopefully) final rental before we purchase something of our own.
I did not think we'd end up considering an unfurnished home without a kitchen though, but here we are, it's happening. Why? Because the rest is more than we hoped and could find until now, I don't believe we find something better than this and we are willing to make it work by getting the basics first and slowly adding what's needed while being on a very strict budget maybe for a while.
Having a house to really call our home where we are happy and opportunities to pick up old hobbies as well as new business ventures because of the newly acquired space at home is worth a lot as you can see. I see us living there for several years and being very happy until we move out to our own property later.
We're currently waiting for the broker to give us the green light for a visit as there are many interested but he also said not many pass the scoring system, we should easily pass it based on income though. Fingers crossed, we do have a backup apartment we would like to see but that's only if this one doesn't work out.
Salt water pool, so nice!
Heatwave
Currently, we experience a heat wave here, as per tradition and I'm not handling the first days of the wave very well. I decided to stay in during the afternoon so it's ideal that I have the morning shift to summer school so that I can take care of some groceries or run errands while after that, I'm locking myself in to avoid being overheated. Today was a good reminder that I really should not be dumb and take a 20-minute walk on the market as we had to wait before school ended. We went to an appointment together and it didn't make sense to go home first. July and August are definitely not suitable for afternoon market visits, at least not if you are so heavily affected by this heat as I am.
Pardon my child and her chocolate mouth, lol
Taking it slow when needed
Yesterday I was so nauseous from the heat that I could not even sit in my office and broke my weeks of blog streak where I published one every day. It felt bad for having to break the streak as I would have loved the monthly author badge this month, but let's say health comes first. I don't have any content prepped left, have to give that a good push again soon when I feel energized.
Closer to old friends
I really hope that soon we will be visiting our friends in Granada much more often instead of just on weekends when we have time to be on the road for 3 hours (return). I felt so chill being there, they are the kind of people you wish to have around. I really hope soon these weekend visits will become any-day-of-the-week visits being a short drive away from our new home.
May the real estate gods be with us please, it's time for a huge change which will be our last step towards becoming home owners and I'm so freaking excited to be at that point instead of working towards it. Things are depending on others mostly, which I can't really handle well, haha I like to be in control but I can only wait for an answer right now.
Wish us luck and send us some good vibes, please! With some luck, next weekend we will have better news and things to look forward to.