Housing: 72 of 365

Shannon at Cyberbones is hosting the Round Up this week and the theme is housing. Head on over to check it out.

Other than security issues that had to be fixed with our house and the bedbugs that hitched a ride on our HHE somewhere along the way, most of the stuff we have dealt with here, we either dealt with overseas before joining State (ants, cockroaches, weird electricity) or we dealt with during our long tenure as renters in the US (sloppy maintenance, outdated appliances, water going out, etc.)

In all honesty, our home here is nicer than anywhere we have lived in the past (and we could never afford a place like this on our own dime). I've lived in a lot of different places in the US and overseas and you can always find good and bad with any place, this one included. I can always tell you stuff I liked about every place I have lived as well. Just comes with living in rented spaces I think. When you don't build it and/or remodel it yourself, a place will always have some things you don't love. (It might also have some cool things that you won't think of doing yourself, like Donna's Scooby-do wall. How cool is that?) The only thing that is harder about being with State is that there is always that layer of bureaucracy you have to go through to get stuff done. You can't just call up your landlord about stuff, GSO does it. On the other hand, you don't have to deal with your landlord, GSO does it. Cuts both ways. In the past (even in the US) we always had to install our own CO2 detectors, hang our own pictures (even on cement and brick walls), and fix lots of the stuff that goes wrong. Even though our management section had issues at one point, our landlord has always taken care of stuff promptly and GSO coordinated it. We kind of got lucky though I think with having a great landlord. 

If you are looking for closet space, Mexico might be the place for you, at least around here. Most of the homes here have amazing closet space. I don't know if it is Mexico in general or a GSO staff that has worked hard to find good closet space. In our home, every room (except one half bath) has a wall of closets, bookcases, cupboards or something similar. Like this:

All but one of our bedrooms also have similar walls of bookcases/cupboards. We also have a hallway that is closets all the way down it. The full baths all have nice cupboards and/or drawers. The kitchen also has tons of storage space.

I am not a carpet fan so we have loved the wood and tile floors.

In short, we love our house here. Which is good because we have spent a lot of time in it. It has had its issues (electricity going out, no water, gate issues, pests, leaks from rain, bird's nests in the BBQ, leaking AC, etc.) but overall it has been fantastic. Some of those issues might have been issues if we'd been renting in the US or had a home of our own. We will miss this house. From what I have heard talking to people, Mexico housing tends to be pretty nice. Quirky sometimes but nice. Our large house has been kind of a lot to keep clean though, so we are looking forward to the possibility of an apartment in Asia. When we live in places where we can get out a lot, we really prefer smaller digs so that we spend less time cleaning or organizing and more time exploring. For here though, where we had to spend lots of time at home, it's been perfect. We really grateful for it.


(Just a note, we tend to laugh at the weird stuff and just embrace it as part of the experience. We have wood paneling and it makes me laugh every time I see it. Our friends have a giant elk head on their wall that came with the house; they decorate it to go with the seasons. If someone needs high style and the latest in home decor/construction, it would probably be tougher for them than it is for us. That said, our condo in the US is brand new and is very much my style as far as furniture and decor goes. So, I do have a home that fits what I like. I just am not there much.)

FS Kids: The kids' favorite feature has been the yard, hands down. It's mostly cement but that is awesome for scooter and bike riding as well as soccer, chalk drawing, and basketball.  (I have some awesome pics of it but I don't post pictures of the outside of our house for security reasons.) They love opening the side gates and doing laps around the house.