Deal at last !

What a process setting up home, – after looking for ages we have at last signed our lease. What a relief!

Here is how it works –

# deposit of two months (called a bond) ,

# Plus three months rent up front , – May, June and July.

But what makes life interesting is on the 1’st of June we pay for the August.

I had to write this down, to take it all in, and process the their system. When we rented our place out in South Africa , we called for a double deposit, and then the Tennant pays in advance for each month. Really simple!

The new home is in a premiere location, you literally step out the apartment and you cross the walkway and you in the water. One spends so much time at home, and as a creative I feel I need space to think and dream, therefore a view or outlook is very important. It allows one to be a WALTER MITTY

We signed in the presence of the agent and the landlord, and each received hard copies of our agreements. Again a unique experience.

Meeting the landlord was such a pleasure, he has travelled to Africa and shared his experiences and stories and an instant connection was formed through stories and experiences we had both encountered. He was comforted that his home was in good hands, and we were pleased to meet a gentleman whom we were renting from. Its amazing how people open up, conversation and asking people questions and showing interest in their lives leads to commonality of experiences etc…

Simply one can move your furniture in a container or start afresh, we chose to leave our furniture behind as our house in South Africa , we rented semi furnished. Additionally flying furniture here would cost approx 5,500 EURO. The other challenge is homes here are much smaller and our pieces in South Africa are large, so we could not guarantee it all fitting.

So :

# IKEA is our new friend, we are setting up a home for 5 people from scratch. We are buying 90% of all our furnishings from them. Let’s see how efficient they are?

Sue (my wife) is a master decorator, and has spent hours deliberating over the IKEA website, choosing what we need obviously within a budget, Each rooms was carefully planned and the eventual total for everything we needed came to EURO 5,500.00 excluding a coffee machine and mattresses. So furnish is costing EURO 7,100.00 (rands 127,000.00). I fear putting these pieces together, as they need to be assembled and I am not the greatest handyman.

This is the clean canvas, which has never been lived in before, so the challenge is to give the apartment a look and feel through furniture and trinkets.

Having always lived in character homes, not highly modern, this is a big deviation from what we have historically chosen to live in. And obviously much smaller!

When you have a limited budget like we do, there are some fundamental decisions –

Decision 1 was you spend at least 1/3rd of every day asleep, so a really good mattress was key, and thats where we spent a fair deal of money. We chose not to buy this from IKEA but a business rather that specialised in mattress’s. The store we chose is the main supplier for the HILTON HOTEL Group. Two double’s , two singles came to EURO 1450.00 (rand 26,100.00) which we thought was reasonable.

Decision 2 was that we would rather have a small place in a good position than live in a large home away from the lifestyle we seek.

A few things you need before you rent – LOGISTICS

1. NIF number (tax number)
2. Valid ID, passport
3. Proof of earnings
4. Funds to cover deposit (usually 2 months rental upfront) – they call it ‘cautions’
5. Funds to pay up to three months rental upfront

Everything here requires NIF (tax number), so thats probably one of the most important documents to acquire, when you arrive. Get a good attorney, as they sort all these key documents for you.

Once you’ve got an agreement signed, you take that to the electricity dept and register to receive electricity, quite a procedure really. Remembering everything is in Portuguese. Thanks to ‘Google translate’

Every family has a Wishlist when choosing where to live – ours was :

1. Close to the sea / river
2. In an area with good restaurant’s
3. Close to schools
4. An area where we could cycle
5. Good views and space
6. Somewhere where we could feel proud of
7. Pet friendly
8. Clean
9. A garage

So a big Wishlist, – and under normal circumstances one ends up making compromises, and gets half what you want, instead we have much much more, which is a miracle.

The GIAI Kayak Club charges EURO 7,00 per month, and Troy gets a lesson on Tuesday evenings and Saturday 10h00-12h00 and Sunday 10h00-12h00. This is a phenomenal plus to the location we have chosen. It’s on our doorstep.

To join the YACHT Club and learn to sail is EURO 40,00 per month, thats for a Saturday 14h00-17h00 & a Sunday 14h00-17h00. This activity is a mere 150m from our new abode. Troy has joined this activity as well.

Best news is after 2 weeks of waiting my electric bike arrived, a rather big mission setting it up, but wow, its stunning and this will be my mode of transport, – time to get super fit. The bike I bought can do 50km without me peddling once, and go up a hill of 30 degree angle, un-aided. Wish I had this when we were in Cape Town, our road was insanely steep and the assistance would have been greatly appreciated.

We also wanted somewhere pet friendly, and the apartment allows pets which means our best friends can travel soon.

Getting WIFI I will find out about soon, as thats done in-store at MEO, who seem to be the biggest and most efficient, its also where we have our mobile phone contracts.

Literally 70m from our front door are lovely eateries, and a place where I can come and work in the mornings and deal with mails and business. This office will cost me EURO 1,80 per day (my Coffee with milk). This was my tester below

Each day is an adventure, and story is being written in our memories and hearts.

Tomorrow is another big day, we drop the girls off at UTAD to start their University experience. We say good-bye for 3 months, I wonder how we will cope without them?