House Hunting

Well, we've found a place - but I forgot the little cable thingy that allows me to download my pictures - so that will have to wait.

Russell & I spent 2 days looking at houses in an area of Dubai called Mirdif (in case you want to look it up on a map).

First, let me explain the type of housing you can get here.

There are apartments (either low-rise or high-rise). These are the most prevalent & widely available type of housing. The low-rise apartments tend to be in the older and more densely populated areas of town. A lot of these areas are packed with wonderful little neighborhood shops and privately run restaurants. The high-rise apartments are usually in very new buildings and often in very expensive areas in town.

Because of the dog, however, we decided to go for a "villa". These can come as either an independent villa or in a "compound". An independent villa is a single family home inside of a gate and wall. A "compound" can either be a few villas (2 to 4) or many many villas (over 100). The smaller compounds are usually also behind their own private gate and walls. The larger compounds are more like a gated community - there is a gate and security guard barring you from entering the area where 100s of homes are.

We found a villa in a small compound of 6. These are being newly built and should be ready in a few weeks. Our villa is a 4 bedroom, each with their own bathroom. It has a private pool (many smaller compounds have shared pools) in a small back "yard" - actually its a back patio area. We are so excited to have plenty of space to host visitors. We can comfortably host several folks at one time.

Mirdif is a relatively new area. Up until about 3 years ago, there were some isolated homes in the area, but then the area started getting built up with "villas" - mostly for expats. Now, there is quite a city that has sprung up. It is very close to Lyra's new school, Gulf Montessori, in Garhoud (a neighboring area). For me, it will be about 20-25 minutes to work. Given the horror stories about traffic here, that is a very reasonable commute.

Will post pictures - hopefully tomorrow.