Moving on

Here we go again. We're moving in October. Not that I didn't know we'd be moving within a year; actually I did know that. And I can't believe a year is almost up. Yesterday I was at a birthday party for one of son's friends, and was talking to one of my friends, just putting the word out there that, you know, we'd be moving by the end of the year and if she just so happened to hear of a place for rent in her area (she lives right next door to the Waldorf school that we're thinking of sending son to next year for kindergarten), you know, P., could you let us know? And P. said, as a matter of fact, H.'s (her daughter-in-law and also my good friend) old house was for rent, maybe you could call the owner and see what's up.

I should say here that I always liked H.'s house. It was where H. and her family were living when we first met through playgroup; we had quite a few playgroups in that house, so I know it pretty well. When H.'s family outgrew the house and moved in next door to P., I immediately wanted to move into her old house. Esposo was against it at the time, as he didn't care for Escazu all that much (and let's face it, Escazu's drawbacks are numerous -- it's crowded, traffic can be a bitch, crime is up in that area all over the place, houses are close together, and everything is more expensive there), so instead we stayed in Ciudad Colon.

And here we are, looking for a house in Escazu (because it also does have its benefits -- close to absolutely everything, such as shopping, restaurants, theaters, close to son's new school [only five blocks away, we could actually walk to and from], close to all of our friends and all of son's friends, which means a lot less driving, and with the price of gas going up, even my thrifty Toyota is getting expensive). And my friend's old house just happens to be for rent again. So this time, esposo called the landlady, who remembered him from playgroup, and she said she'd love to have us, and the house would be available in October (right when our one-year lease is up on this house), and she'd hold it for us and let us know as soon as we could go look at it. I don't really believe in luck, but I do believe in fate. This was meant to be, and it was meant to happen now.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the landlandy, who lives next door, has 10 chihuahuas. If you don't know me personally, you might not know how much I absolutely adore chihuahuas. My best dog that ever lived, Lucy girl, was part chi, and my other baby, Mable, was full chi. And Tiny/Sally is a chi. So I take that as a sign. And of course she doesn't mind our nine dogs because she herself is a dog lover.

You might be asking yourself what the house is like and what rent goes for. This particular house is on a dead-end street near San Antonio, Escazu. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a big kitchen, living room/dining room combo, laundry room, back and front patios, covered garage, plus all the normal hookups. The yard isn't huge, but it is big enough. The rent will be $800 a month. You might think that's expensive, but I can tell you that Escazu is one of the most expensive places to live in the whole country, and actually for a 4Br/3Ba house, that is a really good deal. So I'm looking forward to moving.

And yes, I will miss a lot of things about this house: the wildlife here is amazing; I'll have to say goodbye forever to my Stumpy Stumpleton. The only owl I've ever seen in my life was at this house; when we moved in, a bat was living in our house. Birds come and visit our birdbath, butterflies of all kinds visit our flowers, and tiny hummingbirds play in and out of the purple vervain every day. I'll miss all of them the most. I'll miss the amazing, expansive views to the other side of the valley; I'll miss not being surrounded by neighbors. I won't miss leaking faucets, toilets, and roofs. I won't miss the lack of closets. I won't even miss the space of this house; honestly it is far too big for us anyway. And I certainly won't miss having to drive 30-45 minutes to go to son's playgroup, dinners out, friend's houses, shopping, etc. Last night we were in Escazu having dinner, and I told esposo, won't it be nice when we can drive home in five minutes instead of 45 minutes?

Onward and upward.