We’ve been here just short of three months and we’ve already moved three times. Luckily every place we’ve moved into has been furnished, so it’s not like it was a huge nightmare at any point.
The first place we lived in was the little vacation rental at The Garden Cafe. Our original plan was to come to Granada for a week to see if we like it. Then head back to our home in Texas and mull over the idea before making a final decision on whether to move. Well, the way things turned out – which I’ll write about in more detail later – the option to just go to Granada and not come back became the best option. That sounds sketchy, but don’t worry…we aren’t international fugitives or anything…it was more of a timing issue.
Anyway, the point is The Garden Cafe was never supposed to be long term, but this places was:
That is Casa Granadina, and it was huge. Three bedrooms each with their own bathrooms, two big living areas, and a giant kitchen. The house is just two blocks away from La Calzada, the main strip with all the restaurants and bars. Our rent here was $970 / month.
We were supposed to be here for six months, but one month into our lease the place was sold and we had to move. Yeah, pretty effed up, but it wasn’t such a big deal. The wife never really cared too much for the place because it was outdoorsy. Except for the bedrooms, the house was very open to the outside so there were always ants and bugs and at night cats would sneak into the kitchen. Oh yeah, and there were bats that would shit on the living room floor at night. Luckily the place came with a great housekeeper. Onto the next…
We immediately found this little two bedroom place in an area referred to as Tres Cruces (three crosses) because of another house in the area that has three big crosses in the front yard.
This little place was much more like a “real” house – as a Gringo from Texas might consider a house to be, at least. This place was only $300 / month. Every room was mostly enclosed and there were no critter problems. We liked this place much better, but after about a month we decided it wasn’t going to work long term for a few reasons:
1) The place had horrible air flow, and with no A/C or ceiling fans the place got very uncomfortable. For a guy who works from home, I couldn’t really take it after a while.
2) This house was far removed from the center of town which made getting to important destinations a bit of a headache, and often times once we got somewhere it was hell trying to get a taxi back, because they didn’t want to drive out so far. We ended up buying a bicycle during our time here because of this.
So after deciding this place wasn’t going to work we found yet another place. This current place, by comparison to the previous two, is absolutely perfect. It is 1/2 block away from La Calzada. It is a cozy and very comfortable two story house with 1 bedroom (with A/C!) and two big ceiling fans in the living area. The air flow is great. Very rarely does the house get hot. Oh…and it has a 57″ flat screen TV.
The house is owned by the same guy who owns O’shae’s Pub up on La Calzada…where we had dinner and beers last night, as a matter of fact. Here’s a video tour of the house:
