So I've been getting some questions about what the digs are like. We call it the Castle.It's huge - five bedrooms, five and 1/2 baths (including the maid's quarters downstairs), and a one-car garage. All the floors are tiled and there are big windows in all the rooms. The ceilings are about eleven feet high. There's a dining room and family room downstairs. The kitchen is clearly not intended to be used by the people who live here - it's small and pretty basic, separated from the rest of the house in floor plan and accoutrements.
No, we don't have a maid. We're just not here long enough and face it, with the boys in school I think I'll be able to handle that job.
Upstairs we have the bedrooms. Each bedroom has its private bath of course, each with a tub or shower and "It has something extra!" --J "It has a baby sink!" --A. That would be the bidet, a source of great interest and amusement. A and C are sharing a room which leaves a room empty, which is now filled with a sprawl of LEGOs that I don't have to step on. Not bad.
There are steps to the third floor, but that's really just the roof where all the a/c units and "cold" water tank and water heater are. Really there is no cold water - it's hot enough up there that the water from the cold tap is too hot for the kids to comfortably bathe. I shower with the tap full on cold and it's just right. My meat thermometer says the water from the hot tap is upwards of 130 degrees. You can walk around on the roof - it is covered with white lava rocks and the area is walled so it's completely private. This is where I hang the laundry. I understand it's quite nice up there once the weather breaks.
We have a small walled back yard, mostly brick patio with a small garden of succulents, ornamental grasses, and some variety of desert rose.
It's a reasonably large compound, which is basically a walled (notice a theme?) neighborhood block. We have about 56 villas here, with each connected on one side to another that is the mirror image. In the middle of the compound there's a community center with a gathering space with a big TV, a multi-purpose room with ping-pong and billiards tables, and a gym with decent equipment. Behind the community center is the pool, with a small wading area and a deeper pool for playing (no laps).
Past the pool is the tennis court, lit at night, and past the tennis court is our back yard.
This is taken from the pool area across the tennis court to the back of our house. You can see the wall for the back yard below, the second floor windows, and the wall for the roof patio area above. Our house continues further to the left but I didn't know that when I snapped it...They are just this week installing a kids' playground with a slide and stuff next to the tennis court. It think the work is being done by genies. Every day I walk by and see the progress that has been made but I've never seen a worker. They're digging irrigation, pouring concrete, and building a play set 40 feet from my house and I wouldn't ever have noticed if I didn't walk by on the way to the pool.
I didn't post any pictures of the inside because there's nothing much to see. Although it's a surprisingly nice furnished villa and CMU has taken great pains to stock it with the essentials that we will need, it still feels bare. We've been into a villa of a family that's been here for over a year and it's nicely decorated and feels quite homey. But we won't be here long enough to invest in shelves, rugs, wall hangings, all the personal touches. There is a noticeable echo. I was really looking forward to leaving behind all the STUFF that crams my life and home; I found that I miss it. Maybe I'll return home with a greater appreciation for all that I have.
Maybe I'll also ask the house sitters to quietly remove three or four bins of kids' junk...
