We are here in Dubai now on a 2 week visit. Our residence permits are all finished (3 years!) and now we are beginning to look for a home to settle into.
Finding a house has been very overwhelming. We are moving from a house that we have spent years turning into our home and we absolutely love it. Rentals are ... well, they are uncared for and usually very poorly constructed, decorated, etc. On top of finding a house, we have to figure out what neighborhood we'd like to be in during our Dubai assignment. This too is a daunting task as there are so many neighborhoods and the friends we have are scattered amongst them. It's not like Budapest where there are only 2 top neighborhoods to choose from if you have a family in tow. Here, there are at least 6 or 7 that seem more than reasonable.
Just to give you an idea of the style of houses we've been shown, here are 2 from the last couple of days. The first one is laid out almost exactly how I would want my home but the neighborhood is new and, therefore, still being built and very slowly filling up with tenants / new owners. It's lacking green (again, that will take time) and feels like a ghost town / construction site. However, most of the homes are on a golf course, which we would love, and surrounded by sport facilities (professional and recreational).
above. 6 bedroom in Sports Citybelow. 5 bedroom in Arabian Ranches
The above home is for rent (or sale) by owner and it's been lived in by the owner. This is a huge advantage as it's been really well looked after and not neglected by a renter. They have 2 pools (seriously!) - one for the adults and another for small children, a 1/2 court basketball court or tennis court and a sand pit with a playground. Even though I loved the garden, I didn't really like the feel of the home. The bathrooms were outdated (I cannot stand those short counters as Curt and I are too tall) and the kitchen was very dark (they love there dark cabinets and dark granite counters).
Curt and I have both pinpointed some traits that we would like in our new home:
1. a decent sized yard. I learned that the house-to-yard ratio in Dubai can be up to 60 / 40!! This is incredible as in Budapest we are only allowed to build on up to 30% of our land. As you can imagine, the homes are large and the gardens are tiny. I guess this is because there are 5 months of the year that it's just TOO hot to go outside. For ex., yesterday it got up to 40 degrees C
2. a swimming pool. We will have visitors non-stop so if they can lay out by a pool during the majority of their stay, then this will be ideal. Fortunately, many homes have pools here.
3. a bedroom for each of our kids plus a guest room. If we can get up to 6 bedrooms then we can make one an extra TV room for the kids. I've always wanted a second TV room upstairs for when we have dinner parties and / or when the kids have friends spend the night. This would make up for not having a basement as most are built without basements here.
4. a light colored modern kitchen. Preferably with a built-in island.
5. a mature garden with trees, bushes, flowers, grass. Not Oleander (they love that here as it grows well) or anything with sharp prickles (see a lot of these too).
6. and, we would prefer not having a lot of bling. I have seen some homes covered from floor to walls to ceiling with marble!!! And, they love their blingy chandeliers! One home had a gold, sparkly, over-the-top chandelier in all 7 (too many) bedrooms!!!
So, here we are still deciding and wondering, Where will the Clements reside in Dubai?? Only time will tell...
