We are currently looking for both a house in Georgia (to give us a US residence, GA because my sister will live in it and take care of it while she is in med school) and a place to rent here in Seoul.
Definitions:
US
house=single family dwelling
apartment= dwelling in a multi-unit building
flat=small multi-unit building (term is not used much)
villa= large, expensive house
Cairo
flat= dwelling in a multi-unit unit building
villa= single family house with a garden
Seoul
apartment= dwelling in a building taller than 5 stories
villa= dwelling in a building 5 stories or less
house= single family dwelling
So, a villa in Seoul is a flat in Cairo and an apartment in the US. Also, in Cairo and Seoul, a yard is a garden.
We are looking at Seoul villas and houses. Though I like the idea of a house with a garden, we found an awesome flat last night. The advantages of a villa over a house are: security, maintenance, community. The building is only two years old, it is walking distance to the metro, shopping and an American housing area that has a commissary, pool, etc. It has a garden area so I will be able to walk the dog, but she won't be able to run free. Still, I think she would rather be walked than have a yard. Even if you have a yard for your dog, you should walk your dog, but we all get lazy, especially with babies.
I wish we knew more of what we could get. I don't want to lose this villa, but I want to get the best we can. One nice thing is that the government (read: American tax payers) are paying for it, so there is less stress. The housing market is a bit of a racket (isn't it, everywhere?). The realtors know how much you are allotted based on your job position and family size and that is how much whatever you choose will cost. There is a housing office which has to approve it, so there is some oversight, but still, it is very expensive!
The house we saw has a great yard, beautiful front door and lots of space, but the kitchen and bathrooms are older and not very nice. They are fine, but not great. The kitchen and bathrooms in the villa are beautiful and new. We are going to look at the villa again today so we can see it in the daylight.
Curt and Ian are napping after a hard morning spent brunching here at the Dragon Hill lodge.
On the Georgia house hunt, we need to get Powers of Attorney for my sister and decide which property to make an offer on next. We are looking at 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom houses with yards and either a garage or shed because we have stuff that is in storage from before we went overseas that we are going to have delivered to this new house so we can use it before it gets completely trashed. Some things, though just need to be stored and you can't pick and choose, you have to take all of the stored goods or none.
We found a great house, but the deal didn't go through. There were a few structural issues that were identified on a previous inspection that we wanted them to fix, but they would not agree because they said it was "too hard" and "inaccessible" which I translate to mean "too expensive" to fix. Structural issues are not something we want to be dealing with when we are so far away and my sister will need to concentrate on school, she won't have time (and doesn't have the experience either).
No comments:
Post a Comment