House Hunting

We have been looking for houses in Cape Coral. When we first received word that we were getting a house instead of an apartment, I was THRILLED. And then when they said WE could go choose a house that we wanted, I was even more THRILLED. Slowly though, the little helium balloon that rose high over my head the day we received that word from corporate has been leaking air. It's not on the ground yet, but I'm definitely less excited about searching for a house than I was in the beginning! It is tough!

So first of all, we pretty much know nothing about the different neighborhoods in Cape Coral - you know, what's safe and family friendly. Secondly, NO ONE in Cape Coral wants to rent for 6 months. Everybody wants to rent longer term - usually a year. We have been told there will be an operator in the store in 4-6 months -- it could be Ian or it could be someone else. But either way, corporate will not sign a lease longer than 6 months. Thirdly, finding a house that suits all of our needs has been tougher than I thought! We are not that picky. But when it comes to my kids' safety, I will be picky. Most of the houses in Florida have pools. And no security gates around the pool. That scares me, and rightly so. Needless to say, we haven't had an easy time finding a place to live in Cape Coral.

I contacted a realtor in Cape Coral to see if he could give us any insight into some houses that maybe we hadn't seen online. His name? Pedro Orengo. The most Puerto Rican man you will ever find this side of the Caribbean. Ian is very used to talking to Spanish speaking people. I, on the other hand, am not. I tried my hardest to just email Mr. Orengo, because I knew that if he had a thick accent, I would have a hard time understanding him if we spoke on the phone. But of course, his first reply said, "call me at my office number so we can talk more about these listings." I am telling you - I had such a hard time understanding what all this man said to me! And in person, it was even worse! It is a good thing Ian was with me today when we met with him so that the two of them could carry on conversation and just let me sit in the back seat! I am not going to lie - Ian and I shared quite a few of those quiet chuckles all thanks to Mr. Orengo.

Mr. Orengo: "Yes, Pry-less Realty." (Use your thickest Spanish accent.)

Laura on the phone: "Pry-less?"

Mr. Orengo: "Yes, you know, price! Pry-less Realty!"

Laura: "Oh! PRICEless Realty!"

Anyways. We MAY have found a house today. We still don't know a whole lot about the neighborhood. The house is being rented fully furnished. It does have a pool, but there is a sliding glass door leading out to the pool which I wasn't even able to figure out how to open! But I won't count on that - we will need some type of childproofing for that sliding glass door as well as a bathroom door that also leads out to the pool. The house had plenty of space for us - definitely not our taste as far as decor goes, but it had all the necessities and was nicer than others we've seen online! We haven't given up hope on our FAVORITE neighborhood. Mr. Orengo is trying to find us a house to rent in that neighborhood for 6 months. And the old operator of Ian's new store used to live in that neighborhood, and so we are trying to find out if we can just take over his lease. We want to live there REALLY bad. Haha!

I had my camera in my purse to take pictures of the house. BUT. I forgot. But here's the link if you want to see it!

Oh yeah - the greatest part of the entire afternoon (which stretched into evening....) We came home to a clean house and happy kids! Sweet Tricia and her girls came over this afternoon at 2:30 to watch the kids for us. I thought we'd be home around 4:30, 5 at the latest. We finally walked in the door at 7 (with pizza for all of us!) Cayman and Charis were having so much fun, and Tricia had washed dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned up in Cayman's room and the living room! She did it so that I could just spend the evening with Ian after the kids went to bed without worrying about cleaning up. What a sweet family!