Home Hunting Dubai Part 1

It's been a few weeks since I last posted on the blog, mostly because this last semester of pregnancy has been kicking my butt. Since I've been spending most of my weekends napping and elevating my feet to minimize the swelling, life in Abu Dhabi has been pretty uneventful!  However, since we're planning to move in November, my company arranged for a half-day "orientation" with a local relocation consultant to let us look at some neighborhoods in our price range and start narrowing our home search a little early.  Based on our budget and our location criteria, our consultant suggested the areas shown on the map - Marina, The Lakes, Emirates Hills, and Jumeirah Park.  The consultant had also suggested some additional areas with popular apartment communities, and one townhouse community well below our budget, but I'll get to that later.

So the primary question is apartment vs villa (aka traditional "house")?  Personally, being the city girl, I prefer an apartment.  Most of the apartment complexes in Dubai have everything you would need, particularly with a newborn babe, right in the complex - groceries, pharmacy, even medical clinics, and all just a few steps away without getting into a car.  G, my beloved Texan who loves his wide open spaces, prefers a villa where he can crank up his music as loud as he wants and have a pile of potted plants in the backyard.  We both agree that wherever we live, it needs to be relatively close to my offices.  Yes, offices.  I have a main office shown on the map below, and due to the nature of my project portfolio, I have project work in three other locations on top of my main office, shown in big red dots.  As you can see, fortunately, all of the offices are in the same general area.

Like rational nerds, G and I decided to lay out some criteria for what we'd be willing to accept in compromise.  We agreed that if we live in an apartment, it has to have a kick-ass view - so that narrowed down the apartment options tremendously - we are left with the Dubai Marina Towers (known by the locals as Emaar 6) and Jumeirah Beach (JBR for short).   Those two apartment complexes are near the nicest public beach in Dubai, have mini-community areas with pools, have on-site gyms, are near the public rail system, and have beautiful views of the ocean.

Next criteria:  Must have at least 4 bedrooms, or 3 bedrooms + study.  Rationale is that we have our room, the baby's room, a guest room, and an office for him to work and play music.  This pretty much eliminates Emirates Hills.  The villas there were lovely, but too far out of our price range and non-negotiable.  Also eliminated the townhouse option that I talked about earlier since it was only 3 bedrooms without a study - and our housing allowance is use it or lose it, so there really isn't any point in leasing a home way under budget.  The name of the game is maximize, right?!?

Emirates Hills has the nicest bathrooms, but is about 15% above our housing allowance :-(

These townhouses are located close to work but were too small, hard to get to, and well below our budget, so we eliminated right away.  The shared fitness center was really run down with a lot broken equipment.

 G was not a fan of this townhouse kitchen either - the spaces for appliances was small, and even though the kitchen was large, not much cupboard space

Last criteria: Must have nice community areas.  This eliminated Jumeirah Park at the bottom of the map.  There were some very lovely villas there, and we probably could have actually afforded a 5-bedroom home, but the community offerings were much less desirable.  Whereas The Lakes has local community pools as well as a Fitness First gym (with a LAP POOL!!!) onsite, Jumeirah Park didn't really have a community feel as much as a "lost in suburbia" feel.  We've eliminated this option for now - it can serve as a backup in the event that the market explodes and we just can't find something in our top 3 locations.

This is the lap pool at the Fitness First gym located at The Lakes.  The gym membership fees are extra, but totally worth it because of this gorgeous pool. 

So now that we've narrowed it down to two areas - apartment near the beach at JBR or Emaar 6, or a villa at The Lakes.  Each has their pros and cons that we'll be weighing when we start searching "for real" in October.  All of the properties that we'll be looking at are owned by individual property owners, so each is a one-on-one negotiation with the owner (through their agent, of course).

JBR, for example, is a bit more affordable than Emaar 6, so that leaves negotiating room for extras like appliances, and maybe some minor upgrades or repairs.  Several of the apartments JBR is also notoriously bad for traffic - so we'll have to try to drive around that area during rush hour so I can have a feel for what that's like going to and from work every day.  A big perk at JBR for G is that the kitchens in a lot of the unit have a externally vented hood, rather than a vent hood that blows back into the apartment (like what we have now), along with gas hookup for range tops.  Since he likes to fry foods, an externally vented hood is a big boon in keeping food smells in the apartment to a minimum and cooking with gas is always so much nicer than electricity.  We didn't actually get to see any JBR apartments during our orientation, so we will definitely be looking at some during our actual house hunt!

Emaar 6 has lovely community amenities - the "6" is because the property is 6 towers, and each tower has its own pool and children's playground.  In addition, there is a main community LAP POOL, along with 2 fitness centers -- one for ladies, and one for coeds.  The traffic to Emaar 6 is much easier than to JBR since it is on the "edge" of the Dubai Marina.  Emaar 6 is also a bit dated for Dubai standards, so the actual apartments themselves in the base case are not as nice, unless the individual property owner invested in upgrades.  The biggest perk for Emaar 6, however, is that the cost of air conditioning is included in the lease, which can add up to a huge savings in this part of the world!

Can't beat this view of the Marina!

G does not love this kitchen. But he doesn't HATE it!

In terms of space, The Lakes edges out both Emaar 6 and JBR, because it comprises of detached properties and townhouses.  The floorplans are roomier - in addition to 3 bedrooms plus a study, each of the properties have both a living room a formal dining room, and two additional "family" areas which could be converted into playroom for the kiddo or second offices.  The downside is that every time G wants to go to the grocery store, he'll have to pack up the baby into the carseat and load up either the baby carrier or the stroller.

Typical freestanding villa at The Lakes - covered parking.
The townhouse layouts have a garage, so might actually be a better fit for us.

After narrowing the housing hunt down to house vs apartment and some locations, the next question is furnished vs unfurnished?  The "furnished" housing allowance is about 25% higher than the unfurnished allowance, however it would me we would forego any company assistance with utilities. It's really meant for leasing a "serviced apartment" like what we have now, where utilities are already included.  We looked at a few furnished properties, and decided to go with unfurnished.  We have some furniture that we'll ship here from Houston, and we'll also buy furniture to supplement.  Since the properties are individually owned, the furnishings are so personal to the landlord it is very hit-and-miss whether they will match our tastes.  I took a few photos of a furnished home that gave us a laugh.  The furnishings were very very high end, and really much too...fancy...for G and I.  I'd be a afraid of our baby spitting up over all of it. :-)

Yes, that is leopard print wallpaper.  Covering the ENTIRE room.

Living room #1

And Living room #2 - what you can't tell is that Living Room #1 and #2 are literally right next to each other.  How many sofas does one family need??

So that was our House Hunters Dubai Part 1!!  House Hunters Dubai Part 2 to come in September/October after baby is born.

Free Stuff!!!

Who doesn't love free stuff?  By chance, I discovered these free boxes for all pregnant moms in the UAE from Marhababy.  It's not exactly a Finnish baby box, but it is nice to have a little freebie package.  Every mom can have a pregnancy box and a baby box, so that's two opportunities for freebies!

For something similar (and better!) in the USA or Canada, check out The Baby Box Co.  There are tons of active programs, and I only regret not taking advantage to get my free box during the the 2 trips I took back to the USA this year!

I didn't think to get a shot of the cute little Marhababy box that was delivered to our apartment today, but these are the goodies inside!

The diapers will definitely come in handy.  The single wet wipe cracks me up - what baby was ever cleaned off with a single wipe?  The baby food, lotion, and body wash will all go into my hospital bag - I figure some pureed fruit will come in handy if labor runs long.  The hospital told me I could eat light foods during labor like fruits and broths.  And last, the sippy cup will surely be handy once the baby reaches that age.

Anyway, we're looking forward to our second box once the baby is born!

Incidentally, we bought out remaining "urgent needs" from our registry today and we have to send a huge hug of gratitude to all our friends and family who have showered us with gifts from afar.  From our amazing triathlon group friends who held an actual virtual baby shower on our behalf, to our tight-knit group of neighbors who grouped together to buy a large gift off our registry...from friends whom I've known for ages, to friends I've recently reconnected with, many many many thanks.  Plus a huge thanks to all of our friends across the country who have sent gifts of love, kind words, and prayers, we thank all of you!

An extra special thanks to our families who have supported us at home while we are abroad (particularly Gabe's mom and dad who have a giant pile of cardboard boxes to inventory and sort through for us!  We can't thank you enough!).  As I mentioned on Facebook, thanks to the generosity of our friends, Amazon gave us a free $100 credit to spend on disposable diapers and wipes!  How cool is that?  We expect it all to ship from Houston in mid-July and arrive in Abu Dhabi the first week of August.   Anything that doesn't quite make it into the mid-July shipment will be included in our big household goods shipment in September for our move from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and should arrive in Dubai in November.  We can't wait to put all of it to good use with our pending bundle of joy!!!