Moving: New House I

UPDATE: I have moved in March 2015, see blog post here

We've moved to a new location! After four months we've been able to find an affordable and comfortable place to rent. It's a huge upgrade from our old place, mainly due to the fact that we are not living in such a shared space. It is also nice that all our rooms are adjoining, something that was absent in our old place. It's only after moving to a house with more space that I realize how cramped we were in our old location!

The house came fully furnished, which is a huge plus. We also negotiated with the landlord to install a water tank to address frequent water cuts. The place is spacious and I love having an area to eat outside and a large sitting room inside. You can actually see Mt. Kilimanjaro from our front yard! Well, you have to be standing to see over the wall surrounding our compound, but you can see it nonetheless. We also have a passion fruit vine in the front yard and small mango tree in the back.

The new house is actually too big for us; we have an extra bedroom and another small room that is unused. We've discussed renting out one of the rooms but as long as we can afford it we prefer to live without a roommate. Also, it will be nice if we have some visitors; they will have a very comfortable space to stay!

Front yard!

The major drawback for me is the increased distance from my workplace but this was addressed by the recent purchase of the motorcycle. It's closer to Ana's job (see my google map for more precision) which is in the same neighborhood called Soweto. We're very close to the main road but not so close that we have too much noise pollution from the traffic.

There are a few small things that make this place a great place to stay. First, the aforementioned water tank is huge; living without electricity is no problem but no water? No way. Second, the bed is very comfortable. It's common here for people to have relatively cheap foam mattresses and the one at our old place would create a mold wherever you lay and often you could feel the wooden beams below. The mattress here is excellent! Also, the house has screens in all the windows; this is very rare in developing countries. I can thank our landlord (who is German) for putting them up allowing us to enjoy the breeze without a torrent of mosquitoes.

Visitors are welcome!

Main sitting room. 

Dining area. 

Main bedroom with a comfortable mattress.

Best part about the bathroom is that when you shower, you basically clean the bathroom!