sv evi

House hunting was stressful. Turns it is hard to have three little kids, whether in the U.S. or Ecuador. And turns out it’s hard to schlepp them around town via bus, taxi, and walking. Jade’s 2 year old legs didn’t last too long before she asked for “uppie”. So we found it hard to make progress house hunting. It was a sort of chicken and egg dilemma. If we found a school first, we could more easily look for a house without Tomu and Jade with us, but then we would be limited to the area close to the school. Or, we could find a house we liked first, then look for a school that was close by. Also, Cuenca is a big city, and so we weren’t sure where exactly we wanted to live…

We really liked then neighborhood around the AirBnb, and started our search there. We visited a few houses which were unfurnished, and they wanted $750 and $1000 respectively. Unfurnished in Ecuador means nothing is in the house—no stove, fridge, washer, dryer, etc. We saw one house in a different neighborhood for $400 unfurnished, but it was on a busy street with a sidewalk about 1 foot wide.

We looked at online realty sites directed towards expats, and saw some great houses, but when we called, they were all rented. So frustrating—why advertise them then? We got a recommendation for a real estate agent, and contacted her, but she only offered one house for $1000 in a small town about 20 minutes away.

Then I contacted the host of a house I had saved on AirBnb and inquired about renting the house long-term. She was amenable to the idea, and the next morning we visited the house. We fell in love with it. It came fully furnished, including sheets, towels, dishes, etc. It has a front and back yard, a back patio, an avocado tree (yum!), 3 bedrooms, 4 distinct sitting rooms, 2 ½ baths, washer and dryer. It’s about 2 times as big as our house in Tacoma. We love the sun room, which feels like an outdoor patio but is covered. She told me the price was $1000, but I negotiated to $900/month. It comes with all the utilities included, wifi, cable, etc.  So we signed a 6 month lease…whew, what a relief!

While that seems like a great deal by U.S. standards, it is a price that is embarrassingly high for Cuencanos. Often one of the first questions Ecuadorians ask me is how much I pay for rent. I have told the truth a few times, because it feels weird to lie…but then they are always shocked, and I feel uncomfortable…like I’m living up to the rich gringa stereotype. So we are working on what to say…

Our house is in an Ecuadorian neighborhood about 10 or 15 minutes from the center of town by bus. We are about 2 blocks from a park and 4 blocks from the river.

We lucked out finding a school about 3 days after we found the house. We had visited several schools, but weren’t too excited by any of them, and none of them were that close to the house. We also tried to enroll the kids in public school, but were told there were no spots for Tomu in the whole city. Then a taxi driver said he knew of one behind the Gran Aki, our local supermarket. We visited it, and it was a lot cheaper ($70 per month per kid, snack included vs. $175-$190 per kid) than the other ones, Tomu and Jade could be in the same class, and the teachers were nice. Yay!