International House Hunting Cont. and First proper Irish Pub

So today (October 2) was a far more positive day on the house hunt.  We primarily focussed on houses in Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, and Sandymount. All areas just south of the City Center that have good schools and are well established "old" Dublin areas. We really love this area of the city and had high hopes we might find something that would work. This area is also a lot more "city" than Blackrock or Clontarf, so we can much easier do without a car.  Ireland has our equivalent to Zip Car, called Go-Car, so this should serve us well for golf trips, grocery shopping, and other big needs for the car. But we can pretty much get on in these areas without a car on a daily basis.

The first house we looked at was in Donnybrook. Definitely at the very top of our budget, ok let's be honest all are out of our budget (unless Momma get a job - anyone have Dublin connections for a really cool/family friendly job!!??).  We loved it. It was so clean and had so much character. It had an outdoor patio that was a couple stairs and a raised deck. Maya immediately made this a stage - shocker! It had both a wood burning and a gas fireplace and a large guest room on the 3rd floor! We were ready to give a deposit on the spot, despite the fact it would definitely put our monthly budget in the red.  But we had 3 other appointments lined up for the day, so we held off with the immediate deposit, but let the broker know that it might be coming later that day or the next morning. The next place we looked at was in Ballsbridge. For all the Bostonians reading this I would equate Ballsbridge with Beacon Hill in terms of history, prestige, and access to everything in the city on foot. We didn't anticipate finding anything in our price range here that would meet our needs. BUT... this place was spectacular!! It was so nice that our relocater, Veron, actually said that if we didn't want it she would take it or if we did she would take it once we moved back to the states.  Now, of course it was small, but when comparing to something in Beacon Hill it was huge!  It had 2 large bedrooms, one normal bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a large living/dining/ kitchen space a large yard off the kitchen and a gated front that most use for parking, but since we don't plan to have a car we could use this as another play space that was paved rather than grass. Luckily we didn't give a deposit to the first house since this one might be even better for us. Still more than we were hoping to spend, but when factoring in not needing a car it was still a lot better than the places we saw in Blackrock.  However, we still had another property to look at, the one in Sandymount that also would be ideal in terms of location and potentially not needing a car. This property also had 4 bedrooms so the kids wouldn't need to share a room to have a proper guest room. We had high hopes, but it did not even come close to the first two properties.  It was tired, the kitchen needed a crazy amount of cleaning to make it usable, the carpeting was stained and gross and the furniture was old and dingy. That is not even getting into the bathrooms.  They really needed to be re-done. While there was a complete 3rd floor guest room with ensuite bath, I think any guest of mine would prefer to be in either of the first two. Bummer for us since the 3rd property was the one that actually met what we initially thought would be the top of our budget.  Oh well you get what you pay for and we are so happy to have decided on......


HOUSE #2 in Ballsbridge!!!  Seeing as these were the only houses on the market in our price range in these areas we wanted to live in, we acted quickly. While we could have waited it out and saw what came on in the next few weeks, we were eager to get settled, get Maya back in school and not miss the opportunity to live somewhere that we know we like. We secured Maya a spot at St. Brigid's National School in Ballsbridge as well as St. Matthews in Sandymount.  St. Brigid's would be a 10 minute walk from the house and St. Matthews would be about 20.  I am going to tour both on Monday. While I would love the shorter walk, and both are very highly regarded, I want to make the best decision for Maya. Veron is also looking into local Montessori Pre-schools for Luke. Thank goodness for Veron! I now want a job as a relocater - how fun and rewarding to help people and get them settled in their new environments.

After our day of house hunting we were all hungry and Brendan and I felt justified to treat ourselves to a real pub pint, since we had yet to do this since landing in Ireland. Brendan is a stickler with our new Irish budget since it is so much tighter than our budget in the US (primarily since I do not currently have a job), so it took a lot of convincing for him to let us have something other than homemade pasta. Those of you that know me well, know I do not do well with budgets :) Anyway, we convinced him and headed to Grafton Street and found a nice Irish Pub where Luke and I split fish and chips and Maya and Brendan split a burger. All in all a good day!

Brendan and kids walking down Grafton Street

Kids Bellying up at the Bar waiting for our table to be ready

Table is ready! Brendan hates Heineken in the states. It is true that in Europe it is a completely different beer. Tastes like a nice refreshing light beer rather than skunked grossness.