We got a little spoiled at Comfort Zone with the proximity to campus. It's literally 3 minutes from the main gate, 7 minutes from the Annex (where most of the 1st semester classes are held), and you can throw a rock to The Barn (which is a multipurpose building that lots of students choose to study in). Most apartments are not nearly that close to campus. Despite the proximity perks though, the apartment proved to just be too small for two people. We sometimes felt like we were living in a dorm room! We will miss the awesome ocean view there and the location (and the fact that we were living on the same floor as the Wellses!), but we won't miss much else. It was time for us to move on, and we are grateful that we were able to start our experience here in Dominica in such a nice place...other students weren't as lucky! The new place is a bit of a hike. It's not much further from the main gates, but instead of being just down the street, we live UP the mountain! I keep telling myself that it's good to get my heart rate going at least twice a day. Because it's a steep down and steep up hike both ways. But there's all sorts of fruit trees and plants and flowers along the "short cut" so it makes it bearable. Of course the heat of April (and the impending heat of summer) are probably going to make me change the way I do things. Once I'm in town, I'm there for the day. Once I come back up, I'm not leaving again unless it's REALLY important!
Now don't get me wrong. Even though the hike is a bit tiring, it is SO worth it to live up here. The apartment is 3 bedrooms. One bedroom is the master, one is a guest room, and one is an office space perfect for Jonathan to study in. There are A/C units in all 3 bedrooms (woohoo!) and a big living room and HUGE kitchen. It's like a little cabin because there are all wood floors, wood panelling on the walls, and a wood ceiling. The furniture is very "70's fabulous" but we're working with it. It's got a nice big TV (score!) and the bathroom is even bigger than our "quasi living room" at Comfort Zone was. Wow! We've got an electric oven and stove top (which is awesome because 99% of ovens and stovetops around here are powered by propane). The apartment also came with a toaster oven and a microwave. We have a queen sized bed in the Master bedroom which is AMAZING since we were sleeping on a full size bed at CZ. I've taken to calling that room "my sanctuary" because it was the first room I finished once I got here, and it's so breezy and islandy. We've got a nice mosquito net that's "four poster" so no more eating mosquito net in the middle of the night! The bed is nice and high (reminds me of our master bed at home) and we've even got two chests of drawers in there (funny what makes you really excited when your paradigm shifts...). We have nice crisp white bedding which makes it so airy and clean feeling. I LOVE it!
Right now the guest room is still a work in progress. It's the spot where all the stuff that doesn't have a place yet has gone, but eventually it will be all fixed up any and everyone is welcome. We can even put a blow up mattress in the office and it would be the perfect little bedroom for anyone! We'd love to have you come visit for sure! We are the only ones living in this little house even though there's an apartment downstairs. Our landlord doesn't rent that out. In the mornings the mist from the mountains keeps it nice and cool and the birds up here just sing their little hearts out. So beautiful! So without further ado...take a look at our precious little Dominica home...The Treehouse!
Our "sanctuary". Beautiful, breezy, and serene. If the curtain to the right of the bed looks familiar...it's the shower curtain from CZ. Necessity breeds invention! ;)
This is the office. Nice right?! It's a really great work space for Jonathan. It's got it's own air conditioning unit and two great windows. The pic on the right is the desktop that belongs to the landlord (we can use it if we need to). Why is that a perk?? Because that little set up is the internet hub for all the buildings in this neighborhood...which means our internet is FABULOUS! What a nice change from CZ...
Our huge bathroom. Not spectacularly beautiful, but spectacularly big. SO nice to not have to crab walk into your bathroom anymore!
The guest room...just lying in wait for visitors!!
Looking through the living room into the kitchen. Awesome space! You get a good idea about the quality of the floors in this picture. Very pretty! And here's a closeup of our VIP wall. Growing all the time...send us pictures y'all!!
A pretty good shot of the kitchen table and the "back door". When that door and the front door are open, the cross breeze in here is beautiful! That brown chair on the right is one of my favorite spots in the house!
A dreamy Dominican kitchen. This is such a dream around here y'all! And it's not even just big for Dominica...it's just plain big! So much counter space, so many cabinets, and lots of cool leftover stuff in them! I've got tupperware into next year, 3 sets of cookware, 4 sets of dinnerware, and three whole shelves worth of glassware. We're set up man!
We feel so very blessed to have found this space. And, believe it or not, we're paying LESS than we were at Comfort Zone in rent!! Always a plus. We are really wanting to steward all this space well, so I've already hosted a women's Bible study up here and we're hoping to have many a grill out/pot luck/get together up here for the year+ that we'll be here. And once again, book your plane tickets and come have a nice relaxing vacation at Casa de Womack-Caribbean Edition!
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