A Very Possible Nest

You know how a house is just the right one for you? Well, I think we’ve found it although we feel we should look more. But there is so little and most are in high rises that don’t suit Mark yet, or at the end of aforementioned long dark hallways with small rooms and bathrooms for a 6’4″ fella. We have a lot against us with needing furnished (the Portuguese generally live in apartments, buying them frequently, and furnishing them as family homes), air conditioning (as of now, we aren’t prepared to try without it although I am hoping to find I can live without it here, wouldn’t that be heaven?), and a dog (Portuguese law says landlords must allow dogs but that isn’t true in practice and calling your landlord out in the lease agreement meeting doesn’t seem like a good relationship starter to us), and there is little for rent with places being snatched up pretty quickly.

So this house: very Portuguese in style which to us means Santa Fe New Mexican so it is familiar and warm to us. It has a spacious patio with a little gate to keep River in but which we can also open to a very shaded communal area for the morning constitutional. It sits on one golf course and is within a mile of the course Mark played this week. It is one bedroom but two bathrooms and one has a bathroom Mark can shower in! And it has lovely furniture and household goods, lots of light and windows that open so it feels like us. Most importantly, we can see ourselves living there. Also the landlord is a pleasure and is very relaxed so if we don’t like living there for whatever reason, we can leave early. A year lease is required in Portugal but the realities are often more flexible. We wish it were closer to the center of Cascais but it is within walking distance of a great bakery, a little grocery and a restaurant or two – also the beach. It seems too good to pass up for our starter Portugal house!

We have an awful lot to learn before we can effectively negotiate this new culture and we are here at the most expensive time. Extending our sabbatical month at Casa Vela to a condo for a year in Quinta da Marinha is very tempting. And with Brexit looming, we need that address for residency status – feels very much like no time to waste.