Departamento (Apartment) Decisions
You have two options when renting here in Buenos Aires:
Option 1: Unfurnished Long-Term Rental. With this type of rental, you generally sign a 24 month lease and are required to have a garantÃa. (A local person who provides a guaranty. Said local person must own property in Capital Federal, the inner city, if that’s where you are renting an apartment.)
We have decided to abandon option 1, even though we are very lucky to have a person willing to act as a garantÃa for us. At the end of the day, after purging so much of our crap back home, I cannot justify coming here and furnishing a three bedroom apartment–dishes, linens, refrigerator, washer/dryer…for only a year or two.
On top of that, shopping in a new country sucks up a tremendous amount of time and energy; we’re exhausted just getting everything together for the girls’ school, I can’t imagine having to furnish a place for Ian, Tom, me and the girls. I nearly went into apoplexy the other day just thinking about it.
Option 2: Furnished Temporary Rental. This is the direction in which we will focus our apartment hunting resources. Yes, it’s more expensive up front, but it’s less of a hassle, doesn’t require a garantÃa, and, once you add up all of the costs of Option 1 (utilities, Internet, taxes, gas and outfitting a new apartment), I suspect we certainly won’t be losing money.
So the new, new, new plan is to move into a temporary rental closer to Belgrano and the Z’s school until the end of the school year (early December). Then we will abandon all apartments in Baires, instead turning to travel during the summer, when we hope to explore Uruguay, Mendoza, Patagonia, and Iguazu Falls (while our fellow Oregonians are getting soaked in the rain)!
In February, we’ll come back into the city, rent another temporary apartment, and the girls will begin school at the end of the month.
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What about the ol’ “van down by the river” option?
Too rustic? Not enough personal space?
But just think of how cool it would be to spend the night in a different place everyday!
Um….cool…right?
*Laugh*
Yah, once you have kids, your “spend the night at the train station” days are over.
Our poor girls are suffering from sleep exhaustion from the Argentinian schedule, so we HAVE to be able to cook so we can feed them early and get them to bed on time. If we have to wait until 8 or 9 pm when the restaurants open, they won’t make it!
That means furnished place!