The quiet after the storm

If you paid any notice to the title, I am sure you guessed that it is a metaphor. I would hardly write a blog entry about an actual storm or the quiet that ensued after it.

This is about no atmospheric event, even though the significance of what happened in the last few days is as important as the world itself and it shook my world even more than a seismic event could do.

Wala and I bought a house and moved in last weekend.

Mmmh, I made it sound like everything happened in a day... it actually took a bit longer than that. Much longer than that, in fact!

It all started five months ago, when the realization that our current apartment was getting a bit to small downed on us. We immediately discarded the idea of looking for another place to rent.

The reasons against considering moving to another apartment to rent were that we would hardly find a more conveniently located apartment. Location is everything, the estate agents says in their "location, location, location" mantra. And being right in the middle of town, a five minutes walk away from Wala's workplace, a forty minutes bus and rail ride to my workplace, was excellent location.

Another compelling reason to stay in our apartment was that we had a great landlord. He has been always been very friendly and helpful to us, right until the very last days of our stay. When we informed him of our intention to move, he congratulated us on the decision and granted us use of the apartment until we had worked through all the legal and financial paperwork required. He even told us not to bother paying for half a month rent and refunded the one month deposit in full.

Another reason I would have not swapped our apartment with anyone else is that I loved the convenience of having a pharmacy, a vegetable markets, a convenience store, a chinese take-away, a chipper, and a pub right next door.

So why did we decide to move? Because we wanted a place of our own. Because we wanted to be out in the country. Because we wanted to live near the sea. Because we wanted to enjoy a quiet walk with no traffic noise. Because we were growing tired of the hussling and bussling of the city. Because we no longer wanted to waste money down the rent drain.

And because we fell in love with the apartment that we bought. For a number of very good reasons!

And since you asked, here are the reasons (in no order of importance whatsoever):
- the apartment is connected to the Internet by a high speed fiber optic link
- the Internet connection is a no-contention, 8Mbit/sec upload/download, 150GB/month capped connection
- every room is wired with CAT5E connectors
- phone and TV services are provided over CAT5E, and little set-top boxes convert the signal back to standard phone and SCART cables
- did I mention the apartment has fiber optic to the home?

Now, for the real, non-tech related reasons...
- located in well-serviced quiet cute little town
- surrounded by green areas, a huge protected park, a 30min walk to the beaches
- a two-minutes walk to train station to Dublin
- high specification modern building
- very bright and spacious apartment
- ample patio, perfect for barbeques
- energy efficient, well insulated (both energy and noise) walls, double glazed windows
- stunning black kitchen, with a bar counter extending out into the living room, with glossy stool conveniently placed in front of it

It is amazing how many things need to be done before you can become a proud homeowner!
I thought it would just be a matter of signing your life away in a mortgage agreement, but in reality, it is a much more complex and convoluted process, made up of a miriad of steps... but this is an entirely different topic.