My Villa

Once I knew I was going to Al Ain, I began to look into getting a villa. The downside of a villa- no pool. My budget was not enough to get a pool. But the upside is the size and privacy. An apartment in Al Ain is not very big, rooms tend to be small. Of course- no privacy, and you hear all the noise from around you. But most apartment complexes have a pool and exercise room. So there is a trade off.
I tried to contact realtors on my own to find a villa but got no responses. I did online searches but was not finding many in the area I needed.
My school is at Al Wagan, which is over an hour drive from Al Ain. Therefore, I wanted a villa in the Zakher area, which is at the edge of Al Ain. There is no housing any closer to Al Wagan.

I was referred to Sunil. He actually works for a corporation over here, but does many side jobs to supplement his income- such as translating documents from English to Arabic for Expats and helping people find housing. He does a great job, but does charge a fee, which comes out of my furniture allowance. Expats get 20,000 dhs (about $5200 USD) for getting your home set up. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? However, most housing here does NOT come with any appliances, no closets (so you have to buy wardrobes) and no curtains/rods. You can go through the allowance quickly if you try to buy every thing new. Smart people (like me!) try to buy used. When teachers are leaving (end of contract or runners!-will explain those in another post), they will sell items for a fraction of the value as they don't want to leave them behind and lose the money on them. May-August is the best time to buy if you can wait that long as many teachers leaving and since no new teachers are coming til mid August, there is a lot for sale and few buyers. I still need some more living room furniture and a bedroom set.

I got lucky on furniture. The principal at my school is going back to Ireland this summer and not returning. She is retiring- for the second time! lol! So when we met back in early February, she showed me her apartment and I bought it- lock, stock, and barrel! She gave me some livingroom furniture, the dining set, and one bedroom set. When she leaves her apartment in June (ADEC will put staff in hotels about 3 weeks before they leave) I will get the rest of her non-personal items: her gas range, her full size fridgerator, all her pots/pans/dishes, all her kitchen small appliances, rest of her livingroom furniture, one more bedroom set, and various odds and ends.

Sunil took me to look at villas the Tuesday after I arrived in Al Ain. I still wasn't working yet (I just started, but that is another post!) so I wasn't in any hurry to find one. But I wanted to start looking. However, that morning, he told me that if I found one I really liked, I needed to sign a contract on them as villas rent quickly. The first one he showed me was about the same size as the one I got. It was older and needed some upgrades, but I liked that it had a covered patio area in the back of the lot for privacy. But that is where the privacy ended. There was a second villa  inside the compound (that is what they call the area inside the walls). It was in front of this villa. Also since there was nothing separating the area around the two villas, there would be little privacy. Sunil told me the family in the other villa had small children who ran around inside so I might have little privacy if I was outside. Plus I would hear them playing. There were some curtains, some wardrobes, but not in all rooms. I was still considering the villa at that point though.
The second villa he took me to- as we drove up there was trash piled around the curb area outside the compound and some inside. I felt that it was not kept up so told him to not even stop. Didn't want to live where they didn't keep it clean!
The third villa was one of four inside a compound. It was a 3 bedroom with nice size rooms. It did have a small patio area by the front door and around back but no door to either areas so you would have to walk outside and around to get to them. It was very new- only a few years old so everything was very nice. One of the bedrooms had built in wardrobe but not the others. Also no curtains. One bedroom had a separate entrance from the house, with it's own bathroom, which would have been nice for company, but the lack of privacy anywhere outside was a big minus.
The fourth villa hit the mark! It had its own private compound, was right off the road to Al Wagan, had built in wardrobes in every bedroom (4), had curtains in all rooms with the blackout liners; and had 2 large outside areas for company. I was sold even though it is bigger than I had wanted. But I am very happy with it.

Gate to my villa. There is a "gate bell" people can ring to let me know they are here. It sound like a dove. 

Side of villa. That is Sunil in the pic

Front of villa

First floor bedroom, I use it for an office

Entryway

Livingroom. Open door- leads from the outside. Also a door from the entryway.

Bathroom off livingroom

Inside of livingroom bathroom. There are 6 bathrooms in the villa

Marble steps and iron rail to second floor. Nook below stairs

Hallway between bedrooms upstairs. I will make this into a sitting area- or pool table area if my friends have their way!

bathroom in maids room

Laundry room

Kitchen

view from stairs

Upstairs sitting area

Upstairs, purple bedroom. Has view of Jabel Hafeet from window

One of the prized wardrobes!

bathroom for purple bedroom

Third bedroom

Look at those beautiful curtains!

Notice that the shower stalls and bathtubes with showers do not have shower curtains! Floors are marble and have drains.

Master bedroom, with two windows

Master bath

carport

It is a nice place. My friends here all love it! We have already had two BBQs here and will host many more. One of the other reasons we love it? It is at the foot of Jebel Hafeet, the mountain here. So we can drive just a mile and go to the hot spring, go hiking, or have a picnic!