Our new Home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

So, we decided on getting an apartment instead of a villa or living in a compound. The main reason-it is more affordable.

Sohail's journey in finding us a home was quite eventful. More than three times, he found a place and went back either later that day, or the next day to give a deposit. and it had been rented out already! I fell in love with each one he chose-however-he had to find something that was available-especially since it was 2 weeks until our arrival date. I was so happy to hear that he successfully got us a place to live.

These are the things that I LOVE about our new home...
1. Tile floors throughout
2. Tile floors and walls in both bathrooms.
3. We have an elevator that takes us right outside of our front door.
4. 3 bedrooms (would have loved 4, but oh well-3 is better than 2)
5. We live on a quiet street.
6. It is well insulated (thanks to the tiles) so we are always nice and cool inside.
7. We have big windows in each room (some apartments here have no windows in the bedrooms and some are super small)
8. We are all here together!

Another Apartment in Jeddah

It's been very tough trying to find an apartment without a Realtor or Online listing system. To find an apartment in Saudi Arabia most people will drive around and stop in front of the building they like. They will then ask the maintenance guy if there is an apartment available. If you are lucky he will respond or else then just wave his hand almost like saying please do not waste my time. Here is a video of another apartment I liked but it did not fulfill all my needs.

Shopping for a Home - Villa? Compound? Apartment?

These are some of the choices we will have as we decide the type of home we will live in. Compound life can be compared to living on a military base, with guarded and gated entries and a wall around it. A compound is like a small city. Most have swimming pools, recreation centers, a restaraunt, a mini-mart and a playground. Some even have a golf course, bowling alley, bus services, salon and more. Within the compound, women follow the laws of their own country. There is no need to wear the head covering, which is sometimes worn outside, but not required. I am sure that I will write another post about the topic of the head covering. That will come later. Now these are some of the non-perks of compound life: visitors must be screened and approved in order to enter your home on the compound. The compounds that are within our price range-have  smaller bedrooms and less square footage as a whole (when compared to a villa). Compound life for a family of 5 is would be from $35,000-40,000 a year.

This is one view of  "Compound Life," created and posted by another international.


Here is another option-the Villa in Saudi Arabia. After searching online at various postings from internationals, and from my husband's point of view, a villa is three times cheaper than a compound. The square footage of a villa will be double the size of a compound home. Most villa's are more private and some have a pool in the backyard along with a patio. By paying less to live in a villa, we would be able to afford a driver and a maid (how exciting!) Having a driver would keep us from having to pay and ride public transportation to and from school and anywhere else we would go. Here are a few villa video's.



Another villa video...



So, what do you think? What would you choose. It's hard for us to decide also!

*update* Sohail visited MANY apartments and villas. Most of the stand alone villa's were HUGE and way above our price range. The apartments were in various price ranges and were based on the area of town.

We ended up moving in to a quaint apartment in the Rawdah area!