Home Sweet Home

Thursday, September 25th, 2014
Post by Kim

Adam and I can’t believe that it’s already been five weeks that we’ve been settling into Al Ain.  I guess time flies when you’re having a good time!

So finally, as promised, here are pictures/videos of our new home.  As I might have mentioned earlier in my previous posts, we live in Hili Complex – fifteen-minutes drive from Adam's workplace and right at the border of Oman.  Here’s a picture of Adam driving at the border.

And here is a section of the Hili Complex.

We are located right next to the Hili Mall and Geant Hypermarket (picture below).  The Hili Mall is a brand new mall (about one year old); it’s so new that many stores there are not yet open.  Thankfully, the Geant Hypermarket has already opened, so Adam and I are able to get groceries or any miscellaneous item in less than three-minutes walk.

At the mall, near the Rotana Hotel, there are also three really nice restaurants: a French restaurant, an Italian restaurant, and Burger Hut.  Here is a picture of the pastries at the French restaurant.

 

Here are pictures of a tortellini soup plus Adam enjoying a pizza at the Italian restaurant.

 

And here is a really dorky one of yours truly at Burger Hut.

The flat we live in is all paid by ADEC (i.e., Adam’s employer) and we received a stipend of 20,000 aed (i.e., around 6000 US dollars) to furnish our home.  We managed to stay within the stipend to get all of our furniture (i.e., 321 sofa set, TV stand, coffee tables, king size bed, night stands, dresser, queen size bed, desk, bookcase, miscellaneous chairs, tables, and storage units), appliances (fridge, washer, stove, water cooler), kitchenware (microwave, mini-oven toaster, slow cooker, pots and pans, kitchen toolsm dinnerware, etc.), electronics (TV, DVD players, lamps, etc.), decorative items (framed pictures, plants), window treatments, and bed/bathroom linens!  The trick was to mix new items with second-hand items from the Facebook Swap and Shop group.  When we will leave Abu Dhabi, we might also make some profit out of these household items by reselling them.

Anyway, here’s a tour/video of our flat and furniture.

If, for some reason, you have difficulty viewing the video, here are some pictures of various rooms from our new place.

 

Adam and I are settling nicely into our place, and it feels more and more like our home.  We feel really privileged to have such a comfortable home that is conveniently located – all for free, essentially :)  We are also looking forward to having visitors; if you’d like to come, please do not hesitate to let us know!