Freddy’s Beach

A while back, my mom asked for a virtual tour of our house. I remembered before coming, I wondered what this place would be like, what the furnishings would be like and in what state of cleanliness we would find it in. Looking online wasn’t much help.

So, for anyone who is interested (hopefully not just my mom), here is a quick tour and introduction to life at Freddy’s Beach.

Our Home

We live in a 3 bed/1 1/2ish bath townhouse. I say 1 1/2ish bath because the second bathroom is like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. The first bath has a sink, toilet and bath/shower. The second has a sink and a shower. I’ve seen bathrooms with a sink and a toilet (1/2 bath), or a sink, toilet and shower (3/4 bath), but never just a sink and shower. What do you call that?

Moving on.

We have lots of storage space in our kitchen, a dedicated dining space and more space in the living room than we know what to do with. There is a big, open space under the stairs and room for a washer/dryer on the main floor (washer and dryer-not included).

On the second floor is the master suite. The suite includes a big bedroom, that weird, second bathroom, and a slightly shaky balcony, with a beautiful view of the ocean.

 

There is also the main bathroom, two other bedrooms and a small linen closet.

The Complex

Freddy’s Beach is a housing complex set-up for government contract workers. Our complex is surrounded by a rock wall, with just one entrance. At the entrance, a guard stands watch at night, making sure others aren’t coming in, getting up to no good. Within the complex there are townhouses, like ours, and 2 bed/1 bath apartment 4-plexes.

In the middle of the complex, we have a swimming pool with a shallow, kiddie pool section. There is a sign with some guidelines posted but we mostly have free access any time.

The residents of the complex are a combination of younger families, families with teenagers, and singles. Right now, there are people from Mainland US, India and Fiji. In the evenings, all of the children run around like a pack of wild dogs, with or without parental supervision. Sometimes the parents gather around to chat and referee, and sometimes the kids have free reign.

We are within easy walking distance of the ocean, no beach access, but we have the black cliffs, with their blow holes and tide pools.

About 3/4 mile down the road is a small convenience store and just over a mile is my favorite grocery store, KS Mart.

The State of Our House

When we moved in, we found a sparsely, but adequately, furnished house. We were provided with a refrigerator and electric range (one small burner works and one large burner cooks at either low or high, no medium). In the living room there is a table and six chairs, a long dresser (which we use as our TV stand and home-school organizer), a ripped sofa, two weirdly covered chairs, and two end tables. The smallest of the bedrooms has a twin bed and small dresser. The medium bedroom has a queen bed and small dresser. The master has a queen bed, a small dresser, and two nightstands.

I did have to give everything a good scrubbing because all of the wood was covered in a layer of grime and piles of termite dust inside the drawers.

Now, just to give you an idea of what you might expect to find, when it rains really hard, the ceiling in the living room leaks in one spot and we end up with an indoor lake. Most of the windows are louvered, which I love, but also tend to leak with heavy rain. The windows do all have screens, which is so necessary to keep mosquitoes out. There are five different flooring types and colors. As soon as I sweep, new piles of termite dust start re-forming. Like I mentioned before, the balcony is a little bit shaky, so its “enjoy at your own risk”, that’s where I hang all of our laundry though and it hasn’t given out yet (knock on wood). ??

I just gave you a list of mostly, negatives. I know it sounds like I’m complaining but I’m just giving it to you straight. I didn’t know what to expect. Actually, I love our imperfect house! When we came to this island, we were looking for a change. We didn’t move to the other side of the world to live the same way. Each time my pancakes burn on our bum burner, I remind myself to stop cursing it and instead feel gratitude. The truth is, our imperfect house is still much nicer than so many of the other houses on this island paradise.

Every morning we get to wake up to a beautiful sun, rising over the ocean, we have a safe place to raise our kids, we have great neighbors, friends for our kids to play with, a pool for these hot, tropical days, warm water (not all houses have that option), and each night we get to go to fall asleep to the sound of waves and the feel of the ocean breeze. Really, what else could we ask for?