Owning a Vacation Home in Caribbean

Seriously...look at this! You know the old saying: "The grass is always greener on the other side."  And, of course, it warns us away from assuming "the other side" has it better or life is perfect "over there". And yet don't we in the West live our lives exactly by that credo?  I will learn hard to get into a good college where I will study hard to land a good job from which I will hopefully not be fired for about 30-35 years so that I can save hard for a well deserved retirement.   Cue reality.  The debt you incurred in college plagued your ability to get ahead of the curve before you had children whose rearing was a cost you didn't really calculate and so on and so forth.  I'm probably preaching to the choir here.  Does everything that matters happen after retirement? It really is greener and bluer and brighter... My mom is a baby boomer and is currently enjoying retirement according to that same ole plan. My husband and I are just...

Warning:  I feel like ranting a bit... Our vacation home purchase has been a sometimes frustrating and almost always exciting endeavor. Once my husband and I determined that we wanted to try living on a tropical island, we enacted a plan to make it happen. We aren't there yet and we see different paths forward but it always boils down to money.  Here are our options with pros and cons: Option A:  Cash it all in and go for it! Option B:  Use the house when we can, rent it when we're not there, retire in 8 years with my teacher pension (if it's there for me...) and a maintain the 3 rental houses for passive income. Option C:  Semi-retire in 2 to 3 years, take whatever savings we have to buy and renovate 3 to 5 more rental homes in lieu of my pension, and have the passive income now instead of later. I would love to do option A.  But, I have children in school and although I want my children to experience another country and really get an internation...

Unfortunate cloudy day...but, the extra suite now has a door to pool deck! The Master At Work...Peek A Boo! It's 3 AM. The WhatsApp notification chime has pinged twice and awakened me out of a much needed restful night sleep. My heart is pounding. WhatsApp generally means the neighbors at the casa are contacting me about something... tinaco isn't filling, no outside lights are coming on...or the worst...the bars have been pried open and the house is standing open!?!!! Holy S@$#!!! (That actually happened... I'll elaborate in a future post about safety in a up and coming non-touristy town) But, wait...no, it's a message Judy sent earlier that day during a internet outage that has just now come through to inform us that our normal cleaning lady couldn't make it so she had gotten her lady for the house before our first ever renter arrived!  PHEW!  Cut to today, my darling husband is on one of his lone trips down to the DR and doesn't understand the 1 hour ...

Our lovely Frog Pond When we bought the house, our biggest concern was getting it up and running.  If you've read my earlier posts you know that as of taking possession of the house we essentially had a concrete bunker. The whole structure including the roof is made of concrete. Tabla rasa.  And upon Thomas' first visit as Caribbean home owner to the house in December 2015, after having gone on a shopping spree in Santiago, he had a small refrigerator with invertor technology (a must!), a small microwave and a queen-sized mattress that he put on the floor, he had to live a very Spartan life...(Remember he had a week to get things up an running for my arrival!) There were no toilets as you recall and the pool was a very popular frog pond for all the romantic rendezvous of the local amphibian population. Indeed, it took several months to convince the local frogs to find a new place to call home. Eww...  But, eventually, they are living elsewhere. After many visits...

The Future Ok, so the ink is dry or drying on our casa purchase.  I've put off writing about the details of the whole process of buying property in the Caribbean.  I didn't want to jinx anything. But, now that we have finalized the purchase I feel it's safe to document our trials and tribulations. I outlined our desire to live on a tropical island in earlier posts. Both my husband and I would like to make this happen before the 'traditional' retirement age. We want to simplify our lives, live slower-paced and not rush around like the proverbial 'rats in the maze'.  We are willing to throw the dice, move to an island paradise and try to make it work on much less income than we do now. We had a five year plan.  We had rented places on Eleuthera, one of the 'out islands' in the Bahamas. The proximity to the mainland but non-touristy feel seemed like a good mix.  A few things worked against us however. 1) To avoid a hefty 10% or more transf...

So, as many people who have spent time in the Caribbean know, a washing machine is quite an electric hog.  My high efficiency washer here in the States would be impossible to run in DR.  It may be water efficient and mostly energy efficient, but the cycle is so long that it would use twice the energy than the old version washers use. There she sits...unfortunately in the middle of the kitchen Until we create a utility room on top of a future larger cistern we're planning to build on the back of the house,  (front? The slope leading up to our house on the opposite side of the view...I consider it the back... Hubby calls it the front... we'll agree to disagree) we will have to keep the washer in the kitchen, European style! Many of the expats we've met in DR have a love/hate relationship with island washers. They are simply a spinner that you use a hose to fill and drain and then hang your clothes to dry in the sun and wind.  (a dryer is even more of a luxury a...

All photos courtesy of HGTV Our casa! We were on Caribbean Life!  It was sooooooo much fun.  I'm sure you have read elsewhere online that it's somewhat staged...and you kind of already need to own a place to even go on the show to pretend your looking for a place, but it was a great experience and one that Thomas and I will never forget...mostly because HGTV sent us a DVD copy...but, we don't acutally have cable TV. So, we had to watch our episode at friends' house.  I have to tell you, as someone who doesn't even like pictures of herself...a whole filmed episode is torture.  But, in 10-15 years, I'll probably think I looked fabulous! HAHAHA. Interview from on our pool deck! So, as an avid watcher of Caribbean Life/Beachfront Bargain Hunt/House Hunters International I ran across a link on HGTV to apply to be on one of these shows. I was absolutely CONVINCED we were going to be on the show.  I think my husband thought it was a long shot.  But, the...

It captures the essence... My husband now drives like a DR local, but with a fully functioning car, working head lights, blinkers and all.  But, you will need cat-like reflexes to respond to his quick indicators. I've begun to offer to drive whenever we are here in the States to avoid people in the back becoming car sick.  But, when in the DR I'm happy to let him take the wheel, because...  A.  He seems to win the many games of "chicken" that ensue when driving the one coastal road that connects all the towns               B.  To the locals, it seems like a crazy fellow Dominican driver at the wheel when we cut past everyone               C.  I just want to give him the satisfaction and release driving like a crazy person obviously                       gives him. And, contrary to what many might tell you...yo...