Home is where the aircon is

We are finally in our own apartment, WITH (some) furniture, no longer living out of a suitcase. This is a massive accomplishment for us, and to help you understand just how big this is for us, you are going to have to know the whole story.

I don't really know where to begin so I am going to do diary style.

1 July: I arrive in Dubai, yay!

2 July: Apartment hunting starts.

5 July: We find an apartment we think might work (apt 1). It's spacious, central, the agent is not too bad.

6 July: I read some concerning reviews from tenants on Facebook. We decide to look at a few other places just to make sure.

7 July: We travel across Dubai looking at apartments. Prices in other areas are much better than the one we were considering but we don't find anything we like. We decide to go with apartment 1, and try to negotiate the price.The owner is not willing to negotiate. Wait, maybe he is. No, price is defnitely set. Wait, maybe he can go lower. Nope, unfortunately not. This back and forth with the agent all day. We decide to keep looking.

8 July: We view other apartments in the same building with another agent. The price is better, we decide to take one of them (apt 2).

9 July: The agent made a mistake with the price. It's higher than he thought, but it might be negotiable. He will find out. It's not negotiable. Wait, maybe it is. No, unfortunately not. Okay wait, he will try to find out tomorrow.

10 July: We need to look at other apartments because we need to get out of the hotel, and we don't know if apartment 2 will work out. We find an apartment we really like (apt 3). It is not as central and quite small, but really affordable. We like the building and the neighborhood, so we decide to take it. The other agent contacts us to say he was able to negotiate the price for apartment 2. We decide to rather go with apartment 3, which is cheaper and a smaller building with more of a community feel.

11 July: We send all of our documents and organise the payment with Morne's company.

12 July: We take all our documents and payment to the rental company's offices to get the lease agreement. The agent that we dealt with (agent 1) is not there. They try to contact him - Morne has to go to work so I wait there. Agent 1 phones and says we must go to a different rental agency across town where his brother (agent 2) works - he will sort out the paperwork. I take a train to the other agency and deal with agent 2. He gives me the lease agreement and says that we can move in on Tuesday (17 July) He will have the apartment cleaned and give us the keys and signed lease agreement on Monday.

14 July: They try to change the move in date to the 18th as the landlord is out of town and cannot sign the lease agreement. We have to be out of the hotel, so agent 2 says he will make a plan. We can move in on the 17th. We buy some furniture and organise to have it delivered on the 17th.

17 July: Morne goes to work, I make sure everything in the hotel is packed up and I take a taxi to get the keys and contract from agent 2 (not on the 16th as promised) I go back to the hotel, get all our luggage and take a taxi to our new apartment. As I arrive, Morne phones to say that the delivery people are there with our furniture. Also, he found out that the apartment does not have any electricity or water yet. I leave our luggage at the lift and go to the front desk to meet the delivery people. They can't deliver the furniture if there is no electricity because it needs to be assembled. They leave but they will come back if we have electricity before 13:30. Morne tries to sort this out with agent 2, he says registering for DEWA (water and electricity) is our responsibility. Before we can do that, we need to register with EJARI (all lease agreements need to be registered in order to regulate the rental market. Meanwhile, I take all our luggage up to the apartment. It has definitely not been cleaned. Morne leaves work and comes to pick me up. We go to the 'municipality' type building to register EJARI. The lines are quite long, and we are not going to make it before 13:30. We phone agent 1 again. He will try to organise electricity from a common area so that our furniture can be assembled. I go back to the apartment to open up for the furniture delivery while Morne stays in line to register EJARI. On my way back to the apartment building I phone the delivery guy to ask him to come back. He refuses to come back if there is no aircon. Morne gets to the front of the line. The EJARI can't be registered because the previous EJARI has not been canceled. No EJARI, no DEWA, no furniture, no aircon. To cancel the previous EJARI you need a letter from the landlord who lives in Abu Dhabi. We phone agent 1 - he will meet us at the apartment. We are tired and hot and irritated and hungry and a bit defeated. The agent comes, Morne convinces him to do the registration for us. He will drive through to Abu Dhabi to get the letter, deregister the previous EJARI and register ours and our DEWA. This will take 24 hours so we can only move in on Thursday (19th). The apartment will be cleaned tomorrow. We take all our luggage and go back to the hotel.

18 July: We reschedule the furniture delivery. They are fully booked and can deliver Saturday at the earliest. We extend our hotel stay.

19 July: We go to the apartment just to check if it has been cleaned and that the water and electricity is working. We arrive to find an open tap and a bath that is 5 minutes from overflowing - thank you Jesus! Everything else seems fine, and it is much cleaner than it was.

21 July: The furniture delivery is scheduled between 15:15 and 16:15, so we only leave the hotel at 14:30. We take all our luggage up to the apartment and wait for the delivery truck. It's 16:20 and nothing yet, so we contact the company. They say the delivery window is between 14:00 and 18:00, so it is still on its way. The washing machine that was left by the previous tenant is broken. The internet guy arrives and eventually the furniture guys too. We have an apartment! With furniture and water and electricity!

22 July: The aircon breaks down. Maintenance comes in, says we need a new compressor. The people can come to install it tomorrow. We sleep without aircon and survive.

23 July: The people come to fix the aircon and all is right with the world.

This has been (and I expect still will be) a roller coaster ride for us. On Tuesday I wanted to go back to South Africa. I was sick and tired of having to fight with everyone to get anything done. It just felt like we were never going to fit in - why did God send us here? But then I was reminded that God is still good, even in times that we can't see it. When things don't go according to what we planned, it is easy to freak out. It is much harder ta say: God, I trust You. I must admit that I did freak out. I lost my temper more than once and I was extremely negative. But God still turned it around. We have a lovely apartment (without a fridge and a stove until payday ;) ), we live in a great building and area, we found a lovely little bakery/restaurant 50m from our building and WE HAVE AIRCON. Victory.