Sunday, September 9, 2012

Our New Apartment

We have just moved to our new apartment on September 1st.  It is larger than our former apartment and has a beautiful kitchen, and also a terrace that overlooks the Yanuncay River.  We are in the brand new Cuatro Rios building on Primero de Mayo y Av. Los Americas.

We highly recommend Destination Cuenca for all of your moving needs.  Vicente organized our move, he and his crew packed us and moved us in a very professional manner.  There was no damage to our property even though they couldn't use the elevators in the buildings (down 2 flights of stairs in our old building and up 5 flights of stairs in our new building).  They moved our refrigerator, washer, dryer, furniture and boxes within a four-hour time period.  (They also do international moves too.)

Here are pictures of our apartment after we unpacked and got everything arranged.  We still have some things to buy, but the apartment is very beautiful with the dark wood floors, special lighting, granite counter tops, etc.  We also have a large bodega (storage), and two parking spaces.  And there will eventually be stores in the front of the building (one will be an ice cream shop, which makes Mike very happy!).

Our condo can't be seen from the street, as it is set back high on the 5th floor
Entrance to the locked security door

Fountain area along the entrance-way

Path along the river across from our condo

Entrance to our condo from the inside sky-lit hallway

Looking into the kitchen window

Entering the front door

Kitchen (seen from living room)

Living room (seen from kitchen)

Living room and dining room

Dining room (with stone wall and accent lighting)

Looking inside from the terrace

View of the trees along the river from the terrace

Laundry room (cabinets need to be installed)

Social bath

Guest bedroom

Guest bath

Rainfall shower head

Master bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Master bathroom

Office (we need to get a desk for me)

Large hallway from bedrooms to living room

Our terrace with built-in BBQ (needs to be finished)

Common patio



View from common patio (good for watching fireworks!)

14 comments:

  1. Patty and Mike, Congratulations on your new condo. It is beautiful. Glad you shared the photos.

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    1. Thank you! Hope to see you and Chuck around town.

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  2. Patty,
    You have a very nice looking apartment, and you did an excellent pictorial on it.My wife, and I are considering to ex-patting to Cuenca next year. It would be very helpful if you could tell us(if not to personal),how much rent is, any maintenance fee,s, and such. Also how far is the apartment from the " EL Centro " district, as I think we would probably spend a fair amount of time there.
    Thanks,
    Mike in Columbia Tn.

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    1. Hi Mike,

      Thank you for reading our blog. We moved further away from El Centro and for us that is OK because we have a car. If we didn't have a car, we would have stayed closer to town. Our rent is $550 per month for an unfurnished apartment and the monthly condo fees are around $95 a month. It's too far for us to walk into town from our new apartment but we do walk along the Yanuncay River when we can.

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  3. Hi Folks.... wow..... nice place. Can we come and live in your closet? About the size of our sailboat here in Alaska. We miss Ecuador after being home a week. Bahia de Craquez was REALLY nice with nice folks. Made friends there too. It's been raining steady since we got home so we review our Ecuador vids a lot... including our trip to the Cajas area and the trout restaurant. Best to you both. Best wishes, BoB (and Tamara too)

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    1. Glad that you enjoyed your long vacation in Ecuador. Come stay with us anytime. We'd love to see you again!

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  4. What a fabulous place! Congrads. It just seems to suit you both perfectly. I'm glad to see you have our bedroom ready for our visit. Love you guys!

    Jim and Rachel

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    1. Of course your bedroom is ready! We would love to see you guys again. We can hardly wait to see your beautiful home. We don't have any plans at present of coming to Cotacachi, but we'll definitely let you know when and if our plans take us to Cotacachi.

      Best wishes and God's blessings on two of the most beautiful people we know.

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  5. Lovely apartment! I have just now finished reading your all of your blog entries and have enjoyed them. I have a question, if it's not too personal...you had mentioned the possibility of moving to Cotacachi due to the noise in Cuenca. Is that still on your radar? The reason I ask is that we're thinking of Ecuador, but right now live in a rural area that is extremely quiet, which we like, and the stories of noise concern me, a bit. Am also glad to hear about the churches and Bible study.

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    1. Wow, thanks for taking the time to read the entire blog. That's actually what we did before we moved here was to read others' blogs as well.

      The reason we moved to such a nice apartment here in Cuenca is because our plans to move to Cotacachi fell through. Our new apartment is in a new building which is made very well, and we have the double-pane windows that blocks out most of the noise. Because of that, this is the quietest apartment we'd lived in (and we've been in four now).

      I think you'd get used to the noise here after awhile (traffic noise, horns honking, car alarms, etc.), but take your time to find what you want, but it may take several moves over many months before you find the right fit for you.

      Good luck with your future planning.

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  6. Just found your blog from a link and started backtracking through the posts. Gorgeous apartment, thanks for posting costs in the comments. Helps us in our bedgeting. We plan on a month-long exploratory trip this spring with hopes for relocation next winter. http://ecuador-bound.blogspot.com/

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    1. Maybe we can meet during your trip here this spring. You can reach us by email: pat.grimm@hotmail.com.

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  7. Hello Patty

    Very nice blog...
    We are planing to move from Europe to Cuenca in October.
    Do you have a real estate agent that you can recommend?
    Many Thanks
    Prin

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    1. Hello Prin,

      We have a friend who is a real estate agent. She lives in our building. Her name is Monica Rodas and she speaks excellent English. You can contact her via email at cuencabienesraices@hotmail.com.

      Good luck with your future plans.

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