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photo page 29 |
The weather in Israel is quite extreme this spring: flooding and storms. The wind blows big waves to the coast, and the water
reaches all the way up to the boulevard. Everything sold in the booths on the boulevard tastes salty. Up north it is even
worse: cars are being washed from the roads, part of the main road along the Dead Sea is wiped away, and many houses have water damage. |
The next week more showers arrive, a beautiful rainbow can be seen. Although Eilat remains mostly dry, the Arava road to the
north get flooded heavily, and Ruth and Yuval, coming from Jerusalem, have hours of delay. |
Remember the daffodils? We found one! Sonja receives a present from the supermarket: a tiny little pot. After diligently watering it
for weeks, it suddenly sprouts two microscopic daffodils. |
The rental agreement of the apartment has run its turn, and the owner proposes a huge increase in rent, that was already too steep.
Time to look around. Sonja visits several real-estate agencies, explains precisely what we need, so that they can come up with as
many unsuitable apartments as they can. Finally, through the Erev-Erev, we get in touch with Nissim, who knows a penthouse to rent.
The view is phenomenal, the rent reasonable although the apartment is a bit dilapidated. The owner lives in France, and has a
lawyer in Eilat that is such a s...-head that we have a big fight within 5 minutes and tell him to shove it.
With lots of tact, Nissim saves the day, pays some greasing money to the s...-head and gets a contract that is barely acceptable,
without us having to visit that lawyer.
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Time to move! All beds, tables and coaches must be disassembled into small pieces, even the big Ikea cupboards. Henk and
Amitsa take the kitchen cupboard down. |
Mico's moving van has arrived, and slowly the furniture and thing disappear into the elevator. We discover that we collected
a few more thing than we expected, and in the early morning we haven't finished packing. Eef comes to the rescue, and with her
vast experience, everything gets in the truck just in time.
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Henk pretends to look out for the truck, but is actually just enjoying the view from the balcony.
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The truck arrived at 8 in the morning, but has to return for the fridge and the washing machine. It takes until 4 in the
afternoon to get everything inside. Time for an old tradidion: bubbly! Amitsa looks in awe. |
The previous, much more luxury apartment had many flaws, but this one is a lot older. The airco produces a little waterfall,
not a single door closes, not a cupboard door that is not askew, and no faucet is leak-free. When Henk cleans the balcony,
water runs underneath the glass door into to living room. Time for some serious DIY. Sonja is busy cleaning, because, after
caretaker Shlomo finished cleaning, the kitchen was still sticky and the shid marks of the previous tennant were still in the toilet.
Call that care taking! We hired another group of cleaners, and even they left enough for Sonja to keep herself busy for a month.
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Oh yeah, and the waterpipe to the boiler broke clean off after switching on. Sonja calls the caretaker, and within a day we
have a brand new boiler on the roof, even with a solar panel. Just wish he would have taken away the old boiler, because it
is really an eye-sore, but he simply refuses. |
It is starting to look nice. Ruth has painted the walls in the living room and the master bed room. Yuval and Henk have
reassembled all the cupboards and moved all the wooden constructions from the old apartment. Henk uses this to create a
new play corner for Amitsa.
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The internet PC is now in the living room, strategically underneath the airco. |
The guest room is ready, just in time for the first guests...
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....who even have their own bathroom and toilet. |
The entrance...
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... but the most stunningly beautiful is the panoramic view over the sea, the mountains and the valley. As soon as we are back,
we will think of contructing a pergola, because too much sun gets in the house through all the glass and it is really hot.
But the view makes up for that. |
