Here’s the next post under “living in Jamaica”. I thought I’d give you the rundown on what it was/is like to find yourself a place to live on the island. I won’t lie, there are some headaches in the process of doing this when you don’t actually live there yet. I got my apartment back in September 2010 and have been basically maintaining two homes ever since – my Canadian one and my Jamaican one. Financially it’s a risk!
Since I got this place 5 months ago I’ve only stayed in it once, that makes me sad because after I took the chance on getting it and then coming to see it, I LOVE living there! But sadly, I’ve had guests who’ve stayed there longer than I have. It all happened because I was browsing the Gleaner classifieds one day and I saw this place located in the area I always stay in Ochi. I LOVE the area so I texted one of my friends and asked him if he could please go look at it for me and let me know if it was worth the money they were asking. I also asked him to take pictures and email them to me. That was a process in itself since he doesn’t have a computer. God bless him for hustling for me and getting the job done! Believe it or not the pictures in this blog post are still the original ones he took because I’ve never taken any that are better.
After I saw the pictures I still thought the price was a bit more than I wanted to pay, considering utilities are extra every month. I took a couple days to think about it and decide if I could really carry two homes at once. The only idea I came up with was to pray that I could rent it to tourists while I’m not there. However the place was great and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have a home in the exact area I wanted. So I jumped on it, and immediately sent the money to get the place. The following week I sent more money to my friend and his mom to fix it up with linens and kitchen stuff so I could start advertising it as a vacation apartment.
So that happened in September and my first stay in it was November. I was nervous as hell driving up to my place for the first time, hoping the pictures weren’t better than real life. My friend’s mom was there to greet me, she had the place done up so beautifully for my first time there. What a sweetheart, she had the table all set pretty, the bed made up and everything clean and fabulous. I really didn’t think it would be ready because I had a guest staying in it for two weeks before I arrived….and the guest left the same day I arrived! The turnaround time was only a few hours so my friend’s mom really hustled to wash the sheets and make the place up. God bless her….I slipped her a nice cash prize for that one.
A few things I noticed immediately – the bedroom is absolutely HUGE!!! There’s a king size bed in it and still room for another single or double bed. The kitchen has pink tiles which I hate! But we all know about funky decorating in Jamaica. Whatever. And the rest of the place is more than adequate, a really great size for the price. There are some things I will change along the way.
I met my neighbor the first evening I was there – Shane. We share a veranda and he’s the BEST neighbor EVER!! Every day that I came home his door was open and the smell of his food was killing me! After only a couple days I learned that my neighbor likes to share his food (and pots and knives) too 🙂 We swapped dinners a lot in the 2 weeks I was there. I miss you Shane! And I miss the rastaman’s dog too. The guy who is the groundskeeper at the property has the cutest yard dog who jumps up to greet me when I come home!
Over the two weeks I did a lot of shopping at Bashco, the housewares store, for regular household items to make the place more like home. Discovered my little roommate the lizard who liked to be everywhere I was. I love lizards. He was occasionally in the kitchen watching me cook, in the bathroom watching me do my thing, and in a corner in the living room. I don’t pay any mind to a lizard in the house because #1 they eat bugs, and #2 they’re scared of people so they don’t bother with us.
I brought down both my flags to leave in the apartment and that’s the very first thing I did when I got inside – found a nail in the wall and put up my flags! I left them there too…..my apologies to any Americans who might rent the place from me.
So anyways, this is the first installment of what it was like to get my own place in Jamaica. I figure I’ll do a next post soon on little things that always come up that make it difficult to be a dual-resident in two different countries.
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Comments
16 responses to “My Apartment in Jamaica”
Im so proud of you ! and hats of to the photographer.. i never realized he took those pics.. we need him to do all the pics of the properties his are better then the ones i take.. good on him…. you see your flag found a home … you see mine i cant even give away lol….. no its got a home at spotlight if it ever gets there…. dont worry when you are finally there you will be the richist woman in the world!!! not all wealth is measured in monetary amounts… we are all with you on this adventure.. xoxoxoxo
Thank you Shannon! And as long as my bills are paid I don’t really care about the riches! I just want to do my thing and get the word out.
Great post and I can vouch on it being a GREAT apartment. The living room and bedroom is huge and Shane is a great neighbor!
Hurry up and get down there already so I can hang in that living room!!
I’m trying my girl! We can make Shane cook for us LOL.
Love…..love the video…..yahoo…..I am eating lunch in my office and had the music blasting……wish your place was in Kingston like New Kingston area or halfwaythree as that is the path that I thread when am there…. mainly because my jamaican granmama lives in a volatile neighbourhoood and refuse to move…..so, when am there I stay in kingston and have her come visit and stay over. I don’t go to her neighbourhood anymore something scary happened to me couple years ago when I was there…. shiver
Love your place!! and if I ever decide to come to that neck of the woods will definitely contact you…..gone back to listening to that video
Glad you’re loving the video. And I’d for sure come visit Kingston to see you. It’ll get me out of my everyday life in Ochi.
sorry to bug you again, you can disregard the first email asking you where to start reading, I couldnt help myself and have been reading up on your pages for hours now. its so wonderful to hear someone else is moving ahead with the same dreams I have. I have already found so many helpful tips and advice on things for my next trip to Jamaica. now that your moving there is this apartment still available to rent sometime in the future, or is this your home for good now? wow, your so lucky! I am so excited for your journey and totally understand how you feel about leaving your dog behind too.
LOL Kelly I already answered your email anyway. And yes the apartment will always be for rent as long as I have it. I’m on the road a lot in Jamaica so it’s no problem to leave the place for a guest to have it.
I’m really glad you’re enjoying reading and if you have questions just let me know!
Hey! That was my apartment in Ocho Rios! I liked living there, though it was a brief (3 months) stay. I’m sure you were there after I made some improvements! Like reinstalling the phone lines in the living room and bedroom since someone thought they would rip them out of the walls, scrubbing down the furniture and fixing the tiling in the kitchen and bath — even though they did leave a piece of tile missing cause they’re cheap!! And there was no closet apart from what contained the boiler in the bathroom, but wasn’t there long enough to fix that issue. It wasn’t a very secure place as people would walk through the yard and I wasn’t crazy about the family member guy who lived in the house behind and I would get followed home sometimes. I hated that. However, it’s a great location to walk into town. This is where I first saw your blog because I was checking to see if it was available and I came across this blog,but didn’t pay much attention to the blog until just recently.
WOW what a small world BJ. How long ago was that? Because I know the two people who lived in it before me – one’s a cop and one’s a Jamaican girl. Nice people. Was Shane your neighbor back then?
PS: I didn’t like the family member behind the house either. UGH.
I loved this place and all the people who worked in the yard. I miss them like crazy, they were always watching out for me. The place was very secure with the grill around the veranda, and right before I moved in they put a gate on the yard too. But inside could have used some upgrading and repairs for sure lol.
I was there from about July to end of September 2009.
That guy was weird!! The VERY FIRST night I was there. I was getting settled and I was standing by the table just outside the kitchen in the process of removing my top and I heard a voice!!! It was him!! OMG. I’m like what is this person doing at the window!! I actually took all of the curtains down when I arrived because they were not in my taste and I’m not as brave as you are so I keep everything very clean, clear and open to NOT accommodate lizards! Once I was standing in the middle of the floor talking with my cousin and telling her how I hate lizards — and there was one standing right beside me — I cried!! I feel like they do it on purpose. They know exactly what they’re doing and they are HIGHLY persistent creatures!!
No there was another guy living there when I did in the same section with the shared veranda. No one was upstairs. But the guy in the back — who is a family member living on the property was there. So … back to the story … So he was peeping in the window and just before I pulled my top over my head he asked if I didn’t have curtains. So being very naive (I hate that) I let him in and he cleaned the floor washed all of the curtains and my shower curtain, put on my showerhead (cause I didn’t like what was there and some other stuff. But then he went to his house and got dinner!! And he wouldn’t leave. It was like late and I’m tired and here is this guy just sitting there! Well, he eventually left once he brought all the wash back and did his relaxing and dinner thing.
Then he just kept doing things for me and it really made me uncomfortable but I didn’t know what to do — so I tried to avoid him. But one day I think he said for me to send a list of stuff he did to the office. So I did that. I think he wanted me to pay him for all that he did but I didn’t understand that at the time.
When I was there the only person in the yard was the rastaman. He was nice but I didn’t really talk w/ him. He would work outside shirtless and stuff, but I kept distance. LOL.
Well, I had people follow me home and stuff. But I felt pretty safe there… yes, there was no gate on the yard when I was there, just the gate around the veranda, which I liked.
As far as the upgrading — yes. I had a choice of the upstairs apartment which consisted of two rooms and too much furniture — which I didn’t need at all. And I even really thought this apartment was too big for me. In fact, I never slept in the bed. I made it with my own linen, but I napped on the large sofa mostly. This apartment was much cleaner as far as the amount of furnishings and more open. Upstairs too cramped and dark for me.
The kitchen was a good size for a cook, but I am not a cook so I rarely used it.
I went running in the early morning. So I loved the fact there was a nice sidewalk that went all the way down to the gas station in the town.
The lady I rented from was very nice — um, the husband was “nice” too. Just the day he met me he tried to invite me to his house and I know there was no one there but him alone because his wife was traveling, so I was worried … I didn’t know if I should go or not, particularly because he’s the owner and things are weird in Jamaica, but in the end I didn’t go.
I’m definitely not as brave as you are!!!
The family member was Mikey…i wasn’t a fan of him either LOL. But Dready, the rasta – he is awesome. VERY nice dude! He was always riding his bike down the hill into town and back up, every time I drove by him he’d call me and wave. His dog Zeus is a sweety too!
When I lived there the landlords lived upstairs and still do. I often went up to pay the rent or say hi, and you’re right, it was very dark up there and way too much furniture LOL! There’s a studio apartment on the downstairs level too, outside the veranda area. I stayed in it for a couple weeks once when I let friends have my place for their vacation. Now that one had a lot of creatures in it compared to my apartment. I HATED IT lol.
I really liked that yard though – we always had cookouts together in the back of the house. The landlords, me, Shane and Dready. I really miss it.
Yes. He said he worked on a ship or something or was in the merchant marines, something like that. Yeah. He invited me to use the washer upstairs because for whatever reason the washer was removed from the unit and THEN he tried to sell one to me (and I think it was the same one that was supposed to be for the unit).
I wasn’t very social with the people as I’m overly trusting and to date that has been not worked in my favor. For instance, today I had a goal of getting food in the town, so I go to the money machine and start walking down the sidewalk and this elderly man emerges from the supermarket and stops me, looking nice and well taken care of and my instincts say “Yeah, a nice person!” So the overly trusting part of me is in full gear. He asks me where I’m from, where I live, what’s my name then he tells me his name and that niece has the same name as I — (at this point I was strolling down the sidewalk with a big wad of money in my hand ( *__*) — not that I had it open or anything it was folded and I was attempting to put it away. I don’t think he saw it before he stopped me , but I did notice he looked at it while I struggled to put it away. Now, I’m not sure why he stopped me, but I thought perhaps he had seen me in the community where I live and that’s why he stopped me. Well, after I told him my whole identity and where I lived he told me he needed money to go home to Anchovy (which is somewhere going towards Hanover I think)! I was totally not expecting this! So I was a bit upset about the whole occurrence. I gave him $200JA and there that encounter ended. I’m now eating crackers and got some fruit because I just couldn’t stay in the town any longer. Didn’t accomplish my goal at all of getting food.
I rented from the owner (Mrs. Smith) and paid at the Happy Homes Furnishing business office just inside of town.
Yes. There was a guy living in the studio apartment. I did see it and thought — outside of the small kitchen and bath, it was a neat place for one person. However, if I had to stay in there I would NEVER shower in that tiny bath with stand up shower!!
The bugs, like I said are super sneaky and persistent in their behaviour. One night I heard banging and a lot of noise with the furniture, the next morning found out that a scorpion had entered the neighbor’s studio (evidence of his demise — large body left outside the grill). God is good to me. I’ve not had that experience, save for a time when I was with a group of people and one was right behind me. I was quickly moved out of the way and it was killed before I knew what happened.
I too missed it so much since I’ve left. The perfect place eight minutes walking distance to the town so even if you couldn’t get a taxi it was a nice walk any time. The areas seemed pretty safe and the people were very nice. I miss Ocho Rios. It is a much friendlier place than the second city in my opinion
LOL about the Scorpion!! You must not have seen the post I did about the 40 Leg in my (your) apartment! That was my FIRST night in the place LOL!!
http://www.jamaicamyway.com/uncategorized/40-legs-in-jamaica/
I can only say Thank you, God! I do recall I walking in the town once and saw one and made my way around it. I’ve never lived amongst crawly things, so I’m not interested. I too religiously each time I go to the bed, which I keep a very light weight, light colored sheet on, check about to make sure nothing has taken it over. Mostly everything I have is white, so if any speck of anything is on it I’m going to see it.
Kristi, I was wondering if apartment is still availabl for rentals, when i clicked on link it was in asian dilect. LOL..Please let me know.