We have a lead on a house

Our good friend Dr Julio is using his connections to help us find a house to rent. Househunting is hard here, since there aren't any classified ads to check, or other organized methods of listing houses for rent or sale - and the photo above is misleading, as there are not many "for rent" signs to be seen, either.

Julio says there is a 4 bedroom house available, in a fairly nice neighborhood here in Gracias. The owner lives in the capital, and apparently no one in town has the key to the house. This week Julio is in Tegucigalpa, so he will pick up the key to the house and bring it back when he returns. Hopefully we will be able to see the house sometime this weekend.

Our housing needs aren't lavish, but they are a bit specific. We have to have security, a fenced yard for the dogs, and enough space for 8 people (although you might be surprised at how small a space we can survive in, if we have no choice). We really need space for storing and organizing the donations when we receive shipments - although if necessary, we will rent a second building for that.

Our current house, in spite of the problems with the leaky roof, has some unusual amenities, including nice built-in closets in the bedrooms, hot water from a hot water heater throughout the house (including the kitchen - amazing!), and kitchen cabinets! We have also been able to use the carport for storage of donations, which hasn't been ideal, but we've been able to make it work. We don't really expect to find any of those fabulous items in our next house. Of course, that means that if the house does have any of these amenities, we will consider ourselves abundantly blessed to have them!

While searching for a house for our family, Dr Julio has also been keeping an eye out for a house to rent for the Hayes family, who expect to be coming down to work with us in the next few months. He says he may have found something (smaller, as they don't have as large a family as we do, and won't be storing shipments) that will work for them. If so, we will go ahead and start renting that now, as obviously the finding of a house to rent in Gracias is not something to leave until the last moment!