A spiral staircase leads down to a private beach for Rainbow Beach residence

Cari has her hands full packing and getting ready for medical school, so I took it upon myself to find a place for us to live when we get to St. Maarten.

And… so it turns out that finding a place to rent when you’re not anywhere near that place is more challenging that you migt have thought..

Luckily, we had good help in the form of Cheyenne McGlue (link to her blog, Island Time).  Cari’s medical school, UAC, has a Spouses Organization that helps families make the transition to life on the island.  Every incoming family gets a “sponsor” who is a spouse that has been on the island for a while and knows the lay-of-the-land.  Cheyenne has two boys, Ronin and Dillon, who are close to Tanner’s age, and she was able to answer every question we could throw at her.

She also helped in finding a place to live.  Our first choice would have been right next door to the McGlue’s, across the street from AUC, and relatively affordable.  Perfect! We were all set to move on that condo when the current tenant suddenly decided to extend for four more months.

Scratch that.

An aerial view of Rainbow Beach

After much looking we found a place that was even more affordable but a 10 minute drive from AUC.  And it had a private pool. Cheyenne went out there, took pics, and gave us a report.  ”Thumbs up” she said. Perfect!  But when the landlord heard the words “three kids” he told us “Thanks but no thanks.”

Scratch that # 2.

The third place we found was in a resort on the beach and right across the street from AUC.

The condo’s balcony overlooked the ocean.  It was slightly more expensive than anything we’d been considering so far, but we felt good about it.  I spoke to the managing agent and told them we wanted it.  They said it was ours, and they would send info about where to send a deposit and how to sign the lease.  Then, nothing.  I called and emailed every day straight for a week. Nothing.  When I finally got a hold of them, they said they had leased it to someone else who had walked in and put down cash.

Scratch that #3.

What I should add, at this point, is that I’d been searching for a place since August, and it was now November.  What I haven’t talked about is all the hours I spend poring over St. Maarten want-adds and realtor listings, sending out emails, making phone calls, emailing Cheyenne with possibilities and her emailing back saying “You REALLY don’t want to live in that neighborhood”, asking landlords and listing agents for photographs and more details only to be told “Sorry, that one just got leased yesterday” if they ever answered at all.  More than once I asked Cheyenne to go to look at  a place that seemed promising from my perspective only to have her say, “NOO!!”.  We were now six weeks away from getting on a plain and flying to the island, and we still had no idea where we were going to live.

Almost looks too good to be true

So when I was told that I had a place reserved for us, and then told that she leased it to someone else, well… I pretty much blew my cool to the poor lady on the phone.  She felt bad and referred me to a landlord who owned another condo in the same resort.  A little more expensive, not looking over the ocean, but also more square feet.

It’s was six weeks before we flew down.  I called this landlord. Her name is Jennifer. We spoke on the phone.  She’s nice. She’s a mom.  She worked with us on amending the contract to our liking. She gave us a small break on her asking rent.

We signed the contract and faxed it back to her, and then we breathed a deep sigh of relief.

We’d found a new home!