Living Outside the City

I am sitting in my office on a perfect day. The sun is shining; the sliding glass doors are opened with the screen closed to let in the fresh air. The yard was cut a few hours before, so there is a faint residue of fresh-cut grass in the air; not too strong, rather quite pleasant. The pool is bubbling contentedly as the clean blue water circulates. The windows are open, covered by Roman-style bamboo blinds that let in enough sunlight to make the room bright, but not concentrated enough to cause a glare on my computer screens.

A bird is chirping in the background. Low-keyed, not annoying. I can hear a lawn mower some distance away cutting grass, but again, not very loud. Every now and then I hear the relatively quiet whisper of a car passing along the road that runs alongside the neighborhood.

I lean back in my chair and stretch, allowing a satisfied grunt to escape as I exhale. Life is good.

Though only 6 days in the house, it seems like the city is weeks away in the past, almost like a bad dream.

It's hard to believe that I spent about two years living in a concrete cave in a city full of noisy, rude, thoughtless people. Breathing noxious fumes from buses and cars that jammed the streets and made crossing from block to block a dangerous undertaking if you weren't paying attention.

Of course, who could sustain a brisk walk very long given the poor air quality of the city misnamed Buenos Aires.

So, the thread starter obviously posted what I think about living outside the city.

Now some details.

The neighborhood is a "barrio cerrado" (closed neighborhood) It has one entrance, with guards that control access (very tightly) to the neighborhood. There are 50 lots in this neighborhood, though I have been in countries (they have golf courses and clubhouses, etc) that have a hundred or two hundred (maybe) lots.

The house is 300 square meters covered area (3,229 square feet) It has 4 decent-sized bedrooms. 4 Full bathrooms with three of those being in two bedrooms and a dependencia (though the one in the dependencia stretches the definition). It also has a spacious half bath near the entrance.

The kitchen is rather large, and although it has a good amount of cabinet space, it is not laid out very efficiently. There is a lot of wasted floor and wall space at the moment, which I plan to change. Off of the kitchen is a small solarium, where 4-5 people could sit comfortably and chat or watch TV.

It has a medium-sized dining area, and a medium-sized family room.

Down a hallway from where the dining area and kitchen are is a long-ish hallway which leads to the only bedroom on the bottom floor, which I am using for my office. The office has sliding glass doors that open on to the pool and the backyard.

Betweent he kitchen and the downstairs bedroom is a Laundry room and a dependencia with a complete bath (though tiny) The dependencia is actually a bit larger than almost any other I'd seen when looking at houses.

Upstairs it has a master bedroom en suite with a separate dressing area and separate (open) bathroom. On the other side of the house are two more bedrooms with a decent-sized bathroom between them, though without entrances to the bathroom directly from the rooms.

Outside is a very spacious, covered, nicely-tiled patio in a L-shape. One side of the "L" has a parilla for home-grilling steaks and other delectable foods that a lot of us know how to cook, but you never see in Argentina:)

And, of course, a filtered pool in the back, around 10 meters long by about 4-5 meteres wide. Shallow end and deep end.

The price is a little costly, but without giving away my finances, the rent itself only cost about U$S 200- U$S 300 more than I could get a two-bedroom apartment with dependencia in Barrio Norte (where I lived before, Juncal and Riobamba)

The problem is, in addition to the rent, there are of course utilities (it is going to be more in a house, probably about U$S 200 a month total.

There are also neighborhood fees to pay. Here they are approximately 600 pesos per month. But these are very comparable to building fees that you would pay in some rental circumstances (I'm talking real lease here, not a temporary rental) and certainly if you owned the apartment (for anyone who might consider buying a house outside the city.

I have seen houses when searching that range from about 100 sqm to 500 sqm. Price ranges from U$S 800 to U$S 2,000, all in the area and one close to here, near Escobar (between here and Tigre) I have seen 130 sqm houses that went for U$S 1500 and 500 sqm houses that went for U$S 1,000 - it just depends on the exact location, the condition of things, etc.

We looked only at houses in Barrio Cerrados or in Countries, except for the first one we looked at. For more information on that particular house see my post in Racism in Agentina.

The house is truly outside the city. I did not consider places inside the city, or even in nearby provincias such as Vicente Lopez or Olivos, after I saw the scarcity and what was available for the money.

It is located to the west-northwest of the city, near a town called Pilar, which is about 15 kilometers or so to the west of Tigre. We are in Gran Buenos Aires - Norte, and the area is more or less Las Tortuguitas or Del Viso (or Dique, or Garin, etc - there are as many names for places out here as there are for streets - which can be a navigation problem).

The Highway to get here is Aceso Norte, which actually splits into three "ramas" (branches) The first split is to Tigre, then the second is the split to Pilar and Escobar. We are on the Rama Pilar, about 40 kilometers outside the city. From Recoleta, with normal traffic, it take between 30 and 40 minutes to make the trip.

[QUOTE=El Queso]I am sitting in my office on a perfect day. The sun is shining; the sliding glass doors are opened with the screen closed to let in the fresh air. The yard was cut a few hours before, so there is a faint residue of fresh-cut grass in the air; not too strong, rather quite pleasant. The pool is bubbling contentedly as the clean blue water circulates. The windows are open, covered by Roman-style bamboo blinds that let in enough sunlight to make the room bright, but not concentrated enough to cause a glare on my computer screens.

A bird is chirping in the background. Low-keyed, not annoying. I can hear a lawn mower some distance away cutting grass, but again, not very loud. Every now and then I hear the relatively quiet whisper of a car passing along the road that runs alongside the neighborhood.

I lean back in my chair and stretch, allowing a satisfied grunt to escape as I exhale. Life is good.

Though only 6 days in the house, it seems like the city is weeks away in the past, almost like a bad dream.

It's hard to believe that I spent about two years living in a concrete cave in a city full of noisy, rude, thoughtless people. Breathing noxious fumes from buses and cars that jammed the streets and made crossing from block to block a dangerous undertaking if you weren't paying attention.

Of course, who could sustain a brisk walk very long given the poor air quality of the city misnamed Buenos Aires.[/QUOTE]Sounds like the only other thing you need is a "Blow Job" Then Life would be Perfect.

Exon

Some photos of the house to get an idea of the area and quality of life.

[QUOTE=El Queso]Some photos of the house to get an idea of the area and quality of life.[/QUOTE]El Queso,

Many thanks for the detailed report. Highly appreciated. It gives an insight to others, who are curious of how would a possible lifestyle be in the outskirts of BA.

Query: How far is nearest grocery kiosk and nice decent hospital from your house.

I spent close to a month searching for houses, accompanied by a friend who was very helpful in helping me notice details about things as we looked.

The best way to look for houses would seem to be to search in Google for something like "casas alquiler Pilar [or Escobar] [or Tigre, etc]" and find an inmobiliaria (real estate agent) that has a couple of houses listed on the internet that you would be interested to see. Many inmobiliarias have more properties than they have listed on the internet, or they know another agent who has a house you might like. Make an appointment with them, give them as much info as you can aboutnwhat you want, and let them find properties and make appointments, including the ones you were interested in from the internet.

As my friend pointed out, the best way to approach this is to look at as many houses as you can each day, as often as you can afford the time or until you get sick of it, to get an idea of what is available for what cost.

Don't even consider a house until you've looked at at least 10 houses or differing styles. We looked at probably a little over 20. When I walked into this house (and another one I liked before it) I knew with confidence that it was a house I would be happy living in - I felt it on entering.

Had I not followed that advice I probably would have ended up in a smaller house that was in worse condition, paying nearly as much as I am now.

There are a very few houses available that can be rented temporary, like apartments in the city. They are furnished as the apartments are. We only looked at one in all the houses we found, and it was listed on SoloDuenos.com.ar, although I came across a large number of them here and there listed on the internet - just didn't go to look at them. I'm sure that almost all of the inmobiliarias are going to have 24-month leases available, nothing shorter.

I ended up using a property (apartment) in Cordoba as a garantia. It was offered to me (very, very generously) by an Argentino friend. Most owners will demand a garantia, and most of those will demand property from Buenos Aires. It is actually rare to find someone who will accept property in another province to secure a rental agreement.

I am confident that rental agreements can be made which will not require garantias. It depends on how desparate the owner is to rent. Again, following advice from my friend, make a little CV (Curriculum Vitae, or resume) of yourself that tells who you are, where you come from, why you're here (as much as common sense tells you to tell;)) and so on. Offer references.

You may still have to pay a hefty deposit or a large number of months payment in advance, and you may have to go through a number of offers before you find someone that will bite, but I think it is doable. I almost had mine without a garantia.

The normal deal (for an Argentino) is 24 month contract. 1 or 2 months deposit, a garantia, and pay something like one month or 5% of the total contract in commission to the inmobiliaria.

I ended up paying three months deposit, three months in advance, and used the garantia from Cordoba.

[QUOTE=Captain]El Queso,

Query: How far is nearest grocery kiosk and nice decent hospital from your house.[/QUOTE]The nearest kiosko is about a three-four block walk from here, but it's like a largish corner kiosco in the city. There's a vegetable store near that as well, with a tool store next to those.

The nearest actual grocery store (Disco) is about 2-3 kilometers away down the highway. However, they deliver and you can get a catalogue to order by phone or go online and order as well.

Hospital Austral is about 4-5 kilometers from here. There are other smaller care offices here and there scattered around.

The truth is though, I would not suggest living outside the city unless you have a car. Although it would be possible, you would feel very isolated I think. There are NO taxis. There are a number of Remis offices so if something happened to your car, you could still get around for a short time, but it would be expensive over time.

Also, there are private "combis" that come down the Rama Pilar every hour or hour and a half. You can reserve a spot and come out or go in for 15 pesos. From here, it's about a kiometer to walk to the highway where the combis pick up and drop off.

[QUOTE=Exon123]Sounds like the only other thing you need is a "Blow Job" Then Life would be Perfect.

Exon[/QUOTE]Heh:) this is something that someone is going to have to come out and check out. I was driving around in Pilar two days ago, kind of exploring, and came across two different businesses that seemed to be boliches / cabarets. Two men standing outside dressed nicely, gated-off front and no windows.

Someone is going to have to come out and try some of the women out here. There are certainly a ton of beauties walking around out here.

[QUOTE=El Queso]The nearest kiosko is about a three-four block walk from here, but it's like a largish corner kiosco in the city. There's a vegetable store near that as well, with a tool store next to those.

The nearest actual grocery store (Disco) is about 2-3 kilometers away down the highway. However, they deliver and you can get a catalogue to order by phone or go online and order as well.

Hospital Austral is about 4-5 kilometers from here. There are other smaller care offices here and there scattered around.

The truth is though, I would not suggest living outside the city unless you have a car. Although it would be possible, you would feel very isolated I think. There are NO taxis. There are a number of Remis offices so if somethinghappened to your car, you could still get around for a short time, but it would be expensive over time.

Also, there are private "combis" that come down the Rama Pilar every hour or hour and a half. You can reserve a spot and come out or go in for 15 pesos. From here, it's about a kiometer to walk to the highway where the combis pick up and drop off.[/QUOTE]Excellent! Thanks for the detailed response.

Q: Nice place, good decision. When do you get the labrador retriever?

[QUOTE=Thomaso276]Q: Nice place, good decision. When do you get the labrador retriever?[/QUOTE]NEVER! Too many damned dogs around now;) The truth is, I have had enough of dogs from a past life.

Maybe a horse. Hmmm. There's a polo field on the other side of the highway!