What have we been doing all this time?

Well, I'll tell you.  I haven't been blogging because we've been busy house-hunting.  We wanted to pick up where we left off last summer when our plan was to come down here and look for a place to spend at least a year to see if it might be the place we would want to live for a few years.  Of course, other events overtook those plans, but we're ready to start again.

Order of business then was thus:
1) Find a place that we would like and be comfortable for a year or more
2) Go back to Louisville and put the house on the market again.  This time, we hope to market it more aggressively than last year.

So we've been looking at rental houses--a lot of them--and rejected most for various reasons. But we finally decided on this one:

54 Galeana

That link will take you to the sale listing (it just sold in January, I think) and there's a YouTube link for a virtual tour.  I don't know what the final sale price was, but yes, you are looking at a half-million dollar (USD) house.  There are many of these and upwards, difficult to sell since the crash.  These new owners are a cardiologist and an accountant who live in Atlanta, who've bought the house for their eventual retirement.  Many people do that.  Meanwhile, they want renters to keep the house occupied.  The furnishings you see in the pictures are mostly from the previous owners.  The new owners are refurnishing the house.  Right now, the living room is the same, there's a dining room table and chairs, beds in all the bedrooms, a couple of recliners in the study, and some patio furniture.  They plan to come down a couple of times during the summer to continue the refurnishing and the lease won't start until 1 September for a year. That timing was also an important consideration as we didn't want to start a lease right away. Of course, we'll be coming back to the US during that year and hope to have visitors here!

It's a big house with huge rooms, but very reasonable.  We happened to be looking at rentals with the agent who had just sold the house and knew they wanted to rent it, so it never went public. We like the location: walkable to shops and restaurants; the view: of the village, the lake, and the mountains; the garden and the pool; bathtubs!!; the fantastic kitchen; views of the garden from every room.  This is one of my favorites, the view from the study:

There are two master suites, one up and one down, both with huge bathrooms including separate showers and bathtubs, another guest room with two queen beds and full bath across the hall.  And the study and a living room and a dining room.  Lots of room for company and plenty of privacy.

So, now we're relaxing, enjoying the weather going out for dinner or lunch a couple of times a week, meeting up with friends.  For me, I'm trying to get used to retirement.  I know I don't want to work, but it seems strange not having work--like I"m supposed to be doing something. I read but get restless.  I think I need some kind of schedule.

Anyway, there's the house.