Big Relief – somewhere to stay in Santa Fe

I’m sorry to have left off on such a negative note the other day. What I hadn’t yet had a chance to mention was that I was also, simultaneously, looking for something to rent. That process was every bit as scary and frustrating as looking for something to buy.

Santa Fe is truly a tourist town. Everyone with any kind of property that is remotely rentable will make vastly more money renting it as a vacation rental, on a daily basis, than as a regular rental on a monthly or annual basis. Obviously, I can’t pay tourist rates (usually starting at about $200 per night for something small, going up from there for anything larger). Even Airbnb is completely taken over by people catering to tourists. A bedroom in a shared house goes for $55+ a night (that works out to $1650 per month for a single room). If it’s a nice bedroom, it’s twice that amount per night. My first good, solid lead, through word-of-mouth, was $1,000 per month for one room with a shared bathroom. That’s as bad as the California Bay Area. And I’m really past the point in life where I want to share a bathroom with strangers.

What was I going to do? I’m not a natural networker, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I don’t know anyone in Santa Fe, but I put word out to everyone I knew in New Mexico, and every organization I had ever interacted with, religious and otherwise. This caused some consternation because it’s a complicated story. “No, John’s not moving too. Just me. No, we’re not separating. Yes, everything’s fine. Yes, I’ve got 3 dogs but they can stay with John. No, I can’t commute; migraines, coaching clients right after work, bla, bla, bla.”

Finally, yesterday morning, the Quakers came through for me. Most of you probably know that I belong to the “Religious Society of Friends” (aka “Friends” or “Quakers”). I joined in my early 20’s and regularly brought the kids to the Olympia Monthly Meeting throughout their childhood. I’ve only attended sporadically since marrying John (he won’t go to any kind of church or religious meeting).  Lately I’ve been attending a Presbyterian church because that’s what’s available in Placitas.

Anyway, I was put in touch with a Quaker friend who has a 1-bedroom casita attached to her home, which she had been running as a vacation rental through VRBO.com. But the vacation rental business is really difficult – you have to deal with crazy tourists – LOL. And she was getting tired of it. Plus, she’s considering moving out of Santa Fe altogether. So the property may go on the market at some point and I’d have to move again. But for now, it’s perfect.

She kindly dropped her rate to be more in line with a monthly rental (although it’s still very expensive). It’s a fair amount more money than my tenants pay for their 3-bed, 2-bath rentals in good neighborhoods in Albuquerque, and it’s less than half the size. Probably only about 600 square feet. But it’s cute, quaint, and close to my new job.

BTW, you probably know this, but the word “casa” means “house, and “casita” means “little house”. The term “casita” is often used to indicate a guest house. They can be attached to the main house, like this one, or detached, like at the house we almost bought in Placitas. The term “casita” can also be used to indicate any small house with southwest styling, particularly if it’s real adobe. It can be difficult to tell at a glance whether something is of actual adobe mud construction or just stucco on wood frame. But we don’t make the mistake of calling something “adobe” when it’s just stucco. Anyway, back to this particular casita…

The landlords are Marcy and Steve. Marcy is the Quaker friend. Steve, her husband, has a bit of a prickly personality, but Marcy is super-friendly. And it’s good to have them right next door, because I don’t know anyone in Santa Fe yet. It’s no pets, but Marcy is generously allowing me to bring the dogs up with me when John is away traveling, since he’s on business trips fairly often. When she told me it was ok to bring my dogs when John was traveling, Steve said to her, “We agreed no pets.” And she said, “This is a different situation.” And he wasn’t happy, and I felt bad!

Here’s some photos. I forgot to take pictures from the street, so here’s the google street view. The casita is the low section on the left with the light-colored stucco, and Marcy and Steve’s house is the 2-story section on the right and behind it. The driveway holds 3 cars, so I get the leftmost slot.

Here’s another street view pic. For those of you who’ve never been here, this is truly what a normal (actually fairly expensive) neighborhood in Santa Fe looks like. That’s why it’s so touristy. It doesn’t look like the rest of the country.

Here’s the photos I took while looking at the casita. I snapped these shots really fast and I apologize for their poor quality. I can post some better ones later. But I knew you’d be interested in seeing something.

Here is the front door. The black is mosquito netting, which is only needed for a very short time of the year.

It’s fully furnished. Here’s the living room:

Here’s the view out the front door into the courtyard:

Here’s the kitchen and dining nook.

Yay, gas stove!

There are two bedroom closets, which are empty except for some extra linens and bedding. Mostly it’s shelving inside, so I will be very limited in hanging space.

Yay laundry!

Door from bedroom to courtyard.

Tiny bathroom with cute Mexican tile. No bathtub, unfortunately.

There’s no backyard (being that it’s attached to Marcy’s house), so the courtyard is off the front. There’s also a narrow side section of the courtyard, which is where the back door from the bedroom leads.

It will be winter soon and dark by the time I’m home from work, and I’ll be in Placitas on weekends, so I’m not sure if I’ll get to use the outdoor space very often. But it’s nice to know it’s out there. And very useful when the dogs are visiting!

So that’s my new home for during the week in Santa Fe!