Note: Today’s photos were from a few websites promoting the property. After today’s delivery of our final batch of groceries from Smith’s Marketplace to get us through Christmas, we’ll be done shopping for a while. It’s always quite an ordeal to settle into a new place when we must buy many staples and ingredients we regularly use in cooking, along with meats, cheeses, eggs, cream, sour cream, Greek yogurt, butter, and tons of vegetables.
Adding soaps, cleaning supplies, laundry, and paper products, we had quite a lengthy grocery list. It took shopping at Walmart and Costco, eventually finishing with an online order from Smith’s. As for today’s arriving order, we’ll be in great shape for the next few weeks.
With that project almost entirely tackled, we can relax and enjoy our time in this lovely location. I have unpacked all the clothes and miscellaneous items I will use here, but Tom is unpacking now and will be done soon. Right now, the condo is looking neat, clean, and orderly.
Speaking of the clean condo, I hoped to find a house cleaner for every week or every other week. Yesterday, I contacted the cleaner the owner uses, but we were shocked when we heard the prices. The cost is $125 a week for weekly cleaning and $150 for biweekly cleaning. We are not willing to spend $500 monthly for weekly house cleaning or even $300 monthly for biweekly cleaning.
Tom assured me that we could do this ourselves. He’ll do all the floors, and I’ll dust, clean, and do the bathrooms. We are very good at cleaning the kitchen daily, so there’s nothing to do there other than wipe the glass shelves in the fridge every few weeks.
Of course, we didn’t expect the rates to be comparable to what we paid in Ecuador, $20 plus a tip for three hours, cleaning an entire two-story house. But, here, we were expected to pay $65 to $80 for cleaning this two-bedroom, two-bath, one-story condo. Thus, we’re on our own. It’s good exercise for both of us!
Today, around 1:00 or 2:00 pm, the owner will stop by to change the kitchen’s reverse osmosis water dispenser filter and bring us a microwave. We are appreciative of him doing this. He and his wife don’t use a microwave due to their choice for health reasons.
I told Tom that I’ve never been without a microwave since the day Elvis Presley passed away in August 1977. It was presented to me as a gift from a guy I was dating then, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled amid my tears about Elvis. Since that time, I’ve never been without a microwave. Every holiday home we’ve rented in the past 11-plus years has had a microwave; some were old and worn, but many were newer models.
Most recently, our first microwave in Ecuador bit the dust, and Sylvie brought us another used model. That second replacement model, which was also old, had the wrong glass turntable that didn’t sit properly. Whenever we turned it on, with whatever we had inside, it caused the glass turntable and the food container to bang on the sides. I do not doubt that Zoltan, our landlord, will bring us a lovely new microwave.
After all, since we’re the first tenants to occupy this lovely unit since it became a holiday home, everything is new and of high quality. We’d highly recommend this place if you ever decide to come to Las Vegas for a short or long stay. The information regarding the rental may be found here at this link.
It is only a 33-minute drive to the strip and 28 minutes to the airport. There are many restaurants here in Lake Las Vegas, many of which we can access right outside the building. We can see a vehicle-free boulevard from our veranda with shops and restaurants, which we’ll soon explore. That will be fun, especially after the holidays are over.
Last night, after dinner, I walked down the long hallway to the fitness center to find an excellent facility, as shown in the photo above. I will start slow since I’m not in the best shape right now, and I look forward to improving my gait and stamina for longer walks.
That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for your patience while we didn’t post for a few days. It’s terrific to see many of our readers with us again.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, December 17, 2013:
