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Post by May71 on May 2, 2012 21:57:52 GMT
Hi everyone, I have not posted anything for a long time... now I feel inspired again, as my husband has an attemptive travelling date... 15 June. Me and our 3 little angels will follow later when school begins hopefully :-) We are excited and busy, getting everything ready for the big move and getting organised. So I have a few very precise questions: Are pictures allowed in the walls? We have LOTS of pictures that have travelled the world with us and help us feel at home. I like painting myself so our walls have always been full! What kind of flooring do houses have? We are wondering if we should take our rugs. We have 2 large ones and about 10 medium/small ones. I guess if both floors have carpets we will not bring them. How big is the kitchen stoe space? I suppose all kitchens have the same size? We have been assigned RT, grade 14. We used to live in Bahrain and had a big kitchen there (about 14 cupboards) so we bought a lot of kitchen stuff that might not all fit in our future house. Are houses warm enough in winter? Does the AC work as heating as well in winter? Our house in Bahrain didn´t have heating and we had to buy lots of heaters for winter which we still have now. I am not sure if we need to ship them or not? That´s all for now... thanks for this wonderful forum which is a great source of information
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Post by vpainter on May 2, 2012 22:07:42 GMT
Congratulations on receiving your travel date.
Yes you can hang anything and as much as you like on your walls. It is your home and you can decorate as you like.
Most new hire houses have tile in the living areas and carpet in the bedrooms. You'd have to decide if you want to bring all your carpets are leave them home and add to your collection here. Many carpet shops and you'll fall in love with some. A few homes have wood floors in the living areas (not wide spread at the moment).
We came with 3 children and our house has 14 regular cabinet doors, 6 small cabinet doors over the 2 refrigerator space and sink, and 9 drawers. Hope this helps. Only an example.
All Aramco housing is central A/C and Heat. Your house can be whatever temperature you would like it to be. You don't need portable heaters here.
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Post by May71 on May 2, 2012 22:40:42 GMT
Thank you VPainter, that is most helpful )
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Post by GroveWanderer on May 6, 2012 4:09:46 GMT
To address one part of your question, kitchens in the various houses are most definitely not the same size. For instance, although the house we live in has one of the larger floor areas for a 2-bedroom house, the kitchen is tiny. Other houses, though smaller overall, have a much, much roomier kitchen.
Floor plans vary widely, on the housing website there are currently 46 different floor plan "types" listed for houses 2 bedrooms and up - plus 31 single-bedroom types (usually assigned to bachelors).
And while I agree with vpainter that you do not need portable heaters you might like to bring some portable fans if you have them. At least in our house, they have never been able to get the A/C balance correct between upstairs and downstairs (despite over 10 years of repeated maintenance calls) so we often use a fan in the bedroom at night time in the warmer months, to "supplement" the A/C.
There are also fairly large parts of the year where you can do without A/C and/or just use a fan. We have only just started leaving our A/C on during the day this month for the first time since the weather started to warm up.
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Post by vpainter on May 9, 2012 3:19:51 GMT
We put ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, because we were used to having them in Houston.
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Post by Hadia on May 9, 2012 19:24:05 GMT
Hi May, I think it's wise to bring any and all area rugs you like. While there are lots of options to buy here, not everyone wants to invest a lot of money upon arrival just to make their new home comfortable and lived-in, and transporting carpets isn't always easy for new arrivals. We even use area rugs on top of the WTW carpeting in the upstairs of our townhouse. The carpets shed quite a bit, and we find it helpful to cover the larger sections with an area rug that we can then remove easily to wash. If you have an excess of area rugs after you've settled in, you could always stash a few in a closet for future years, or sell them on the classifieds. I'd bring 'em all if I were you. How lovely you have artwork to bring along Just make sure the content won't cause them to be pulled at Customs. It would be a shame to lose something special to you this way. Probably won't be a problem, but worth a mention. Another good use for fans: your patio or yard area. While a gentle breeze is pretty typical around here, there are some days when a little boost would be nice in the seating area. The AC/heat work very well in our home, but we have experienced circulation inconsistencies, as was mentioned by GroveWanderer. In this climate, I definitely won't complain that the AC is too cold in parts of my house, though! If you have any issues with the HVAC, the repair team will arrive practically instantaneously to sort you out. We brought a little electric space heater, but it never made an appearance this winter; we didn't need it. With regard to kitchen stoe...I'm glad we have the stoe closet with built-in shelves off the gae. Otherwise, I'd have a tough time storing odds and ends and oversized kitchen appliances in our little galley kitchen. The stoe room is a perfect place for the CrockPot, George Foreman grill, and pancake griddle, not to mention giant turkey platters and dishes not used frequently. We have found the kitchen cabinets and stoe pantry roomy enough to manage, however, we did supplement our dry food stoe with a stand-alone cabinet. Based on what you said you had in Bahrain, I don't think you'll have a problem. Bring what you treasure. You will always find a place for it if it's meaningful to you. I regret some of the things I got rid of, thinking we wouldn't have room. One thing I'm glad we packed though: a kitchen step stool to reach those tall cabinet shelves. The ones over the fridge area are completely unreachable. Also glad we brought a small chest freezer. Hope this is helpful. I remember how much I fretted over the details of what to pack or expect in an unknown home in a brand new unknown lifestyle. That's why I try to give detailed responses to posts like these. When you're in charge of setting up a new home for a full family, it's a tough thing to do with no visual of your ultimate destination. But since you lived in Bahrain previously, you're well aware of climate issues with the home (dusty floors no matter HOW many times you clean them), and should be in a pretty good position to make decisions on the pack/don't pack front. Best of luck to you this summer!!
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Post by May71 on May 10, 2012 22:13:00 GMT
Thank you all for your responses, that is a lot of info...
One more question: Regarding paintings, I have mostly landscapes but also 2 beautiful sepia horse drawings that my dad made. I am not sure they will be allowed? I seem to remember that human figures in pictures can be a problem but Im not sure about animals??
Thanks to everyone
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Post by Hadia on May 11, 2012 8:21:57 GMT
Probably won't be a problem. However, that said, anything you deem of personal value you should consider bringing with you when you travel instead of shipping. I'd be more worried about the shape they'll be in when they arrive. I strongly encoue you to have the movers build a wooden crate for your paintings, like they do for TVs. When we moved here, we were very cautious not to bring things on the do-not-pack list, even down to my kids' chess sets or anything games with dice in them, no household items or art with animals on them. It was totally unnecessary, and I was advised the lists I was given were apparently quite old. I am very unhappy about some of my household items I sold at a gae sale due to these old lists. What I should have been more worried about was how the packers handled our stuff in our driveway!! I know, I know...someone here will post the caveat about customs having the right to take anything out that they deem inappropriate. We get that. But I don't think some landscape art or horses will be a problem.
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Post by May71 on May 11, 2012 9:39:30 GMT
Thanks Hadia, we will be extra careful and make sure the file stuff is properly packed up )
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Post by vpainter on May 15, 2012 4:14:39 GMT
The lists aren't old. Aramco has to let you know what could be confiscated. Imagine you weren't told and the customs agent that day did take your things, you'd really be upset then. All those things listed are subject to confiscation at the discretion of the customs agent who sees it.
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Post by Hadia on May 15, 2012 10:31:57 GMT
We all understand the issue of customs. But note: We were provided lists from two sources. One was from Aramco directly, the other from the moving company, presumably an agent of Aramco and therefore a guideline we adhered to. The latter list is the one I am referring to, and which we were told later upon arrival by other expats "must be years out of date."
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Post by vpainter on May 16, 2012 13:59:18 GMT
Thank you for that clarification.
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