One reason for Our Wedventure was the opportunity to live near the beach with the hope that we could find an apartment with a great sea view that we could wake up to each day. In the end I think Rhys looked at almost 30 different apartments but the decision came down to two that we saw on the final day of our search.

We fell in love with a certain building that had massive corner windows with views out to sea and towards the Palm. The first apartment we saw in this building was out of our price range, in the end we looked at 4 or 5 in this one building but those in our price range were a bit small and didn’t have the view we wanted. On the final day of looking we thought we’d hit the jackpot when we discovered a corner apartment that we thought would be within budget and we were in love with the view

Later that same day we saw an apartment at the other end of the marina, my first impression walking into it was “wow, so much space”, we’d not seen such a spacious apartment in Dubai and for the size we thought it was a great price. Even still, while walking around viewing the apartment my heart was still set on the corner apartment we’d seen that morning and I never thought we’d move into this one. That evening we became torn, should we go with our hearts and choose the apartment with what we were convinced was an amazing sea view? Or should go with our heads and choose the bigger apartment with the “worse” view? While we really loved the view from apartment A we decided we had to be logical and make the decision that would be better in the longer run which turned out to be apartment B, and here is why:

• It was much bigger and more spacious (+300sq foot = plenty more space for airbeds 😉 )
• It had a proper, fully equipped, big kitchen (the other kitchen didn’t have a washing machine and was poky – a kitchen for people who don’t cook and I thought using it would drive me insane as the two of us couldn’t have been in the “kitchen area” of apartment A together at once)
• Although the rent of apartment B was slightly higher it was fully furnished while apartment A had no furniture at all so over the course of a year or 2 apartment B would actually be cheaper
• We didn’t have the hassle of trying to find furniture and get deliveries arranged – we also won’t have to try and sell the furniture when we decide to leave Dubai and therefore we won’t feel like we’ve “wasted” money
• Apartment B had 2 balconies with more space for adding a table and chairs for all the guests (hint hint our dear friends & family from the UK 😉 ) we hope to entertain

Although at the time I was disappointed we didn’t choose apartment A, we got a great surprise on our first night in our new home – from the sofa we could watch the sun setting! We actually have a much better view than we initially saw when we viewed the apartment. Now when the weather cools down we will be able to sit out on the balcony and enjoy this amazing view. So in this case going with our head was definitely better than going with our heart – especially as I heard someone complaining about living in the building next to apartment A because of traffic and noise. As the days in our new home have passed we are so pleased we chose this apartment. It might not have been love at first sight but we’re happy with our decision and have fallen in love with our new home.

P.S. we are working on making the apartment more homely and trying to put our own bits & pieces into it and one day soon we’ll give you guys a grand (virtual) tour.