It is about 50 sq meter, built on two floors with pretty steep steps, so it is not suitable for children under 15 or people with mobility problems.
It is magically comfortable for two, even though it can accommodate 4 people, (the sofa in the living-room can be transformed into 2 full single beds). Take into account there is no door to the bedroom so if you are planning to come with friends or older children, the privacy is not complete. So let me rephrase it. I would say that although it can accommodate 4, it is really ideal for a couple. Do you get the hint or should I say it? Well, I am ashamed to say that on the few occasions we went there with the children, I couldn’t wait for them to leave and let John and I enjoy the place on our own. There, you have it.
It has a living room with pool and sea view, a fully equiped kitchen (to a pretty complete standard as we keep there all the spices you can think of, the wafle maker our daughter can not live without or the ninja shaker I can not live without among other things), a big bedroom with a queen size bed and a ridiculuously large smart TV screen (I know, the seller persuaded me this is what I needed, I almost fainted when it was beought to the flat!) with Netflix and a few other options non Hebrew speakers might find difficult to navigate, Internet fiber and a beautiful rather large bathroom. It also has a washing machine/dryer.
The swimming pool is open in season (June to October) from 6.30 in the morning to 23.00.
The 25 meter pool is incredibly clean and totally underused. In August, before 10.00 and after 20.00 you will basically have the pool for yourself. During the day, even at the height of August, I have never counted more than 20 people swimming or sitting around the pool).
In order to encourage you to make the most out of it, we have thought of a decreasing price range (this is the price with VAT, for Israeli citizens and residents. Tourists are exempted from the 17% VAT).
1 night: 800 sh
2 nights: 1400 sh
3 nights: 1800 sh
4 nights: 2200 sh
and so on
If you can’t wait to see the pictures, you can just scroll down, but before that, I would like to tell you the epic story of how it all happened. Because yes, before our little holiday weekend in the building, we thought the money we had set aside would be used to open an English tea room in the desert… The reason I want to tell you this story, apart from it’s entertaining value, is to warn you. Setting a foot in our holiday apartment comes with a terrible side effect: you may want to buy a flat in the building before the end of your stay…
The legendary story of how it came to be!
It all started exactly a year ago. Just like today, it was the weekend right before the Jewish New Year. We had received a last minute cancellation and decided to take this opportunity to spend a weekend in Haifa. We had recently discovered and fallen in love with the Haifa flea market and I had heard it was much bigger on weekends. This was maybe our only opportunity to check what it was all about (note to the reader, absolutely not worth it, midweek is infinitely better).
In an attempt to bribe the children to come with us, I started looking for a place with a swimming pool. One of the first places that popped up on my feed was a small flat in Nahariya. On the pictures, the large livingroom window offered the most perfect view of the sea. I was mesmerized. I had completely forgotten about the pool and the children (turned out the building DID have a pool right between the flat and the sea but I had by that time totally lost interest).
While booking it, I had completely and blatently ignored two major facts:
1. the flat was not in Haifa and
2. it was only suitable for a couple.
Nothing mattered, it just looked perfect. We happily went on our way and arrived safely, ready for an adventure… That is, until John took one look at the building from the outside and decided it was such a monstrosity, there was no way he was going to spend one minute in this dump.
But we had driven three and a half hours and I, for one, was not going back to Sde Boker. John would have to swallow his dignity and snobbism and get his ass up the stairs.
And let me tell you, this picture coming straight from Google is quite flatering. The building looks even messier in real life…
Reluctantly, John went up the first flight of stairs and was somewhat relieved by the sight of an extremely well kept hallway and a brand new lift.
We opened the door of the apartment and the super sceptical John couldn’t repress an admirative WOW! It was even better than the pictures. From the inside, the flat was incredibly comfortable. Not just because it had been very nicely and recently refurbished, but because the original design was so clever.
Each flat is spread on two storey so that you have a constant breeze and no-one has a view of the street from their living-room, which, if you remember the picture, is kind of a relief! It’s all about giving everyone a sea view.
We opened the window wide, took a long look at the sea, breezed deeply and without uttering a word, sat down. I took my phone. John took his phone. We didn’t even confer with one another, we both started to look for flats to buy in the building.
Yes, sometimes things are this obvious.
The quickest buy in history?
Within 2 hours, we had visited 4 flats and after a 5 minutes tour, we had decided on the one we wanted. It was a twin apartment to the one we were staying in, same floor, same floor plan except that instead of two small rooms, a corridor, and a smallish bathroom, our second floor had just one big room and one large bathroom. It was an improvement to what we had thought a few minutes earlier was perfection.
Much to my satisfaction, the apartment had been renovated about 10 years previously with the cheapest and uggliest materials you could find. It was therefore in a bad enough state to justify a major transformation.
The longest wait ever
My imagination began to run wild and this stage would last a bit too long since we exchanged contracts last October, but we would only take possession of the flat at the end of July.
Hence, a long wait started during which the owner of the flat and his tenant would show no pity. They made no effort to accommodate my urge to start measuring everything in order to give a more solid basis on which to begin my mental work. They didn’t let us in even once. It was torture.
In the meantime, we took regular trips to
Nahariya, discovering every single beach in the vicinity, falling in love with the Western Galilee and watching all the developments happening around the brand new magnificient promenade. Nahariya is surely showing serious signs of recovery after years of neglect. It is becoming more and more obvious that the new mayor is taking huge and serious steps to bring back it’s lustre to the city. It is becoming an incredibly pleasant place to be for it’s inhabitants and visitors alike.
Last but not least, I even found what has become my favorite patisserie in the country (and I have tried a few!), the real thing, a French patisserie that doesn’t compromise in order to seduce the Israeli palate. It is not too sweet, not over complicated, exactly as it should be. I am reluctant to give the address as last time I went, she was dangerously low on stock and I worried I might have to come out empty handed, but I am not one not to share a good address, so when you come to stay in our flat, try
Orly Sitbon. Trust me, I have tried all the most famous patisseries in the area (and there are a surprisingly high number) and nothing, I repeat, absolutely NO-THING compares.
A smooth sailing remodeling
Statistically, it is a well known fact that renovation work is the number one cause for divorce. But for us, it is different. It is what we live for.
It generally goes like this. I instruct, John suggests some changes, I come up with my own changes, he builds up on the idea and so on, until we are both satisfied and the modest project of origin has taken pharaonic dimensions. He then executes, I supervise, complain a bit, or not. This is the general division of labor and it works for us. What can I say. We love nothing more than break a wall, build two others, a little paint project and moving furnitures.
But this project was completely different. John had fucked off to England and I was left dealing with everything… That is, every day, I was getting a phone call from Micha (the renovator we had employed for the job), letting me know about the smooth and timely progress of the work. That was about the extent of the drama.
Even when we found out that we would have to break the stairs and build new ones, it only took about 5 minutes for Micha to reassure me and make me realize I would not have to sell John’s kidney. Micha had it all under control. It was going to be fast and surprisingly cheap. Marginally more expensive than what I had budgeted when I thought we would just have to cover them with the stone.
Did I ever tell you about this special talent I have? Now this is interesting. I get it from my mother who won quite a few prizes in competitions where you have to estimate the weight of something (yes, these competitions exist, at least they did in rural France of the 80’s!). Well let me tell you, I am incredibly good at apraising weight, time and prices (but not distance, don’t ask me why). I know, I know, it is a very usefull talent. Certainly something I should be allowed to brag about from time to time, right?
But back to our story.
During the 2 weeks of John’s trip to England, I only made one trip to Nahariya. I toured the flat for 2 minutes, I could immediately see that Micha’s work was first class and I was left with just the pool and the sea to enjoy before going back home.
During these two weeks, I learnt two important facts about Micha. The first one is that he really, but really doesn’t like it when you don’t scrupulously follow his advice. When measuring the kitchen, he had drawn a kitchen plan that was nothing, I repeat, nothing like what I had envisionned for a few months. And when time came to plan the kitchen, what can I say, I did what I wanted then sent him the plans so he could make all the electrical and plumbing preparations.
Was he unhappy or what! He spent the next half an hour shouting at me, criticizing every single decision I had made and warning me I should have listen to him and I would regret it to the end of my life.
The second thing is that sometimes, he was a bit too independent for my liking. Especially when he gloriously announced he had made a few changes to the accessories we had chosen for the bathroom. Making it evident he was going for a full 101 dalmatians vibe.
Luckily, when I asked him to order back what we had decided, he complied, not without assuring me I knew nothing about design and all the latest trends and that I would regret not listening to him.
But when he came up with the idea of mixing white marble with the basalt of the stairs, I first thought that surely, I didn’t understand correctly the suggestion as it seemed unlikely such a combination could work. But when he repeated it and it became evident I had heard correctly, I just had to make peace with the fact his sense of taste was about 7 light years away from mine.
Would that have an impact on the big reveal that was approaching? I was begining to wonder.
The big reveal
I won’t hold your breath any longer. There was no surprises. Micha had been incredible to the end. It took him less than three weeks to go from this
To this
And from this
And I am now ready to let go and have other people stay in it, in the hope they will enjoy it as much as we do.
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