We hemmed and hawed between Quintas and other apartments in Panamby, a neighborhood we liked further from the hospital, but ultimately Quintas felt like the best place to plant our roots. One reason is we can practically wave to Porter at work from our deck! Quintas is less than 2km away from Einstein whereas Panamby is 5-7km. This doesn't sound far but in São Paulo every kilometer matters because traffic is insane. Avenida Giovanni Gronchi is the only main avenue in Morumbi that never touches a favela (ghettos), so it becomes a parking lot during traffic. Unfortunately Porter needs the Avenida to reach Panamby from the hospital, however to reach Quintas he can use less congested but safe roads. I'm not 100% positive it's necessary to always avoid the favelas but every Brazilian I know wouldn't fathom going within one block via car or foot, especially during non-daylight hours--never! Paranoid? Realistic? Possibly a little of both but we'll take their advice for now (I'll elaborate in more detail about favelas in the next post about our transition. It's a sad yet fascinating aspect of Brazilian cities).
The Winner, Quintas do Morumbi!
I'll post before and after pictures of the apartment after we unpack. Here's a peek until then.
Other reasons we love Quintas: It's a larger condominio complex with 11 towers and many expats and native Brazilians live there, including a great friend from Einstein and her family. São Paulo lacks many public parks so people largely use their residential grounds. This is why it's helpful to live in larger complexes, especially with kids. Quintas has playgrounds, pools, tennis courts, a gym, restaurant (they deliver!), hair and nail salon, and on-site lessons including swimming, soccer, tennis, martial arts and piano. Across the street are neighborhood bakeries, markets, a pharmacy, restaurants and Porto Seguro is close, the preschool we like for little Po. Convenience is a plus, especially since we'll share one car until next year and public transportation is terrible. Fortunately this is improving as Brazil prepares for the World Cup and Olympics.
Living room, kitchen, bathroom and private rooftop deck with churassco BBQ and small swimming pool.
The door by the stairs in the living room leads to the kitchen, laundry and maid's quarters. Kitchens and laundry rooms are always concealed in Brazilian homes because remember, everyone has a maid, very opposite than Americans where we love to show off those fancy kitchens with granite counter tops! The gal in the blue dress on the rooftop is Vilma, the home owner's maid. She's very sweet and we're going to interview her to possibly be our empregada and babá (maid/nanny). This is one aspect of Brazilian culture I'm very excited to embrace plus I think little Po will learn Portuguese faster interacting with a native speaker at home.
Ultimately we picked this penthouse because we love the bright and open layout when most Brazilian apartments tend to be segmented and choppy. It's on the 17th floor with completely unobstructed views of São Paulo, two levels and almost 3,000 sq. feet including 3 outdoor decks. We love the huge rooftop deck, big enough for dinner parties and little Po to get his wiggles out--we just wish we had known to bring patio furniture from the States (argh, that won't be cheap here!) The apartment is 4 bedrooms with a large open loft that makes it function like it has 5 bedrooms. I really wanted a guest room to welcome everyone who PROMISED to come visit. Ya'll better of not lied! I also can't get over how many bathrooms Brazilian homes have, this apartment being no exception. We have 6 bathrooms!!! Formal 1/2 bath for company, 2 master baths, 1 hallway full-bath, upstairs guest bath and maid's bath. No wonder everyone has a maid, I can't imagine cleaning that many bathrooms! I asked our realtors why Brazilians like bathrooms so much and they simply shrugged. I think they were equally perplexed that I found it odd because it's completely normal to them, you know, in case everyone needs to use the restroom at the exact same time. Although we obviously don't need 6 bathrooms, more bathrooms in general will be a welcomed change because all 4 of the homes we've lived in since 2003 only had one bathroom each. Yikes, this girl is ready for some counter space!
1st Runner-Up, Ventana Panamby
Foreign real estate is fascinating to us Americans, hence why shows like House Hunters are so popular so I thought I'd share pictures of other apartments we considered. This gem is called Ventana Panamby. I saw it alone with our agent Claudia but Porter never saw it because the owner was unwilling to compromise on the overpriced rent. If rent was reasonable I'm still unsure if we would have selected it because of the distance from the hospital, but it definitely would have been something to consider. The apartment was brand new with the best kitchen of everything I saw. It was also in Panamby, the lovely upscale neighborhood that's incredibly popular because of its' close proximity to downtown São Paulo, quiet(er) neighborhoods and green space.
These are various views of the 10th floor apartment, including the large windowed in deck (many Brazilians convert their decks into sunrooms with sliding windows), kitchen, grounds and city views from the apartment which were really pretty. Little Po was incredibly fascinated watching the world outside, so much he had a massive tantrum when it was time to leave. Although I'm aware Quintas doesn't look as "sexy" as Ventana, overall I'm really glad we went with the penthouse because it has more to offer and is less expensive so there's extra cash for an empregada :)
2nd Runner-up, Laercio Corte
This apartment was nice, but the aerial views from the apartment, playground and pool significantly clouded my judgement. I went alone with Claudia and liked it so much we returned with Porter who hated it and bestowed its' nickname "the house of seven horrors." It wasn't that bad but he was right, it lacked some important fundamentals. First, the kitchen was practically non-existent with only one short row of counter space. Again, I blame my infatuation with the non-essentials that I failed to notice the kitchen, or rather lack thereof. However, the apartment got the evil nickname because of the flooring, it was different in literally every room and it wasn't because of a color-blind remodel. We looked at 4 additional apartments at the complex and indeed, they ALL had the same strange flooring selection. It was as if the builder couldn't make up their mind and decided to install all their favorites.
But this 26th floor apartment had many wonderful features. The complex was perched on a hill and had the most amazing views I've seen in São Paulo. I felt like a bird flying over the city, it was a tremendous wow-factor. The playground was also delightful and there was a group of little girls playing dollies with no parents or nannies in sight. You don't see this in Brazil, parents and mothers in particular are very overprotective so clearly this complex was very safe (it was a smaller complex with no roads, Quintas is larger with one small road). Finally the indoor pool felt like a hotel, but alas, these are things we can live without.
Typical Brazilian style closets, always constructed covering an entire wall (not ideal for furniture placement ...)
3rd Runner-Up, Diego de Castilho
Oh Diego, you had so many things going for you making it tragic you were missing one key item: a playground. No playground, not even a little dinky one, nothing! It's sad considering the apartment had so many positives, above all motivated owners who had already moved to Rio and priced it to rent quickly. Too bad they couldn't talk to management about the kid-unfriendly grounds. The neighborhood and views of Panamby were outstanding as well as the updated details like crown molding, windowed-in deck, hardwoods floors that stretched the entire space (no weird choppy-choppy floors) and little Po loved the yellow bedroom with Lightning McQueen wall borders. It was also spacious, clean and bright but after strong consideration we decided this complex wasn't right for our little Po.
4th Runner-Up, Fabio Lopes dos Santos Luz
This final apartment was fabulous with one small hiccup, it only had 3 bedrooms and the living/dining space was not large enough to incorporate an office so there was a dilehma--where to put a future baby Jones? (All the other apartments shown are 4 bedrooms). Although a baby isn't in the immediate forecast little Po will eventually be a big brother and then what, bunk beds? Moving is no fun that we decided to only do so when and a huge IF we buy an apartment in São Paulo. "Why not get a 4 bedroom in this complex?" you might ask. Two words: too expensive.
Hello brand new construction with gorgeous views of Panamby! How deliciously clean and perfect you are, with lovely swimming pools and exciting outdoor spaces sure to please your youngest residents. We liked so much about this complex, the outdoor spaces, indoor AND outdoor playgrounds and cleanliness of every square inch. Alas 3 bedrooms wasn't ideal long-term.
Thank you Claudia, Fabio and Erika, the three agents who patiently showed and sometimes re-showed us apartments. Especially Claudia P. with Imóveis no Morumbi who took us to 75% of the apartments including everything in this post but Quintas. Claudia was awesome and we not-so-secretly wish she had shown the penthouse at Quintas so she could receive the commission. If we ever actually buy an apartment in this city, I promise we'll call you! 
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