The search for a new place to live continues, and today took us over to one of the nearby islands.

Abu Dhabi, city of, is a collection of several islands, with the eponymous island being where nearly everyone lives. However, with the city continuing to grow, construction and people are beginning to spill over to nearby islands, and one of them is Saadiyat, which is destined to become the cultural center of the capital — with branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

And we went over to look at the Saadiyat Beach Residences today.

How did it go?

It went well … and not so well.

The development is on the far end of the island, from Abu Dhabi, though that doesn’t matter a whole lot, given that a six-lane freeway runs across the island.

But the location leaves it away from any services. Any services. They are coming, we are told, but none are here yet. Thus, a trip to the store means leaving the island.

And, actually, the development is far from finished. Saturday is a work day here, and the place was swarming with hundreds of hard-hatted construction workers.

It was a bit tricky to find the sales office, and we had to sign in with a construction foreman at the entrance to get in, via cab (and the cabbie got lost, twice; having never been on the island).

A sort of bored and slouching Gulf version of a disinterested college girl showed us around. Or didn’t show us around as much as got the workers to produce keys so we could look at apartments and she could stare at her BlackBerry. Not that it mattered, really.

The Residences are a collection of six six-story buildings, three of which are supposed to be ready for occupancy on November 1.

Up sides: You feel like you’re in a different city … a different country. Especially if you drop in at one of the two high-end hotels not far from the apartments, the Saint Regis and Park Hyatt, and make your way to the beach. The sand is clean, and the warm Gulf water laps at the shoreline.

The apartments seem well-designed, on the whole. And not expensive. Several thousand dollars less, on an annual basis, than we would spend for something comparable on the mainland. Everything is new, too … so new that the paint isn’t quite dry in some places. So new that workers had to squeeze to one side as we walked through the halls.

The style is Arabesque and Mediterranean, but the key is what is inside when you turn the key, and things are well-appointed and seem a bit tidier than normal. And new. Can’t beat that. Every apartment has a balcony, and one we liked, on the ground floor, had an extraordinarily large yard/garden.

The down sides. The apartment we liked had patches of mold near the door. A water spill, we are told. All of that area would be torn out and replaced. Don’t worry. But you have to, don’t you?

Also, the lack of “not-ready” was alarming.  These are going to be ready in a month? If so, why are we looking only at one building? And even then, three other buildings will be under construction, and doesn’t that mean hundreds of guys scurrying around? For months? Years?

The project already is a year behind.

An up side: A large refrigerator (Bosch), oven and stove are included. Two bathrooms in the one-bedroom. A double sink in the kitchen.

A down side: A serious commute to the office through the area of Abu Dhabi Island with the worst traffic, around the Tourist Club neighborhood.

Anyway, we liked it. Sorta. Especially the ground floor place with the huge (accidental) backyard.

But the drive, all the work still to be done, the mold, the distance from amenities, the reality that we almost certainly would have to rent a car … soured us on it.

Not totally out of the running. But teetering.

The search continues.