Sunday, August 8, 2010

Chapter 12 - The Handover (Day 1)

The keys were handed over today in what ended up being an anti-climactic affair. Basically, you walk in the house and make sure they have not left anything that would increase the cost of the tear-down such as large furniture, or some huge safe (believe me we have one in the current place we live in). While surveying the place, I think we had elevated hopes that there would be something worth salvaging. But as I inspected each room, it was obvious that they had built this house very cheaply (gray wall-paper, linoleum sheet peeling off in the kitchen, etc.). Shabby is the word that comes to mind.

Entrance: That gate is going away. As well that horrible Car Port. There’s enough space to park 3 cars, but we’ll stick with 1 car park, 1space for bikes and a nice public garden.

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The previous owners covered as much land as possible so the approach to the entrance feels crowded. Our home will be 25% smaller so this space will be much more open for greenery thus more welcoming.

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The main entrance. We are keeping that nice little maple tree.

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The interior from wall coverings to flooring quality to lighting fixtures is all cheap. One thing we were curious about was natural light. And as expected there’s lots of it. There was also a nice breeze flowing through.

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The current Master bedroom on the second floor is where the large patio deck will be. Not many neighbor windows facing that side and there’s at least 10 meters of clearance.

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After the handover, my architect and I went over the building estimate taking a fine comb through 45 pages of details. Current estimate is about 4% above our goal. So we have a couple of rounds to go on that one.

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