So, in typical fashion, I am starting to doubt all decisions regarding this house.
Doubt 1: Should we still get the engineer to do a soil analysis
Doubt 2: I am wondering if the floor plan is too closed off. Samurai and I are not very good at socialising, but this is our house so if anyone comes over it will be both of us to meet and greet. We, or at least I, keep thinking of myself in this house as still living under someone else's roof and rules. At my mother's, if she has people over, I'll just camp out in my room until they left just to avoid the expected pleasantries. So, I am now thinking open floor plan or at least partially.
One of Samurai's friend's recently purchased a house and in addition to being just luxurious, it was also open concept and was so welcoming for everyone else to mingle close by while Samurai 'christened' the new kitchen with a Sunday lunch. I'm wondering what people would do and where they will go if we are entertaining. All there is, is the back patio for them to go and talk to us through the kitchen. So here's what I'm thinking... make just the TV room and Dining room open concept. We initially decided on closing this off so that we can all cozy up as a family and watch movies but I think we'll just use the second floor game room for this purpose and it will be even easier to go to bed when we're sleepy instead of climbing those stairs. I wonder if HGTV is playing a role in making me think like this, hmph.
Doubt 3: I'm also wondering if the master is too far from the other bedrooms. If my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night, would we be too far to hear her? But then I think about when she gets older and she wouldn't even have time for me, she'll love the position of her bedroom.
I saw this floor plan and I love it. I think it will work well because the staircase is more centred, upstairs all rooms are basically off the same hallway and there is also a spare bedroom downstairs. But then, if I were to really tweak this with our wish list, it will get way too big for us to afford.
I have to keep reminding myself that I designed the position of our Master Bedroom with it being our little haven, tucked neatly away from everything else.
If we could have really incorporated that third internal staircase everything would be great but this staircase quite to the front of the house will prevent us from seeing who is going up or down and with a little child, that may be very important. But then I saw this on houzz.com and even though it's not exactly like ours, the details are similar and have comforted me with our design decisions. I just think that we'll definitely open out the back by removing the walls between the kitchen and TV room.
I have been doing all kinds of changes to the floor plan to see what should be changed but I eventually sat down and thought about why we designed it like this in the first place and it all made sense again. The only change now was that I wanted a bedroom downstairs for guests so I wonder if I should just add on a little piece to make that happen.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Circa July 2013: Town and Country update
So as promised, the officer assigned to our application called on Friday.
I was surprised to find out it was a woman and she explained that she has scheduled her site visit to the property the following week. She explained that as far as the plans, there were no issues with the design other than the fact that the height of the house was like 0.2 metres or something taller than the maximum. She also explained that Town and Country only overseas boundary requirements, therefore, she will be verifying the dimensions, lot size, position of house on the property and ownership. The approval of the actual structure is done by the regional corporation for the area.
Samurai called the next week as the officer advised we do and she explained that there were no problems with the site visit and it was passed to her supervisor for final approval. After about two weeks of no updates, Samurai called her once again and she said the last update she had was that it was with the typist. We got no updates for the whole of August and into September, we just didn't bother to keep calling again.
On September 30th, Samurai called to say his mother called him stating a letter from Town and Country came to his attention so he called me to find out if we should have her open it to see what it said. I don't know why he would even call to ask that!!! I was so excited for him to call me back. When he did, it was what we have been waiting so long for... our approval, YAY!
I couldn't wait to get home and look at our plans. This was going to be our house in the next year and I just couldn't wait, however, the letter also said the plans had to go to the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation for approval but we were confident it will all be approved in no time.
I was surprised to find out it was a woman and she explained that she has scheduled her site visit to the property the following week. She explained that as far as the plans, there were no issues with the design other than the fact that the height of the house was like 0.2 metres or something taller than the maximum. She also explained that Town and Country only overseas boundary requirements, therefore, she will be verifying the dimensions, lot size, position of house on the property and ownership. The approval of the actual structure is done by the regional corporation for the area.
Samurai called the next week as the officer advised we do and she explained that there were no problems with the site visit and it was passed to her supervisor for final approval. After about two weeks of no updates, Samurai called her once again and she said the last update she had was that it was with the typist. We got no updates for the whole of August and into September, we just didn't bother to keep calling again.
On September 30th, Samurai called to say his mother called him stating a letter from Town and Country came to his attention so he called me to find out if we should have her open it to see what it said. I don't know why he would even call to ask that!!! I was so excited for him to call me back. When he did, it was what we have been waiting so long for... our approval, YAY!
I couldn't wait to get home and look at our plans. This was going to be our house in the next year and I just couldn't wait, however, the letter also said the plans had to go to the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation for approval but we were confident it will all be approved in no time.
Circa June 2013: Town and Country
19 June 2013:
So I call Town and Country and I think they have the worst operator/receptionist/desk worker ever. I have been calling all day without any update on our plan.
I call, the young lady on the other end, who by-the-way is sounding like I am disturbing her relaxation AT WORK!, would tell me she needs to transfer to the officers who will have access to the plan. Every time I get transferred, the phone either rings off the hook or I get disconnected. I know that getting angry with her would only reduce the "quality" assistance I am getting so I maintain a calm and pleasant tone with each call back.
When I explain to my new "friend" that I am not getting a connection, she proceeds to ask me for my application number. Why this wasn't done originally, I do not know. It didn't help anyways as all she can tell me is that my application is pending. I asked her exactly what does that mean or at what stage is my application, all I get is 'I wouldn't know that ma'am, I am not the officer so I wouldn't have access' and she remains on the line like I should accept that as a suitable update and never call again. Yeah right
I continue to request that I be transferred to someone who can give me more information. This went on for probably two weeks with one or two other persons coming on the line promising to call me back with an update or tell me to call back for them but my "friend" took my calls to another level. She knew my voice now and strangely my calls would disconnect before I even get to ask for a transfer. If I asked for one of the persons who told me to call them back for an update, my "friend" would state she doesn't know who that person is or again, the transfers would just not go through.
I was pissed and so was Samurai every time I was unsuccessful. It was now the end of July and on the day of our anniversary, we sat on the beach drinking wine and spoke about the horrible service we were getting and how badly we wanted an update to start work on the house. I originally felt so positive about having these approvals quickly because of articles like this and this that spoke about how their backlog has been reduced and their service approved. Clearly this was all PR and far from reality for this Government agency.
Samurai decided enough was enough so before we went to pick up our daughter from daycare, we made a little detour to the Town and Country office in the Twin Towers. We were both scruffy and poorly dressed. My vanity kept me in the car but Samurai is a crazy one and didn't care how he looked at the time.
He was gone for probably an hour when he called to tell me that all staff was in a meeting and there was no word on when they will be out. Samurai didn't care, he sat and he waited. As workers returned, he said they all passed him straight, probably because it was getting close the end of the day. Then, one worker walked in and noticed Samurai and asked if he was getting through. When Samurai explained the purpose of his visit, not only to get an update but to also express his disgust about the poor customer service by their operator, the guy revealed he was a supervisor and promised to have the officer assigned to our plan to give us a call by the end of the that week. He asked that we send him an e-mail detailing the issues we experienced in getting an update via the phone and promised to follow up on our concerns. We felt so relieved after that visit because according to Samurai, he felt positive Mr. Pariag would keep his word.
So I call Town and Country and I think they have the worst operator/receptionist/desk worker ever. I have been calling all day without any update on our plan.
I call, the young lady on the other end, who by-the-way is sounding like I am disturbing her relaxation AT WORK!, would tell me she needs to transfer to the officers who will have access to the plan. Every time I get transferred, the phone either rings off the hook or I get disconnected. I know that getting angry with her would only reduce the "quality" assistance I am getting so I maintain a calm and pleasant tone with each call back.
When I explain to my new "friend" that I am not getting a connection, she proceeds to ask me for my application number. Why this wasn't done originally, I do not know. It didn't help anyways as all she can tell me is that my application is pending. I asked her exactly what does that mean or at what stage is my application, all I get is 'I wouldn't know that ma'am, I am not the officer so I wouldn't have access' and she remains on the line like I should accept that as a suitable update and never call again. Yeah right
I continue to request that I be transferred to someone who can give me more information. This went on for probably two weeks with one or two other persons coming on the line promising to call me back with an update or tell me to call back for them but my "friend" took my calls to another level. She knew my voice now and strangely my calls would disconnect before I even get to ask for a transfer. If I asked for one of the persons who told me to call them back for an update, my "friend" would state she doesn't know who that person is or again, the transfers would just not go through.
I was pissed and so was Samurai every time I was unsuccessful. It was now the end of July and on the day of our anniversary, we sat on the beach drinking wine and spoke about the horrible service we were getting and how badly we wanted an update to start work on the house. I originally felt so positive about having these approvals quickly because of articles like this and this that spoke about how their backlog has been reduced and their service approved. Clearly this was all PR and far from reality for this Government agency.
Samurai decided enough was enough so before we went to pick up our daughter from daycare, we made a little detour to the Town and Country office in the Twin Towers. We were both scruffy and poorly dressed. My vanity kept me in the car but Samurai is a crazy one and didn't care how he looked at the time.
He was gone for probably an hour when he called to tell me that all staff was in a meeting and there was no word on when they will be out. Samurai didn't care, he sat and he waited. As workers returned, he said they all passed him straight, probably because it was getting close the end of the day. Then, one worker walked in and noticed Samurai and asked if he was getting through. When Samurai explained the purpose of his visit, not only to get an update but to also express his disgust about the poor customer service by their operator, the guy revealed he was a supervisor and promised to have the officer assigned to our plan to give us a call by the end of the that week. He asked that we send him an e-mail detailing the issues we experienced in getting an update via the phone and promised to follow up on our concerns. We felt so relieved after that visit because according to Samurai, he felt positive Mr. Pariag would keep his word.
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