After much calling and cancelled meetings, the draughtsman came by one night with the plans already completed on forms to submit to Town and Country.
I really thought he would have sent us a draft before to go over because from just glancing at it there were some changes he made. I guess these changes made sense from a structural perspective and he also said he tried to stay within the square footage but I think we should have still been consulted to see where we could have tweaked and adjusted some areas. He changed our office space to a small storage room and the dining room was smaller. Another bedroom and the upstairs bathroom were also reduced.
I mentioned these things when Samurai asked me to go over them for any issues and he asked if they were changes we could live with or if we really needed to have them changed. I felt like I was being a bit too picky. A half-foot here and there couldn't possibly be all that bad, right?
So we agreed with the plan as is. There were several sheets with different elevations, foundation and structural plans. He did a wooden roof plan as he said that was easier to pass and promised to give us a soft-copy of all the drawings with a metal roof design and an AutoCAD-like program that we would be able to view them in.
After briefing us on all the documents, Samurai signed off on them all and the very next day, our draughtsman submitted our plans to Town and Country. What a great day. This makes our journey all the more real and makes me even more excited to get started.
The Draughtsman said it should take around 2-3 months for approval and approval is also required from the regional corporation which in our case is the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation. He dropped by a few days later for his payment and to give me our copy of the drawings submitted and application form.
We decided to wait exactly two months to start calling Town and Country for an update so until then I will be in LaLa Land obsessing over this giant step in progress we just made.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Circa January 2013: Storage options
Samurai and I were really positive that everything will be approved in time for us to start building later this year so I started calling around for the prices of shipping containers to house our materials on the land.
Most companies I called referred me to Mediterranean Shipping Company for purchase options. When I called, the price maxed around $15K including payment to Customs and to a driver to deliver the container to our location. I also called a company that rented containers and even containers converted to offices but their $18K price to rent the bare container for one month was the same cost to purchase! Why? I do not know but we knew we will obviously be purchasing one. We therefore had to decide if we were willing to go through the hassle of buying it directly from the shipping company to save that $3K.
My cousin who recently completed her house had a novel idea of purchasing an old run-down trailer attachment for next to nothing in price and she cleaned out and lined the inside. It had doors and windows just like a container office but just when we thought about probably offering her a rental payment to use it as our storage, she decides to expand her newly built house.
Did I say this woman is crazy? She is. After building her single-storey house, she decides to add a floor. Yes she built her foundation for this, but she had a roof, not a first-floor decking over her head. That means she now has to raise her roof, if it could even be used again, and add a next storey.
In the mean time, we decided to visit the land to check on the plants because well, we kind of abandoned all our hundreds of dollars in plants. Of course, the land was overgrown with thick and tall grass. We could hardly venture far onto it to see the plants. From afar we saw a coconut tree struggling to grow and to the front, our sugar cane stalk was doing well. Other than that, the property looked like some wild forest. Sadly, we decided we were not going to even bother to trim or attend to these plants. Our plan for a lush garden when we moved in will just have to be squashed.
We did notice a storage container at the beginning of the development though. Christmas present? No. It seems another property-owner in the development planned to build as a lot about three down from ours was cleared of all grass and somewhat leveled! Yay! I was excited because we'll have neighbours and it also brought more hope to the area and value increasing even more.
When I got home, I watched the plans that showed the lots and the proposed drains. I realised that the drains were designed to run off into the pond which was a bit of a concern to me. Samurai decided to call the owner of the development regarding an update on the WASA water connections and drainage and he explained that WASA was currently doing an expansion project in the area but the drains were our responsibilty. I was confused. I called the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation a few days later to find out if they did drainage or if we were responsible and they explained that they only do the roadside drainage. However (and I must mention how helpful the staff at this agency was), the inspector did explain that earthen drains are just as good as concrete drains so we are not required to construct actual drains with the construction of the house. This was a relief and running a box drain along the perimeter of an acre of land would be something we just could not afford, however, we still needed to devise a plan for proper drainage on the lot into these earthen drains that already existed.
Most companies I called referred me to Mediterranean Shipping Company for purchase options. When I called, the price maxed around $15K including payment to Customs and to a driver to deliver the container to our location. I also called a company that rented containers and even containers converted to offices but their $18K price to rent the bare container for one month was the same cost to purchase! Why? I do not know but we knew we will obviously be purchasing one. We therefore had to decide if we were willing to go through the hassle of buying it directly from the shipping company to save that $3K.
My cousin who recently completed her house had a novel idea of purchasing an old run-down trailer attachment for next to nothing in price and she cleaned out and lined the inside. It had doors and windows just like a container office but just when we thought about probably offering her a rental payment to use it as our storage, she decides to expand her newly built house.
Did I say this woman is crazy? She is. After building her single-storey house, she decides to add a floor. Yes she built her foundation for this, but she had a roof, not a first-floor decking over her head. That means she now has to raise her roof, if it could even be used again, and add a next storey.
In the mean time, we decided to visit the land to check on the plants because well, we kind of abandoned all our hundreds of dollars in plants. Of course, the land was overgrown with thick and tall grass. We could hardly venture far onto it to see the plants. From afar we saw a coconut tree struggling to grow and to the front, our sugar cane stalk was doing well. Other than that, the property looked like some wild forest. Sadly, we decided we were not going to even bother to trim or attend to these plants. Our plan for a lush garden when we moved in will just have to be squashed.
We did notice a storage container at the beginning of the development though. Christmas present? No. It seems another property-owner in the development planned to build as a lot about three down from ours was cleared of all grass and somewhat leveled! Yay! I was excited because we'll have neighbours and it also brought more hope to the area and value increasing even more.
When I got home, I watched the plans that showed the lots and the proposed drains. I realised that the drains were designed to run off into the pond which was a bit of a concern to me. Samurai decided to call the owner of the development regarding an update on the WASA water connections and drainage and he explained that WASA was currently doing an expansion project in the area but the drains were our responsibilty. I was confused. I called the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation a few days later to find out if they did drainage or if we were responsible and they explained that they only do the roadside drainage. However (and I must mention how helpful the staff at this agency was), the inspector did explain that earthen drains are just as good as concrete drains so we are not required to construct actual drains with the construction of the house. This was a relief and running a box drain along the perimeter of an acre of land would be something we just could not afford, however, we still needed to devise a plan for proper drainage on the lot into these earthen drains that already existed.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Circa 2012: New quotation
So I'm getting closer and closer to present day.
Note to self: Improve on your writing skills, lol
We heard back from Foundation Guy two weeks after. In fact, Samurai did and called me hastily while at work to get pen and paper to take down the list of items quoted:
140 lengths of 5/8" Corrugated Steel
180 lengths of 1/2" Corrugated Steel
120 lengths of 3/8" Plain Steel
1400 6"x8"x12" Concrete blocks
30lbs Tying wire
18 lengths of 1"x4"x14' Pitch Pine
8 lengths of 2"x2"x14' Pitch Pine
5 lbs of 2 1/2" Nails
2 lbs 2" Nails
2 loads of Gravel
40 bags of Cement
1 load of Plaster Cement
35 cubic metres of Poured Cement (Cement Truck)*
We also had the option of Foundation Guy mixing the cement himself instead of the Cement Truck which would replace that item with:
4 loads of Gravel
140 bags of Cement
So, this of course got me excited because I could almost see my foundation built in front of me. I created a nice little spreadsheet and started calling the popular hardware stores and a few random ones I chose from the telephone directory, informing them of my desire to get a quote. They all gave me their fax number to send it across. Some were more pleasant than others but I honestly didn't care, cost is what mattered at this point.
Some of the places I faxed the quotation to:
Central Wholesale Stores
Azad Abass Ali Hardware
Bhagwansingh's Hardware
Southern Wholesale Stores
Gopaul Lands Hardware
Ramlagan's General Hardware
Roopnarine Hardware
Quite a few of them did not sell gravel and the poured cement. I guess you need to have a really large storage facility to sell something like this. Some of them instead recommended I call the cement companies like Trinidad Cement Ltd and Readymix directly for that quote but the few that did, included a transportation cost that was of course cheaper the closer your destination was from their office. The level of difficulty in getting the cement to the location on the property can also influence the cost.
I was surprised at how quickly I got back some of the quotes. Some even called to discuss the purpose and other little tidbits of information I needed and left out. One error I made was putting plaster cement when it should read plaster sand.
The average price from the quotes I got back (excluding the gravel and poured cement) was around $35K. The few that were able to quote for the gravel gave an average price of $2,500.00. Only one gave a quote for the plaster sand at $2,000.00 and the poured cement averaged $28,000.00
I also contacted the cement companies but for nothing I could find my notes with these quotes. As soon as I do I will update this post.
Anywhoo. The total cost from what I do remember for the gravel, poured cement and the quotes on these other items above brought our material cost of roughly $100K. This plus the $50K in labour by Foundation Guy and minor unforeseen expenses gives us a rough estimate of $180K for the foundation. This was doable but this was also based on quotes at this time. With such an unpredictable construction sector and the boldface profiteering of some of these businessmen, we still had to re-do this entire quotation process closer to the time of purchase but at least we had a base figure to work with for now.
So, after receiving these quotes, Samurai and I were ready to submit our plans to Town and Country. We went over all the minor details again and took a deep breath an agreed, this is what we wanted.
We sent the plans over to the draughtsman via e-mail and we called him the next day. I guess with our history of postponing this decision, he had to confirm with us a few times if this is what we wanted with no expected changes. We confirmed
He then stated that he will work on them as soon as possible and briefed us again on the cost and process for submitting on our behalf.
I was crazy nervous.
Note to self: Improve on your writing skills, lol
We heard back from Foundation Guy two weeks after. In fact, Samurai did and called me hastily while at work to get pen and paper to take down the list of items quoted:
140 lengths of 5/8" Corrugated Steel
180 lengths of 1/2" Corrugated Steel
120 lengths of 3/8" Plain Steel
1400 6"x8"x12" Concrete blocks
30lbs Tying wire
18 lengths of 1"x4"x14' Pitch Pine
8 lengths of 2"x2"x14' Pitch Pine
5 lbs of 2 1/2" Nails
2 lbs 2" Nails
2 loads of Gravel
40 bags of Cement
1 load of Plaster Cement
35 cubic metres of Poured Cement (Cement Truck)*
We also had the option of Foundation Guy mixing the cement himself instead of the Cement Truck which would replace that item with:
4 loads of Gravel
140 bags of Cement
So, this of course got me excited because I could almost see my foundation built in front of me. I created a nice little spreadsheet and started calling the popular hardware stores and a few random ones I chose from the telephone directory, informing them of my desire to get a quote. They all gave me their fax number to send it across. Some were more pleasant than others but I honestly didn't care, cost is what mattered at this point.
Some of the places I faxed the quotation to:
Central Wholesale Stores
Azad Abass Ali Hardware
Bhagwansingh's Hardware
Southern Wholesale Stores
Gopaul Lands Hardware
Ramlagan's General Hardware
Roopnarine Hardware
Quite a few of them did not sell gravel and the poured cement. I guess you need to have a really large storage facility to sell something like this. Some of them instead recommended I call the cement companies like Trinidad Cement Ltd and Readymix directly for that quote but the few that did, included a transportation cost that was of course cheaper the closer your destination was from their office. The level of difficulty in getting the cement to the location on the property can also influence the cost.
I was surprised at how quickly I got back some of the quotes. Some even called to discuss the purpose and other little tidbits of information I needed and left out. One error I made was putting plaster cement when it should read plaster sand.
The average price from the quotes I got back (excluding the gravel and poured cement) was around $35K. The few that were able to quote for the gravel gave an average price of $2,500.00. Only one gave a quote for the plaster sand at $2,000.00 and the poured cement averaged $28,000.00
I also contacted the cement companies but for nothing I could find my notes with these quotes. As soon as I do I will update this post.
Anywhoo. The total cost from what I do remember for the gravel, poured cement and the quotes on these other items above brought our material cost of roughly $100K. This plus the $50K in labour by Foundation Guy and minor unforeseen expenses gives us a rough estimate of $180K for the foundation. This was doable but this was also based on quotes at this time. With such an unpredictable construction sector and the boldface profiteering of some of these businessmen, we still had to re-do this entire quotation process closer to the time of purchase but at least we had a base figure to work with for now.
So, after receiving these quotes, Samurai and I were ready to submit our plans to Town and Country. We went over all the minor details again and took a deep breath an agreed, this is what we wanted.
We sent the plans over to the draughtsman via e-mail and we called him the next day. I guess with our history of postponing this decision, he had to confirm with us a few times if this is what we wanted with no expected changes. We confirmed
He then stated that he will work on them as soon as possible and briefed us again on the cost and process for submitting on our behalf.
I was crazy nervous.
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