I’ve Finally Moved into My House

Hello, Reader!

(Let’s try this again, because I posted this earlier today only to find out that my blog had been hacked with a script that deletes all new posts…)

Remember when I said that I was building a house at the start of this year? Well, it’s finally finished and I’m all moved in! (Well, we are, because I’m living here with my extended family.)

It’s been a long and arduous journey to get here. I’ve already mentioned before how it was taking up all my energy. I hate to use the term to refer to my capacity to function, but I think it took up all my available “bandwidth” leaving no room for passion projects like this blog. Between work and worrying about getting this house built, I always felt like there was this buzzing in my head that made it nearly impossible to think and conceive and create.

Even when the house was done, we ran into some hurdles moving in. Yes, we got COVID-19 on our heaviest week of moving, sapping our strength and breaking the momentum. In the end, we got it done though — but it still took time for things to settle down and for my brain to clear the backlog.

When I arrived from a work trip last week, it dawned on me that I was coming home to this new place instead of the condo I had been returning to for the past 12 years. And suddenly, the buzzing stopped.

Anyway, this isn’t a house tour because my family values privacy and I’ve heard too many tales about people getting their houses broken into because they’d shown too much on social media of the layout and what valuables they had.

I do want to share the challenges we ran into. Maybe you’ll learn from our mistakes; maybe you’ll shake your head and say we should have known better. Maybe you’ll be totally uninterested — and that’s completely fine! But to me, this achievement is more major than any marathon or ironman I’ve ever finished.

Watch my vlog below to get a peek at my favorite spots in my new place.

Construction Timetables are a Suggestion

During my first update, we were assured that we’d be able to move in sometime in March or April. That just did not happen. I think our engineer ran into workforce problems given so many new construction projects opened up in the public sector that promised to pay well; our puny house project couldn’t keep our workers, so we had to onboard new ones every few weeks (the community we live in is very strict about conducting seminars with the workers).

We only learned later on that the foreman was also not doing his job properly coordinating the different teams: we had exposed wiring behind cabinetry, improperly-done piping, and puzzling electrical design choices.

In the end, our move-in was delayed by six months. We’re counting our blessings that we were still able to move in within the year, and overall there are very few issues with general construction. It’s a good house.

Murphy’s Law is a Law

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

I will admit we shaved it quite close with the budget and didn’t give ourselves wiggle room, which led to all of us dipping deep into our savings and credit lines just to get across the finish line.

But did we ever expect that a country would invade its neighboring country, setting off embargoes on the oil the invading country produces as well as halting the export of raw materials from the invaded country, triggering supply chain issues and price increases… Added to the fact that construction costs doubled during the pandemic, it wasn’t good news for our budget.

The construction delays also added to the financial burden, since my sister and her family were expecting to move in by March and stop paying rent. So she ended up paying rent alongside our loan repayments.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something else. Oh yes…

The Extortion is Next-Level

While our engineer expected that we would probably be asked to grease some wheels while getting our final permits approved, he didn’t anticipate the demands coming from nearly every level of administration and from various government agencies. We tried our best to follow the letter of the law, which actually ended up costing us more. And in the end, our documents were still held hostage…

Anyway, at least we dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s and our house is up to code, which gives me peace of mind.

(The professional extortionists can eat sh*t though)

Now that’s all done, I feel like I’m slowly reorganising my cluttered brain. The house is also showing my increased bandwidth, since I now have the energy and willpower to clear spaces and make them pleasant and liveable. To my plants, I’m so sorry I neglected you. Thank you for surviving.

I’m excited to get back to sharing my active lifestyle within this online space I’ve carved out.

It’s good to be back!