Finally
You may recall me mentioning the deficiencies in my loft and the painful long wait to have them fixed. This Monday, after several months, one of the major items was finally resolved: the missing kitchen cabinet door. Oh how it mocked me, but no more!
Witness its splendour!
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Deficiencies
This has probably been one of my longer, if not the longest, breaks to date. Sorry about that.
So, three months later and I’m pretty much settled in to my new place. There are still a few things I’d like to get, but for the most part I’m sorted. One of the things you need to get used to when you buy a new condo or loft is that not everything will be ready when you move in. For the Toy Factory probably the biggest issue in that regard was the parking garage. The garage has been unavailable since I moved in and has only finally been ready this past Friday. If I actually needed to use my spot, I would have been way more bothered about it than I am. I keep my car at my mum’s and, since moving downtown, I’ve never really needed it, so I’ve been able to manage just fine without.
The other thing you need to come to terms with is how long it takes for the deficiencies to be fixed1. At first, I naively assumed everything would be fixed before I moved in. Not so. I have had a few things fixed, but the big stuff is taken ages. From speaking to other people who have gone through something similar, this is pretty typical and they eventually get done. Fair enough, I guess, and after waiting all this time for the place I’m sure I can handle it.
1 The deficiencies were all the defects and such I made a not of during my PDI. I’m pretty sure I must have mentioned it in my last post.
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Occupancy
In what seems like a sudden event, I now find myself taking occupancy for my loft after all this time (three years!). Last Friday (November 2, 2007) I actually moved a whole bunch of furniture and a few assorted things, just to get me started, and I’m on my way to finally moving in completely. I know!
The last month or has been busy, exciting, and stress-filled. So much so that I never got around to providing any loft updates for what seems like ages. So, here’s what happened in the last several weeks.
First, the Occupancy date was pushed out by a couple of weeks from the last date to October 31st. At the time, I really didn’t think that date would stick. Remember that point, it comes up later.
On Wednesday October 2, 2007 I had the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) for my unit. Basically, you inspect everything with someone from the customer care team and make a note of any deficiencies (scratches, paint marks, missing paint, etc.) All that information gets recorded and they work out getting it fixed upon occupancy. If you looks closely through my pictures of the inspection you can see red dots. Those are the deficiencies.
That was a fun day and also an incredibly exciting one as it was the first time I actually saw the inside of my unit. It turned out better than I had hoped and the place looks bigger than I expected. I was in a mild state of shock which isn’t too surprising after 3 years when you think about it. And there really wasn’t anything seriously wrong when I did the inspection, just a few pain marks, scratches and a missing small kitchen cabinet door. I hope to get most of that done in the next few weeks, but all in good time. The Toy Factory itself still isn’t quite finished and there’s a lot of construction still going on so I’ll probably be getting things sorted out little bit at a time.
Things seemed to go pretty quickly after the PDI. Remember the Occupancy date I thought would slip? Well, it didn’t and I found myself booking a move in date a few weeks ago while also organizing the delivery of my furniture with the fine folks at EQ3. I’ve also been working out the mortgage situation with my broker, using a fax machine more than I have in my entire life, signing a ridiculous amount of cheques (one of which for a ridiculous amount), and having a good chat with my lawyer.
As I mentioned before, last Friday was the big move (with many smaller ones to follow). Since I’ve been living in a temporary, minimalist state until my loft was ready, I really didn’t have any furniture, so I pretty much had to get everything. It was great not having to move it myself and thankfully I had help from family and friends when it came to unpacking, assembling furniture, and dealing with inevitable pile of cardboard and packing material. That last part would have broke me if I were on my own. Assembling the bed, which I did myself, almost did in fact and I even bashed my thumb.
And finally, this past weekend, I actually slept over on Saturday night. I enjoyed that and I’ll probably be staying over at my loft on most weekends until I have everything moved in. The building itself isn’t quite finished yet, so I’m in no hurry and, due to the awkward timing of things, I still have my current apartment for another month or so. I was initially bothered by that, but it kind of turned out in my favour really and has made the whole move less stressful than it could have been. And I get to enjoy the freedom of being able to walk to work and go home for lunch for a few more weeks, so it’s not so bad.
So that’s it, the big wait is finally over and hopefully by the end of this month I should be permanently living in my new home.
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Yeah, they meant tentative
So hey, remember the occupancy letter I received about a month ago? It turns out they did mean tentative after all.
I received another letter from the developer last week and my new occupancy date is October 9, 2007.
Damn it!1
Just when things seemed like they had finally settled down, they move the date out by another month. I recall at the time I received the last occupancy letter that the date of September 7, 2007 felt a bit optimistic. Well, at least I have most of my furniture picked out and ordered.
1 And of course by “Damn it!” I really mean “Fuck!”
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In which I purchase some furniture
I now have some furniture for my new place! This is relatively old news as I put in my order on June 28 th right before I went a fabulous 6 day vacation. Aaaah!
So, thanks to the fine people at EQ3 I now have:
- A sofa (in white leather!)
- A chaise (black leather!)
- A side table (in a dark brown)
- A bed (queen sized, with black lacquer headboard)
- A nightstand (goes with the bed, also in black)
- And a pretty awesome lamp
Since my place isn’t ready quite yet, all of my fine purchases have been ordered and will be on hold until I actually move in. I still have a few more things I need, but I at least have most of the basics covered. Next up on my list of things to buy: a coffee table, another chair, and a dining table (with suitable seating, of course). The dining table will probably come last when I actually take possession since by then I’ll have a better idea of what fits in the space I have.
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Final or Tentative?
More news of the condo-waiting front (well, technically I should refer to it as a loft what with the high ceilings and all). There was a recent strike which has delayed things a bit more. The strike is over now and I received the latest update from the developer a few weeks ago. My new occupancy date is September 7. Not too bad as that’s just a month out from the last date.
Now the curious thing is that the letter starts out with the following heading:
“RE: FINAL OCCUPANCY DATE”
And then, later on in the letter, they say this:
“Please be advised that your terntative occupancy date is September 7 th 2007”
Wuh? So which is it, tentative or final? Perhaps they mean it’s the final tentative date and the next date will be, er, the final final date?
Either way, things are definitely closer than before and they’re well underway with work on the interior of the building. You can see the latest progress of the exterior starting here and also note my Loft now has windows!
And now, back to contemplating my furniture options.
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And yet another delay
My occupancy date has moved yet again. The new date is now August 7, 2007. I saw some recent pictures from mid April and, based on the progress so far, I saw this coming. Actually, I expected it to be pushed out further than just a month, like September or October. We’ll see if this new date sticks, but I’m a bit skeptical.
And hey, speaking of condo pictures, I just added some more. Here’s the start of the latest set. A lot more has been completed since the last time I visited the site, although the progress on the garage seems to be slow.
On a more positive note, I found out that there will be a pub right across the street from me and a French take out place. I’m pretty excited about that and with the recent delays, they both might be ready by the time I move in.
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Delayed! Again!
Well, as is typical with any codo/loft purchasing endeavour, my occupancy date has been pushed out a few months. If you’ve been following along you’ll no doubt be aware that this isn’t the first time things have been delay although this is only my second letter from the developer. The first revised tentative date was April 19th and now it’s July 5th which, oddly enough, is the day after my birthday. I was planning on taking a few weeks off around my move-in date, so it works out nicely in that regard at any rate. Let’s see what happens in May or June.
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4 More Months!
I just realized that today is the 19th which means that it will be 4 months until I move into the new condo. Joy! The time is really moving fast now and I have a pretty good feeling that the next few months will just fly by. Here’s hoping they make some really good progress on the building until then.
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The court yard is open!
Finally! So a few weeks ago they finally removed the last part of the building that blocked the view of the couryard and, more importantly, the view of my loft. If you look at the full picture on flickr by clicking this image, you’ll see my loft is in the back left corner, on the second floor. The last two windows are my living room. And I have to say, the court yard is a lot bigger than I thought it would be.
So hey, things are getting closer and I’ve got about 5 months left until I move in. And so far, it doesn’t look like they’ll be any more delays.
Fingers crossed!
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Upgrades!
So hey hey, the condo people called me (or more specifically, the design studio) to pick an appointment to choose my tiles, floor, upgrades, and such. Big step in my whole loft buying adventure. So, I went tow weeks ago and spent the whole morning fussing over tiles and counter tops. It was fantastic, stressful, and expensive. Also, my whole kitchen appliance suite has been upgraded to the fancy ass stainless steel variety. I think the place is going to look pretty damn good.
It should also been noted that there’s about 6 months left until I take possession, assuming there are no delays. Typically, that always happens but apparently they’re “trying to move the occupancy dates up”. We’ll see.
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A Somewhat Painful Delay
So inevitably, the move-in date for my condo has been delayed. The last update I had was that it would be ready sometime in the fall of 2006. Not too bad really, since the target was originally June. Of course, these things are complicated and I just received a letter last week informing me that my tentative occupancy date will be April 19, 2007. And believe it or not, that’s actually better than what I thought it would be.
So here’s hoping there’s a flurry of construction this summer and my occupancy date slides closer. I remain cautiously optimistic about that.
In the meantime, I’ve been taking pictures of the development to track it’s progress and uploading them to my Flickr account. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that before, but here’s a link anyway.
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