Surveyor's markings

There are orange spots all over the land now, made of square wooden pegs nailed to the ground. I think that's the surveyor's marking where the concrete should be poured to make the pole foundations. You can almost figure out my room layout based on those markings.

Okay, back to my building approval drama. After the first design got declined by the City Council, my owners got a help from an architect who made sure the design satisfies the height restriction, and for added measure put enough distance from the left and right hand side neighbor. The new design was gorgeous. You've got to love this architect's sketches.



The builder and my owners were confident this design will get approved in no time. Not so. After waiting for another 2 month, the City Council sprung a new restriction that they neglected to mention in the first design review. It turned out that I must be built at least 6 meter away from the borderline with the conservation park. The architect's design is such that you can't simply push the whole house back by 6 meter without part of the house going straight into the front neighbor's land.

This is where my owners almost gave up and seriously considered selling the land. They were wondering if I was just not meant to be. They have persisted for 9 months, and to be given a new restriction that forced them to start the design from scratch at this stage was just too much to bear.

But my owners finally decided to have another go. They were both born on the Chinese year of the Ox you know, not easy to give up, a bit stubborn more than they care to admit. The husband happens to have a bachelor's degree in Architecture, although he never practiced that profession as he worked in IT industry as soon as he graduated. Still reeling from the two knock backs from the City Council, my owners made the third design. I will show it to you in the next post...