settling down

Its been four months since we arrived here in Hualien. We are getting to know the city, and we have picked an area where we want to live. There is a new development right across the Meilun hotel and golf course, and two blocks from the waterfront.
We went to the open house, and not wanting to be known as from out of town, I camouflaged myself with some local colors by wearing an aboriginal head band. Here I am looking like an Indian chief in this picture......

Then we were invited inside to view the building plans.....and guess what, the meeting room was called "MCC". Folks from Hong Kong are killing themselves laughing now.....MCC stands for "mone cha cha" in Cantonese, meaning "ain't got a clue"; a perfect place for a meeting!

All jokes aside, here is the site plan for our new home:

Our townhome is on lot D, which is directly across from the Parkview hotel and Hualien golf course, to the north of us. Then two blocks south is the Hualien harbor, and the Fisherman's wharf. There are eleven attached homes on lot D, and it is phase 4 of this sprawling development. There is a phase 5 to come, and that will be it.

Like most buildings here, they are steel and concrete, therefore, any changes must be done before concrete is poured. We were fortunate to have a deposit down before work began, so that we can customize our house the way we want it. Rebecca hired an interior designer to totally custom build the interior of 2800 sq ft. Total construction time will be about nine months, and the final cost should be near 12 million NT, which is $400k Cdn at today's exchange rate. Something similar in Victoria should cost at least double that.