A Couple Big Things

With the caveat that “big things” are entirely relative in the context of our current global apocalypse, two big things happened in the past several weeks to signify that we’re (actually, maybe) almost done with our project.

Big Thing #1

We got this coveted piece of electronic paper:

Yes, we’ve been living here since last Christmas, but we wouldn’t be able to complete the sale of Suite 3 until we had the official Occupancy Completion Permit.

This was one of the weirdest non-events of the whole project. Our neighbours Len and Gail spent 18 months attempting to get this for their character rebuild. The city inspector we had for most of our project – and who we also shared with Len and Gail- seemed to revel in making us do more and spend more. Even if his demands seemed unnecessary or were even incorrect, we had to weigh the time and expense of fighting versus just swallowing the pill for the sake of carrying on.

By the time we got to the end, this inspector was on medical leave; we got a new one and subsequently sailed through the last few inspections, including the final.

Of course, though, it being the city, it could never be quite that simple. I had sent our inspector’s final emailed report, which said that all units were safe to occupy, to our lender in order to close out the progressive mortgage. It was only after they asked for the official permit that I realized we needed something different. I called the City and learned that someone had decided not to issue the official document because our accessory building permit was still open. No one communicated this to me; it just sat in limbo for a few weeks until I realized it was missing. Fortunately, a phone call to our new favorite inspector cleared that up (yes, they had withheld it in error) and our permit was emailed within about 30 minutes.

On to big thing #2!

Now this was an event. We reached an accepted offer at the end of August, with 7 business days to remove conditions. On the last day on which conditions could be removed (and we could therefore be confident the sale would happen), I made a triple chocolate mouse celebration cake. But because it takes all day to make this thing, I had to start well before knowing whether conditions would in fact be removed. Worst case it would be a pity cake.

When our realtors Ally and Dennis shared the news as the final layer was setting in the fridge, I thanked them and said “phew”. It would be a celebration cake after all. As amazing as this news was, though, our initial reaction was subdued. Surely, this couldn’t actually be the end. The natural inclination of a body in motion is to remain in motion. A body in a state of anxiety is inclined to remain in a state of anxiety.

The financial uncertainty of the project has been the predominant source of my underlying anxiety. The sale is relief to this anxiety. We didn’t do as well financial as we’d initially hoped, but hey, we didn’t go bankrupt! A couple blocks away is a house for sale that is half reconstructed. Presumably they ran out of money – which I’ve learned, probably means that they didn’t have the money when they needed it – regardless of how good the end-game looked. It happens more often than we might think, to developers big and small.

There are so many externalities that impact the financial outcome of a project that have nothing to do with one’s ability to solve a problem or wield a hammer. Construction costs have reportedly increased 10% per year over the past 5 years in Victoria. So to have our final cost inflate to 150% of what we’d initially planned for is not surprising (full financial debrief coming soon).

Now that I allow myself to think about it, the fact that we didn’t lose our shirts may have simply been the result of working with people who were invested in helping our project succeed. I’m not sure what would have happened if we had chosen a builder who insisted (or needed) to be paid immediately on invoicing. Or with a lender who was not willing to be flexible. Or extended family who were not able to help out.

Development is difficult and risky. I completely understand why many people working in this field are not actually spending their own money. More typically, there is an investor in the background who has the means to spread their risk across multiple ventures, and then pay someone else to actually do the project so they don’t have to think about it too much.

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So we’ve sold to a couple (+labradoodle) we’re excited to have as neighbours, at a price that is in the range of what I had expected. We’ll still be left with a giant mortgage, but we can handle the payments and we’ll be able to pay off our other debts. And as we begin to emerge out the other side of financial purgatory, the air is noticeably lighter, and the laughter and silly dances are enjoying a welcome resurgence.