Update on the jobsite

looking up a street 2nd floor terrace Viv andI in dining room


kitchen master bath office


master bedroom guest room formal dr and living room


exterior family room staricase from top (24 steps)

We went up to the job site to check it out the other day and I thought I would share some of the photos with you. This is a typical 3 bedroom house. The furnishings come in 3 flavors: Oriental, Mediterranean and Italian. Since we all live in virtually identical housing, it's going to be like the Stepford house or something. The housing is all fully furnished pretty much the way you see it and houses come in 2-5 bedrooms, depending on your need. All houses come with maid's quarters on the first floor as domestic help, especially for those with young children, will have to be live in because of the remote location. The houses are very unlike those in the US as there is a tremendous amount of "extra" space with hallways and atriums and the like. Building efficiency is a non-issue apparently. All of the construction is cement, no wood at all and all floors are tile, usually 18 inch squares with area rugs if there are rugs at all. The back courtyard off the first floor is surrounded by a 4-5 foot wall and has the usual selection of outdoor furniture. There is no backyard "lawn" at all. There is grass in the front of the house as a landscaping feature. Houses are quite close together as you can see from the pictures, with no lawns and grass it would be pretty tough to space them apart, the sand would be everywhere. The AC units are enormous and there are 2, even though you only need 1 to cool the home; they are built for redundancy. The square footage is huge. I estimate that the 4 bedroom homes probably run in the 4500+ sq ft realm. There are no basements and no attics. All ceilings are quite high. They use no ceiling fans at all. All homes have a balcony or terrace off the second floor as well, either off the family room or the master or sometimes both. Family rooms are considered family or personal space and are placed on the second floor or behind closed doors in alcoves on the first floor. Move in date is sometime after May, but no deadlines are set in stone yet. There are 3000 residential units to finish and a log way to go.