We have chosen... wisely.

Jeanne and I came to live at Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village in Henderson just over three years ago.  We made our decision to move here fairly quickly, having looked at only two other retirement villages before walking into the Atrium building here, gazing up, and saying, "Wow," as Amanda started our tour.  Still, when we signed on the dotted line, and handed over the biggest check I had ever written in my life, we hoped that we had not been hasty.   

Time has proven how good a choice we made.  We have come to feel that this place is truly home.  

The list of positives is long. I won't go into all of them here, because I've talked a lot about them in several other past blogposts.  

Today, I'm going to talk about just one, but it's a major one, and I'll show you what few pictures I have relating to it. (so far)  It's a major renovation project involving the Palms building, which is perpendicular to our own Atrium and only one apartment away from us.  

Twenty four apartments are contained within it's four floors, and it is getting old. A total remake is scheduled to start very soon.  The first step is the removal of all the plants around it.  

This is the Palms from near our front gate. I have placed a yellow rectangle on our apartment window.  (Sorry for the rather hard to see, mustard yellow of my rectangle. I used to be able to go to a color palette and choose any bright color of my choice, but with the last software "upgrade," that was taken from me.  Now, I can choose between blue, black or the yellow you see.  I believe its another example of how the world continues to dumb down.) 

This is what the Palms looks like from our balcony. (It's early morning in this shot and the shadows of the palms growing in our roundabout are evident.)

I'm going to miss one aspect of this building.  I have been going out to the very corner of the top floor and taking pictures from that vantage point of the Sky Tower, sunrises, the Moon, planets, the Pleiades (Matariki), and other stars.  I call that spot, Arthur's Corner, because Arthur and Chris used to live in that corner apartment.  

That corner will still be there of course when the renovation is complete, but it will be enclosed in glass. Very limiting for pictures because of reflections.  

This is the back of the Palms shown in this first photo, from the windows at the end of our Atrium, and in the second photo from Rosecourt, which, as you see, lies across the gardens and carpark.   

I'm very impressed that Metlifecare, the company that owns our village and dozens of others as well across New Zealand, it so pro-active in maintaining its properties in the best possible condition.  

Consider this:

All the residents of the Palms have been moved into comparably sized apartments elsewhere in the village.  A moving company assisted with each move, even to the extent of packing dishes up at the old apartment, and unpacking them into the new, temporary apartment.  

Each resident has been given choices they can make about how they want their renovated apartment configured.  

Each person or couple is being given a percentage reduction on their monthly rate, and a monthly credit for our cafe, while they are out of their apartments.   

Finally, in about 18 months time, they will be moved, once again by the moving company, back into their brand new homes.  

All this is being done at no cost to the residents. As you have just read, they are actually benefitting financially from the inconvenience of having to move during the work.  

And I have heard that our Atrium is next in line for renovation. (A few years down the road)  Based on what I've seen so far, I'll face that challenge when it comes with a good attitude.  

This is a shot from the end of the Atrium, of the removal of the plants along the back of the building.  This was done just a few days ago. You can see the chipper and truck down there. 

Yes, it's sad to see beautiful growing things destroyed, but...

The resulting chips are being used by our Bark gardeners and by our own team of volunteer gardeners to mulch plants and to improve garden paths. 

Check this out:

This pile was originally twice as big. A lot has already been used.

Ruth was busy spreading chips when I arrived to take this picture.  

Several gardeners combined their efforts to 'pave' this path with new chips.

And the path extends all the way past the asparagus bed.  

Furthermore, the Bark gardeners dug up and moved a number of plants before this clear cutting happened, and our own volunteers worked to replant them in new areas. I call that  sustainability.  

This is what it now looks like from Rosecourt.  Admittedly, it is a bit of a shock but it'll be beautifully landscaped when it's completed.  

You can see part of the African Garden on the right in this shot. It will not be impacted by the build.  

Early in April the scaffolding will go up, with supports over the top of the building as well, and it will be wrapped in plastic to allow work during all types of weather and to minimize the noise and dust

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Jeanne and I were talking about all this the other day and thinking about how much different, and hugely better we have it here, than we would be experiencing had we purchased an apartment somewhere through a realter. 

Finally, because our apartment is so close to the Palms that we'll be able to almost touch the scaffolding when it goes up, we have also been offered a reduction in our monthly rate and some cafe credit for the duration of the build. That'll make putting up with the racket and mess a little easier to take.   -djf