Adjusting to your new home

Jul 10, 2011 News

---

Garbage disposal is a problem in many new housing schemes

By Leonard Gildarie

Last Sunday’s piece on how best to improve security at your newly-built home has seen even more complaints by readers that this is an increasingly worrisome issue.
Millions of dollars are lost daily, countrywide, because security has been breached at homes and worksites, by persons intent on making an easy living at the expense of others. The network for these illegally acquired building materials and tools has signaled that it has the semblance of organized crime – making it harder for authorities to arrest persons.
This week, based on requests and personal experiences, we will be addressing an important issue.
It has to do with some of the adjustments (and they vary) associated with moving into a new home.
Because of the demand for land, invariably for housing, government has been opening up new schemes, even buying up cane-lands from GuySuCo.
Because of the large number of applications, the late 1990s and early 2000s had seen people from Essequibo Islands and Berbice moving to the massive new housing schemes at Diamond/Golden Grove, on the East Bank of Demerara. But that was only one example. This movement from county to county and even from the East Bank of Demerara to West Bank Demerara communities, has not been without its challenges.
Parents had to find new schools, deal with increasingly heavy road traffic and even increased costs for transportation. While it brought new businesses like taxi services, vegetable trucks and shops, the adjustments had become an issue for many persons. People living on the East Coast of Demerara found themselves owning homes in the West Demerara area.
Using my case as a prime example, I remembered the tedious process of asking for a transfer for my five-year-old son from Grove to La Parfait Harmonie where I live. I went to the nursery school in Grove where I was given a transfer letter. This then had to be taken to La Parfait where they had to indicate that there was indeed room for a transfer.
This was then taken to the Region Four Education Office at Triumph, East Coast Demerara, for further processing. I was then asked to take some documents to the Region Three office at Vreed-en-Hoop for this to be okayed. After this, I had to return to the Triumph office at Region Four for more processing. That was the end of the process. It cost four or five days of running to and fro, and thousands of dollars in gas.
But this particular experience is just one of the many issues that need addressing.
A new homeowner should also be researching where to source vegetables and cooking gas and a convenient location to pay bills.
If you are working in the city and live at Tuschen Housing Scheme, and have kids going to school, the challenges will include how to drop them off, pick them up, deal with the traffic congestion, and then you still have to deal with your home.
But from observations, one of the biggest challenges for new homeowners remains transportation and its associated costs. Whether you are using your own car or public transportation, it has become quite a hassle. At La Parfait for instance, there is a shortage of minibuses in the morning and a nightmare in the peak afternoon hours at the Stabroek Market park to find one.
With gas hovering around US$100 per barrel last November, I took a decision to buy a motorcycle because I knew it would be too expensive to use my minivan. My family was totally against it…with good reason. I had never ridden one before. I am comfortable now, and it was a sound investment. But not many families have cash to even buy a motorcycle.
The point is that you, as a new homeowner, need to find ways to cut your monthly costs and “groove” in quickly or it can become an irritant.
In our past articles, we had spoken of a major problem with mosquitoes, insects and those pesky little water frogs.
For the mosquitoes and insects, there is not much one can do about them. Those sash windows with the mosquito mesh help, but the problem is still there. I suggest that if you have louvre panes or windows without the mesh, start closing them as dusk falls.
Regarding the water frogs, no one seems to have the answer, except one suggestion to use a cat.
Issues of garbage are also a problem in some new areas, like at La Parfait Harmonie.
You either have to burn it or dump it. There is no official dump site here.
I also recommend, as a top priority, that you invest in a water tank because many of the housing schemes, while their supply is stable, sometimes suffer from those off-days.
In a nutshell, owning your home is a grand experience and a life-changing one. In the beginning, there will be a few niggling irritants that will take some adjusting to before you get things straightened out.
When moving in, research, prepare and make decisions to meet those challenges as they appear.
Have a pleasant weekend and continue to send those ideas to [email protected] or call us at 225-8491.

---

---