Final leg

So D spent last weekend at the cottage inspecting it for the first time. He went with his dad, elder brother and the agent. After the inspection he went back to his Dad's place, climbed the water tower his brothers and his dad built way back when and called me to discuss the path we should take. The cottage is much smaller and run down than he anticipated. I pretty much figured it would be due to the price, and the fact that it was built by the owner himself. D was comparing it to his dad's place.....


Our place


D's dad's place

....... which has soaring high ceilings, electricity, was designed by an architect to mirror a ship-like structure, and has a dishwasher. I reminded him that when he was a kid he spent his summers in the "old" cottage which was built by D's grandpa and his dad only built the new place when he turned 60...we have a ways to go. D is worried that there is no "yard" for the kids to play on. I told him in a couple of years when we have the cash we will barge in loads of soil and dump the soil within a retaining wall. And the whole idea was to look at the lake, not a lawn. If I wanted to look at a lawn I would just landscape the one we have here. He said he was playing devil's advocate. I reminded him that he is the one with the childhood experience of cottaging and he is the expert..and the expert cannot play devil's advocate. I reminded him that it is location, location, location. It is the closest to the family and more importantly, the family with medical degrees in case of emergencies. I also think he forgets that I used to spend my "summers" in Parit Buntar so I am sure it cant be more run down than some of the kampung houses I used to spend time in. I mean, this has a bathroom whereas I used to spend mornings freezing my ass off rinsing myself from the cement pool aka mandi cebok. The house we can rebuild, the dock we can rebuild..the location can never be changed. I want my kids to learn their version of mandi cebok, to understand that water is damn precious, to appreciate why we use environmentally friendly cleaning products, to have a tire swing, to absorb the fact that we work damn hard to improve our lives and nothing comes automatically. So we are going ahead...the bank has given the green light.