NB New Direction - 4. NB ND Chapter 4

After informing the police officer that the company had owned the block of apartments for just under a month, and that for most of that time I was in Bethesda Hospital, recovering from major brain surgery, I was informed that the investigation into the cause of the fire, had revealed that the fire started from an explosion in one of the units, which was being used as an illegal meth manufacturing lab.

The man who was treated for burns, is now under police custody at the main public hospital, while he is recovering from his injuries. All of the other residents of the apartments had only received minimal injuries, and that the fire crews had retrieved as much personal belongings from all of the other apartments as possible.

I was told that the official police report will state that, the fire was accidental, but part of illegal activities, and that the damage was too great for any of the apartments to be liveable again, and that he recommended that the apartments be demolished. I was glad to hear that no one else was seriously hurt in the fire, and I was also pleased in a way, that I would be given the chance to demolish the apartments, to allow for construction to commence on the project.

Once I had finished at the police station, I caught a taxi back to the house, where I just relaxed feeling a little drained of energy from everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours. Now that I knew that the apartments could be demolished, I made a call to the local council, and spoke to the gentleman that I spoke to earlier, and asked that the applications for demolition, include the property – 24 Freshwater Parade.

I knew that it was very late at night at Douglas, so I found a good novel and sat in the small lounge and read the book for the rest of the afternoon, before pulling out the meal that Mrs Cooper had prepared from the fridge, and heating it up in the microwave, soon after dark. After dinner, I put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, and headed to my bathroom for a shower, and went to bed fairly early.

The next morning after having some breakfast of tea and toast, I put on some heavy-duty boots, and grabbed some gardening gloves, and I wandered down to number 24, to see how much damage there really was to the two buildings. Walking down the side driveway, I could see a lot of blackness everywhere, and it was obvious that the fire started on the ground floor apartment, in the corner.

The fire had managed to get into the roof space of the top floor, causing the roof to fall in on all top floor apartments, and that there was a lot or smoke and water damage to all of the downstairs apartments. “Hey, what are you doing here, this is off limits” a voice said loudly, which made me jump with fright a little, “I represent the owners of this property, and I have already spoken to the police about this fire, and what caused it” I said in response.

“I see, well I am a fire officer from the local station, just come to check to see if there is any residue heat coming from the building” the Fire officer said, as he entered the building to inspect for any heat, and I carefully followed him, to see what damage there was inside one of the apartments.

Once the fire officer and I had left the property, I called a local equipment hire company, to hire some safety barrier fencing, to keep intruders off the property, until the demolition could be done, and they said they would have the fencing installed my lunch time today. With it still being earlier enough, I gave Sebastian a call in the Falklands, where it is 9pm at night.

“Hey cousin, what is happening in Western Australia?” Sebastian said when he answered the call, “Hey buddy, well we have had a few dramas, and all soon after I was released from hospital, which made it a little tough. In one of the apartments, there was illegally manufacturing meth, and an explosion had cause a major apartment block fire, with just the person responsible getting burns” I informed Sebastian.

“Oh wow, that is not good, so what is happening to the building?” my cousin asked, “Well its not good that the nine residents have to find a new place to live, with very little belongings, but for us it has been declared non-liveable, so I have applied with the local council, to have it demolished. I have already had a meeting with a local architect, and they are going to design a building with business office suites in them” I replied.

“That sounds good buddy, we leave tomorrow, so we will be arriving in Perth on Saturday afternoon at 3pm, and the twins are looking forward to seeing you again” Sebastian announced, “That’s awesome, I look forward to seeing you then, have a safe journey and say hello to the rascals for me” I said and we ended the call.

After the call to Sebastian, I was feeling glad to see Sebastian and the boys in a few days’ time, and I made a cup of tea to take a little time to rest, and just as I was finishing my morning tea, Mrs Cooper arrived.

“Hello Mrs Cooper, anything I can help you to bring in?” I said as she entered the house, “Yes a few more items from your bedroom at the main house, including some suits and ties, in case you need to have some business meetings, and I brought another suitcase of my belongings as well” Mrs Cooper replied, and I spent the next ten minutes bringing everything inside.

“Now has anything happened while I was away?” Mrs Cooper asked me, “Well I have had a call from Sebastian, they are leaving there tomorrow, and arriving at Perth on Saturday afternoon at 3pm, I was thinking of setting them up in some accommodation in the city, since we are down in Perth now, so I will look into that tomorrow, I’ve had a talk with the investigating police officer, and the fire has been declared a fire by explosion due to illegal activities, and it has been condemned, so I have applied for demolition.

I’ve had a look at the damage, along with one of the fire officers present, and it looks a mess, oh and I have arranged for some temporary fencing to be put up to keep people out of there” I explained to my housekeeper, “That is good to hear, Annette and Kyle have both sent their best wishes to you, and they will be coming down on Saturday for a visit, and will be staying for lunch” Mrs Cooper said.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading a book, and before going to bed after dinner, I gave Sebastian a quick call, and it went to message-bank, so I presumed that he and the twins were already travelling to Chile, “Hey mate, just checking in with you before I go to bed, have a safe trip and I will see you in a couple of days” I said before ending the call, and I shut off the light and went to sleep.

The next morning after breakfast, I went for a swim in the pool, and after a shower and changed, I went looking for Mrs Cooper, who was doing some gardening at the front of the house. “You know, this is one of the things I miss since I have started with you, with the new house at Toodyay having no garden. I Find it very relaxing just doing garden work” Mrs Cooper said to me when she saw me approaching.

“I am sorry that we didn’t get around to establishing a garden there, I will make sure something is done about it soon” I replied, “No don’t do that, I am happy with this beautiful garden, I have all that I need, to relax just here” Mrs Cooper said. I kneeled down nearby, and commenced to pull out some weeds out of the garden bed, working silently as we did this.

“My goodness, how time flies” Mrs Cooper said as she stood up and stretched, and I did the same, before I looked at the time on my mobile, which read 11.53am, “Wow, how long have we been gardening for?” I asked. “About 2 ½ hours by estimate” Mrs Cooper said, as she headed inside to start preparing some lunch for us both, leaving me a little stunned at where all the time went.

After cleaning up a little, I headed to the small lounge room to do a little reading, and that is when my mobile rang with an unknown number. “Huon Devonport, can I help you” I said, “Hello Mr Devonport, this is Mr Barrington speaking, I have some preliminary sketches for you to look at, do you have any time today, for me to come and show them to you?” the caller asked.

“Yes, any time today I am free, but after that I have guests staying for two weeks, so today would be preferable” I replied, “Ok, I will be over at 1.30pm then, see you then, bye” Mr Barrington said before ending the call. I went to my office across the hallway, and started up my computer, where I did a google maps search of the area of Claremont, where the properties are, and printed it out.

After eating lunch, I sat in the office and waited for Mr Barrington to arrive, which he did two minutes ahead of the appointed time. “Good afternoon, a couple minutes early, that is a good sign” I said to Mr Barrington after opening the door and shaking his hand, before directing him into the office. “No Police officer this time?” Mr Barrington asked, which made me laugh, “No thank goodness” I relied as I sat in my usual lounge seat.

“Right, I have the measurements for each of the four blocks of property that you purchased, and with that information, I was able to make one design that will fit all of those spaces” Mr Barrington began as he pulled out a folder from his briefcase and lay it on the coffee table. The two properties on Freshwater Parade, are roughly the same size, if you don’t include the two houses, of which one of them is this one.

I recommend that you keep the house next door as is, as an additional investment, which you can lease out as a holiday house or a short-term rental, either way, it makes sense not to pull it down. The other two properties, the block on Queenslea Drive and the largest block on Bay View Terrace, just need to add and extra one or four of the same design” Mr Barrington said, and he leaned forward to open the folder and the plans that he had drawn up.

“As you can see it is octagonal but stretched out in a sort of oval shape, to fit the spaces. This building design is 48 metres long and 24 metres wide, so it will fit all of the properties that you have in this area. The entry foyer is in the centre on one long side, and from there you can either go down East or West corridors, or straight ahead to the one central elevator.

The ground floor has two stairways leading all the way up to the roof level, one located in each wing, I have made the standard size office suites 10 by 15 metres in size, with four on the ground floor and eight on the first floor. Also on the ground floor are two larger office suites, that are 10 by 22 metres in size. Both floors have two sets of toilets, which are identical, as I have not included urinals in the design.

The roof top has an open recreation space with rubber flooring, to allow for more cushioning on the feet, and better insulation for the building, there is a stretched hexagon central covered pergola, located between the two stairwells, plus there is a triangular covered pergola at each end of the building, and space available to install a walkway if council approval is given, to link the two buildings on Freshwater Parade together.

For the Queenslea Drive block, we could have two of these buildings side by side, with a 4-metre gap between them, while the Bayview Terrace block can have five buildings side by side, with a bigger gap between each building for recreational space” Mr Barrington said explaining how he had made the designs.

“Wow, this is incredible, I love it, it is perfect. Ok Go ahead with finalising the design as it is, oh and with the two bigger areas, could we have the buildings joined together at roof level, so as to create a large sports area, for like tennis, hockey and basketball, with some spectator seating” I asked, “Sure I will work on that idea for you as well, it is a pleasure working with you sir” Mr Barrington replied as he stood and shook my hand.

After he had left, I noticed that the plans had been left behind, so I sat down to study them some more, that is when I spotted in one corner – Clients Copy, written in pencil, which I was pleased about, as I could show them to Sebastian when he arrives. It was then that I remembered that I hadn’t arranged accommodation for Sebastian and the twins, so I looked up some of the hotels in the city, and wasn’t having much luck with finding a family suite for two weeks, and I was starting to run out of time.

“Mrs Cooper, I need a big favour from you please” I called out, and five minutes later we were in the car and on our way to buy some more furniture, this time for the house next door, which I had looked inside just briefly the other day, which is a three-bedroom, one bath room house simular in layout as my house.

I decided that all we needed was two king single beds, three tallboy cabinets, four bedside cabinets, a queen bed, linen and pillows, towels, a lounge suite and a television, all which we managed to purchase in the remaining 2 ½ business hours of the day, with delivery set for 11am the next day.

After a small dinner, as we were both very tired from the sudden rush of shopping, we both retired to our rooms, to get some sleep before the arrival of all the furniture in the morning, and the guests arriving in the afternoon. I must have been quite tired, as Mrs Cooper woke me when she announced that the furniture would be arriving in an hour.

Jumping out of bed, I went for a swim in the pool to wake me up fully, before having a shower and changing, and Mrs Cooper had some breakfast freshly made for me as I sat down, at the table, which has 6 chairs, just enough to sit everyone for dinner tonight.

Soon after I had finished my breakfast, and helped to clean up, I went over to the house next door, and opened up some of the windows, to let the house air out a little, as I noticed yesterday that it felt a bit stuffy from being locked up for so long. Once I had done that I checked the window coverings for each room, and noticed that the blinds in the lounge room and dining room needed replacing, and the curtains in the three bedrooms, looked a bit tired.

Opening the first cardboard box that I had left just inside the door yesterday, I unpacked the new items that were inside, that being a toilet brush, a packet of toilet paper, two containers of liquid soap, a bath mat, and a shower curtain, which I put in their places in the bathroom, and the toilet next door.

The second box contained a new kettle and toaster, a set of 4 cutlery, and set of 4 crockery plates, bowls and cups, which I put away in the drawers and cupboards. Just as I finished, Mrs Cooper arrived to announce that the delivery truck had arrived. “If we have time, we need to get some new curtains for the bedrooms, and new blinds for the two living areas, and maybe a couple of floor rugs, and some pictures for the walls” I said to my housekeeper. “I will have to do it after Annette and Kyle have left, you haven’t forgotten that they are coming for lunch today have you?” Mrs Cooper said to me.