Hobbit House

In a couple of months Aimee and I will be moving out of Aimee's parent's house and into a condo we're having built here. A few days ago we had the pleasure of inspecting the progress of the construction. When we walked in and started looking around there was something nagging me in the back of my mind. I couldn't quite put my finger on what the issue was but my brain was telling me there was something wrong. What was it? What in the world was bothering me? I walked into the the kitchen, then the bedrooms, and then the bathrooms. Once I walked into our master bedroom's bathroom that nagging feeling finally surfaced. Everything in the condo is built for someone with an average Filipino stature. All the counter tops are about 2 inches shorter than what I'm used to in Canada. And this includes the toilet in our master bedroom's bathroom. Imagine a toilet that can't just sit down on. It's so low you have to carefully lower yourself down on to. If you're not careful, you'll lose your balance and fall in! In the kitchen the hood fan in built above the stove at a height where a shorter person can reach up and turn it on. For me, it's lower than my eye level. I stood in front of it and it blocked my view of the stove. If I can't see the stove how am I suppose to cook? All the counters require me to bend down lower than normal and I'm sure this is going to be murder on my lower back eventually. Some of these issues will be altered (like the toilet and hood fan) and some will remain the day we move in. I was just surprised that construction blueprints are altered different from country to country depending on the average height of its citizens. There are tall Filipinos, I've seen them. So I don't know what they think about this hobbit house construction. So, the next time you see me I might be permanently stuck in a stooped over position because of all the bending I need to do!

Ooooh my poor aching back!