Sea Residences Orientation

My wife and I can't stop thinking that our view and accept of the SM Sea Residences condo is only a few days away. It came to a point that on a Saturday morning we decided to gate crash on the house rules orientation even though we were not on the list for that day. It is our first experience to buy a condo and we can't get it off our minds.

Sea Residences is located in Mall of Asia Complex and is just a few steps away from MOA.

I remember our experience in the World Pyro Olympics in MOA, the fantastic fireworks and the unbelievably long time it took us to get back home. I guess in the back of our minds, this was one of the reasons why we decided to buy a property there.

A big arena and concert ground is near the area as well as PAGCOR City and a new Nayong Pilipino I also read somewhere that SM is negotiating to have some of the NBA games held in MOA Complex.

Ours is a simple single bedroom unit with balcony where a maximum of 3 occupants is allowed. The picture above was taken from the model unit. Our unit will be furnished and designed by my wife.

The kitchen is pretty decent with built-in electric stove on the granite countertop and a range hood above it (photo of the model unit also).

Keys, keys, keys. A mailbox for each condo unit.

We don't have any condo owner down and dirty rules experience in the past so the house rules orientation is a big thing to us.

Here are some of the highlights based on what us who attended raised.

• During a power failure, the main electrical switch must be manually switched from Meralco power to the building generator. It is not automatic. So my mental note self: install a wall mounted emergency light. It's normal, I believe. Even hotels and malls have wall mounted emergency lights powered by rechargeable batteries. To protect the company I worked for from power failure, the whole plant ran on it's own energy center that houses several giant Myanmar generators 24/7. It was like this for more than a decade. Too much fuel used, Petron very happy. Then we decided to invest on UPS. But it is a very serious investment that needed tons on money.

• The generator can't supply power to all lights and electrical outlets. It will supply power to only a select few. Requested that those lights and outlets be identified.

• No garbage chute. Trash must be collected by unit owners, placed in bags and placed outside the front door on specific times. This stirred up the emotions of the attendees and images of hallways lined with stinky garbage bags floated in the air. This must be on top of the improvement items list of the the Home Owner's Association - us.

• 1.5 hp max air con capacity. Everyone was interested to know what the other max ratings are. But no direct answer was given.

• Allowed delivery window for items to be moved in is 9am to 5pm, Mon to Sat.

• Swimming not yet allowed in the swimming pools, although already filled with water and cleaned daily.

• Underground parking have no identification numbers yet so parking slot owners will be given random parking slots but it does not mean it will be their permanent slot.

• No service elevator. All stuffs you bring inside will use the elevators in the lobby. If your stuffs won't fit, use the stairs.

After the orientation, I peeked at the label in the main electrical switch. Max ratings I saw there:

• Water heater = 3.3 KW
• Air con = 1.5 hp
• Range/Range hood = 3.5 KW
• Washing machine = 1.5 KW

There was also a note there that the emergency generator will supply power to the living room and bedroom lights and the outlet assigned to the refrigerator. So I guess that indirectly answers one of the concern above.

No earth shaking news in the orientation. Valid and typical concerns.

A few work items to be ironed out by the future home owners.
But I am really interested on how other condos manage their trash.

Can somebody share?

Thanks.