I have been on the mailing list for Mayfield Club for some time. They invited me to see their property. I had been avoiding it, thinking it was a hard sell for a care home. We are not yet old enough for care homes. But its a good idea to know them before you are too gaga to make the effort to visit and to express an opinion.
No, Mayfield is not a care home, it is a retirement complex, which is for people over 55, but it is an American style or Singapore style complex with a building containing a small mini supermarket for food and toiletries and a swimming pool, and activities such as aqua lessons.
Indoor swimming pool at Mayfield.
As we drove into the what seemed to us remote and isolated area we were initially disappointed by the building sites surrounding the area, and the complex itself, of dull straight line looming tower blocks, and the full parking area.
We eventually found a parking spot when somebody left. The complex was holding a Christmas Fair. The stalls had hats, shoes and jewellery and Xmas themed decorations. We had arrived too early for the event of mince pies, though there was a cafeteria where we could have bought food, but we had a dinner to attend the other side of London,, so we had a quick look around before leaving.
I managed to see the little supermarket or minimarket, which had the basics you might need, as well as the swimming pool, the long thin type. Not to deep, to my relif. In Singapore many apartment complexes and hotels and public pools had scary deep ends. I am not a strong swimmer and want to be in a pool where any passer by who does not swim could step in and pull me out in a hurry if necessary. Equally, if somebody else got into trouble, I would like to be able to reach them. )(In Singapore I had to call the guard to throw in a heavy lifebelt, and get another child to swim to it and push it to a drowning boy in the deep end.)
What does all this cost? With a search you can find the prices online, for a one bed flat or a two bed flat. The one beds have all sold out in Watford. I don't know whether they are more popular or whether there are fewer of those. We would like a bigger property with room for a study for each of us for laptops and shelving for books.
At the Christmas Fair I got talking to Christine who makes lovely handbags. She enthused about the complex and said she and her husband had never previously had such a busy social life. There are activities every day. Such as a bridge club which presumably meets once a week or once a month. There is a residents room which suggests that other rooms are open to family and friend who are visiting, or peopel who are staying in the hotel style accommodation for visitng family to rent for a night or a week, I'm not sure the terms.
They have a daily bus or twice a day, which takes you to a local supermarket.
The club includes more than just a swimming pool. You also get a gym and other facilities.
I have family nearer into central London, so I am more interested in the complex being built in the Brent Cross area, which is nearer to central London.
Of course all this programme of activities and shuttle buses is not free. Like membership of a country or town club, there is a monthly fee, a commitment. But you would not need to join a gym outside your own complex. The other residents would be in your age group. It is for the healthy over fifties, not a care home for people in wheelchairs, who are likely to develop Alzheimers, and keep talking, singing, shouting or sit staring into space, which was the situation when we visited some of my extended family by marriage. My parents never ended up like that, so I hope I will remain able to talk coherently right through my life.
This organization seems to have only one functioning property and one being built. However, I hope it will inspire many more.
I shall want to go back to see a show flat, its size, and get a better grip on the terms of the financial commitment. In a normal block you would probably be paying a maintenance charge for porterage, upkeep of grounds, repairs and upgrading to the buildings, and common parts such as the electrics, plumbing, gardening, insurance, and so on. Is that part of the club or is the monthly club fee for the acitivies and is the mainteance of the building a separate charge? Other expenses might be your garaging, for one or two cars? What about cleaning and laundry? Eating out? Some blocks in London have a restaurant in the building, a fine dining restaurant. Singapore builds complexes with a row of shops and services, so there is a children's playground , for grandchildren visiting, to keep them away, but could be noisy for nearby flats.
Singapore complexes are mini cities around a central green. But the private complexes hae swimming pools. The public blocks, you are expected to take out membership of the nearby public pool, which might be huge. A swimming pool in your complex is usually open all day every day, except when shut for holidays, events, such as Chinese New Year dinners around the pool, and maintenance., and fogging which is anti mosquito spraying.
UK properties are at risk of rats and foxes and squirrels and in your attics birds or squirrels. If you want to know the risks to your property, check advertisements for local pest control firms.
The Singapore complexes will have a doctor or dentist or clinic as well on the ground floor. In the good old days, in private blocks, the porter would note the identity of all visitors, and take in parcels and deliveries if you were out when the delivery came. Later that was stopped.
Singapore had laws about putting bars on balconies to stop people falling, and to stop animals jumping or falling on people below. In the early days, people moving in from the village kampongs, would bring their rabbits and chickens and keep them on the open to the air indoor and exterior corridors. I imagine this is gradually being phased out. Some blocks ban cats and dogs. However, the latest legislation coming in 2006, will protect the tenants right to keep pets unless there is a good reason not to. I understand that good reasons could be that the leaseholder is already banned from allowing renters from owning pets, or that the flat owner has allergies. I wonder whether you could ban cats and birds if the building had a pond with goldfish. In Singapore we had fish in outdoor ponds on the complexes where we lived at Cashew Heights. People with birds and dogs kept them on leads when walking. The modern idea is to put cats on leads.
In Singapore we experienced invasion of cockroaches, monkeys, and otters at the swimming pool.
What about the building itself. Is it liable to flooding from the nearby river? Is the flat roof likely to end up a source of leaks, and ripping down the outside walls from gutters causing mould, and a horrendous cost of scaffolding to replace or repair gutters. Window cleaning for the block? Part of maintenance? Fire escapes?
Pets. I prefer not to be annoyed by barking dogs left home alone, or barking at visitors, and wandering cats which urinate and scratch furniture not rarely but on a daily basis to sharpen their claws .
Main Advantages Of Mayfield
Main Disadvantages of Mayfield
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