My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in
Cyba Audi, a communications strategist, award-winning business news anchor and founder of Saba Consultants, bought her first home in Dubai back in 2015.
She’d spent 15 years in rented accommodation, but after getting married she and her husband wanted somewhere to call their own.
It was just after the city had won the bid for Expo 2020 and it had become a race to find the perfect location before it got snapped up.
She eventually fell in love with a Dh10 million space in Al Bada’a, which they have spent almost three years renovating through the pandemic, working hard to make the house a home.
The National takes a tour.
Please tell us about your home
It’s a beautiful house in the sense that it has this fantastic energy and everybody feels that when they walk through the front gate and into the garden. It’s very uplifting, very positive, you immediately feel oxygenated.
We saw the house about three times before we chose it … and the nice thing about it, which I didn’t actually think was nice when I first saw it, is that the garden is at the front, so the house is pushed to the back of the plot.
It has these massive, mature ghaf trees in the front – they look very romantic. And we’ve added some palm trees as well alongside a walkway down the middle of the garden. It really gives the house character.
It was probably built in around 2000, but it’s a solid house.
How did you choose your area?
It’s an independent house on a short street with only four other houses on it.
We’re right in the middle of the city, just opposite City Walk and behind Shangri-La Dubai, but you wouldn’t know it because it’s so quiet and so lush and green.
I walk to work every day – it’s a half-hour walk to DIFC and the airport is 20 minutes away.
Why did you want to own your own home?
I lived in the Dusit Thani for a good 15 years before I moved here.
We wanted to have a space to call our own. We wanted it to be ours, we wanted the security and familiarity, something to grow in and grow with. The permanency of owning that gives you a bit of comfort and grounds you.
I have friends who have spent 20 to 25 years in rented accommodation and I do not understand that. For me, it’s knowing that I have a base that gives me the opportunity to build a life.
And also being on the ground – we lived in a flat before in a tower and now we’re on the ground and that makes a world of difference.
What renovations have you done inside the house?
When we bought it, it had four bedrooms upstairs and a bedroom downstairs. We turned two of those rooms and bathrooms into the master bedroom, which is gigantic. Downstairs, I started using the bedroom as a gym, but now it’s more of a quiet room.
We’ve basically opened up the whole house, tore down a lot of internal walls and there are very few doors in this house that shut completely.
There was also a massive staircase that went across the whole centre of the house. It was a very old fashioned, sweeping staircase with a very ornate bannister. It was horrible. So, the first thing we did was to take it out and we gained all this space underneath it. We put in this Z-shaped staircase on the side and now we have a sitting area here.
The windows were also quite small, so we opened them up and now it’s very light. We wanted to bring the outside in.
What changes did you make outside?
We had this small, almost kidney-shaped pool up front, but we took that out and put in a lap pool – or perhaps a dipping pool is a better description. It’s 11 metres long, so we can get a few strokes in there.
How much did the renovations cost?
We did it in the pandemic, so it took longer than it could have, I think it took us maybe three years to finish, so it ended up costing up to Dh4 million.
What was your experience with the contractors?
It was a difficult one, to be honest. Back then, not a lot of renovations were happening in Dubai.
It was hard to find contractors that did medium-sized jobs, so we had difficulty finding a company that could do it.
We also had to stop the project one or two times and find new people to do the job with us. We didn't get to the point of courts, but it was pretty close.
What interior design choices have you made?
Overall, it's a little bit of Art Deco, a lot of old-world elegance and modern functionality.
I wanted somewhere we could hang up our art and enjoy it, somewhere we can entertain family and friends. We found the dining table long before construction was finished, because we found it in an antique place in Al Quoz.
It seats 12 and we have a large family and we wanted them to be able to come for dinners with their future partners and future children.
That’s what we had in mind when we were selecting furniture and decorating the house.
Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
The Ashes
Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Name: Brendalle Belaza
From: Crossing Rubber, Philippines
Arrived in the UAE: 2007
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi: NYUAD campus
Favourite photography style: Street photography
Favourite book: Harry Potter
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
List of alleged parties
May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff
May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'
Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff
Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson
Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party
Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters
Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Quick%20facts
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Series result
1st ODI Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
2nd ODI Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
3rd ODI Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets
4th ODI Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets
5th ODI Zimbabwe won by 3 wickets
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
TEST SQUADS
Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.
Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
Pathaan
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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