Phew!! Finally…..All Ends Well.....

I guess the post heading says it all! We finally got our new home…

After looking high and low for about a month, we finally saw one last property on Saturday (October 03) and as soon as we were out of the place, DH decided this was it! I also liked the place, as did the kids and what sold it to us was the fact at 145 sq m (about 1560 sq feet), it was the largest Executive Apartment we had seen till date.

Then started all the fun! Once we were out, we went back home, got the chequebook and decided to pay them $1000 as a signing amount. Then while our agents were talking, we realized that while my seller (of the new home) wanted to move out only after Chinese New Year (Feb end), my buyer (of my current home) wanted to move in before Chinese New Year. There we were, stuff between these two! After going back and forth the whole day and me praying madly, on Sunday (October 04), this whole issue got resolved and we signed the Option to Purchase.

We also gotten our first appointment with HDB fixed on 19 Jan (my dad’s birthday and so hopefully a good day for us) and so the second appointment should be around 16 March. This will give us only around 10 days to renovate the place as we need to hand over the keys to the new owners on the second appointment.

Here’s my wish list of what I want to get done in the new place. Out of all these, what I will actually get done is to be seen.

• Make a new room where the dead space is there.
• Make a vanity and add a shower cubicle to the common toilet and change the toilet bidet.
• Add some storage space in the master toilet and change the toilet bidet.
• Replace all the veneers in the built-in furnitures and fixures
• Put my existing store room storage in the new store room
• Add ceiling fans in all rooms (hall, dining area, four bedrooms)
• Change the veneers in the kitchen and redo the drawers. I have not yet seen the drawers in the kitchen, but I want pull out drawers and also make a small pantry.
• Add some storage shelves in the balcony where I can keep the cleaning and laundry supplies.
• Buy a new bed and cupboards for the new bedroom
• Add electrical sockets in the new room.

Here are some pictures of the new place: 

This is the view from the front door. The small patch of green that you see at the very end is where the new guest bedroom is going to be.

This is a view of the Master Bedroom. The bed which is built in is a queen-sized bed. We now have to get used to sleeping in that after years in a King sized bed.

This is going to be the Pilot's room. He has chosen yellow as his room colour.  It does look like a boy's room. I'll try to get a better picture the next time I go to the place.






This is the bedroom that the Princess has chosen for herself. We want the kids to have a say in their rooms, down to the paint colour. She predictably has chosen pink as her room colour.

This space is where we intend to construct a guest room. This space meant that we did not have to sacrifice our dining area to make the guest room.

This is the kitchen with the common toilet just off the entrance. I liked the curved breakfast nook but am not too fond of the veneer colour scheme. If time permits, that's gonna go.

Last, this is the service balcony. I plan to make some storage space in the far wall near the washing machine to store laundry  and cleaning supplies. Maybe something from my current home could go there.

Home Hunting Updates

Ah well, what do I write - we still have not managed to seal the deal for our new home. We're two weeks down of the four weeks plus 2 weeks deal that we have with our buyer to buy a new home.

We've seen some - ones we like are either too over priced (the cash over valuation component) or else we don't like something about the house. We did see one that we both liked - everything seemed perfect - location, floor, condition of the house etc. But the seller's agent (the seller is supposed to be in Australia) didn't have the valuation of the house and says that he has gotten offers for it. Now this is a risk we do not want to take as we will get a loan only for a maximum of 90% of the valuation of the house. If we agree to the rate and the valuation turns out to be much less than the price, then we would have to fork out all that extra money in cash - which is not the most prudent thing to do in this economy.

Please, please pray for us that we can buy the home we like and not have to settle for something just because we need to close a deal!

Home Hunt Update

I'm writing this post at home, while the Princess and the Pilot finish their Kumon homework. The reason for this sudden leave is that hubby's aunt last nite developed some pain in her side and the doctor they saw at around 11:30 pm advised her to be moved to a hospital immediately. We thought the hospital will run some tests on the heart and leave her by this afternoon, but it looks like she will be in hospital till Saturday!

Last Sunday we had an 'Open House' for our current home. This is something that works like this - you choose a day and time when you would have people traipsing through your home for a few hours while you stay at home or choose to be out. Since we didn't know what to do, we decided to be at home. And I regretted this! We were sitting around like fools while people looked the house over - opening cupboards and peering inside the bathrooms. I had decided that if we were going throgh this once more, we will not be inside the house while the Open House was going on. Luckily for us, there was someone who liked our home so much that he quoted the highest buying price and as of Tuesday we signed the papers to sell the property! By the calculations of the agents, since the buyer can start the buying process only after he finishes selling his current property, we are looking at a first appointment at HDB (Housing and Development Board) sometime in early Jan with closing the sale and the second appointment sometime in late February or early March 2010.

Now for us comes the hard part - buying a home. We still haven't seen any homes - we plan to see one tomorrow and hopefully some more by the end of the week. I have a picture in my head of my perfect home - lets hope the picture turns to reality very soon!

Since this is an update of selling a house, I'll do an update of buying a house once we start looking at properties.

Update on our Home

Here the latest update on our home hunt! I thought that instead of giving an update on a daily basis, I'll do it one or maximum twice a week (if something comes up)

Our housing agent came home yesterday with the Valuation report as well a contract for us to sign. This is an 'Exclusive Contract' meaning that she will be the only person we appoint to market this house. She also said she was willing to co-broke, meaning that she would not just restrict the buyers to her clients, but share the commission with another broker. This will ensure that we get the best rate for our home. Also she is planning to put the selling price above the Valuation price. Here, in Singapore this is called Cash Over Valuation. This is essentially the rate the market forces put on your home based on various factors - like location, floor, decor, renovation etc. We have a superb location in our area - just minutes from the public transport interchanges, the mall which houses a supermarket, library etc. The first viewings should be this Sunday. Gosh, I better clean up the house by then.....Now we also need to start looking at houses to buy so that we can do what is called a 'Contra' deal. This means we sell our current home and at the same time and place, sign the papers to buy a new one. I have so many ideas to do up the place that I am real excited. I also am praying that both the deals get done quickly and we are settled in the new home as soon as possible so that the kids transition to Primary School is as smooth as possible.

I doubt I will be posting over the weekend, but then given my new-found enthusiasm, you never know. So have a great weekend and see you soon. What are your plans for the weekend?

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Today is my birthday and I turn...well I wont say it! I just realised that I've not blogged in like...forever. Hopefully this will change...

Invariably my birthday brings to my mind my birthday six years ago. I was heavily pregnant then - around 32 weeks - with my kids and the night before I could not feel their kicks. I waited till morning and called the gynae who told me to get to the hospital asap. Once there they ran tests on me and put me on a fetal monitor. Turned out the kids were probably asleep when I checked on them but with the monitor on, we could tell they were kicking merrily! In fact the nurse had to come and change the position of the monitors a couple of times as they were moving around so much! I was never so scared in my life. They were born two weeks later.

On another note, I am going to start writing more frequently as I blog my way to a new home! Yes we plan to move soon to a bigger home. Our current home was perfect for the two of us and adequate when the ids were babies. Now that they are growing up and will start formal school come January, we feel that this is the perfect time to make the transition. One of the main criteria to the housing agent is to find us a place with a minimum of four bedrooms. We plan to stay in the same area - for school and other enrichment activities. A piece of good news is that our current home has been valued at a price slightly higher than I was expecting. But the flip side to this is that our buying price will also be higher! Ah, well, you can win everywhere! I have loads of plans for the new place. Hopefully all information I've gotten from the design and organization blogs and websites that I have been reading over the years will pay off. I'll post pictures and detail what we've done. But at the moment, that's putting the horse before the cart. We'vce not seen anything yet. I'm praying both the selling as well as the buying goes on smoothly as well as fast. So wish me luck!

Here's a picture for you. This was taken at the Hongkong Disneyland at the start of the fireworks which marks the end of a wonderful day!!

Take care and see you real soon....

I know it's getting to be a habit, but I missed posting for a week more!

Well the last week has been a pretty humdrum kind of life for us. I have been getting the kids to write on a daily basis. The Princess is pretty consistant and will happily write the couple of pages I set out for her but the Pilot is another ballgame altogether! He doesn't like to write and is not afraid to show it. Some days getting him to write is one long series of threats, cajoles and bribes till it is done; and more often than not, it will be very badly executed!! I have a new book for them now, so hopefully this week won't be so bad!!

On another note, I found a way to fold fitted sheets on on youtube and it actually works! Here are the two that I watched and which I used. The first one is from Google Video and the other one is from Youtube. I spent about 15 minutes sorting through my bedroom sheets and folding them and putting them away. The first sheet must have taken me around five minutes to complete and once I got the hang of it, it took me around 3 minutes to do each sheet. I also put the sheet with one of the pillow cases and put it all into the other pillow case and made it into one neat parcel!

Long time post

I am back! What with the past few months being crazy at work, it was all I could do just to keep up with work-related emails. I just gave up on a lot of stuff including writing on this blog. But the reason why I was MIA for so long is done. The event, I was planning was a huge success; so much so that at the end when my boss thanked me for planning and executing it, I got a standing ovation from the delegates who were in the audience! The worst part was that I was seated right in front and didn't even know of it till someone told me after everything was over!

Anway the Pilot and the Princess have started piano classes with their other twin friends A&A. So every Sunday we troop off to the class where S (A&A's mom) and me hear shouting and banging going on inside the class! I still don't know how much they like this but I am willing to give it a shot. We've also decided to put them in Kumon and Hindi classes next year when they get to Kindergarten 1 and I am scouting for Speech and Drama classes for the two of them. Phew! so much for such little kids, but then c'est la vie!

Also my helper has decided that she would not extend her contract and would be going back to India next month to get married! My parents will be here for a few months to help me transition, but then from December I will be on my own (albeit with my inlaws support). I am prepared for this, but I guess reality will set in only after she leaves and I am actually doing it. I'll be posting regular updates, so be around to see the next exciting round of me the all round woman - wife, mom, career woman and general dogsbody!

Hope this time around, I'll be able to post regularly - atleast 2-3 times a week as this blog was primarily started to be a record of my life - a diary of sorts.

Keep well everyone and Happy 4th of July to all the Americans who read this!