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New Digs


Monday, March 10, 2008


It seems that last night, someone in our apartment block - I don't know who you are, but rest assured I will track you down, after all, there's currently only three families living here - shut down the cold water main of the entire block to install a washing machine and kind of forgot to turn it back on again, leaving the tenants of said block to poach in pure hot water during their morning showers. Never have my pores felt so dilated. We all looked like juicy, cooked lobsters. Bah!

Speaking of apartments, we have finally settled in, furniture et al. Being Minister of Home Affairs, I was the designated habitat locater. Armed with a company budget and estate agent, I set about my task. I didn't know what the market rate was but when I was shown three storey houses complete with yard and walkie talkies in case you got lost or need to locate lost family members indoors, I knew Hubs' company was being generous. So this was a proper expatriation, not exploitation - it's always good to know. And while I was joking about the walkie talkies, I wasn't about the living space. It was similar to what we left back home.

After a week, I narrowed down the search to make life easier for the agent and more importantly, myself. And even more importantly, Sonny-boy who had to tag along. I want to thank Sony for coming up with the PSP thingamajig. It is a life-saver.

So I told the estate agent: 3 bedroom apartment, not less than 200 square meters and not more than thirty minutes travel time from the two men's office and school respectively.

After viewing more than 25 places later, I finally found one which I liked. It's a brand new unit in a brand new block. It is so new that there were only 2 occupants when we moved in. The compound itself has been around for a few years but they've recently added several new blocks to the property. Did I also mention it's a joint venture between Singapore's CapitaLand and a local company? I feel at home already.

Our landlady is nice too. She gave me free rein of choosing all the furniture and soft furnishings, appliances included. She didn't set me a budget (Hubs and Karen think she's insane not to, knowing my propensity to pick, not on purpose mind you, the most expensive item of the lot) and approved of all my choices. What she ended up with is a stylish, yet comfortable apartment filled with matching redwood furniture in every room. I also got matching upholstery and curtains in vanilla, light sand with accent touches of red throw cushions. Got to have red somewhere. For the bedrooms and living area, I placed Persian style carpets on the dark wooden floors. I have to keep reminding myself not to get attached to the furniture as it's not ours to keep. I only got to choose them.

The funny thing about this whole exercise was, Hubs never got to see the apartment until after the agreement was made and furniture ordered. How's that for trust?

The other thing to note (on a personal basis) is that I did rather well with the allocated budget. As part of the rent, I managed to get the following from the landlady as well: full utilities fee, a concierge cum maintenance service to run certain errands and fix that wonky light bulb or water pipe, once a week housekeeping (she only has to do the stuff which I hate like the bathrooms and kitchen stove, I will handle the rest) and best of all, a family club membership at the gym and fitness centre located in the compound.

Now here comes the million dollar question: Why can't I bargain like that in the markets here or anywhere in the world for that matter? I'm horrid at bargaining when it comes to shopping and surrender my money with nary a squeak.

But that's another story for another day.

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The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 3:18 am

2 calories
Comments:
Haha, congratulations. It's great to feel more settled in your new home now. Wish I could visit. ;)
 
Wow, sounds so great I wish I could go and enjoy your flat, man :-). I can certainly do with tasteful, co-ordinated furniture and not my bits and pieces Ikea stuff. And I have trust in your good taste, I don't see why the man wouldn't.

It's rare to have companies treating their expats so nicely nowadays though. So you guys are lucky.

Post pics when you can! I love decoration magazines, I'm sure yours will give the best of them a run for their money.

And will we get a post on your great buys?????
 
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