Man, it has been awhile since I
picked up the keyboard and posted something. Nevertheless, I have an
excuse--I WAS MOVING!
Breaking
News: I am out of the artificial living of a serviced apartment--The Pan
Pacific Serviced Suites on Beach Road was very nice, but living 4 months in 435
sq. ft. with no opening windows gets old.
Julie
and Christopher came down in early June for 6 days to house hunt. Friends
of ours had suggested that we contact House Hunters
International to see if we could be in it.
That was a big NO because someone is always edited to be difficult and
unreasonable and I would not let them do that to Julie.
My
company provided us with a leasing agent; Eddie from LandPLUS and he was great. He asked for a list of what we wanted in
a condo and because of our extensive HHI training, we already had a list:
- 4 Bedrooms
- High Floor with
a view
- Within 10 minute
walk to an MRT (train/subway)
- 30 minute or
less commute to work
- Pool and Gym
- Select
neighborhoods (Newton, Novena)
We
had also been surfing Property Guru for almost a
year. A great site that lists all
properties for sale or lease in Singapore. You can
set a whole bunch of filters to narrow things down and most of the listings
have “virtual tours”. Bottom-line is we
had a good idea of what we wanted. And
Eddie came back with what we wanted, including one we didn’t know we wanted. After looking at a bunch of places we
narrowed it down to two, one in Newton and one in Orchard (Eddie’s suggestion).
(I know on HHI they always have 3 to choose from, we made it easier by not
having to scratch the third choice.)
The
Newton condo was one of the ones we gave Eddie.
The place was still occupied, but most of their belongings had already
been shipped home. It had 4 bedrooms and
a study alcove, but we weren’t thrilled with the layout. It also need some work on the shower, paint,
and the a/c faceplates were yellowed plastic.
But the price was right.
The Orchard condo was in the process of having the wood floors in the bedrooms sanded and
refinished as well as marble floors being polished. Everything had been painted and the views were
fantastic. We were concerned about 2
things; 1) Google said it was a 17 minute walk to the Orchard MRT station, 2) It was
a little above budget.
So
Julie, Christopher, and I went the next day via Uber to time the walk to the
bus stop and the MRT. Five minutes to
the bus and in another five minutes we were underground at Orchard Ion on our
way to the MRT. Getting underground in
Singapore means you are dry and cool, so I stopped the clock at that point. So issue #1 was no longer an issue. Issue #2 was handled by Eddie. He negotiated the price down and it was a
done deal.
So
we will be living up high in a 4 bedroom high-rise building with a pool (three
actually) and gym in Orchard about 35 minutes from work. DONE!
One of the things I like about Singapore is the ingenuity that Singaporeans bring to problems, big and small. Big solutions are everywhere; the way they have turned estuaries into fresh water reservoirs, the Marina Bay Sands, Changi Airport.
I discovered another one the other day when I decided to pick up a pizza on the way home. I actually asked myself did I really want to carry a pizza box with my briefcase for the 10 minute walk from Modestos to our condo on Ardmore Park Road? I decided that physical discomfort would win over hunger. I had to wait about 15 minutes for my take-away pizza (enjoying a Tiger beer while I waited). The server brought out the pizza and then whipped out a bottomless bag that the bag fit into perfectly. This gave the box a handle that made it oh so much easier to carry home.
