We've Found It!

A panoramic shot of 'my floor'. Our unit is on the left.

The past week has been filled with anxiety, apprehension, confusion, satisfaction and elation. After many months of searching, we've finally bought a place! Three months have passed since my last post, and during this time, I asked two housing agents to help me with my search but in the end, I found that the DIY way worked best for us. 

One of these units on the upper floors is ours...

Exactly one week ago last Sunday, I decided to call the agent representing the unit that I was interested in and thought had potential. It was a Sunday morning and I remember sitting in the car after I'd parked at church and quickly making the call before mass started. The agent, Mr Ling, picked up my call on the third or fourth ring. I mention this because I found out later from my colleague that agents often don't pick up calls. I was baffled. I thought agents' livelihoods depend on calls from potential clients? 
So Mr Ling fixed the viewing appointment for 5pm later that day which worked out fine for us. I had taken a drive to the estate earlier, just to see what the area is like on a Sunday morning. It was bustling with many residents probably going to and coming back from the market and breakfast. That short drive through the estate left a neutral impression on me. I wanted to know how to get to the place in advance. 
The rest of Sunday went ahead as usual. We had our lunch at the church canteen for the first time, then sent Meg for tuition and popped home to fetch MJ before heading back out to pick Meg up and then proceeding for the viewing. I remember telling Em that we should never buy the first house we see, because we should compare a few before deciding. Little did I know then that I would have to eat my words later.

Guess which one?

We got there about a half hour before we were due to meet the agent, so we decided to check out the shops across the road. 
We are unfamiliar with the area as we've not been there before. We know of it and have often driven along the main road but haven't had the reason nor occasion to stop, park and venture...until now. 
The first shop that we encountered was a bird shop. They'd just closed for the day and the floor was wet, from a clean up wash. We walked further in and just a few units away were a pet and a fish shop. What?! Then we saw signs along the common walkway that read "The Pet Walk". No wonder! There were several bird and pet shops, aquarium shops etc. Then we saw what was more important to us: a coffeeshop and opposite it, a Thai eatery. Hooray! There are several coffeeshops in the area so that was reassuring. The other amenity that is important to us are clinics. There are a few but they were all closed on Sunday. We later found out that there's a 24-hr clinic on another side and were relieved.
Generally, the shops there are pretty old and most of the businesses don't appeal too much to us - hairdressers, beauty salons, a TCM outfit, amongst others - but as long as there are eateries and clinics, we are happy. There's also the bonus 24-hr NTUC supermarket and a wet market on another end of the numerous shops and, as I recently found out, a famous and delicious prawn noodle soup and fried prawn hokkien mee nearby. We couldn't have hoped for more.

The hot afternoon made us all sweaty by the time we climbed the overhead bridge back to the apt block. That's when we noticed the welcomed breeze while waiting at the void deck for the agent to arrive. He was about five to ten minutes late but when I saw him emerge from the lift with a couple, I knew it was him (from his profile picture online) and that he had just shown the couple the unit. 
The turnover was quick and he turned to us as soon as he said goodbye to them. He then gave us a rundown of the area and the amenities it offers and why his client's unit is an attractive one. He made a point to shake hands with little Em and I was quite pleased with that. The adults usually ignore the kids, especially the really young ones. 
A minute later, we were on the 14th floor, where the unit is. I'm not a fan of anything with a 4 in it but decided to gave it a chance. 
The lady owner welcomed us at the door and we were a little apprehensive going in as it was our first viewing and our first time doing this. She was friendly and told us to feel free to look around. Her teenaged daughter was with her. Her older son was in his room and her husband was in the study. 
The first thing that struck us was the huge hall. It is simply furnished with an old sofa set against one rather long wall with the TV opposite it. The distance between the two is considerable. The kitchen is quite squarish but not too big. The toilets are old but spacious. The kitchen has a rubbish chute, as most old flats do. We are used to a common one which we have been using over the last 17 years so having one inside the kitchen is a change for us. I haven't decided if it's a welcomed one or not. It's unsightly but convenient. The common chute is more hygienic but also inconvenient. I glanced around the kitchen and MJ's thoughts and mine must've aligned at that moment because we were both wondering if the space can accommodate an island. It has been MJ's dream to have one and we wanted to see if there was any possibility here. 

This is what the current house looks like. I hope to post a 'before and after' comparison in a few months' time!

The unit is squarish in layout and has no wasted or odd shaped corners. That's the way we like it. I'm not sure if it was a particularly breezy afternoon that day or if it's usually like that. I hope it's the latter of course. The hall is large and we'll have to think about how to maximise the space in the most efficient way possible. Gotta hit the home decor books! 
We toured the house and went into each room, encouraged by the owner. At first, Mr Ling was the one introducing and explaining each room to us but soon enough we started asking the owner some questions and she 'took over' the tour thereafter.We asked the usual questions: is it windy most of the time? are these the original rooms? is it noisy from the traffic along the main road? are the neighbours nice? Is the neighbour above you noisy? Where's the nearest supermarket and wet market? The owners were forthcoming in answering all our questions and we got on quite well. After looking at all the rooms, we were quite satisfied and wished her well before we left. 
We were excited. To our own surprise, both of us liked the place and started to consider it seriously. The void deck area is clean, and the surface carpark is right next to the block. The bonus is the bus stop about twenty steps from the lift landing area. 
We left the house but not before wishing the current owners All The Best for their move. We left Mr Ling, but told him that the asking price was too high. He agreed! He said he had advised his client to lower it if he was keen on selling it fast. My colleague from the office bought a unit at the next block for more than $100k lower than this asking price! And a unit in this block was last sold in May 2016 at $55k less than the current asking price. 
Anyway, we told Mr Ling we would think about it, discuss it and left it at that. 

Sunday afternoon activities at the block.

MJ and I were quite stoked. 
We talked about it for the rest of the evening and I was pleasantly surprised that MJ's attitude and stance had changed somewhat. I'd always felt that I was the only one who wanted to move, and he didn't. We argued on a couple of occasions in the past because after all my research and calculations, he said he was fine not moving because we have great neighbours and we are next to the mall, something he values alot. I was fuming inside when he said this, about two months ago. To me, it showed that his creature comforts were more important to him than the comfort of our family. We'd lived in a mountain of mess and dust for so many years, I was tired of it. We needed more room, we needed to throw out so much junk and we just needed a change. That was my view. I think that we have to be open to embracing change, especially if all signs point to it being a positive one. Am I wrong? Will it turn out to be a positive change after all? I don't know. I think so, but I'm not 100% sure. But I knew we had to try. It was going to cost us a handsome sum, but I was willing to commit to it, rather than be wishy washy about it. Once I've set my mind on something, I will get it done. The only downside is that I don't set my mind on many things! Just a few big ones in life that I know I want to do. This is one of them.
Anyway, I was ecstatic that MJ was finally 'into it' and we started planning our next steps together. First on the list was making an offer to secure the flat. 
At this point of time, I was still unsure if we were rushing into it. This was, after all, the first unit we'd physically seen. And I remembered what I had told my daughter earlier...I prayed for a sign, any sign but it was slow in coming. We discussed it with our kids but the response wasn't what we expected. Meg thought that we were going to live in the apt "as is", and wasn't keen. I don't think even I could live in the flat in its current condition and after I assured her of this, and told her that we would be stripping the house bare and redoing everything and that she could have a say in how her own room would turn out, she gave us the thumbs up. 

These blocks are two of the tallest ones in the estate. It is 16-storeys high. The others are shorter at around 9 storeys.

MJ and I discussed more about it and we agreed on our offer price. I would make it on Monday morning. As expected, it was difficult to sleep that night. A thousand questions ran through my head. Would it still be available on Monday? Should we have made the offer there and then? or even on Sunday night? Would that show that we were desperated? Could we afford it? Did we have enough money for renovations? Was this the right move? Anyway we decided to sleep on it and prayed that things would be clearer in the morning.
Sleep we did and at 8.07am, I messaged Mr Ling to make our offer. At 8.30am he replied to reject it, explaining that the owner wanted to let the apt go as close to the market value as possible. At 10.56am, I reverted to give the seller his asking price, which was $20,000 more than the first offer I'd made. On hindsight, I should've slowly inched my way up by offering $10,000 more first but I was afaid the other interested party would offer the asking price and we would lose it. So we wanted it quite badly that we decided not to 'to and fro' on the price and just secure it. The asking price was the most we were willing to go and prayed that our offer to match it would be enough. 
It was... and everything played out smoothly without a hitch and that was how I knew that it was God's way of answering my prayers.

See you in a couple of months!