On the 16th day of the “10s”, I finally blogged (actually I wrote 2 entries but I was too busy to post it up on time. I mean, who wants to hear my resolution or about my views about technology in 2010 after 2 weeks of 2010 have passed?)
I have been busy with my new home. Back in August, we rode the property fever and bought a resale condo. But we could only take ownership in end December because of the existing tenant occupants. And we couldn’t really start any concrete work in terms of interior designing because we did not have access to the house for all the conceptualisation and measurements.
So it all went to full swing from mid-December. Lots had happened over the past 3 weeks: we formally engaged The Interior Place (TIP) as our project designer. They will formally start hacking work next week, and will complete the wet works before Lunar New Year. The planned delivery date is end-March.
Lots of work has put in from everyone to work out all the details of the new home. It can be quite frustrating because while you want to get it right, sometimes I don’t know what I want. Actually, I just want a new home to live in, and frankly don’t care about the design details. To me, anything new will look good. But when you think about the money you are putting in, seriously, you want it right and well spent.
While I rarely batter an eyelid (ok, maybe a dozen) before spending on a latest $3000 Nikon DSLR body, I had trouble finding a $2500-budget leather sofa set, simply because it’s a furniture that is not meant just for me to sit on, but to be placed in a house, subject to scrutiny by all guests that walk in. Then we had to decide on the colour. White was the choice of beauty, but black is the choice of practicality. We took the latter.
And so this process went on for everything: toiletries, dining table, tiles, carpentry, etc.
For the record, I am very excited about my new home. After 10 years living in my current HDB flat, we have accumulated so much stuff that I have run out of space to keep them in order. Everything is lying on my table, on my piano, on the floor, in the corner. For my new study room, I am going to custom-build cabinets and keep them out of sight. The estimated total move-in cost (including every new furnishing that we need to spend on) will surpass $70,000, but from another perspective, it’s cheaper than a high-end car. And in whichever way I see it, spending on a new home is more worth it than on a car.
3 comments
Great to hear about new home ! Congrats !
Hope to catch up again soon !
JH
http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv
Hi Chester,
Thanks very much for your interesting blog. It's always nice to see how people on the other side of the globe live, how they share the same joys and sorrows, what they do in their free time, etc.
I actually have a question about your blog. Would you mind helping us with a linguistic research project? We're compiling data from various Singaporean weblogs. All it requires is checking a few boxes. If you want to take part and/or have more questions, drop me a note ( hack2301@uni-trier.de RE: Question ) so that I can then send you the 'official' project eMail. We'd really appreciate your help.
Thanks very much in advance!
Best regards,
– Fran
PS: Now I have to see if I can find a sample of your piano recordings somewhere… really curious.
I would have "like"ed this entry, if there's a button for that, like FB.