Thursday, 03.07.2014, a day to remember, the day both me & my hubby can proudly declared as an official house owner. A house of our own is finally here after a long wait, from the application date till now, almost closed to 4years. I must admit that although the wait was long, but the process of waiting was really an amazing feeling, or to be exact, it the process of looking forward instead. I was so excited back then, barked my hubby to bring me down to Yishun nearly every weekend, just to witness & recorded down the process of our love nest grow.
We are pretty lost once we reach the atrium, not knowing where to go as no instruction was stated on the appointment letter. We went over to ask a security guard, he shows us to the reception area for us to get our queue number, alternatively, there a self-help kiosk for faster registration allocated there as well, just need to scan the bar code on the letter.
It was a long wait before our queue number start flashing on the board. Not going into details on the administrative process, the admin officer will guide you through, in case you have any doubts, you can just shoot your questions at them, it their duty to clear all queries you have, buying flat involved big sum of money, nothing should went wrong . After the several time of confirmation, it time to wiped out our entire saving in CPF OA, although the money in CPF is not available for me to spent, but seriously I still feel the pinch seeing that my 76K just gone in a blink of eye.
During our first and second appointment date many years back the maximum loan period was still at 30years, so we are still entitled to the longer loan period. But after much calculation, we decide to go for 25years instead, 50% payment from both parties, no cash top-up require every month. We will still be at our comfort zone even we go for 15years loan with a much lower payable interest amount, but no one knows what will be coming in our way for the running years, shall just play safe for a longer loan, anyway we can always refinance our loan period again.
Once done with the paperwork, we are given an invoice to make our first payment of the conservancy charges at level 3, after the payment, we need to head over to level 2 to buy the fire insurance for our flat. Me & hubby decide to go separate way to save the time for waiting, so I head over to level 3 for payment while he make his way to level 2 to purchase the fire insurance. Instruction was not given clearly by the admin officer, so hubby went to get a queue number & we waited idiot-ly there, unknowing that our number will never be flashed on the board. After a long wait, we finally decide to open our mouth and ask around, we should have just leave our appointment letter in the tray at counter 213 and wait for our name to be called, anyway, what done is done, time already wasted. We upgraded our basic fire insurance from $8+ to $300plus package for half decade coverage, "OUCH", that another pinch even before we get the keys.
Bring the invoices back to the admin officer & at last, we got our keys. Don't be too happy yet, it not the time to rush to our new house still, we need to head back to the SP counter at level 2 to open an account for our water & power supply. We are lucky that there wasn't any waiting queue, the process was very fast, all you need to do is hand over your I/C for the counter staff to make a copy of it, filled up an application with your personal details and that it, it done, it time for us to head to our new house now.
We have invited our parents from both side to join us at our new place, both my parents-in-law came over to join us, but my mum rejected me when I told her a few days back. I seriously don't understand why my mum need to spend so much time at work, she is no longer young anymore, working night shift was already bad enough for health. And now, without both her daughters staying with her, she actually also take up the morning shift without telling us, every time we got so worry about her when she is unreachable, really don't know what is in her mind.
The first thing we need to do is to open our letter box to take out the water valve key to the water supply for our unit, at the same time we test out all the keys for the letter box too. Timing was just right, my parents-in-law reached while we are walking toward the lifts.
Once I open the main gate, time for some custom practices, rolling of fruits. Although we don't really believe in such practices, but for a peace of mind, we see no harm doing it too. Of course I will leave this important task to the head of our future household, my hubby. Apples rolling specific 平平安安, 大家平安. Oranges for 大吉大利,顺顺利利. Pineapple for 财源滚滚，旺来旺来, and lastly we roll发糕too, most important of all, 发啊!! After all the rolling of fruits it time to check our house out.
Once step into the flat, I went around and sprinkle salt and rice at every corner of the house for the so call of "cleansing" of the place, although with no fan in the house, you can feel the strong wind, super airy. I love the view out of my window, totally no blockage as we are located at the bend of the canal, full view of the canal even for all the rooms. Even though nothing fantastic about the canal view, but at least the neighboring block's tenants will not have a direct view into our unit, more privacy, nowadays all the new flats are too closely located, I don't like that.
My living room look huge due to area allocated for the study room, in any case we decide to build-up the study room, it will look as small as the 4room flat living room. Pretty disappointed that all the bedroom are so tiny, there goes my plan of having my dream walk-in wardrobe & dressing area without knocking off any walls. The toilet area was surprisingly larger than I thought it would be, but the toilet bowl & sink quality was really bad. I'm so gonna to knock off the kitchen wall to do up an open concept kitchen, this will make the living area looked even bigger still.
My parents-in-law like our unit pretty much, just the distance was a little too far from them. We head down to the nearby coffeeshop for a simple lunch, after filling our tummy my parents-in-law make their move while we stay to do the defective check of the house. It was really a very tiring thing to do, looking into every single inch of walls for unacceptable conditions, it turn out to be such a great disappointment when you look closely. The workmanship was really bad, so many dents, holes & chips was found on the walls, the window alignment was so off, so many scratches was formed just by opening & closing it.
Anyway, reported all defects to HDB again for touching up, no hurry to move in any time soon, so we shall just take our own sweet time to decide how we would like our house to be renovated.
