Another Sleepless Night

Time: 0412hrs

Here I am, woken up by Ethyl at 3ish (or maybe earlier?) and had difficulty falling back into slumberland again…sigh! Anyways, there is also something that is keeping my mind active after being woken up.

Am discussing with Hubby about upgrading our humble 4 room flat to a bigger unit for quite a while. We, or rather I would love to “settle down” at least before Ethyl goes to primary 1, so that she need not go through the trouble of school transfer and adapting to a whole new environment once again.

Planning to look for a place in the eastern part of the island. I always love Pasir Ris…Thus this is always the priority option in my house hunting plan. Lately, I have increased the area to Tampines and also “see-see-look-look” at Bedok. Pasir Ris is still my top choice as the flats there not as old compared to Tampines and of course, Bedok.

Hubby seems to prefer Pasir Ris as well, though we do agree that Tampines is also a popular area in the east.

We were planning to have Executive Mansionette (EM) initially, but due to the young kiddos at home, I think this is not a good idea. Hence, we decided to get Executive Apartment (EA) instead. After flipping through the classifieds, I have decided that since we are getting a flat from the open market, so long as the area meets the minimal requirements, a 5 room flat should be sufficient for our family of 4. I do not want to over-stretch our dollar; and of course, dealing with the housework is no joke. If we want to upgrade in future, we might be looking at private property then…at least that is what I know Hubby has in mind.

There are many factors that I look into when planning to get a new house. Firstly, I need to know if Ethyl is comfortable with our plan. Being part of the family, I do not think that I should neglect her in this plan, as she, will be staying with us and being a 3yr 3 months old, she is capable enough to convey her thoughts to me effcetively and able to understand the concepts of daily lives. Needless to say, she is more than happy.

Having said so, she is well-loved by her teachers in her current school, I also had to explain to her that if we were to move, she had to transfer to another Montessori or even some other school if the centre that is near us is not suitable for us. She seems fine so far…plus, I reminded her that we are still planning, no concrete plans yet. Still, she is more than happy to know we may shift.

On the other hand, environment is also important. As our estate is windy all year round, we had privacy in our current home, neighbours are nice, not rowdy, and of course, so convenient and comfy here…I hope to be able to find a place that is able to let us enjoy the same privacy as well.

Told Hubby that this time around, I want to do up our house nicely, especially my kitchen! So, that means when I am looking for a new place, I am not looking at something very nicely renovated as I have my own plans to a new comfy nest we call our own. The place should be well kept though as the flats we are looking at were at least a decade old.

This is sort of exciting for us, but our main caregiver for the kids, my Mom will be so busy. She plans to downgrade as she has only Gina with her now. Selfishly, I hope she can also move to the east, which will give both of us convenience when looking after the kids. Mom, knowing that I will never be able to part with my kids for the weekdays, said she’ll put up at my place, to look after my house and kids if I manage to find a house of our minds. She didn’t mind the trouble at all…Mommies are so noble!

Having said that, I told her I do not wish that to happen as Dad is dependent on Mom on lots of things, and Gina, who is working as well, is unable to look after the house in terms of household chores and more importantly, the laundry. Mom says she’ll work that out somehow…

Since we are still at the stage of planning, there is still time for us to shop around and seek some advice. The main issue I have is, I do not know the area well, I always rely on the maps to tell me roughly where the areas are located and what are the primary schools and amenities around.

I also managed to list down some of the ads on the papers…and going through and compiling for Hubby. Both of us had never stayed in the east in our lives so far…This is going to be a huge environment change for us, and our families were all located in the western part of the island.

Now, we are working out our budget for the new place, once our calculations worked out, we will officially start to hunt for houses!!! How exciting yah?!