Remembering 303 - Study Room

This is a luxury that is rare amongst new homes. We have a 4th bedroom which we converted into a study room, fully decked with all the essentials for working from home. Most new 5 rooms have a tiny area labeled as "suggested study" on floor plans. Ours is a full flight bedroom which can fit a king size bed and more.

We are not going to get this sort of space in our new home. We are dropping from 126 sqm to 119 sqm and loosing the study. Look at the end to end cupboards on both sides. Amazing storage space, space which we need to find for all the stuff to go to in the new home ... oops.

The room also holds many goodies which is not readily visible. And sadly we may not be able to replicate them in the new place.

Notice the overhead lighting shining on the monitor? It takes away the shadow being casted when I turn on the room lights. And best thing is its hidden behind cupboard. We are not building any overhead cupboards in the study so we're gonna have to get standing reading lights which may or may not do as good as these.

And behind my IMac and work laptop is the hidden trunking for the power and network cables, similar to those you find at the office.

Then there is the cabling setup in the tall cupboard. We have 2 Cat5e cables to the living room TV console and 2 in each bedroom. We also ran 2 ports to the left side of the study where we sat the network printer. We had this place wired up so well. I hope we can do the same in the new place but I'm realistic that we may not have a customised cupboard to hid all these wires.

Her First Few Independent Steps

I was lucky enough to be working from home today. I dare say very few dads get to witness their kid's first steps. We were kinda expecting it, she learns new tricks every time after a fever bout. Even though Meimei was at work today, she was greeted by Emily walking gingerly towards her and giving her a welcome hug. You can see the proud look on her face, coupled with 'melt-melt' eyes. I'm hitting myself for missing the chance to capture that moment on video.

It's been an exciting day. She is still unsure of herself and tries to hold my fingers. And once she grabs hold of them, she will dash across the hallway, knowing I'm there to hold her if she falls. I don't mind that she falls, it's all part and parcel of growing up. We just need to be careful that she doesn't fall face first and hit her jaw or teeth.

The saying is true ... kids grow up so fast. I'm already missing her baby smell and coo-ing sounds. *miss!

Exploring The World Outside The Playpen

We know the playpen will not hold her for too long. Every kid wants to explore the world, its a good thing since they learn through discovery. Now that Emily can stand on her own she is constantly crying for us to let her out. And you can see the utter delight on her face when she speed crawls around the house.

In the few brief times we let her out, she has already establish a few 'play spots'. The moment you let her down on her fours, she make a beeline for one of three places.

The Toys Storage

Its a good thing she hasn't figured out this is where we keep all her cookies and treats. She only knows to dig for her favourite toys on the right side.

The Coffee Table with Snacks

Somehow she has taken a liking to playing with the snacks at the coffee table. I suppose the coffee table is at a comfortable height for her to cruise about. She likes to pull the leaves on the artificial plants so we need to keep a constant watch.

The BookShelf

This is a small spot in her room. She'll pull out all the books and make a mess. Hopefully she can cultivate a healthy reading habit. 

Happy 1st Birthday Our Little One !!

The past year has been nothing but joy and excitement. Emily, you have brought such delight to the whole family, Papi, Mami, Ah Gong, Ah Ma, Nya-ong, Nya-ma, Yee Yee Ah Yi and more. Its amazing how time flies ... it was like only yesterday that Papi Mami were cradling you in our arms for the first time.

When you were born

March - A Pint Size Wonder

April - Blurping Required

May - Electrifying Look ... Zap Zap *Love

June - Tummy Times

July - Sitting Up

August - Bad Hair Days

September - Restlessness

October - The Naughtiness Begins

November - Oversized on Some Clothes

December - Showing some Teeth

January - Playtime Always

February - Venturing Out of Playpen

Over the past month, she has really come into her own. She has her distinct likes and dislikes ... and she makes sure you know about it too. I fight hard to keep her in-check but its going to be a long drawn out process. She has her Papi's stubbornness :-P

我爱吹吹风！

Can we buy this?

Striking my Super Model pose~

I Love Bath Time!!

Hey! Who Are You Staring At !??

Messy Eating is Fun !!

Happy Birthday Our Little One, may we have many many more years of fun and laughter together.

I Think We Found The Right One

Last Sunday was like any other day. I did my daily ritual of checking the property board webpage. I wasn't expecting to find anything, it's become more of a habit than a serious hunt. There are only 3 blocks we are interested in, which summed up to a meager 300 units. I'm realistic on the chance to find anything new.

"Hey, hmmm what's this ... it looks like a new listing. But wait its on page 5 ... new ones are typically in the first few pages. Oh looks like an unknown agency, must not have put in extra fees to get his advertisement in the front pages like the others. Never mind, pretty sure I've not seen these photos before." "It's listed at 650k negotiable. Ok, a little over budget but no harm taking a look." 

I immediately rang up our agent and ask her to organise a viewing. Although I was excited to see a new listing I was reserved as we had already missed a few units on sale. A little while later our agent asked if we were free in the evening for the viewing and we immediately said yes. Its a new listing so we were keen to get a first look at it. What attracted us even more was that it is of a South-West orientation which is exactly 2 floors above the 8th floor unit we were prepared to offer to buy just awhile earlier.

When we met our agent in the evening we found that we are actually the very first viewer and the seller has not even signed the agent agreement letter. At the back of my mind I was lamenting that this is going to be another drawn out process.  

The place wasn't too bad, but it still needed an overhaul. We were hoping they had kept the original compressed marble flooring but sadly its now ceramic tiles on the common areas and laminates in the bedroom. We are gonna have to change the tiles which adds a big sum to the renovation. As for the rest of the place, its pretty much needing work like another of the other units in the area. These are 36 year old flats so not much can be expected in terms of their condition.

Once we were done and at the void deck, our agent ask if we would like to offer. I had been giving it some thought earlier in the day once we found the orientation of this unit. I made an educated guess that the 8th floor had sold for about 620k and the 12th floor for 640k. That would make 630k a reasonable price to offer and thats what I did. I had been ready to offer 630k anyways for the 8th floor unit just a few weeks ago and offering the same for a unit 2 floors up felt like a quick bargain. Plus its the top of my price range for any unit, if we don't get this I was prepared to call it quits. So with the non-negotiable offer made, we went off for dinner.

Now what happen next was an amazing chain of events.

We were at Changi for dinner an hour after the viewing when our agent suddenly gave us a call. She wanted to collect a 1k cheque for the OTP "to show that we are making a genuine offer". But since we were not home she cut a cheque instead on our behalf. I found it odd that she was in such a hurry but I supposed it didn't hurt to get the offer through officially.

It was close to midnight when I received another message from our agent with good news. Gosh ... did we really get the unit?? We agreed to meet up the next day to run through the paperwork. I could barely sleep that night thinking that we had clinched what is likely one of the fastest sale in the area.

The next day when I checked the property board webpage again, the listing for the unit was already taken down.  Many kudos to the seller agent for having the upmost integrity to stop any other buyer enquiries since they have accepted our offer. It's rare to see such decency in our era.

When our agent came on Monday night to go through the documents she shared that there was another buyer who came after us and they had wanted a 2nd viewing on Monday. So she had stayed with the buyer agent till close to midnight the day before to seal the deal and prevent that 2nd viewing from happening. I have to give her props for getting it done, its truly money well spent on her commission for this to happen. I had feared that the buyer may be peddling our offer to other potential buyers to obtain a higher price. I'm sure our agent had a big part in making sure that didn't happen.

Because there is a 7 days cooling off period, the OTP isn't effective till 6th of March. It was a nervous 7 days wait as I was afraid some rich buyer would come in with a better offer and cut us from the deal. Thankfully it didn't happen and today we officially start the purchasing process. As the buyer wants a 2 month extension and adding another 2 months for renovation, it'll be December before we can move in. But thats ok, what's important is that we've gotten our hands on a home in our dream location. Here's the start to our next amazing life journey.

The Flu Bug Scare

We are at Thomson again today as Emily has been having a fever since last evening. It was rather weird she is sick since we didn't bring her out of the house since last weekend.

Today was a little different from normal where the paediatrician would only ask for a blood test. Emily had to go through an extra urine and an mucus test. What came out of them was a little shocking. She has contracted a lesser subtype of H1N1. The moment we heard it we suspected that it came from my in-laws. They had just flown in from Hong Kong on Tuesday and may have been silent carriers.

As we were coming to terms with the severity of her illness, our paediatrician immediately prescribed Tamiflu and warned us that Emily will be having nightmares as we go through the course of the medication. It says on the box "may cause transient restlessness / delusion". "Goodness ... the medicine must be potent to have such side effects." Typically you wouldn't give a baby any strong medicine. So to be on Tamiflu means this is no common flu. That thought further push the seriousness of Emily's condition.

I messaged my colleague to let her know I'll be working from home the moment we got home. If it is as the doc described, we are going to have tough nights over the next 5 days of medication. 

招财猫

Emily has an odd fascination with them and will wave her hands like them. She is our 招财猫.