It has been many months since I last wrote here. Please pardon my tardiness as I had been too bogged down with stuff. So much has happened in the last 3-4 months! Almost life changing events I should say....
First, RG had decided to take up a short overseas stint. And since the both of us will be away for awhile, we decided that perhaps we should sell our apartment as the "fruit seemed ripe for picking"! Being the DIY sort, we decided to market the apartment on our own. Much work had gone towards that - decluttering, cleaning, researching, advertising, answering phonecalls, arranging for viewings etc. We even done up a blog with photos and details of the property. Luckily for us, we managed to secure an offer within 3 weeks! You can't imagine how happy we were to be rid of one major task.
At the same time while we were trying to sell our apartment, we decided to look around for a small flat to purchase. We figured it'd be better to still have a place that we can stay in whenever we are back in Singapore.....and we also need a place to keep our furniture and stuffs. We managed to find a place that we really like and within our budget after 2 weeks of intensive house hunting. But as the flat is really old, we had to do quite some renovations which was yet another big task added to our already long list of to-dos.
Then we had to pack. My goodness....the packing was the worst nightmare. We didn't realise how much stuffs we had gradually accumulated over all these years...until we started to pack. We filled up boxes after boxes after boxes.....it seemed like the packing was never gonna end. I was starting to lapse into a depression just waking up every morning and not looking forward to having to continue with the packing. When we realised that there was just too much to pack....we started to dump. Oh we dumped like we've never dumped before....the poor cleaners must have had a hard time emptying trash cans after trash cans of our stuffs.
We had to think about our flat renovations and finding a contractor while juggling all the other tasks at the same time. The old flat had quite a weird layout and we killed countless braincells trying to think of the best configurations for the fixtures in the bathroom and the kitchen. And finding a contractor that you can trust is like the next hardest thing in the world! We decided to go back to the one that we had engaged previously to work on RG's brother's home even though his quote was slightly higher than the rest. We decided safe is better.
Then we hadto sort out our visas, air tickets, hotel accommodations, car rental and a gazillion other things for our big move. We were also worried 'cos our overseas accommodation was not finalized. What if we can't find a place to stay? What if rental is very expensive? We almost went crazy with all the "what-ifs" going through our minds. But everytime I started to get a panic-attack....I kept reminding myself of the chinese saying - "the boat straightens itself when it reaches the harbour".
My next big headache was what to do with all my big chunky furniture? You see, we were moving from a 1625sqft apartment to one that's barely 580sqft. Most of my furniture were designed and built for huge homes. I figured that I could take 5-6 pieces the most of the existing furniture over to our new place. The rest will all have to go. So, I decided to hold a garage sale. I posted in various websites about the sale of our furniture and the response was just overwhelming. But coordinating the viewings/collection of all the furniture wasn't exactly easy and it took quite a lot of time and effort but we eventually sold all of our furniture.
One of the last things on the list was RG's car. We had to keep the car till just before we left as we needed it to run errands and transport stuffs. As with our apartment, we also decided to DIY the sale of the car. We posted the photos and information on a used car forum and immediately after our post went online, RG's phone started to ring non stop till he almost went berserk. He managed to sell it to the first person who came to view and test drive the vehicle. I think RG felt a sense of loss as he had grown very attached to it. I have felt the same about our apartment. It was when I realised detachment is the hardest thing to do.
So for the past few months, we juggled and juggled the gazillion things. It's amazing that we are both still sane. We even found time to meet with our families and closest friends to bid farewell. And finally, on the 12 August, we gave our home the last longing glance before closing the door behind us and then we left the apartment....and left Singapore.
First, RG had decided to take up a short overseas stint. And since the both of us will be away for awhile, we decided that perhaps we should sell our apartment as the "fruit seemed ripe for picking"! Being the DIY sort, we decided to market the apartment on our own. Much work had gone towards that - decluttering, cleaning, researching, advertising, answering phonecalls, arranging for viewings etc. We even done up a blog with photos and details of the property. Luckily for us, we managed to secure an offer within 3 weeks! You can't imagine how happy we were to be rid of one major task.
At the same time while we were trying to sell our apartment, we decided to look around for a small flat to purchase. We figured it'd be better to still have a place that we can stay in whenever we are back in Singapore.....and we also need a place to keep our furniture and stuffs. We managed to find a place that we really like and within our budget after 2 weeks of intensive house hunting. But as the flat is really old, we had to do quite some renovations which was yet another big task added to our already long list of to-dos.
Then we had to pack. My goodness....the packing was the worst nightmare. We didn't realise how much stuffs we had gradually accumulated over all these years...until we started to pack. We filled up boxes after boxes after boxes.....it seemed like the packing was never gonna end. I was starting to lapse into a depression just waking up every morning and not looking forward to having to continue with the packing. When we realised that there was just too much to pack....we started to dump. Oh we dumped like we've never dumped before....the poor cleaners must have had a hard time emptying trash cans after trash cans of our stuffs.
We had to think about our flat renovations and finding a contractor while juggling all the other tasks at the same time. The old flat had quite a weird layout and we killed countless braincells trying to think of the best configurations for the fixtures in the bathroom and the kitchen. And finding a contractor that you can trust is like the next hardest thing in the world! We decided to go back to the one that we had engaged previously to work on RG's brother's home even though his quote was slightly higher than the rest. We decided safe is better.
Then we hadto sort out our visas, air tickets, hotel accommodations, car rental and a gazillion other things for our big move. We were also worried 'cos our overseas accommodation was not finalized. What if we can't find a place to stay? What if rental is very expensive? We almost went crazy with all the "what-ifs" going through our minds. But everytime I started to get a panic-attack....I kept reminding myself of the chinese saying - "the boat straightens itself when it reaches the harbour".
My next big headache was what to do with all my big chunky furniture? You see, we were moving from a 1625sqft apartment to one that's barely 580sqft. Most of my furniture were designed and built for huge homes. I figured that I could take 5-6 pieces the most of the existing furniture over to our new place. The rest will all have to go. So, I decided to hold a garage sale. I posted in various websites about the sale of our furniture and the response was just overwhelming. But coordinating the viewings/collection of all the furniture wasn't exactly easy and it took quite a lot of time and effort but we eventually sold all of our furniture.
One of the last things on the list was RG's car. We had to keep the car till just before we left as we needed it to run errands and transport stuffs. As with our apartment, we also decided to DIY the sale of the car. We posted the photos and information on a used car forum and immediately after our post went online, RG's phone started to ring non stop till he almost went berserk. He managed to sell it to the first person who came to view and test drive the vehicle. I think RG felt a sense of loss as he had grown very attached to it. I have felt the same about our apartment. It was when I realised detachment is the hardest thing to do.
So for the past few months, we juggled and juggled the gazillion things. It's amazing that we are both still sane. We even found time to meet with our families and closest friends to bid farewell. And finally, on the 12 August, we gave our home the last longing glance before closing the door behind us and then we left the apartment....and left Singapore.
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