Apartment Hunting

Matt found our first apartment here before I arrived. No matter that it didn't have an oven, the air con didn't work, it was on the first floor on a little road so that everyone looked in (with no shame), it was moldy, smelly, dark and totally not my style. My commute to my first job and INSEAD was about an hour and 20 minutes...Regardless, we lived there for two years, and I don't think I complained THAT much.

Then I got a say, and we moved closer to town, to a bright, clean, private (only a few people can see in now) apartment in a fantastic location. We gave on size in order to have everything else, and for the last year we have both been quite happy in our 500 square foot one-bedroom. (The Kitty is definitely less happy, but she's been taking it like a champ. See this posting).

Now, our lease is up in about 3.5 weeks, and we need a new place. We spent a weekend looking at different complexes in different areas we think we could live in, and we decided on an area that we like best - Farrer Park, which is one MRT stop up from Little India, where we are now. It's basically the other side of Little India. The location is definitely not as good, since now we can walk basically anywhere we want to go, and this location adds 15 minutes, but it's apparently a very undesirable place to live, so rent is cheap(er...). Our current condo is across a major street from Little India, removed, and quiet. This makes prices high. Where we're looking is more in the middle of it, with tons of people around. Apparently people see that as a big drawback - especially since a lot of workers are in this area on their Sunday day-off. I actually love walking in areas that are so vibrant and alive. It's such a contrast to the rest of the island...

So this past weekend we started looking for actual apartments in a huge complex. It seemed that everything we found could work for us, but some are in better condition than others, etc. We decided on this one that had a different layout than most of them, plus a nice comfy couch and a fantastic view of downtown and the sea. We made our offer, the landlord was fine, and then we remembered we have to tell him about the Kitty. He is terrified of animals, and he said no way. We said we would return everything as is, or pay the equivalent, and he said, you can give me tons of extra money, and I still wouldn't accept. So...we lost that one.

Yesterday I freaked out that next weekend is a holiday weekend, so seeing apartments might be challenging, and then the following weekend is when we want to start a lease, and it takes about seven days to get it all going, so I asked our agents to find ANYTHING else. We saw a great apartment, and we decided to make an offer, and at 10:30 at night, the apartment's agent finally admitted that she has a company that might be putting in a higher offer, but she'll find out in the morning (the company would lease it for one of their employees).

I don't know if it's "nesting" hormones already - I thought that was the ninth month, and I'm only in the eighth! - but it's driving me crazy that we don't have a place. In Singapore moving is like this, since most apartments are for immediate move-in, but there's something in my body that is telling me we have to have an apartment RIGHT NOW! I need to be able to start setting up the movers, get furniture that we'll need to have (most are unfurnished), and just be able to picture what life will be like when this little one arrives. I'm usually a planner and don't love leaving things to last minute, but this time it's actually driving me a bit crazy.

Hopefully we will get this apartment, or at least we will find another one in the next week and get it all sorted out and I can start sleeping again.