The Week That Was 2

What? It's Sunday again?

I cannot believe how time flies! Everything was a blur. For the life of me, I cannot even remember what happened to me the early part of the week!

I thought house-hunting would be fun, it turned out to be a very tiring and stressful thing! We have to check if the neighborhood is okay, we have to check the security of the place, we have to make sure that we will be moving into some place that is accessible for both of us without having to incur ridiculous transport bills, and of course, we have to make sure that we can afford it. Nothing much, really!

First, we went around the New Manila area, faithfully going through each of the numbered streets end to end. We saw saw and fell in love with one townhouse that was just perfect! - but not for us. It is in a small compound, where there are only four units of the same. It has five bedrooms with a toilet and bath in each bedroom. It was well designed and soundly built, but just too much room for Olive and me. What would we do with a five-bedroom townhouse??? By the way, it has a pretty price tag too! Just PhP 22,000,000.00.

Then, we checked out a place near St. Luke's hospital that we saw being advertised on the net. As we drove into the sudivision, I laughed, for the place have a "Stepford" stamped on it, sans the trees. Nevertheless, we went to the office of the property developer and checked out their prices. Uhm, nice.

Next, we saw an apartment that was within our budget. Well, this is definitely more affordable than the last one. Security is good, place is big, two bedrooms, two toilet and baths, laundry area, etc. Our only reservation is that the place is kinda a bit run down to command such a price.

Before going on to the next, we decided to have a coffee break first in one of the coffee shops in the area. As we were sitting our coffee, Olive told me that there is this building that she likes and that it is just a block away from her workplace. I said: Why not? Let's ask the guards if they would know of any units for lease or sale. As it turns out, there were indeed units for lease or sale! But since it is a Sunday, no one is around. The guards were kind enough to give us some numbers/persons to call.

Then we saw another apartment. Three bedrooms, quite neighborhood, good security. It was not only too expensive, but it was also too far. However we ended up in that neighborhood, I honestly can't remember. After that, we decided to call it a day and went home.

Olive went to work - she checked the ads and called the numbers listed, she made appointments for us to check out the potential places. She talked to owners and to agents. Funny enough, six out of the eight people she talked to all recommended one same place, which turned out to be the building she was telling me about! Is this a sign???

We checked out four units from that place, plus four more in other areas. We liked a couple of properties. We did a lot of number crunching and then some; trying to figure out things.

I wanted us to be able to find a place by mid March, since I still have a lot of things to do with the current apartment. I still have to finalize things with the management, try to sell some stuff that we will not be needing anymore, make sure that the residents who opted to stay will be properly endorsed to the next management, throw out things (LOTS of it!), and of course pack and move. Just the thought of these would literally paralyze me or leave me so tired that I would just want to go to sleep. I never liked moving.

I know that Olive's heart is set on one unit in the building she likes (I liked that place, too, I even dreamed about it), but the practical side of me still made her make other appointments so that we can explore all options that are available, then take the best deal.

After another day of driving around and looking at properties, after a lot more mumber crunching, we decided that we already have the best deal on our table. So we called the owner and asked her to draw up a contract. We have found our new "home." It is the one Olive (okay, okay- and I) wanted.