House sold!! And the lesson of praying expectantly…

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In less than 2 months after we decided to sell our apartment… it’s now officially SOLD!! =)

After the valuation of the flat was done in May (which by God’s grace was a good valuation!) our housing agent, Peter put up ads in the Classifieds. It garnered very little response… I was kinda disappointed. Many calls, but few viewings. (The only viewing was fr the sister-in-law of my Malay neighbour. She really liked it, but they didn’t have enough cash to buy)

Undaunted, I decided to put up some online ads and put up pretty pictures of my house, in hopes that it’d draw some attention. I even went around the estate putting up ‘FOR SALE’ posters. I think I put up close to 20 posters at the neighbouring blocks, but the next day I noticed they were ALL torn down! Who would do something like that? I was so upset… =(

Anyway, someone eventually did respond to one of the online ads. And this someone was this girl called Ashley (her husband and her are professionals fr China, workin here in S’pore). And one really interested person was enough…

Long story short… this girl really liked the apartment! She told us later than she fell in love with it just by looking at the pictures I posted! And it was the only unit she saw (believe it or not!) She had done her homework in terms of price etc. But this was the only apartment she had viewed in her house search. She came with her parents once, and a second time with her husband. The very next day, she made an offer!!

And abt a week later, after several rounds of negotiation…we closed the deal!! Just like that!
I remembered asking CCO (my office team) to pray that we can sell our flat soon, so that we can take our next step of looking for a place in Pasir Ris.

Me of little faith, I didn’t expect God to answer this prayer soooo quickly!!
(Why should I expect God to answer… when I pray? Why pray then, if I didn’t expect him to answer??) It so delights God to answer our prayers. Much like the joy and delight we feel as parents when we bring something special back for our kids, or give them or take them to someplace they had requested for a while. It brings a smile to them, and to us too!

Our heavenly Father was all too happy to answer our request that day!

Anyway, Lil and I are really thankful…
The kids have mixed feelings… They are feeling kinda sad that we’ll have to move soon.
Josh wld frown and say, “But I like our Choa Chu Kang house… “.
Truth is, it’s kinda weird feeling for us too, we’re have a bittersweet feeling too.. esp. when we accepted the $5k deposit, and signed the papers… this was it, this is literally signing ‘away’ our lovely home for the past 6+ years…

Moving East!!

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That’s right… we are planning to move.
It’s been on our minds for a while now, but up until March/April this year, we had no time to work on it, and fully explore it.

But after lots of discussion, thinking thru all the possibilities we’ve decided that we want to move to Pasir Ris!! Lotsa of you who knew about out last decision (abt 6 years back) when we decided to find our home in Choa Chu Kang (way out there in Northwest) would surely be wondering why the ‘big move’… and now to the NorthEast! =)

Well here are the key reasons.
1. It’s in the East (well sorta… but older towns like Bedok or ChaiChee don’t appeal to us; Tampines is way too complicated/croweded, Marine Parade is too ex etc.)
2. It’s 15 mins or less from all our activities (work, church, family (both Lil’s mom, and my parents)
3. It’s very near our homeschool group! Most of the homeschool friends+families that are part of that group live in that town or nearby. There’s good support overall.

This last reason is key ‘selling point’ for us. Of course it helps that Pasir Ris is known as the ‘Resort’ town of Singapore. Many park connectors, and much much greenery everywhere! Great for us as a family for more outdoors activities as a family!

So starting from April, we had put our house up for sale…
(more updates to follow)