House Hunting

Elizabeth Hotel

After our arrival in Singapore, our school put us up in the Elizabeth Hotel for 10 days.  After spending the first few days sightseeing and recovering from jet lag,  we now had to get down to the job of finding a place to live.  The school provided us with a property agent who had arranged to show us a number of properties in the western part of Singapore know as Jurong West.  We were looking for a location that was close to our current school as well as our new school next year.  We were also looking for a place close to the subway line and other conveniences.

Parc Vista

After looking at a few places, we quickly realized that our living accommodations would not be like when we lived in Japan... they would be tremendously better!   Our place in Japan was about the size of a postage stamp (200 sq. ft. - no lie) whereas the places in Singapore are built to western standards. 


I guess I should tell you that our only choice was to live in an apartment, as houses, for all intents and purposes simply do not exist (that is not unless you have several million or more to part with).

The Main Pool and Clubhouse

What completely surprised us was not only the size of the apartments (they are quite large) but the amenities they offered....swimming pools, exercise rooms, tennis courts etc.  What a treat!  Boy, were we ever excited!

Lap Pool

After Lisa and Haylee finished playing a little game of, "Which place should we take?" with friends on Facebook, we finally decided on an apartment in a place called Parc Vista.   Our apartment is huge, with 3 bedrooms (for when people come to visit), over 1800 sq. ft. of living space, and 12 ft. ceilings.  In addition to how nice the place is, it is in the perfect location.   We couldn't be happier with our choice.



Did I mention that rental accommodations are a little pricey?  Doesn't matter where you go, the prices ain't cheap.  Without getting into numbers, take a rather sizable mortgage payment, double it (yes, I did say double it) and you MIGHT be close.    The good news is that our school provides us with a housing subsidy which makes the place quite reasonable.

And so 10 days after arriving in Singapore, we moved into our new digs.




master

 


dining rm.





living rm.




did I mention the putting green?

 


Haylee, Lisa and the property agent