"Cool" vs. "Comfort"

Michael and I came to visit Singapore in early January. The purpose of our trip was to get to know the town a bit and hunt for houses. And hunt for houses we did. In three days, we saw about 20 places. I didn't want to live in a highrise so we looked at apartments in buildings which were 20 stories or less, condominiums and duplexes. We stayed away from the typical American house. Here in Singapore they are called "landed houses" and are about 5,000 sq ft. +++. A little large for 2 people. In all this house hunting, our top two properties were extremely different.

There was the Grange. This was a 10-story building. Each story was its own apartment with a private elevator. It had 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and was about 3000 sq. ft. The Grange had marble floors, white walls and lots of windows. It was kind of like an extra large, brand new hotel suite. Very nice! Very...comfortable.

The last property we saw was a shop house on Everton Road. Shop houses are historical properties in Singapore and are no longer built. People used to (and some still do) have their shops on the bottom floor and the family lives on the top floors. We fell in love with this house when we saw it (I'll argue that my husband fell in love with it more, but that's history now). It was more than anything...cool. It had all harwood, was newly rennovated and our neighborhood looked like one you might find in nice parts of San Francisco. So, after a night of sleeping on it and some pondering, Everton Road was it.

Then we moved in. The three flights of stairs and incredible heat was killing me! As "cool" as the house was when we initially saw it, there was so much work to be done and the structure of the house made it incredibly difficult. I began to dream of The Grange and wish we had chosen a less "cool" and more "comfortable" home.

Yesterday, our relocation agent asked if she could stop by with a family who was looking at a similar house down the street from us. When they came in, the father immediately said "we'll take it." :-) I realized that cool has its perks. There are no other houses like ours in Singapore. It is so unique. Yes, it comes with its challenges but we'll never have the opportunity to live in a house like this again, anywhere in the world. As our house is coming together, I am beginning to appreciate it more and more. It has a certain charm about it that will be worth all the work when it is decorated and lived in. For now, I will continue to work and climb stairs and work. When it's all said and done, I'll post pictures!