Home Sweet Singaporean Home

Do you know how many people asked for pictures of my house?  Here’s what I have to say to you all… come visit and see it in person!  Okay.  Okay.  I know only two or three of you will, but I seriously wish we had more people to fill these empty rooms.  What empty rooms, you say?  Well, we settled on renting a five bedroom (plus helper’s room which we use for storage), six bath monstrosity that is obviously way too big for our needs.  After many weeks of negotiations though, we talked the price down and included a few extra important bits into the monthly price, so we decided to go with the house that was less than a block away from the preschool, 6 minutes drive to Kimono Hubby’s office, 4 block walk to the mall and grocery store. The big ole lap pool didn’t hurt when we factored it into the equation too.  We are only here temporarily, so why not live like we are on holiday for a few years, even if I have to clean all that square footage all by myself.  I just make the kids walk around with mop shoes on to get our floors all sparkly clean! 

Here begins your virtual tour of my humble *ahem* abode…

After entering the security gate, you first arrive here at our pool… complete with an adjoining bar and an upper deck where I can lounge the hot days away under the fans above.  If you aren’t a pool or drinking person… well then you just can’t be my friend.  But if you aren’t, there is still a TV to watch above the bar and surround sound that connects to your IPhone and will play your favorite tunes throughout the house. 

After removing your shoes, as this is an Asian home, you will find yourself in the living room with a 40+ inch TV and again more surround sound… which is great… except that if you are watching a good movie with your darling husband late in the evening and the music implodes at that crucial scene, you WILL wake the children sleeping above you.

A few steps up and there is the dining room with its Italian tree trunk wall.  Pass by that and there is the entertainment room which we use as a play room.  It really is underutilized with its projector screen movie capabilities, karaoke machine and other various Chinese entertainment equipment which I mostly just dust and then ignore as I have no idea how to work the lot of it.

Into the worst designed kitchen I have ever seen.  Well, actually there are two.  Yes, two.  A wet kitchen (for messier Chinese cooking) and a dry kitchen (for cleaner Western cooking… but they obviously haven’t seen me cook).  The dry kitchen is first and houses no fridge, but will some have a custom made wine cooler at the landlord’s suggestion.  Not sure what used to be there, but there is a large empty space in the wall so the landlord offered a wine cooler.  Only, there was no wine cooler of that large size to be purchased.  So he is having one made.  I like wine, but I’m not certain I will have 80 bottles of it to fill this thing.  I’m going to take it on as a challenge to drink more wine however.  I also have an induction stove in this kitchen.  This stove literally broke me when we move in.  I cried making dinner on multiple nights.  I wish I was kidding.  I finally begged the landlord to provide me with the manuals and after a lot of research, he delivered.  Of course, the manuals said nothing of how only certain types of pans work with this stove.  Another hard lesson.  I finally can make the thing work.  Not well.  I either cook things way too slow or burn the crap out of them.  Hence why the dinner invites have been slow to happen as I just can’t stand the thought of cooking for more than my tiny crew.  And if you say bake something, I will bite you.  Let’s not even talk about the two ovens which also helped in said breaking of me.  Pass through the door and you enter the wet kitchen… where the fridge is.  And another stove.  This one gas, but not plugged into a gas line like in the US, but plugged into a gas canister under the stove like an outside grill.  Did I mention that to turn it on, you have to flip a light switch to turn on the electric that then allows you to use a match to light the gas stove?  And then you better stay back, because that bad boy LIGHTS!  Ask me how I found out.  Pfft.

Second floor – there are four bedrooms there.  The junior master suite which the boys decided to share so they could get their coveted bunk bed.  They have their own walk in closet, which we use to store luggage because boys don’t really have THAT many clothes.  They have a glass tiled rain shower too which they think is the bomb.  Another bedroom was turned into the guest room and has its own bathroom that is actually hidden in compartments behind a sliding wall.  One compartment – toilet.  Another compartment – sink.  Another compartment shower.  Come visit and stay in your own suite!  The other two bedrooms were turned into a library and an office.  The boys love the library and quiet time in there.  In fact, I think this is probably their favorite room.

And the third floor – now typically Kimono Hubby and I would choose to stay on the same floor of the house as the boys, but when we saw this master suite, we just couldn’t give it up.  Oh… and there is an outside gym across the hall from our room so we can do an early morning workout without interrupting the kiddos from their sleep.  But the room!  We have a velvet wall behind our bed and no I am not kidding.  There is surround sound in this room, but the great thing is the extra large projection screen that drops out of the ceiling.  Family movie night has never been so awesome!  We get to snuggle in bed during a theater experience!  I think this will be a must in at least one room of whatever houses we get in the future.  Here, all the ladies can be jealous and laugh at me at the same time… we have a walk in closet like something off of MTV cribs.  There are closets for high heels, closets for coats, for clothes, clothes and more clothes and where most are empty as I didn’t bring all of my clothes because why would I bring winter stuff when it is always 90 and above, for goodness sakes??  There is a built in vanity where I sit to put jewelry on… jewelry that also sits in individuals pockets in the built in island in the middle of the closet, where the top case is where you can lay your watches out for easy choosing.  Ummm… I have two watches.  It’s one empty watch case.  KH actually fills his side better as he can roll each one of his ties up and put them in their individual compartments.  He even has more clothes than me.  In a country where shopping reigns supreme, there is something terribly wrong with this picture. 

 

Last but not least is our master bath, where the toilet is enclosed in a glass room with a door.  What the hell is the use of a glass room for your toilet?  If it is purely for stink purposes, I pity the woman that had to live with that man.  Moving on… the bath and shower room are open and the ceiling is glass.  So basically, I can shower night or day and stare up at the sky while I enjoy yet another rain shower faucet… or another rain shower outside as it is pouring right now… again.  Our tub is a massive Jacuzzi which the boys get more use out of than me.  I can’t stand the thought of a hot bath when I have been hot all day.  In fact, you actually have to turn the hot water on in each room that you need it when you need it.  I only turn mine on to wash dishes.  Taking a hot shower is the last thing on my mind here when I have pretty much sweated for the 16 hours I have been awake. Oh, and did I mention there is a TV in the bathroom?  I can shower and not miss the news!

And this concludes our tour of the major perks and downfalls of my new Singaporean home.  While I may joke about it, I certainly can’t complain about it.  I know how truly blessed we are for yet another overseas experience.  And I know how lucky I am to get to enjoy this house for a few years.  I would however enjoy it more if a few of you wanted to come live with me.  Takers?