Farewell to Our First Home
It took only 10 days and 7 viewings. There were 2 offers and the first ever viewer made an offer beyond what we expected. I should have been ecstatic but I started bawling after reading the news from our beloved agent and friend. Singapore has been our home for 14 years. I was still single when I moved there for work in 2006 and never looked back. I learned so much, made good friends, eventually got married and had our family there. Selling the first ever home we purchased meant so many things and that was why I haven’t been positive cheerful self the past few days.
When we moved to Indonesia, I was thrilled at the opportunity to become a stay-at-home mom. However, I’ve been missing working in Singapore. Perhaps it’s the 2 years of quarantine playing tricks with my mind? Whatever it was, I felt sad that our time in Singapore is about to come to an end. We’ve thought about it for years and knew that this was inevitable. After several failed attempts with our boy’s PR application, we knew we would need to move on at some point in time. Our prayer was for God to just lead the way. It was a decision too big to make based on our feelings alone- we needed His guidance on this. There were a number of incidents last year that made us decide to finally sell. We contacted our friend and told her we were ready. The first few days we thought, okay if we don’t get a good offer that means Daddy God wants us to stay put. So I didn’t sweat it and was even thinking if it doesn’t sell in 2 months then we stop… 10 days. That’s all it took. The sign was clear.
I am sad to leave behind the life we had in Singapore- the memories. Yes there was a lot of stress yet there were so many moments when I felt a sense of accomplishment- for exceeding the sales targets, a successful event, a beautiful pop-up design, a memorable business/buying trip. Then there’s our first ever home. We were proud homeowners for the first time in our married lives and we were so happy to just keep creating and designing. Justin was away for months at a time for work so I had to do most of the sourcing. The tiles for our kitchen, the bathrooms. The thrifted furniture and discovering Hock Siong! I adorned our home with eucalyptus and tried to make it as homey as I could. It was our first real project as husband and wife.
I miss walking with Justin and the kids through our quiet neighbourhood- along streets lined with landed homes we only dreamt of living in (that’s because they cost a fortune in Singapore). The kids miss Uncle from the waffle place they frequent after school. Oh the comfort of walking to Hougang Mall to buy groceries or eat sushi! I won’t forget all the gatherings we’ve hosted with family and friends. The walls we’ve painted and the mementos we’ve hung on the wall. Oh and the chalkboard wall I painted on my own, it smelled so bad we had to stay out of the house until the fumes wore off! We did a lot of DIY's since we didn’t have the budget for a carpenter or painter. We got creative and we allowed mistakes to happen. We slowly discovered our design aesthetic (very eclectic) and tried to stick to it- there really was some sort of formula we followed.
We will definitely be heading back home to clean up and pack our belongings and sell of our furniture but there are a lot that I want to keep with me. The the huge pendant light we hand carried from Paris. Well, it was actually my boss who lugged it from the Habitat store where we took the Metro back to our teeny tiny hotel! Everything hanging on our walls- paintings from my father-in-law, mirrors and items we bought from our travels and store clearance sales. All these reminded us of something or some place.
This is getting way too long… My purpose for writing this post is to provide a space where I can store some memorable photos of our first home. A memory of our amazing days in Singapore.
Our home will soon be another family’s and we pray that they will love it as much as we have- and still do. We love you, Soo. Thank you for the memories…
