My move-in is officially complete!!! :)

Whoa! Haven't been blogging for such a LOOOOong time... Was busy looking for apartments and after that, move-in and settling down. And finally, I can say that I have officially moved in and settled down. And yes, it took one full week for me to move in and get what I needed.

haha my bro complained that taking one week to settle in is too long! Oh yes it is. I used only a couple days 2 years ago to move into my old apartment, and that was coupled with course. But now, I'm so lobo and yet still took 1 full week to fully settle down!!! It's just so absurd!!!

But it was not quite a good experience in the last move-in, because everything was so rush and I had so many other commitments. And everything just wasn't made out to justify for extra efforts. The apartment was old, and I was just a student who had no time to even admire the room I lived in, less maintain. Focus just wasn't on the environment I lived in, but on my studies the last time. Moreover, money was an issue as well.

This time it's different. I really can't describe how much I love my apartment! Perhaps, it's because I've lived in an old apartment for too long, so I'd treasure this new one even more. And moreover, it will be paid from my own finances, which gives it an extra sense of belonging. It just like owning something that is truly yours, something which you paid for with what you have. So I'm determined to keep it the way it is, or even better!

Granted, the time taken to equip the place so that it can be called a home is justified. For the first time, I really enjoyed the move in this time. Even though it's still tiring, it's not as bad as the last time, nor is it as stressful. And most important of all, I get to go around picking the stuff that I liked best! This is what time is able to provide. Of course, I learnt this from my buddy, although my case isn't as severe as his. haha~ He takes forever to settle on something, but when he makes the decision, it is often a good one. So I learnt from him that it is important to take time to consider one thing carefully before making the commitment, so that you'd won't regret your decision, and also so that there's time for better opportunities to show up, and in this case, the best deals that you will be satisfied with. Of course, this theory can be applied to many other areas of life as well.

This time, I'm really almost completely satisfied with what I have got. I made quite a number of good deals, and most importantly, the areas (which I will talk more about below) where I placed my emphasis on, were extremely successful. Of course, the price to pay is to visit the same places a few times, so that one can make the best decision in terms of quality and price. And I can't believe that I had actually visited not 1 or 2 , but as many as 5 stores to check out the best deals around, which is kinda exaggerating. Well, but I am quite glad that I actually did that, because I would have otherwise missed out on something which I definitely have preferred.

But not all decisions were well made. There were bad ones, but those don't really matter, because either they don't cost much, or they can be refunded. To be able to get a complete refund without questions probably is the only good thing about US. In US. stores generally still accept returns even though the package has been madly lacerated or even when you've used it before. This definitely isn't the general case for stores in sg. The most they'd do is to allow you to exchange for another good or give you partial refund, unless the good is bad when you bought it. But anyway, I have digressed. Needless to say, I took full advantage of this service, which turned many bad decisions to good ones. There were many times when I got a product and realized after that, there's a better one in another place. This often occurs with small, but significant stuff which doesn't justify for extensive research, like light bulbs for example.

I got an energy saving lightbulb from Home Depot, and it uses only 30W of power. How cool is that? To save half the power everytime you use it and it has the same brightness as the 60W incadescent light bulb. I opened the package and used the bulbs. A couple days later, I found even better bulbs in Walmart which uses only 10W of power to produce an equivalent power 60W of illumination. So guess what happened to those from Home Depot?... I got 100% refund for those bulbs, with no questions asked... Alright, there were a question.

The lady asked," So is it not working?"
My answer: Nope, it's working. But I have found a more energy saving one elsewhere. So here your bulbs.

Yeah so that is it. I did the same stunt for a number of other stuff as well, because I found more suitable ones elsewhere.

Back to my apartment. When I planned my list of purchase, it was just not possible to give your attention to every single thing. Time and money just isn't on your side if you plan on doing that. To me, there're just a few things which I would want to be completely satisfied with, while the others can just be cheap but usable stuff, which would serve their purpose. My emphasis on purchase this time was only the bed and the couch. I think the bed is most important, because it is the tool for one to rejuvenate after a day's work. The couch also has to be comfortable for similar reasons, plus the fact that couches are costly to begin with. Yeap, so these two were the main items of research. The others were secondary. And I'm glad that I made really good choices for them. They were the cheapest ones around for that quality, and when I mean cheapest, it meant they're at least cheaper by $100 or more! The satisfaction on getting the couch is the greatest and there's an interesting story behind it.

My bro, his gf and myself discovered a furniture store by chance and we liked a couch there a lot because it is quite comfortable, it has a reclining seat and a chaise for quite a cheap price of $875. I was quite determined to get that (ask my bro about that man), especially when they have free shipping (which could save me a good $50). Then a few days later, I decided to give a visit to this rather established furnishing store which I saw from the freeway (which the GPS doesn't state!!!) I really wasn't expecting anything from that store, because I have seen so many already, and all of them have similar prices, and my mind is already set on that couch I have seen earlier. Nothing else could beat that, I thought? But I was proven wrong. The story is, I bought my mattress, my couch and my dining table all from there. The most unexpecting place actually was the place with the best deals. The couch felt so much more comfortable in comparison ( I even went back to the earlier store again to compare) and for a cheaper price!!! It doesn't have a chiase though, but it has 2 reclining seats. So obviously I would choose that!

I checked on the beds as well, and realized how fortunate I was when my old apartment provided beds and mattresses!!! A lousy mattress costs at least $200 and a usable one is at least $500!!! Of course there are even better quality ones around which easily costs up to $1000 to $2000 bucks!!! And a simple frame is at least $100 to $200... Better ones could go up to $400 to $500!!! And to think I was hoping to get a good mattress and a frame for less than $500!!! Oh well... my emphasis was on a good mattress rather than a good looking bed frame, so I decided to go without the frame and invest the money on something that is more practical.

There were many other stuff which I was really happy with. One of them is my digital piano which I chanced upon when I went to Best Buy to get a GPS mount! It really is my favourite item! It's pretty expensive, but I know I won't feel a single pinch about that. To me, I think it's the best and unexpected investment of my move-in! It's totally worth it, and if you come and see it, you'd know why. hehe~

Another small little surprise is the wok that I got. Initially I didn't really like it because there are bigger woks around. I almost wanted to return it. But luckily I didn't, because I bought a steamer a few days later, and realized that the cover for the steamer fits exactly on the wok as well!!! Nothing could be more exact than that! If i had gotten a bigger wok, it definitely won't fit! So that was a blessing in disguise.

Talking about blessings. I think I really owe all these blessings to God. It's just amazing how things actually fits in so well! How I got my job, how I got my apartment, how I got my deals. To be able to find and move into an apartment within a week's notice is already very rare, and to be able to move in within a day of visit is even rarer. With God's blessings, I was managed to locate 2 eligible apartments which I could have moved in. My list initially contained more than 20 apartments, then it was reduced to 5, because all of them either had no vacancies or allowed move-ins only in October.

5, I thought, isn't that bad actually. But when my bro and I went down to check out the surroundings, we realized that 3 of them were Motel 6- like (1-star) apartments. In fact, I don't even think they're even anywhere near motel 6. Probably like old Hotel 81s. haha~ So we're left with 2. One of them is cheaper by $100 and is within my budget of $1k/mth. The other one just scraped over $1k by $19. The cheaper one does not have a pool or a spa, not gated, and far away from utilities. But it is safe, is closer to my workplace and driving to work is against traffic during peak hours, ie, it's not in the direction with jams. The more expensive one is gated, has a pool and spa, looks a lot better and newer,accessible to everything a city has to offer but is not in the city. But the city is known to have high crime rates esp car theft, and is along with the traffic during peak hours when I drive to work. So in short, the latter is bad for work, but good to live in, and the former is good for work, and not as pleasurable. I'm glad I have chosen the latter, because I think it's the best choice among what I have.

So in short, I would actually rate 9.5 out of 10 for satisfaction level for everything. I have made far more good decisions than bad ones (for once), so I'm really pleased with myself about that. I have secured a good job, under the very person whom I had hoped I would work for, and doing just the kind of work I wanted. I have a nice apartment to live in and to show (and accomodate) friends when they visit me. I think everything is in order and I really have to thank god for that.

Well, enough of my ranting on the apartment and the associated experiences. Gonna go make dinner now (it's 9pm already). Had wanted to blog for a long time, but my bro intro me ppstream and I have been watching that for the past 2 days. haha~ Yeap, so come visit me if you're around San Diego area!!! Very welcome to stay if you like... hehe~ But I will not give up my bed!!! hahaha~ But you can take the comfy couch or the air mattress :P Now I finally understood why my friend was so eager to show us her new apartment already... It happens when you actually spend the efforts doing it and when you feel proud showing it. hehe~ Of course, also when you have so few visitors but so much time (when not at work)... Yeah...Must visit me if you guys come SD k??? Or I won't forgive u if I find out!!! Wahahha... jk...

Yeap, dinner time!!! :)