Home Sweet High Rise

We provided you with a little teaser back in February about our house hunting adventures and with photos of our three finalists. We are excited to say that we have found a house and have since made it into a home. Since this is an educational blog, you'll have to wait until the end to see the photos. (Don't scan down the page and cheat...you know who you are!) 

I narrowed down our house choices to three for Raegen to check out. It was a challenging process to narrow down from about 25 houses to 3 as I had never been to Singapore before. All of our house hunting was done in the first week of living here so I hadn't even had a chance to explore. With that being said, Singapore house hunting is the same as everywhere else...nothing is perfect but one was close enough. Some of the requirements of our new house included: 

• 3 bedrooms
• At least 2 bathrooms
• Bathtub (hey we can dream!)
• Lots of storage (hey we can dream twice!)
• One parking spot (one car, one parking spot)
• Outdoor space
• Washer and dryer
• Close to a MRT/subway station (we only have one car)
• A cool area of town with lots to do
• Open kitchen layout

Here's what we ended up with:

• 4 bedrooms        
• 3 bathrooms (+1 sort of half bathroom for the helper (we don't have a helper)                
• Bathtub
• One parking spot
• Big balcony with an amazing view
• Washer and dryer (not quite full "American size" but close enough)
• Dishwasher (they're not a common kitchen item here)
• Close MRT station
• A cool area of town with lots to do

I'll spare boring you with the details but signing on a house here is similar to the US except because we're expats there are a lot of things that would have needed to be in place (financially, local employment longevity) for Raegen to sign.  Therefore his company actually signed the lease on the house. Remember I am pretty much a second class citizen here...I was not even considered in signing on the house. I actually had to get permission to accept the keys and move into the house as Raegen was out of town. 

Our place is on the 17th floor of Marina Bay Suites. It's a great location with an MRT station right below us and 4 out of the 5 MRT lines within a two block walk. We are also right next to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the boat looking building) as well as a mall, plenty of restaurants and bars, as well as Gardens by the Bay. The Marina Bay area is right next to the Central Financial District so it's busy down here during the day but after work and on the weekends it's quiet, which is one of the reasons we love it here. We get our workout in by running around the 'bay' (2.4 miles for those who are counting) and we enjoy dinner on the patio often. 

We fell in love with the patio

One quirky thing about Singapore houses (in those built after 1997 and until recently) have to have their own bomb shelter in the house. Every single unit in our building has their own shelter. For most people it's extra storage. For others, it's the helper's living quarters.

Our bomb shelter which holds our microwave, wine fridge and the "garage" (the giant container on the left.) 

Welcome to our home...

We'd be remiss if we didn't think our awesome realtor and the team at Asian Welcome for helping us find our new home.

After a lot of blood, sweat and sore feet along with the arrival of our shipment we are now able to enjoy our first home together!

Happy Trails, 

Amy & Raegen

Extreme Sailing Series in Singapore

In Singapore there are always interesting things to do and see.  This weekend we happened to be wondering around the Marina Bay area and came across the Extreme Sailing Series.  This competition is basically NASCAR for sailing.  They set up the race course so that you can see almost all of the action without binoculars or a boat and they have bars all over!  Singapore is the first of eight stops.  The other stops include Oman, China, Russia, Wales, Turkey, the Mediterranean, and ending in Sydney. 

The focus on this series is for the spectators so they set it up in such a way that people are engaged and I think that the free flowing booze also helps to keep people around.  The race course is small and short so that the races will not exceed 20 minutes. This allows for at least eight exciting races a day.  It reminds me of going to the horse track, but here it is more socially acceptable to wear boat shoes. Here are some photos from the weekend that the professionals took.  Check out #47 & #48 as that was a great wreck that took two teams out of the competition.

The boats are 40-foot catamarans that are 23 feet wide and made of a carbon fiber with a honeycomb core.  These boats weigh a little over 3,000 pounds which is surprisingly light for their size. The lightweight and technological advancements allow these boats to reach speeds up to 35 miles per hour and can even hit 25 knots in only 15 knots of wind.  The boats are sailed by a five man crew.  I found out that they have a 6^th man ride along; basically you get to sit on the boat during the race and get the full experience…sign me up! Here are the technical specs and more about the boats.

I hope that the extreme sailing teams and sponsors enjoyed their first tour stop in Singapore and I hope that they are back next year.  If luck is on our side, Amy & I hope to be living about a block away from the race course and will for sure be having a nautical themed party next year. 

Until then,

Raegen & Amy