kurokuroatbp

When we received our recall order last January that we were to go back home on July next year, the urgency of getting a place to live in Manila suddenly haunted us. We left the Philippines for Cambodia in 2002 barely two weeks after we got married with nothing to our name as a married couple save for a rice cooker or two which we received as wedding gifts.

Of course we know that Dad and Mom would welcome their youngest child and their favorite son-in-law who currently lives in Cambodia to their house in Kamuning. We also know that Papa and Mama would welcome their beloved only child and favorite daughter-in-law to their house in Lucena. But golly — we are much too old to be bossed around babied by our parents.

The urgency is also aggravated by the fact that of all the times for the dollar to devalue and for the peso to appreciate, it has to be now when we’re earning dollars and about to use our hard-earned cash to purchase a home (see this post on “Terrified of the Rise of the Peso“).

We have lived so far in Cambodia for more than four years and in that four years, we have also lived in four different houses. The first was a three-bedroom, but one-bed house. We didn’t last long because we had a problem with security with just Honey and me living there and both out to work most of the time. Little boys who played soccer barefoot on the dirt road outside were unmindful of the barbed wire as they climbed over our walls into our yard to pick up wayward soccer balls. It was also too big to maintain. The little garden bullied me with my brown thumb. On weekdays, we had a maid at that time (her name was Mary so we called her Maid Mary behind her back ) who grew beautiful orchids and roses. She was off on weekends and when it was my turn to water the garden, all the plants and flowers would insist on dying only to be reincarnated again during weekdays under Maid Mary’s watch.

Then, we moved to a hotel where we had 24-hour security and no plants to water and where we were exceedingly spoiled with regard to household chores. Housekeeping, breakfast, and laundry were all included with the rent. But we didn’t get enough sun and the place was too small so it got a bit depressing. We also didn’t have a kitchen and we got sick (and fat) eating hotel food all the time.

So we moved to a two-bedroom apartment in the outskirts of Phnom Penh (outskirts is actually only fifteen minutes away from the center) where we had the sun, fresh air, and a sky full of stars at night. It wasn’t serviced though so I had to grudgingly do the housework. Why couldn’t I bring my yayas to Phnom Penh? Besides my issue with the housework, the management was also ripping us off with usurious utility rates so after a year, we moved again to the apartment where we live now.

Perfect! I love this apartment! If there is one thing I would miss in Cambodia, it would be this apartment. I just wish we could bring it home to the Philippines with us. It also has two bedrooms like the last one, but with its no less than four balconies, a spacious kitchen, a storage room, it’s much bigger than the former apartment. We get natural sunlight, and if we open even a few of the windows, we get a lot of fresh cool air so we don’t have to turn on the air conditioner all the time. There’s a pretty garden outside which is maintained by the management so I get to enjoy plants without having to torture water them. Best of all, housekeeping and laundry are included so we have no chores save for cooking and washing dishes. Heck, they even wash the car everyday. The best part? Its rent is actually the cheapest among all the places we’ve lived in.

Given all the places we’ve lived in so far as a couple, the nature of our careers, and our lifestyle, these are what we are looking for in buying our home in Manila.

1. AFFORDABLE. This ought to be duh! However, I know people (or have read about them or watched about them in Oprah) who have bought houses because they could afford the downpayment but have trouble paying for the ammortization. We also have to consider the fact that we don’t get a Living Quarters Allowance in Manila and we have to survive on our ridiculously meager government employees’ salaries. This is hard. Hard!
2. RENTABLE. We’re only staying in the Philippines for at least two years and then we will be posted somewhere again for another six. So our place would need to be leased out while we’re away.
3. NEAR THE OFFICE. I don’t know how I did it before when I would drive from Kamuning to Pasay and then back every. Single. Day. And with the maddening traffic, at that. Our government employees’ salaries wouldn’t be able to afford the gas either.
4. NOT A HOUSE. The thought of cleaning an entire house with a yard or garden makes me shudder. Oh no! An apartment or condo for me please. Besides, on the 9 April 2007 issue of Time on 51 Things We can Do to Slow Global Warming about living in an apartment building, it is said that the denser the area you call home, the smaller your personal carbon footprint – not to mention your gas and electricity bill.
5. SECURITY. With only the two of us, without security, how could we sleep at night?
6. NATURAL SUNLIGHT AND FRESH AIR. This is also included in the Time article just mentioned so this would definitely help the environment. After living in that hotel for more than a year, I know how the lack of natural light and fresh air could affect one’s health and disposition. Fresh air is hard to come by at the metro though.

But guess what! We found it. When we were in Manila last month, we found our dream home with all the factors above checked with excellent marks. It’s along Manila Bay where we have a daily front seat view of the famous Manila Bay sunset and where the metro pollution is diffused by the winds from the sea.

If things go as planned, hopefully, by the end of next year, I would change the photo of Angkor Wat on the header of my blog to a photo of the Manila Bay sunset:

And this would be my byline:

KUROKUROATBP – Kurokuro (Impressions), atbp. (etc.) of a Filipina blogging by the bay.

Thanks to Dad and Ate Anna, who because of their expert negotiating skills, we were able to get a great deal!

Note: It may not be obvious because my posts recently have been chronologically deranged but I actually have a series of posts on my trip to Manila last March. This is the last of this series.

Technorati tags: Real Estate
Apartment
Manila Bay
Condominium

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