Ready to settle… for good

It has been 10 years and a couple of months since Mon and I moved together in a small apartment in Makati. It was an oddly shaped 12 sqm apartment, which was enough for us at the time.

Fast forward to this year, 15 years together, and 4 apartments all in all, we started looking at a permanent place where we could settle down.

As the catastrophizing me who is afraid of what climate change would do to Metro Manila, I proposed we moved permanently to the uplands. And our search for that place enough for us and the three cats began.

We first spotted this 40 sqm townhouse and felt it was the perfect size for us.

Our first choice

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Rainy Sunday

It was Sunday the 31st of July, and we are a hop and skip away from August 1. We normally visit on Sundays to have lunch with my family in our house in the uplands, as it was unthinkable to even travel on a Saturday.

We did it once 2 weeks ago and the travel time was horrendous. It took 2 hours coming from Makati  and at least 3 hours on the way back. To think that we spent only around 4 hours home, it was, for the lack of better word, traumatic. Thus, I made an arrangement with Mon if we could always just visit on a Sunday unless we can’t help it.

It was a very cloudy day and it was obvious that it would rain hard. It may be because of the continuously rising oil prices that there were not too many vehicles on the road, but it only took us a bit more than an hour to reach home.

Watching my 9-year old cat

Watching my 9-year old cat

Despite being the actual homeowner (as I am still in the process of transferring the title under my name), the guards at the gate of the subdivision still usually ask where I am headed to. They don’t recognize me at all. That was not the case whenever my father would fetch us nearby as they obviously knew him/them, as they are the ones living there.

One of the first things we usually do as soon as we arrive is check on the 2 dogs and the cat. While we were smothered by the dogs, our cat, Miso is the eternal ambivalent lady of the house.

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It is already March 2022

It has been more than a year and 1 month since I last posted. Where was I the whole time?

This blog will be turning 10 this June, when I have first written this entry back in June 1, 2012. But I also have a still active Tumblr page last time I’ve checked, which I first opened when I turned 25. I am turning 37 this year, and I am still here, albeit writing sparingly.

Proof of Life 2022

Unfiltered proof of life 2022: if there is one thing I have learned in the last few months, it was moisturizing. I knew at one point all those all-nighters will catch up on me. >o<

So where do we start?

Twenty twenty-one had been a pivotal year for me. I had never been more adult than the year that was. Remember my house in the uplands which I last visited in January 2013? It took about 6 years until the 4th quarter of 2019 for me to visit again the property, which had expectedly seen a state of neglect.

I was determined to start being serious with it again by that time, but the pandemic hit. Everything was put to a stop. It took until March 2021 for me to get the ball rolling with the renovation of the property because of Ulysses from November 2020.

That whole renovation process and the successful full payment of my Pag-Ibig loan (19 years and 10 months ahead of the maturity date) deserve their own post, so I’ll just share this before and after:

Our townhouse - before and after

Our townhouse: before from March 2021, and after from August 21, 2021. Notice I even had to spraypaint my name by the door because there were several people reportedly claiming the property when I neglected it. Good thing there were no trespassers.

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Visiting my house in the ‘uplands’

My house when it was still being built - August 2010

My house when it was still being built – August 2010

Today is Mon and I’s 4th year and 4th month together! =D We did not go out yesterday (as we normally go out on a Saturday) because we had a better and more important agenda today. We have agreed to visit the house I’ve been paying for the past two years. I last visited my house in December 18, 2010 and these were some photos we’ve taken:

Me by the door - December 2010

By the stairs - December 2010

I’ve put off visiting the house for two years because I had no intention moving to the place and I did not want to feel pressured. But following the New Year and submitting another set of PDCs to PAG-IBIG last Friday, I hope to finally move in before the year ends. This means that I will have to be more mindful of my expenses and be more smart over the things that I will buy — it is, hopefully, a powerful deterrent against impluse buying. =D Time to think of the future!

Anyway, it took us an hour to travel and our friends, Rio and Dang, were already waiting for us. They have been living in their own townhouse in the village, or exactly five units from mine, for almost two years already and they have agreed to ‘host’ our visit. As my unit was one of the first ones in the block, I Immediately noticed that my house looked peculiar from the outside and needed closer inspection. But we went straight to Rio and Dang’s place to rest and eat lunch. We felt extremely grateful that they have even prepared a special lunch for us: seafood paella. It was the first time that they have cooked one and Dang was most especially hear our verdict over its taste. It was superb!

Seafood paella 1

Seafood paella 2

After eating lunch, we headed back to my house and inspected it. I was slightly horrified because I did not expect things to be, well, different. It needed a lot of repairs and my two years of neglect have finally caught up. Well, Rio and Dang said that some of the parts, like kitchen sink, cabinet handles, shower heads, faucets, etc., should be removed because they might get stolen. But I did not expect the windows and doors to be in a messy state. I now plan to contact the developer to declare my intent to move in, provided they repair what must be repaired. It must also be noted that my neighbor, directly to the right, has decided to make my living room as the garage of their kidie bike. =/

My house - January 2013

What happened to my kitchen

Mon with one of the broken sliding doors

Peeping from one of the rooms

Anyway, I shouldn’t be surprised because I have admittedly neglected it. I assumed that it was enough for me to just pay my monthly mortgages, without any intention of keeping a close eye on the property. I have the whole week ahead to amend things and hopefully, the house will be ready within a few months.

Overall, it was a nice day. Mon and I also got to visit Antipolo church before heading back to the ‘lowlands’ to eat dinner and watch a movie. ‘Sisterakas‘ was a funny movie but I personally preferred ‘Sosy Problems‘ more. The old tricks of Ai-Ai and Vice no longer amazed me and the few saving moments were that staircase-incident re-enactment and the showdown of commercial endorsements of the three.