This will be our fourth house yet it feels like we're first-timers again. The process and experience is so different from our previous houses.
Our first home was built in Sta Rosa, Laguna in Philippines. Hubby bought this before we met so I wasn't really involved during the building phase. However, we jointly paid for it while working in Singapore so I wasn't exempted from the stress of paying our first mortgage.
House #2 (Catherine) was built in Paranaque City in Philippines. We had it built while hubby and I were based in Singapore. We had a few trips to Philippines during the building process but most of the correspondences were done via phone and email. I'd say it wasn't that stressful... it was just difficult to be off-shore while building it. There were many things that we wanted to do on this house but relaying everything to the builder was challenging because we were so far away. Around that time, smart phones were not so popular yet. My mom in the Philippines would take photos of the house using a digital cam, download it to a computer and email them to me. My mom's not a techie person so she had to wait for my siblings or cousins to do it for her. Added to that, I was pregnant with my son and always felt sick, weak and tired. By the way, this house was meant to be an investment. It didn't happen though... long story.
House #3 is a unit in Southern Sydney. It's already built and was pre-owned so we did not experience building a house from scratch in Sydney. I should say though that the stress level during house hunting until settlement was just the same as building a house... it's just a different kind of stress... different kinds of issues.
We are just at the early stage of House #4 but we already had a lot of issues... and that is why I decided to create a blog. Hopefully when the house is finished, all these stress will be all worth it.
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