Our townhouse

I have always wanted to live at a 2-storey townhouse. At Pasig, it is imperative that you have a 2nd floor at the house as you would never know when a similar thing to Ondoy will happen again. At least kapag may 2nd floor, once inabot ng baha ang first floor, may tatakbuhan ka pa. Kapag umabot pa din ng 2nd floor, sa bubong na tayo tatakbo. Which reminds me that I need to buy an inflatable bed soon.

 

We are already the 2nd owners of the townhouse we have bought and based on the transfer documents, the name of the former owner is Alex and Ofelia Paz. According to the guy who sold the unit to us, they went abroad that is why they are selling the house. Actually, pinagawa nya ung bahay in the sense that pinapintura ang lahat and pinalitan ang toilet bowls. The house looks brand-new. The current owner agreed that we can occupy the house kahit hindi approved ung loan as long as we paid already the downpayment and that we applied already sa bank. Just imagine the smile on my husband's face when he learned of it. Sya ung kating-kati nang magkabahay talaga.

 

I took a housing loan at Robinsons Bank and July and I has to pay our mortgage for the next 15 years. We have to withdraw all our investments pambayad sa downpayment. But heck, we have a house near July’s work and it is a 20min drive from my office (if walang traffic). It is convenient to both July and I, we are near a park, several groceries, a major hospital, we have choices where we can enroll the kids, we have a celebrity as a neighbour, it was a quiet neighbourhood, the kids can play and take their bikes outside along with the other kids, the guards go on roving every hour, they dont allow just anybody inside the compound, we were able to install landline, we have cable, the bills are all under our name and the address, it has a decent swimming pool and clubhouse, etc. That house really is for us! I honestly enjoy staying now at the house unlike before that i always want to go out.

The unit is 75sqm lot area, 120sqm floor area. It has 3 rooms & 2 T&B at the 2nd floor while another T&B at the 1st floor. There was a maids room but we converted it to a storage area because that room is really small. May storage area rin under the stairs. We visited both SM Home World and Mandaue Foam scouting for furnitures for the new house and nakakabutas talaga ng bulsa. I am often quoting July that we need a few more months before we can recover with the expenses. Funny thing, when we were renting an apartment, super ayaw ni July maglagay ng decors sa dingding kasi ayaw daw nya magbutas. This time around, ayaw pa din nya. Asus.

The parking outside though is not big and since you have units facing each other, parking can really be a hassle especially if you have more than 2 vehicles. For the 1st up to the 15th of each month, we have to park at the other side of our gate or inside the unit’s carport. While during the 16th up to 31st of each month, we can park just in front of our gate. I normally had difficulty looking for parking space during the 1st half of the month so I just park my car inside the gate. According to the memo that I received, this is also the set-up on other subdivisions daw. Carry lang, I have no plans of buying a 2nd car and we just need to park elsewhere if we have houseguests!

Here is the kwento on why/how we finally got the house:

September 15, 2013 – during our project house quest, we went around nearby subdivisions looking for a townhouse for sale. Since we just live near PMG, we asked the guard if they still have vacant units but according to them, sold-out na daw lahat. Fine. We visited another 2 townhouses – Athena at Mercedes and Summerfield at Eusebio. Both townhouses are okay though with their size, feeling ko hindi pa rin kasya ang gamit ko. Ung tipo bang hindi pwedeng sabay ang dalawang tao umakyat ng hagdan kasi hindi kayo kasya.

September 16, 2013 – while searching the internet for the prices of the Athena townhouse, I came across a sulit ad which mentions that they are selling a unit at PMG. I immediately texted the number there and asked if the unit is still available for sale. The one who replied to me is Ms. Vicky Garcia and she told me that there are 2 units available – at Phase 1 with SRP of Php 3.5M and at Phase 2 with SRP of Php 3.9M. The Phase 2 unit is bigger according to her. I asked if i can do a site visit and she told me that we can visit the next day. Below is the screenshot of that sulit ad.

  

September 17, 2013 – I left the office at lunchtime and met with July to go to the site visit for the townhouse. We visited the 2 units and even though the Phase 2 townhouse is under renovation and much more expensive, it is what July and I felt is much better. The Phase 1 unit though cheaper does not have that homey feel to us. We requested the broker, Ms. Vicky to negotiate the price and to send us a sample computation of the payment terms.

September 18, 2013 – Last price of Php 3.8M and if we want to get the unit, we have to meet with the seller and the broker that week so that we can already give to them our downpayment. According to the broker, there is another buyer interested on the unit. I honestly dont doubt it because even though it is expensive, it is really a townhouse at a prime location.

September 21, 2013 – Goodbye, 380k. We signed the contract to sell and good thing Mama loaned me money to pay for the downpayment. The search is over, we now have a house!

The house blessing happened on October 5 and we moved in October 19. Dapat daw before sunrise, andun na kami kaya madaling araw ang peg namin paglipat. Dapat din daw full moon kaya bilog na bilog ang buwan nung lumipat kami. Mama, Papa, Nanay, Miren and Ate Lerie visited us that day as we have a small salo-salo at the house to celebrate. Ate Ester cooked biko while Ate Cel cooked her famous caldereta.

 

It is now more than 6 months after we moved in at the house. We have been paying our mortgage for about 4 months already. And boy, were we really glad that we now have a house we can call on our own. God is really good.