House Hunters International: ROUND #2

Well I would like to say that we have a house by now, but we don't.

We found the perfect place (Option #3 from our first house hunting post here) but it fell through because they couldn't find the landlord to make an offer.  So many of these landlords are the jet-setting type that spend their time between Dubai, London etc.  They often just sit on their property, leaving it empty with no rush to fill it.

So since our ideal place fell through, we are back house hunting.  We have narrowed our search to two final buildings.

O P T I O N   A . . .   t h e    c i t y    h a v e n   w i t h    a    g a r d e n    v i e w 

We already had our favorite building from our first post (the one that fell through), so we asked to see other units in that building.  The only floors left were floors three and five (as opposed to floor 18 before!) so the view is not as cool.  Below are pics of the view.  For pics of what the unit looks like inside, go here.

Upsides:

Location:  It is smack in the middle of the city, close to KLCC park and just a skip away from the Petronas Towers and the glorious mall that accompanies it.
Amenities: We love the building's grounds.  Comparing all the buildings downtown, we feel like this one is the best.

Downsides:

Location: Since it is downtown, there will always be traffic.  I have started thinking more about this since we have started therapy for Andrew.  Almost every morning I leave in the car to take Andrew somewhere or to run some errands, etc.  I feel like it will take me much longer every morning to get places if I have to fight downtown traffic.

View: Now that we are looking at the third floor unit, a lot of the appeal is gone because we don't have the grand city views.  It is still a nice view because it has more greenery, but it is still not the same.  Plus they are asking the same price for the low floor as we were going to pay for the high floor originally.

This is the 18th floor (the one that fell through):

 
Verses the third floor view:

Not bad, but not to die for either.



O P T I O N  B . . .   t h e   e x p a t   h i d e a w a y   w i t h    p o o l   v i e w

So we have been staying in temp housing a bit outside the city in an area called Mont' Kiara.  Mont' Kiara is the closest Malaysia gets to "master planned."  Now keep in mind, it is not master planned at all (sidewalks are still a mess, no crosswalks, etc), but at least all the complexes, shopping centers, and malls are new, beautiful and gleaming, and the infrastructure is a bit better than KL downtown.  There is less traffic, and its building projects are filled with expats.

Since living here I have become a bit more enamored with the idea of living somewhere where I actually enjoy driving Andrew to his therapy appointments.  I also really want to find a place with lots of little kids so Andrew will have lots of friends to run around with.  Hence, I asked our real estate agent to show us some four bedroom units in the complex across the street from us because they have a great community of families with little kids (that's where I take Andrew to nursery school).

Here is our favorite unit from this neighborhood.  The landlord is living in the unit so you will see furniture.  They said we can either take the furniture or ask them to move it out.

Front foyer room



Hallway leading into the main living area (I call this the art gallery)

   

Main living area

The balcony--you can sit and watch your kids playing at the pool

Kitchen

Bedroom #1 with view of pool

Master bedroom

This is what the unit looks like without furniture (we saw another unit with the same layout but it had a different view so we didn't like it as much):

Facilities area

Upsides:
Amenities--(pool and playground area) better than anything we can afford in the city.
Community seems great--little kids everywhere which is what we want.
Gorgeous--we really feel at home here and that is really important

Main pool

Baby pool

Adult pool

Playground

All the little kids ran up to Andrew and followed him around (a good sign)

Downsides:

• Further from the city (maybe 15 minutes?).  It's really not that far, but it is definitely not city center.

• No grand city view.  The view is of the greenery and pool area, so it kind of feels like you live at a resort all the time.  But it isn't a high floor and a view of the city like we thought we wanted.

• Let's be honest, it's a little like a scene from "Rear Window."  See below.

Well, there you have it.  Our final two.  Any and all of your advice on picking out housing is appreciated.  

Regardless of which one we choose, this is exciting because we finally will have a real home (after over five months)!

A day in the life of Andrew

A day in the life of Andrew (2 years 4 months).

7am: Wake up and eat breakfast.
Cold cereal and raisins. He sits for maybe one minute before whining for "geek gock!" which means "Drink Milk." He loves his milk.
8am: Play with dad before he gets ready for work.

9am: Daily sensory play routine outside with mom.
We do this every day because of Andrew's sensory processing disorder.

1. Run from the apt to the first stop!
2. SMALL RAMP:
Walk up the wood ramp to get the ball, then roll ball down. (this is good propriosceptive input)
3. BIG RAMP: We go up the half pipe (yes our temp apt has a half pipe) to get a little toy car, "push" the car down (well with Andrew it's more like "throw"), then slide back down and put the car away. I place five cars up top, which means we do this five times.
4. SLIDE: I put seven nesting cups at the bottom of this covered slide. Andrew walks up the stairs, slides down the slide, and puts the smallest cup into the next biggest cup. We do this seven times until all the cups are nested.

5. ROCK TOSS
We throw about 30 rocks into the fountain (we count each throw, and yes, he counts to 30). I have to drag him away from this one since he likes it so much.


6. ROCK WALK
We take shoes off and walk on the rocks in bare feet. (the rough, uneven rocks make for great tactile input)
7. STAIRS:
We take the elevator down to the ground level, then walk back up all the stairs. (the pool and playground area is built on a higher level than the street)

8. KICKING the water:
We kick and splash in the water (more tactile input).
9. BACK HOME
I used to finish our routine by having Andrew go up and down on the elliptical machine with me in the gym (good vestibular input), but they kicked us out because he didn't make the gym's rules on age limit. So now we just go back upstairs to floor number "tenty naa" (twenty nine). Andrew always pushes the button.

10am: Play date with new friends
We don't do this every day, but this day we were invited over to a play group for some new friends we met in the neighborhood.

12pm: Lunch made by Helen

Yum!
I couldn't resist putting these pics of Joseph. He is now eating soft finger foods (and has been crawling for a week, and is now pulling himself up on things! he is now 7 months).
12:30pm: Books and nap time

Helen now reads Andrew his nap time story. She's learning how to read, and she is getting pretty good at reading "Green Eggs and Ham," and "Nightime on the Farm." We are so proud of her!

1-3pm: Nap time
Yes, I know the rule never to your child to bed with milk. Andrew is pretty much addicted to his milk. With the huge transition of moving abroad we have let it slide but now that we have settled we are working on breaking the habit.

3pm: Andrew "drive"
Andrew loves to "buv" (drive) the car. He'll say "Andoo buvvv!" (Andrew drive) over and over when he wants me to put him in the driver's seat. I ran an errand this day and let him drive once we got back home. He gets so happy.

4pm: Pool time
This is actually not our pool. We are looking at moving into a complex across the street for our permanent housing, so we thought we'd walk over and check out the grounds. Most importantly, I wanted to go over to see how many kids were around because I want a strong community feeling with lots of kids around.

We also played on the play area.


6:30pm: dinner, bath, bed
The boys are funny in the bath now. Andrew wants to play with the water and ignores Joseph. Joseph wants to be doing anything his big brother is doing, so here he is trying to play with the water just like Andrew. It is so funny.

Goodnight Andrew!
The End.