It was an uneventful night so I started taking pictures of Z playing with his cars and blocks. Soon it turned out to be a picture taking event for the whole family.

We started in the bedroom:

Finally, the perfect shot!

Then we proceeded to the terrace:

Couldn't resist taking a shot of the gorgeous moon! It's not evident in this picture though.

It has been a really long week of putting away our things in boxes and waiting for moving day to come but at last one more day to go and we'll be saying goodbye to our apartment for almost two years. After finally deciding that September 28 is going to be our moving day, we have confirmed that a typhoon is on its way to the Philippines. According to the weather forecast websites I have been frequenting lately, the typhoon will not hit land but will be somewhere close by on our moving day. As if to drive down its point across, it did not stop raining for the last two days which increased my nervousness tenfold. Just this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see the sun shining despite reading somewhere that there was supposed to be 100% chance of precipitation today. Well, it didn't rain all day and because of that, I am keeping my faith that when I wake up this Sunday, the sun will shine despite the 50% chance of rain forecast. If worst comes to worst we'll just wait out the rain before actually moving.

This is a continuation of our apartment hunting.
As soon as S arrived home from work, around 8am, we immediately went to the two-storey apartment I inquired about last night. The tricycle ride was short and only lasted a minute. We arrived at the place and immediately saw three apartment buildings. Two buildings (one still in the process of being constructed) face each other on the right side and one building on the left side of the road. We looked for the person who was in charge of the keys, he directed us to the lone apartment building on the left and showed us two vacant apartment units side by side.
The apartments are bigger than our current and these two have almost identical design.





Downstairs is the living room and the kitchen and upstairs are two bedrooms. The rent is $11 higher than what we are paying but we were not satisfied because the place is kinda hot. There are two small windows upstairs and one downstairs but it is not wide enough for the air to circulate in the apartment. Our guide told us these were newly-constructed so we will be the first owners if we take it. I instantly remembered that the owner told me last night that the apartment was previously occupied and was not new. I pointed this out to our guide and it turned out he showed us the wrong apartment. So we crossed the road and went to the two apartments facing each other. Construction was in full swing on one apartment so there was a lot of noise going on, the other building look a few years old. There were four apartment doors and we were directed second to the last door. It was slightly larger than the first two.





What I liked were the tiles and the cabinets in the kitchen. We looked for the bathroom and found it underneath the stairs which was weird! We went upstairs and I was disappointed because the rooms didn't have tiled floors - only polished cement. The color, I hated - one room was red while the other blue. It made the room even hotter than the apartments we just saw. There was no view from the windows, except for the still being constructed apartment building facing it. There was definitely no air coming in on this one. Eventhough S likes having two floors for an apartment, he was disappointed with the three we just saw. We concluded that the first one we found was way better because it is the largest but cheapest, has two extra cabinets for our clothes, floors are tiled all over, good air circulation, natural light and wide windows plus a landlord who said the reason why his tenants stay there a long time is because he doesn't increase the rent. After looking at the three apartments, we immediately went home to get the deposit and pay for the first one we found. So by this time we have already sealed the deal but we won't be able to move till the end of this month to maximize the rent we paid for our current place and to give us enough time to look for a new internet provider. Silly me, I forgot to take pictures of our soon-to-be apartment so just stay tuned for my next update!

Image via Wikipedia I know I mentioned we were not planning to move until the next scheduled raise in our rent on February next year but when Z's friend and his mom, who were our former neighbor and who just moved out a couple of weeks ago, visited us and mentioned there is a vacant apartment upstairs of their new apartment, I couldn't resist but check it out. What I saw definitely shocked me because the vacant apartment is the same price as ours but almost twice as large and looks much better. It also has two bedrooms and with built in closet that will definitely solve our never ending problem with closet space. The bathroom is larger and the living room is long and spacious. There are disadvantages like the fact that it's on the third floor and to get to it you have to pass a narrow alley and climb a rickety stairs and there is also a creek at the right side. But what I so so love is the view from the terrace, I can see the hills of Antipolo from afar. I went home to fetch S so that he can take a look too and he likes it too but also noted the disadvantages. He likes the apartment downstairs where our friend lives because it's two storey and has a small garage but of course it's already occupied. I admit for two days I was not able to sleep weighing in my mind if we should move or not and I finally decided that I really wanted to move because it's the same rent amount, anyway. S is more practical, he told me we should take our time and look around first which we did yesterday but with no luck. Today, we went to Megamall to check if there is Globe broadband in that area but unfortunately they don't have service there. Fortunately, we will be able to have it disconnected without paying any penalty and we'll just look for another provider that has service in that area. We also withdrew the amount for the deposit but on our way home we saw an "Apartment For Rent" sign and noted the phone number. I called it tonight and the owner said it's two storey, just like what S wanted. The rent though is a little higher but still affordable. The two apartments are just a couple of blocks from our current apartment so it won't significantly affect S's travel time to and from the office. Another advantage if we move is our future landlord will not increase the rent by 10% every year unlike what our current landlord is doing. I am really excited see it, I hope it will meet our expectations. If it does not then we will be paying the downpayment for the first one. Just tonight, our landlord came by to collect our rent and I already informed him we have plans on moving. This move might be sudden and unplanned but I have a feeling what we are doing is for the best.

Image via Wikipedia Finally, I have caught up with my laundry and am proud to say that I have three empty laundry baskets starting today. Whew! I didn't know where I got the energy today but I think I just did five loads of laundry. I woke up thinking what a great day to have the sun shining like that so I quickly pulled out my washing machine originally planning to do just one load. After hanging out the first set of clothes to dry I immediately thought with the sun shining like that I'm sure by the time I finish a second load of clothes then the first set would be dry. So that's what I did all day, after I finished washing one load I quickly folded it to give way to a fresh set of clothes to dry. I like it when I have a productive day like this, it feels good to accomplish something even if its just a small thing.