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Located along the greenery of Upper Thomson Road, near famous Ampang Yong Tau Foo, the architecture and facilities of this project is made for those who are looking to live there with their families.
Senior Programme Director for 938Live, Weekend news anchor of Channel News Asia and mother of two young toddlers, Gerardine Tan, affectionately known as Gerry to her friends, sounds like a superwoman who can do it all. When it comes to her property, does she have the know-all and know how? Gerry spills the beans on how she did not even visit the showroom when she bought the apartment.
Michelle Cheow (MC): How many properties have you owned?
Gerardine Tan (GT): I've always lived with my parents. This is the very first property that I've owned and we've been here about 4 years now. When we got the place, we didn't even see the showflat. All we had was the model and the floorplans. While they were building, we'd swing by every week to see the progress of the project even though not very much was going on.
MC: What then was the determining factor for deciding on this property?
GT: Main things were the price and the location. I think we had a good deal because there were only 2 units left when we were deciding on the purchase and the agent basically wanted to wrap it up because he had to move on to another project. This place is also of equal distance between my parents and my husband's family's place so that was good. I also prefer smaller projects and since this only had 128 units, it fitted my desire. Another important thing was that it must have a basement carpark because I didn't want to be exposed to the elements trying to get home from the carpark. The pool here is very nice as well, about 45 metres, so you can do decent laps. The layout of the unit is also very good because there's no wastage of space.
MC: Are you someone who is into property for investment purposes?
GT: Definitely not. I'm a hoarder, so all I have to think of is the packing when we move and I'll give up on any desire to move away. But seriously though, if you sell high, you also end up buying high and if I were serious about property investment, I'd not be buying a 99 year leasehold property. Did you know that after 60 years in a 99 year leasehold property, any potential buyers of the property will have to cough up cash? No loans granted. So if resale was a high priority, we'd definitely go for freehold and not this one.
MC: Now that's what I call packed with information. Do you keep track of the market?
GT: Not so much for property really but more on stocks and shares with my dad as the ‘advisor'. We've invested in shares for my boy and it's also becoming common practice for my mum to buy him shares as a birthday present. The only methods of keeping in touch with the market, at least for my own property is usually hearsay among the neighbours.
MC: Let's talk about furnishing and design inspiration.
GT: I'm terrible at design. I love to shop but don't know how to put it all together. We shop everywhere, from flea markets for furnishing pieces to neighboring stores for electronics. But design wise, we are pretty random. So I guess, comfort coupled with aesthetics and of course price would be our ‘inspiration'. Quite a lot of my things here are from Chatuchak. The jigsaws I have are from eBay. Keith Haring pieces. Frames are from JB. I'm quite a bargain hunter *guffaws*
MC: I hear you're also a travel shopaholic.
GT: Yes! We love shopping for accent pieces overseas. In fact, there're so many things in the house that's from all over the world. I have lights from Malaysia, London. Clocks from France..
MC: Tell me about that piece of antique-looking sewing machine. Looks like a lot of history behind it.
GT: That belonged to my grandaunt. When she passed on, we took it over. It doesn't really work anymore, I think you need to change something to make it work.
MC: You have 2 lovely kids. Do you child-proof your home?
GT: We try to, especially because mei mei is more tomboyish and she's constantly climbing and exploring. So we did simple things like netting the fan, putting the rubber door stopper and knob protector so they can't lock themselves in. We also get creative by using rubber bands to just tie handles up so they can't open it etc. We left the electrical sockets but we just fixed the grills, again because of tomboy. She loves to climb. But the final alert came when my son said he wanted to be like Superman. It was no longer funny so that very weekend, we headed to IMM and walked into the only shop that had grills. Price no longer mattered at that point.
MC: DIY or pay someone?
GT: My husband. I always DI-him *guffaws*. He's quite a handyman. If there's a short-circuit or something, he knows how to fix it, so I just leave him to it.
MC: What's your favorite part of the house?
GT: I love my bathroom because that's the ONLY place I get peace for 10 minutes. Hence, you see my magazines piled up high in there. Even then I still get some special ‘guest stars' opening the door.
MC: Can you finish this sentence for me? My house..
GT: My house, my home.
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