Kim Tian HDB #8 - Our HDB Second Appointment

We gotta our house keys on my BDAE!

Timing just nice right?

This day was also the auspicious day for the 'open door ceremony'!

See us tugging our barang barang for our new house.

Pic above: The logistics personnel 

Pic above: Arrival at Toa Payoh HDB Hub

Pic above: HDB insurance purchase and waiting for our queue number to be 'called'.

We are on time! Unbelievable? haha...

Professional Francis reached earlier than us, but seller was late.

So we went up to 2nd level to purchase the Etiqa Homeowners Enhanced Insurance 

(inclusive of fire insurance) first.

See the scanned doc below for more details.

Pic above: Details of Etiqa Homeowners Enhanced Insurance 

Pic above: Receipt for the 5 years insurance policy

After purchasing the insurance, we went down to 1st level to wait for seller

while Francis went to get our queue number.

Ok, our queue number is 8032, in case any friends interested to buy 4D.

My mum bought it on that following Saturday, but never win leh.

So while waiting....

Pic above: Trying to act not excited... haha

Seller was still not here when it's our turn.

Not sure whether she was having a last minute change in mind, don't want to sell to us?

Strangely, during our HDB inspection visit, she asked us a few times whether we wanna forgo the unit.

Said we first timers may be disadvantaged due to the new HDB rules.

But we were told by others maybe she regretted selling?

As she has just upgraded to private property, but the new HDB rules disallowed people with private property to buy resale HDB unit? Hmm... dunno...

Francis later told us that she was caught in a meeting.

Pic above: Getting keys for new house!

We met Derek again, our friendly and smiley HDB officer.

He doesn't frown when i snapped here and there too.

He was busy calling the seller's representative when we reached.

Pic above: Final Resale HDB Agreement

 

Yes, and we finally gotta our keys!

Most most expensive purchase in our life so far!

Thereafter, we immediately headed back to our new house.

We arranged for the utilities person to come, scared we may miss him.

But too bad, it was raining really heavily, so had to drive slow.

It was heavy rain on our HDB first appointment too!

Pic above: Heavy rain when leaving HDB Hub

Pic above: Opening door of our house first time

We didn't catch the utilities guy in time.

So we arranged for him to come the next day,

coz we need electricity for a mini alcohol party. hee...

Nevertheless, 'Mr Nice Guy' managed to on our water source

after some DIY tips from the PUB officer on phone.

Wah! Expert!

To share with future home-owners, our expenses during our HDB second appointment are:

1) Etiqa Homeowners Enhanced Insurance for 5 years = S$375.5 (Nets)

2) Pro-rated Property tax (Oct-Dec) = S$52 (Cash)

3) Agent fees

X♥X♥

Kim Tian HDB #5 - Auspicious Date to "Open Door"

Mummy said that based on Chinese customs, we should have a simple ritual ceremony on an auspicious date to open our house’s door for the first time after collecting our keys.

Heard from friends that they also do so. Thus we reasoned out that it's best we just follow accordingly for “peace of mind” and good luck. Huat ah! :)

How to select auspicious date and timing?
Auspicious dates and times are usually selected by either consulting
* chinese geomancer,
* chinese monk,
* temple official,
* fortune teller,
* chinese calendar, or
* chinese almanac.

We went to consult a lady geomancer today. Mummy gave us the address, said her friends and friends’ children also go to this lady geomancer to select auspicious date.

She’s a very patient and nice lady in her 50s, can only speak mandarin.

We previously went to consult her on our solemnization date, thus she already has our birth dates.

I actually wanted to take some pics, but Mr Nice Guy said it’s disrespectful. So no pics loh! :(

What to expect?

A)  First, she chose a suitable auspicious date and time according to the ‘Tong Shu’ (The Chinese Almanac) based on our birth dates. This date is for “Open door”, “Earth-deity thanking ritual” (‘Xie Tu’) and ‘Dong Tu’ (move the ground literally, means commencement of renovation).

B)  Then she wrote down the items that we need to get for the ritual. This is to pay greetings to the earth-deity as the new owners for wealth and happiness.

Pic above: Geomancer's list of items to prepare

               Translated in english, items include:

                  1. 1 'Fa gao' 发糕 (means prosperity cake)

                  2. 5 Oranges

                  3. 1 Pineapple

                  4. A bunch of banana

                  5. Joss sticks

                  6. A pair of candles

                  7. Joss papers

                  8. Tea leaves

                  9. Sweet – for good fortune

                   (read it somewhere coz God of Fortune loves sweet stuff.

                    Just like during CNY, people also put sweet stuff to invite God of Fortune.)

C)  She also advised after the ritual, we need to sprinkle a mixture of rice and salt at all corners and cannot sweep it away for 3 days.

As both of us dunno anything about the custom, we asked a lot of questions on the procedure, what to say for prayer, the facing direction of the ritual, how to arrange the items, when to do what etc.

Wah, I must say she’s super patient. She explained in details to all our questions, while I quickly scribbled on a paper. Seeing how lost we were, she even write another note on what we have to say when we offer prayers to the earth deity.


Time and cost?

The whole session took around half an hour.

She does not has a fixed charge, but accepts ‘angbow’ (red packet) instead where you give an amount to your ability and liking. We have previously given her a red packet when we consulted her on our solemnization date. Mummy said this time gives $12 so we just followed suit.

What we like?

She’s very warm and not the kind to ask you to buy this and that. Very friendly and patient as she knows we are first timer buying flat and we do not have a single clue, she takes the effort to explain the ritual in details to us.  Also, she does not charge exorbitant fees to choose an auspicious date, I heard my friends paying $100 or more to choose a date. Also, she said if we have any further questions about the procedure, we can give her a call. Very nice! :)

Cons?

She can only write and speak Chinese, so there may be things that we don’t understand from her note.  But when we asked her, she will immediately tell us what’s the word etc.

Found some other recommendations online on moving house... for those who may be interested:

1.   Don't move house when there is a pregnant woman in the family, or at least the pregnant woman should not be at the scene on the day of moving.

2.   At the day of moving, say good things, and avoid any dispute.

3.   Organize a 'house-warming' party for lunch or dinner; the presence of guests would bring favourable 'Yang/Sheng Qi' to the house.

4.   There is no need to move 'everything' in at the appointed date.

5.   Any charms or talismans at the old house should be properly disposed off.

X♥X♥