Photos of our future home ~ Aspella

Front View - Fr the extreme right, the grey coloured is our master bedroom, followed by bedroom 3, bedroom 2 and lastly the full length window is our living room..........


Side View


Board Showing Contract Period : 15 September 2004 to 02 August 2007. So will our flat be ready by 02 August 2007 ? ? ? ? ?

The Road to WIS 2006 ~ Aspella

Today's entry will share the rocky road to our dream home. The very first application was Balloting in Toa Payoh. We applied because we felt that Toa Payoh is central of Singapore. As we don't own a car, it will be very convenient for us. We went to see the site which was in the initial stage of construction. It was estimated to be ready by 2008 and is 40th storey high with sky garden. We were very fascinated and send in our application. We had high hopes and waited anxiously for the results to be released. However, we were greatly disappointed when we realised that we were not shortlisted for selection. Thinking back, we were very lucky that we weren't shortlisted as the price of the flats very too steep for us to afford. It was indeed a blessing in disguise. Then came along BTO Coralinus 2 @ Punggol Central which was launched on 14th February 2006. The close proximity to Punggol Interchange prompted us to send in our application on the very first day. We analysed the site map and selected our potential units. I went to the extend to buy 4D of my desired unit #09-233. Guess what ? 9235 opened instead in the 3rd prize category !! Is it a bad omen ? After all the excitement and dreams we had, the shortlisting results were finally released. Jere & I were shortlisted but our queue no. 576 was way behind in the queue. With only 369 units available, our future home suddenly looked so bleak. The take-up rate was very good, leaving only low levels by the time it was our turn. We did not turn up on the day of selection. We patiently waited for the next BTO to be launched. Fernvale Vista was launched after a long wait in July 2006. Fernvale Vista is located just opposite Fernvale LRT and a small shopping mall with wet market. The location is quite convenient, again we applied for this BTO, hoping to obtain a good queue number. The waiting time for the results to be released was very long and unbearable. Finally the results we released and we were shortlisted, with queue no. 506. Initially, we were very happy and excited because the queue no. was better than our previous. However, the happiness was short lived, we soon realised that we were stuck in the same situation as Coralinus 2. This was our 3rd application and we were getting very demoralised. However, Jere was quite optimistic and urge me not to give up til the end. However, I selfishly didn't want to compromise to select the units I didn't want. He respected my decision and I really appreciated it very much. DBSS @ Tampines was next on the line. It is the first pilot project of public housing built by a private developer. The balcony was a pull factor. The showflat was very impressive. However, the price is sky rocket high and the payment method was progressive payment. After calculating our finances, we were not able to afford to pay fully through CPF, cash also have to be paid upfront. We decided not to apply for it. We were quite dejected after the failed attempts to secure our future home. WIS 2006 for Hougang, Sengkang & Punggol was scheduled to be released in 4th quarter. We decided to turn our attention to it, after doing research and analysis regarding WIS, we placed all our hopes on it. WIS works on a first come first serve basis, fate was in our hands, we have to work hard ourselves to ensure we got a good queue number. Everyday I woke up at 6.15am to check the newspapers for the advertisement, while Jere checks his email for the HDB Alert. The first few days were uneventful. Then BTO Geylang was launched. We were greatly disappointed. However, we continued to perserve. 2 weeks have passed and still no news. We were thinking of not checking till BTO Geylang ends, but I told Jere to stop checking for email and I will check newspaper as usual. We were very fortunate, WIS launch on Monday, 6th November 2006. I woke up at 6.20am, with a heavy heart I checked the newspapers as usual. When I saw the advertisement, my heart almost dropped and I call Jere immediately. He was shocked too as we never expected WIS to be launched.

The Day is Finally Here~~!!!!

The Day is Finally Here~~!!!! We showed our Kaisu Singaporean trait today. Our appointment was at 10am, however arrived at 8am. After breakfast, we went to HDB to monitor the situation. There were a lot of people there already, all staring at the screen. I sat beside a girl, she also done her homework, shortlisting a lot of units. Her queue number was around 80+. Almost all the applicants turned up, we had a long long wait. We were quite restless, while waiting so we went to look at the housing models. We felt very relaxed as our choice units were not the hot favourites for the applicants before us. As the queue no. increases, the anxiousness followed. At 11.15am, our queue no. was called. We managed to secure our 1st choice unit, Aspella @ Compassvale Link. After all the paperwork, we were hungry and headed to MOS Burger for lunch. We were very excited and decided that we should visit the site since we didn't have time before the selection. We were delighted to know that our block was one of the fastest in progress, our block was already ready with window panes and painted in white. The sun was shinning brightly, the afternoon sun shone partially into our living room. The bedrooms were 'spared' from the blazing afternoon sun. We were very satisfied with our choice unit, looking forward to the day we take possession of the keys.

WIS November 2006

We were on standby everyday after Fernvale Vista selection ended. We were so disappointed when HDB launch BTO Geylang. However, we continue to perserve as we strongly believe that WIS will be launched soon. WIS 2006 finally launched on the 6th November 2006, Monday. Luckily we din't give up, I woke up 5 minutes later as I was on leave that day. When i saw the advertisement, I quickly called Jere to wake him up. I also rushed to wash up and change. Jere reached there first at around 7.15am. He called me to direct me to the queue. He told me he estimated our queue number to be around 150 to 200. When I arrived, I saw a lot of people. I wonder how all these people get to know about the launch. Did they also wake up to read newspaper or got inside info ?? While waiting for the queue numbers to be given out, we occupied our time by reading the info booklets. The queue no. where finally given out around 8am. As we were approaching the counter, we tried to make a guess of our queue no., I chose 150 and he chose 300. When we got our queue no., we both were surprised !! 0074 ..... We were overjoyed, all the early morning were worthwhile..... After paying the $10 (we had paid $40 in total), we left with an appointment date on 8th November 06, Wednesday to book the flat.