A Dream Home in Gertak Sanggul?

We went to Gertak Sanggul the other day fully expecting to find serene fishing village, beautiful beaches, wide open sea and clear blue sky, and we did find all of those; but, we also found something rather unusual for a small village filled with typical old Kampung Cina houses - we found a small housing development with only two rows of double-story bungalows (OK, I know bungalows are supposed to be only single-storied, but I need to speak Malaysian, right?)

The picture below shows one that is for sale:


Naturally, our curiosity was piqued, so we started looking around.

Now, as you go into the nice little housing area, you will find around a dozen houses like the one you see in the picture above, on either side of you. These are completed units (in fact, they were completed more than three years ago), while further down the road, you will find another two rows of about two dozen houses of a different design being constructed. Different in design, but also having a somewhat Northern European influence, like the completed ones.

***

We found out a bit later from one of the house owners who was cycling around for some exercise that the completed units (one of which he owns) are double-story, as they appear on the outside, with four rooms (three upstairs, one downstairs) and three bathrooms (two up, one down) and his row has got particularly spacious backyards. The ones still under construction are one-and-a-half story houses, with only the master room upstairs, but nevertheless has got THREE bedrooms downstairs (the first thing that came across my mind: ideal for households with elders), albeit with a smaller living room (personally, I don't care about that).

Anyway, the bad news is, those under construction are mostly snatched up already, with only a couple of units left that are on the furthest end, near the foot of the hill ("anyway," that nice fellow who talked to us reassured us that, "the hill is basically solid rock; they had to dynamite it just to get the construction started, so there's no worry about landslide." He's a local, so he's supposed to know).

A further bad news: those 1-1/2 story houses will set you back at least RM390,000. But RM450,000 is more likely. Ouch.

What about that completed unit up for grab (as shown in the picture above)?

The owner is asking for RM560,000. You can maybe haggle that down to around RM54x,xxx, but don't expect to go below the half-million line. :-(

Call a Mr. Lim if you are interested:


***

Anyway, back to our adventure:

That nice local house-owner suddenly offered (we tend to get this kind of offer; in fact, that's how we ended up buying our house in Nibong Tebal) to take us into his home for a look-see.

And we accepted his offer.

He had added some further decoration and furnishing to his home. The ones that I remember are: around 10 thousand for the tiles in the front porch (Ouch! I said to myself), around 7 thousand for the nice, tidy looking lawn (ouch! ouch!), and then there are those usual internal decors (I did not even dare to really take note of the figure).

We were looking around the kitchen when a head poked in suspiciously and cautiously from the living room. She saw me first, and I waved "hi" to her, and she was startled. From where she stood, she couldn't see her husband. I suddenly felt like the stranger that I was.

***

It was not that the fellow's wife did not welcome us, but I felt a little embarrassed, and was all for a hasty retreat, so I made some excuse about the time being late, and bade farewell to the nice young couple who let us two strangers into their home.

But while walking out, my wife struck up a conversation with the mistress of the house and there, in the front porch, we had a further ten minutes of chat.

Towards the end of the conversation, the master of the house asked me, "So, are you considering buying a house here?"

Faced with that straightforward question, I suddenly came up with an answer that I later realized to be truer than I had meant at that time, "Not really. My wife might be posted anywhere after her training is over, so it really is not the best time to start thinking about where to find a permanent residence. In fact, the house we bought in Nibong Tebal is now left untenanted."

And that is very true. It really is not the time to be looking around for dream houses.

***

Besides (and this I didn't say to that nice chap), I really, really do not have half a million with me to buy that house. :-p




Epilogue
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At home that night, I suddenly said to my wife, "We need to pray for that house we visited, particularly that it should not get burglarized."

"Why?"

"Well, if the house gets broken into within the next few days, we would be the prime suspects, wouldn't we? It's like, we were scouting out the area."

"My, you've got a point!"

***

Moral of the story: don't simply accept the invitation to go into an apparently rich household.