serendipitous finds

First they found the perfect flat for their family of six, then the ideal buyer for their old place—and now they patiently wait for gorgeous secondhand furnishings to turn up on Carousell. Good things come to those who wait!

Like many parents, Rachel used to set out at the crack of dawn to drive her eldest daughter to school.

The long, daily commute was exhausting, and so was sharing her small home with a sizable family, comprising three kids, herself and her husband, and their old dog Blue.

The search for a new home was thus born from the need to simplify things and give themselves more room to breathe. “We wanted a house closer to school, and a house we could grow into for the next phase of family life,” Rachel shares.

It took three months of searching property listings online before they came across the current place: a 36-yearold maisonette with unique architectural features, located in the tranquil neighbourhood of Lorong Ah Soo.

“We were its first viewers that weekend, and fell in love with the airy space and its potential,” Rachel recounts on Instagram. The original owners still occupied the flat and had kept it in great condition over the years. Although somewhat of an impulsive choice, the house ticked every box and warranted an offer—which they made the very next day.

Selling their previous home was the more nerve-racking part, with few viewings and lacklustre offers coming in as the weeks passed by. “Buying a house before even listing ours up for sale was a huge risk,” says Rachel. “Every night we prayed with the kids to find a buyer who could give us a long extension for the renovation period and who would love our ground-floor HDB flat as much as we do and be willing to pay a fair price.”