Conversation overheard…

When I am bored, or need to distract myself from work for a while…I admit that I’ll go into stalker-ish mode on Facebook! Hahah nah, nothing serious…will just look at my friends updates and pictures, stuffs like that. But one thing that really caught my eye today, was a conversation (or advice) between one of my friends and his lil sis.

Lil sis appears to be venting out on FB that she deserves her privacy and went on about how sucky it is to have a curfew (awww….makes me think back on the good ol’ days of being a teenager!). My friend, being the big bro went into advice mode by going on about, how it is dangerous to be out there so late at night, especially with her being a girl – and that he and her other brothers also had curfew when they were her age. And also, their parents mean well when they impose these sorta rules…as it is for her own good.

Mmmm can’t help but feel a bit….sentimental(?) about it. Coz it seems like only yesterday tat we were all fun-loving, (and a lil irresponsible) teenagers who didn’t have a care in the world….and fast forward a few years later, we’ve joined the married club and have rights to tell off and advice the young uns :p

The comment that really made my day was by yet another guy friend, who said: When we were your age, we made it a point (and good habit) to send the girls back before midnight…as it’s not so appropriate for them to be out so late.

Bravo guyss…..you both did really well!

And on another note, am so glad that my parents imposed this curfew rule on me when I was growing up too….despite me resenting them for it on a few occasions

January updates

CNY this year is kinda a quiet affair for us…as we both did not go back home to be with our families. Ticket too expensive for us to go back to both KL and Kch….so we made it back to my place (Kch) for Christmas last December – and plus, MIL is away in the UK with SIL. And oh my, just realised that we’re just days away from saying goodbye to the first month of 2012! Hrmmm but so far, it’s been a good month….with more to look forward to in the months ahead. And one thing that’s high on our list, is to move in to our new nest!

So far, progress has been pretty ok….considering that this month is considered a ‘low month’ where all the workers flee home for CNY. But thank goodness our contractor’s workers are only taking the first 4 days or so off during CNY, and will resume work this Friday again.

What has been happening now is….

Tearing down of false ceiling

 

Hacking away of built in fixtures, tiles and the kitchen wall!

Since our kitchen is considered a bit on the big side compared to most layouts (especially the new flats), thought it’d be good to have a semi-open kitchen…with a glass sliding door segregating it from the dining & living area. Oh, we had to scrap off our initial island idea…coz the walk space area would be kinda tight if we did that. So, just revert back to the classic kitchen layout.

Next to look forward to:
- Completion of tiling works (the master bathroom tiles are 3/4 done)
- Commencement of electrical wiring, false ceiling and carpentary works

Fingers crossed, we can start moving in by end of Feb!

Anyway, here’s the latest updated family photo to share with everyone! Took it when we were back in Dec for Christmas and Grandma’s 90th birthday….

2 of my cousins couldn’t make it back from overseas, so they r missing from the picture. But they’ve come back for CNY, so at least my grandma gets to see them then. Kinda look the same as the last big family picture we took during the 80th birthday (10 yrs ago)…just that there’s now a new family member (i.e. a grandson in law, aka hubby!). Hopefully they’ll be more to add when we take the next one…coz as of now, I’m the only married grandchild on mom’s side of the family

Bye bye 2011!

And just like that, we’re left with just 1 more day before we bid farewell to 2011! Hrmm this year wasn’t exactly an amazing one for me…too many obstacles. But was also fortunate to have some blessings along the way.

Anyway, tomorrow, 31.12.2011 is the day that we have been waiting for…coz the previous owner is finally handing us back the house keys! After requesting for extension and paying us rent….they better give back to us on time. Stupid wife even made a fuss and said they’ll only give us the keys at 9PM wtf?! Hello, u don wanna celebrate NYE, we got dinner plans leh. Stop thinking about yourself for once can? Nobody owes you anything! *breathes* *cool down* (while enjoying a mental image of my mixing a potent potion in Papa Smurf’s lab to pour on her already ugly hair…mwahahahahhaha)

On another note, me and hubby has been sort of getting ready to start one of our new year resolutions….

Yes yes, anyone would have guessed that we might be planning to have a baby next year. Coz I did say before, house comes first…then baby. So, I started taking this pre-conception supplement 3 days ago to get my body up to speed (i.e. regulate my ovulation, cos sometimes it can have a mind of its own), and increase our chances of having a happy, healthy and smart bundle of joy. Ohh…apparently the dragon year is a good year to have babies too. Oh well, whatever…since I’ve got a couple of dragon babies from my side of the family already…the more the merrier right?

So, all the best to us…and all the couples out there who are planning to conceive by next year too. Fingers crossed, we’ll have a ‘Christmas baby’! Hrmm…maybe by then it’ll be time to start a new blog for the new chapter of my life. No more blogging as a newly wed…but this time as a mom-to-be.

Oh well….that’s it for now. Again, if I don’t get here in time….Happy New Year to everyone! May 2012 brings lots of joy and happiness to you all

The end of another year again!

Since I have TOO much time on my hands right now, thought I’d do a simple ‘year-end’ post…something which I have (almost) always been doing, every since the day I started thing whole blogging thing. Oh, and it could be because I’m kinda bored and feeling rather unsettled, since hubby has been away on business trip for 2 weeks now. Well, I did went down to KL last weekend to spend time with him (and be treated like a princess hehe) before we came back to Sg on Monday and he flew off again to BKK and Phnom Penh. Grrrr I miss having someone to annoy me at home…especially one who loves talking to me even while I’m sleeping

Anyway…thank goodness this year we’ll be spending Christmas with my family back in Kuching rather than staying back here in Sg. If I remembered correctly, I had to work later on Xmas eve last year at my previous company….NOT SO COOL! Oh, and we’ll also be celebrating my granny’s 90th birthday this time round too. Get this: granny gets 3 birthday dinners to celebrate this huge occasion of hers! Hubby says it’s like her 2nd wedding or smth…hahah.

So, things that we are looking forward to in the new year:

• Reno, reno, reno….which will commence on 3 January 2012! Owners will be handing the keys to us on 31 Dec 2011, if not earlier. So excited…can’t wait to move into our new place and to finally have a nest that we can call our own.
• Parents coming down to visit and staying with us. Yes…now it’s their call to come down here rather than us going back to kch. Can’t afford air tickets anymore now that we’re full of debts coz of the house!
• Baking yummy cakes, cupcakes and muffins with our new oven! Oh, and hubby says he expects roasts too…hrmm guess will have to get tips from the boss, who’s an expert in these things.
• Planning for a dragon (Christmas) baby! Hahah yea yea, been asked, “So, planning for a baby soon?”. We’re working on it, and will get at it when we’ve moved to the new place. Fingers crossed, we’ll have a cute and cuddly bundle of joy by Christmas next year

Anyway, in case I don get here in time for Christmas (which is highly possible), here’s us wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Us having a fabulous time in Bali!

Of new house keys and lots of drama

So, we’ve finally gotten our house keys about a month ago…just weeks before we came back from our 2nd honeymoon trip to Bali (more about that in another post…when I get to it!). Well….this is it…we’re finally the official owners of the house altho the previous owners r currently still squatting in there while waiting to fulfill the requirements at their new place.

Hrmph, talking about this…I’ve seriously never met such a weird person as the owner’s wife! Why would anyone make such a big fuss over an agreement to lock one of the room doors in order to protect both parties (yes, she’s agreed to it at the point in time…altho in a rush). Reason she’s objecting now? Coz she didn’t make such arrangements with the owners of their new place, and it’s too late to do so anymore. Oh wells, woman…just too bad for you and why is this relevant to me all of a sudden?! Hrmm ure lucky u speak no english or God knows what I’ll spew out if you really go overboard.

Anyways…all’s good so far…as our main aim now is to get them to move out asap so our home renovation can start. Mmmmm and talking about home renos….we’ve fired our ID, finally! Hahahah. Ok fine, it’s mean to laugh….but really, she brought it upon herself. Hello, first by doing a half-arsed job on the 3D designs, when we’ve explained it so clearly to her so many time. Secondly, for ignoring our emails when we pointed out her mistakes so that she could make the amendments (which we have not seen any of…*yawn). And lastly…you’re an ID so you should be the one suggesting on the many wonderful ways how we can improve the design of our new home. So, what the heck is hubby doing flipping through the mags frantically to look for the alternative design?! The reason we wanted and ID and not a CONTRACTOR is so that we don have to do such things. Hrmphh…anyway, bye bye to you…and hello to our new contractor, who is the dad of hubby’s friend. So far, we’re really happy with his feedback and service. Not only is he energetic and pro-active (he’s even hurried us to submit our floor plans to apply for the HDB permit…the previous ID could not even be bothered to do so!), he’s giving us exactly what we want at a much lower price too! Plus some freebies….which is always good. And he’s brought us to the show units that he has been doing to show us the workmanship. So yayy….Contractor=10, ID=0.

Apart from that, I seriously cannot believe how broke we both r getting every month…what with putting deposits in for furnitures and stuff….and more initial payments *wailss* Yes, no more nice fancy dinners for us anymore and no more shopping and pampering for me…Booooo!

Things for the house that we have secured: Beds, L-shape sofa, dining table set, TV console, coffee table that comes with little leather stools, toilet ware and shower set (almost, contractor is taking care of it and is using his personal connection with the boss of the shop to help us get more discounts), LED TV for the living room (this, I loveee….for it comes with a blu-ray player at a discounted price).

On the other hand, I seriously cannot believe how small the new HDB flats r getting! Gosh, it’s even way smaller than the resale one that we bought. If this is the case, don’t think we’ll be wasting time to bid on the new flats ever in the future. Hello gahmen, u want us to have more babies? Pls make the houses bigger!! How the heck r we ever gonna fit everyone in such a sad shoebox?!

3D Design of our love nest

After weeks of waiting, we’re finally getting the keys to our new home next week! Altho, the current owners will still be staying there till end Dec as they need time to fulfill the loan terms of their new place. So, technically the house is still ours by next Thursday (20/10/2011)…and technically the owners will be like renting from us! mwahahahha

And so, we have also gotten the 3D design of our home renovation project from our ID. Altho it’s not really the final version, as there are a few things that she missed out and some issues that we have yet to iron out together with her.

Anyway, here are some initial peeks at a few corners of our home. Do note that these pics are not really 100% representative of the actual thing….at best, it’s like maybe 90% of what the real thing looks like.

My precious kitchen with the island! Yes hubs, good job on coming up with the perfect kitchen for me. Now, let’s see what we can do with the current hideous wall…coz it’s nowhere as nice as the white tiles that the ID has used in this picture.

Our master bedroom. Almost similar, just that we won’t be using the same bookshelf nor will we be wallpaper-ing the entire wall. Will only have a feature wall section opposite (not shown here), where we will mount out TV. If only our bedroom door was that nice too…sigh

Our master bathroom…still need to reconsider the tiles, it’s just not standing out enough. Also, we are worried about the rainshower thingy…coz we were told that the water pressure in HDB flats is not strong enough, so you won’t be bathing under the rain but just a slight drizzle! Sighh is it that bad? But…we both love the rainshower!!

Oh well…we’re still at an early stage I suppose, since our reno is not due to start till Jan 2012. Will update more as we make more progress along the way.

On another note, it never occurred to me that the basic stuffs costs so much in SG!! (e.g. toilet bowl, basin, water tap etc)…and don’t even get me started on the lights!! FML thank goodness some items we can be a lil cheapo and make a trip down to JB to get them (ahem…lights! hahah).

Looks like it’s gonna be busy busy for the next few months for both of us.

 

 

Next mission: Kitchen Island Design

Yipeeee….we’ll be getting the keys to our flat next month! And in the meantime, we’ve been busying ourselves over the weekend to do some research on some home designs (after work hours for hubby – sadly, I sometimes take work back to do…so not much time for forum-ing).

What we’ve done so far:

• Selected tiles for both bathrooms
• Selected the required laminate (kitchen top, vanity top in master bathroom, our customised study table that can fit us both in the master bedroom, built-in wardrobe, shoe cabinet)

Yet to choose:

• Wallpaper for our TV feature wall (living room and master bedroom)
  This is kinda tricky, coz so far we have not seen a design that we both love to bits. There were quite a few “pretty ok ones” and our complaint was that, it looks beautiful on print but the actual sample colour looks kinda dull. Hrmm so this will put aside first…will wait for the 3D design of our layout (our ID will match our wall colours accordingly) and then we’ll decide on wallpaper then.

And now, we’ve sort of found a solution for our kitchen problem. Well, not really problem….but here’s the deal:

We were kinda blessed to have found this great unit really. Not only have we got a spacious living hall and bedrooms, our kitchen is also quite roomy and comes with a service balcony (laundry area) too! For those who are like thinking what the heck am I blabbering about, here’s a little intro to HDB living in Singapore. Most HDB flats (especially the newer ones) are kinda small and compact so space is really an issue here – and the problem is how to make use of the tiny space that’s available. Not only is the living room small, the bedrooms also come in weird shapes which make it a challenge for home owners to position their room furniture nicely (some are L-shaped others come in like some weird hexagonal shape). On top of that, the kitchen is really tiny too.

So yeah, that’s why I feel blessed to have at least considerable amount of space in our future home! But with it, comes another problem: what to do with the space…without breaking our renovation budget?! Especially so in the kitchen. We’ve filled up one side with kitchen counter that comes with stove, oven and sink – plus kitchen cabinets above. And we still have space over the other side as it only contains our fridge placement and nothing else! So darn empty and disturbing to the eyes.

Today, after spending the whole afternoon with our ID…we’ve finally found a solution: 1) build another row of kitchen cabinet over the other side to fill up the space (but we don’t need that much space! And i tink too much space is not necessarily a good thing – you tend to collect all sorts of rubbish.) or 2) hack the wall that seperates the kitchen from the living/dining area and have an open concept kitchen (this, we like) with a ‘kitchen island’ like those western style kitchens (we like this even better!).

So that was that then…we were sold! My eyes were beaming and hubby was kinda happy to see me satisfied. Coz he told me his mission was to build me my dream kitchen (pfftt and expects me to cook up a storm for him often!) and I have been kinda indifferent when he talks about the kitchen ideas. Too busy and stressed with work lately…hahha. So yeah, we still need to go down to the flat with our ID for a site visit and measure things up to confirm this idea…but no worries, plenty of time for this. Reno can only start in Jan 2012 anyway, coz the owners need time to move out of the place.

In the meantime, I’ve been surfing for nice kitchen island pictures:

Hubs joked by saying that we could probably use the island to change the diapers of our kids next time -_-
Yeah, and since the sink is nearby…y not just give them a bath in the sink rite? LOLL

So that’s that. Other ideas that we have lined up are:

• There’s gonna be touches of vintage throughout the house *heart* – and what I have in mind so far are:
  - Vintage typewriter (was searching desperately online only to be disappointed…they’re all so exp wth. Till mom told me that we do have it at our home in Kuching…and we’ve got 2! Decided to take the older one that belonged to my paternal grandad, and insisted that I wanna send it for polishing and paint it baby pink. Dad, being the expert in areas like woodwork and such, says he will do it for me! Ooohh…just perfect. Asked how am I gonna pay him….why, with love of course…wahhahaha)
  - Our black record guest book from our wedding last year! Ohhh, nearly forgot about this too.
  - A black+white pop art pic of Audrey Hepburn….yummmm
• Gonna have the house in ‘wooden-like’ laminate flooring. Feels so comfy to step on…and seems like it’s the trend these days. Easier to sweep too in some ways.

Will update more as we go along….esp after getting our keys next month.

Till then, here’s to us being hours away to our 1st Wedding Anniversary tomorrow (wow, has it been 1 year already?!) and our 2nd honeymoon trip to Bali the week after!

 

Our Home Search

As mentioned in my previous post, we finally decided to take the plunge…and look for a home in Singapore to call our own. Huge step for us…coz it’s gonna be the BIGGEST purchase in our lives! But anyway, we needed a love nest anyway…so we can start filling it with lil juniors hehe

Anyway, the start of the long house hunting process was rather painful for us. Mind you, it was at the time when property prices in Sg were at its peak. It didn’t really bother us that the actual valuation of the house was high, coz this can be covered by our mortgage which will be deduced from our monthly CPF contribution. What really irks us is the cash premium that we have to pay the sellers. In Singapore, when one buys a resale HDB flat…a Cash Over Valuation (COV) is needed. Some ppl say this is to cover whatever renovation works that have been carried out by the Seller. Hrmm…to me..this is plain rubbish…but what can we do? We still need to find a house!

So, the first few houses were rather dissapointing.

First house: Owner is not staying in the unit, but instead RENTED out the whole unit to 9 China people! (No offense to anybody reading this blog who might fall into this category, or are affiliated with the country in one way or another). Well, it was a jaw-dropping experience for us alright. Picture this: Floor was filled with dirt (the agents asked us not to take off our shoes), kitchen cabinets was falling off, toilets were beyond disgrace (seriously, even the public toilets were cleaner!), and the rooms were disastrous! Double bunks lined up in weird patterns and clothes and stuffs were strewn everywhere! OMG, i couldn’t even think when I was inside the house! Asking COV? 30K thanks, but no thanks!

Second house: Very normal and plain looking. Unoccupied at the moment. Didn’t like it coz the living room layout was in some weird L-shaped. Plus, the block was still undergoing lift upgrading, hence not paid. Really bad for Singapore PRs, coz we will get billed S$20K, unlike citizens who pay only about $2k.

Third house: OMG, we loved it. Big, spacious and nicely renovated! Drawback? Asking COV is 40k…which we were not willing to pay at that time. Hrmm…got to let it go *heartbroken*

Rested and stopped the house search after that as prices were getting too crazy! Started again a month later.

Won’t get into the nitty gritty by going through each and every one, so will just skip towards almost the end of our journey okays?

I think it was our 8th or 9th house. We were kinda desperate already by then as there were rumours that the prices will be getting even higher in weeks to come. Decided to offer 36k on one of our “second choice” house. Seller’s agent says the seller will only close at 42k. Whatt…u got to be kidding me. The house wasn’t even majorly renovated and we still need to do some renovation works of our own! Hrmphh decided to let that be…only to have the seller’s agent call our agent a few days later. “Seller is keen to take your offer. Why don’t you come down with your clients on Wednesday and we’ll close the deal by then? I will get him to close at 36k!”
So off we went to the house on that day….only to find a BUNCH of people coming to view/offer on the unit as well! GRRRR we felt like chopping off the agent’s head….we were cheated. Seems like we were up against another buy (couple from China). Was pretty discouraged by then, coz China people = lots of money! No way we can win their offer. Seller agent asked our agent what’s the highest we can go. We told him 38K. He called back later to tell us the other buyers r offering 39K, do we want to up that. No thank you very much….we are not interested! Stupid agent…playing slick games with us @#$%^&

Pressured our agent (who’s also hubby’s friend) to find a better house for us. And, just like that…we walked into our 10th house…and felt at ease and at home…like it belonged to us! We can actually imagine what we were gonna do with the house. Not only was the unit very spacious, the owners did a fair bit of renovation works as well. Owner asked for 40K and we gave that amount….signed and sealed the deal on that day!

Pheww…we felt so relieved after that…finally we have found our home. Altho it’s kinda far frm the city, but at least it’s home. So right now, we will be having our first appointment in 2 weeks time…and 6 weeks after that, we will be having the keys to our house! Yipeeee

But we can’t do anything to it till end of Dec tho…as the current owners need the extra time to clear their loan and to fulfill the conditions of their new house.

Oh well, a bit extra time for us to save more money i guess. Let’s just hope that our renovation works can be done in time for CNY! *shivers*

Task for now: Look for a suitable contractor/Interior designer to do up our new home!

Oopps…i did it again!

Oh no, what have I done to my poor blog?!

Apologies to anyone who might be still lurking around here (umm like nobody??). I guess life got a bit busy for me since my last post! And wow, how fast time flies….come next month, we’ll have been married for 1 year already…and a second honeymoon coming a few weeks after that.

Anyway, just to recap what we have been up to throughout the year:

• I left the world of advertising for good…through a weird series of events. Must say that it’s one of the best decisions that I have made, to date. I feel more motivated in my job now, with a writing style that’s more suitable for me.
• We were forced to look for a new room to rent, as the owner wanted to take back the unit. Managed to find one just a few blocks away….which led us to make a massive decision (refer to next point)
• Sick of the increasing room rentals and the thought of having to shift everytime the owner suddenly decides to take back the unit…we have decided to PURCHASE our own FLAT! Hahah yep, we did plan to take this route eventually…just didn’t expect it to be so soon. Anyway, we need a place of our own to start a family here anyway…heheh
• We went on a roller coaster ride in finding our dream home…urghhh tiring! But thank goodness we have secured it now and will expect to receive our keys by the end of the year. [More on this in the next post]

The year that was…

Yes, we’re back from our honeymoon in Korea…but I’ll get to posting up some pics here later on.

For now, since we’re left with only a few days till the end of 2010…thought I’d do a reflective post on the year that was.

In 2010:

• We started the year as a somewhat newly engaged couple. Have started doing some wedding prep before 2010 officially took off – mostly booking vendors and such first.
• Spent my last Chinese New Year back in Kuching, as a singleton too! Don’t know when will be the next time I’ll be back for the first few days of CNY and bake dad’s fav fruit cake.
• Did the necessary paperwork for our Registration of Marriage in Singapore…and booked our desired date too! All done online, no worries.
• Got measured for our custom-made gowns and suits…oh, what a fun process that was.
• Attended the mandatory pre-marriage course with the church – ours was a special one-on-one session arranged by the mom…as we didn’t have time to do the full weekend courses in a month.
• Was upset with the Bangkok political unrest, as it affected our pre-honeymoon trip. But thank goodness we managed to re-route it to Phuket instead – so we had a short island getaway for a bit of R&R.
• Had our ROM in Singapore with my cousins as our witnesses.
• Had our pre-wedding shoot in Kuching with Edwin, our photographer. Fun but tiring…and we were all dehydrated at the end of the day!
• Went back for my first hens night in Kuching where we all did a bunch of crazy stuff for the last time (for me). Also attended our school reunion dinner, where it was nice to see everyone again after so long.
• Got pissed drunk for the first time in my life, courtesy of my friends during the hens night! Yes, to them this means it was a success :p
• Celebrated my 29th birthday at Morton’s with hubby – it’s also been 1 yr since he proposed here.
• Colleagues threw me a 2nd hens night (honestly, i think they r just trying to find a reason to get drunk!). No, I didn’t get drunk this time [much to their disappointment], as I’m smarter now – I get the others drunk! And what fun it was to watch that….esp the guys!
• Flew back to Kch again for our actual day wedding. All I can remember is me rushing rushing rushing those few days b4 the big day, and surrounded by our nearest and dearest who went out of their way to help make it smooth flowing for us.
• Our KL reception was a week after…this one, was a disaster – and we both didn’t enjoy it as much.
• 101010 marked the 2nd time for me getting drunk, during my cousin’s birthday celebration at a club. Hey, I had a very long week then – 2 job interviews, 1 half job offer (which I decide to forgo, as I can’t stand the would-be boss), 1 full job offer (which I accepted) and a resignation to tender. At my old workplace, resignations are like a stigma or smth…for the person who gives in the letter will be the most hated person on earth for the entire duration of their notice period. So yeah, I had ALL the reasons to go crazy and get pissed then…hahaha
• Started the new job…so far, so good.
• Went for our honeymoon to Korea and saw snow for the first time! Went skiing too, but don’t tink I wanna do it again…next time, I’ll opt for snowboarding.