Xmas extravaganza

Christmas season is always a good time to indulge in buying gifts for ourselves and families. We started off quite well, in fact 3 weeks before Xmas. we found ourselves looking at those nicely done up xmas trees in shopping malls and pictured these assorted trees right in our home, flashing its multicolored lightings and its prismatic accessories dangling all around. "We'll get one for our new home this year." We thought.

In Ikea, there were many different kind of assortments to choose from. We liked the idea of having only a single colored ornaments on the tree and chosen red from the varieties of gold, black, purple and silver in the stockpile. The ornaments comes in shapes of seashells, spiral, star and spherical forms with glossy or matt finishings. There was also a string of ball lights, each light was encapsulated in a white ping-pong ball-like capsule and non-flickering. This would look very nice on the tree with the all red ornaments. We snapped 3 boxes of ornaments and the lights into our baskets and checkout.

We thought of buying the tree from Giant when we saw it was advertised for only $19.90. But upon seeing the tree, we decided not to get it because the greens are quite bare. We wanted a tree that looked lush and healthy, even though it is a fake tree! "We will get a better tree in Concourse next week ." We thought.

As next week unfolds, von received news that she has to go to Suzhou again for 2weeks. So we decided that we will not be getting the Xmas tree this year. As for the ornaments we had bought, we returned to Ikea intact and unopened. They has this 30-day returned policy... :) Its a pity though but I'm sure we willget the xmas tree again next year.

Merry Xmas to all.

First Post

Have been urged by Ethan to contribute to this blog ever since the "birth" of nanny blog. It's really sweet of him to start this blog and I enjoy reading each and every post. Have always been looking forward to read more but the rate of the posting is inconsistent and slow.

Ethan usually does his postings when I am outstation. When I am around, he will give all sort of excuses to delay his posting. Well, I can't "blame" him as I also dislike him to stay in the study room all day doing his posting when I am at home.

To all loyal readers, I make sure that he posts our completed reno pictures soon. Both of us will be off from Christmas eve till New Year, thus we will have plenty of time postings the remaining pictures of our love nest. Stay tune!

To Ethan, you are the BEST!!!

Home furnishing and appliances 2

Bed - Von wanted a King size, for "future expansion" as she called it. I'm not sure if she meant we should make room for a possible new member to our family, or rather both of us are experiencing expansion in our body mass with the bulging love handles and flabby arms. Visco-elastic memory form mattress which molds perfectly to our laudable body contour felt good but too expansive. After spending the whole evening trying out the entire collection of beds in IMM, we settled for the more sturdy Dunlopillo mattress including the bedframe and pillows.

Sofa - A big headache. We had conflicting liking to design and comfort. First of, von likes fabric that has a distinct and contrasting treading tracks along the cushion edges which I find it ugly. Back support and sitting depth that is just nice for me will be too uncomfortable for von. Similarly, seats that were to her comfort were not accustomed to me as I realised that the back cushion height was too short to support my neck. It was pure luck that on one visit to Lorenzo that we found an awfully reasonably priced sofa that both of us are ok with. Only flaw was that it will cover and render one of the wall socket unusable due to its slightly long dimension. We settled for a chocolate brown non-pvc fabric which will not be too hot after long hours of couch-potato-like activities. We even got ourselves a milky white cover change a few weeks later, maybe can be put to use during Chinese New Year.

Dining table - The costliest purchase. We could not even find a single one to our liking. Its either that the table was not sturdy enough or the metal legs had an flaky coating. Wooden type were out as we wanted our home to look more clean-cut. A visit to XZQT threw out several good ones but all were simply too expensive. One such table is a retractable glass top table and the glass concealed itself so well that nobody realised it can be expanded into a 6-person table top. After pondering for days and visiting it umpteen times, we decided to take the dangling 'special offer' bait and cut a deal to also include 4 chairs of similar design. We better make good use of this damn dining table to justify the cost...

Coffee table - Final purchase. This bought us to Sungei Kadut, as many had suggested its a good place to scout for furnitures. We took half a day off from work to prowl around the area hopping to nap a good bargain. We had wanted a glass top design so as to bland into the interior but we soon realised that those sexy curvature glass top were not tampered glass. As explained by the sales person, tempered glass are too rigid to be flex into these shapes and only flat planar piece can be made. We finally found a real good bargain in Star furniture opposite IMM but it was not a glass table top that we hope. It is surprisingly heavy for its size and this is perhaps why the table is so stable with the 4 leg supports. It has a nice pearly white finishing with two side compartments coated with a fiery red color. It would be even better if the compartments were black but at only $199, it was a good buy. We can replaced it after a few years without feeling the pinch. Although far off from what we have in mind, the price tag is simply too irresistible for such a solid table.

Home furnishing and appliances 1

We made a pact that each furniture we acquire would have to be liked by both. This indeed proved to be very time-consuming when we found ourselves constantly in conflict with each other's taste.

We started off with the easiest but most vital piece of electrical appliance for every home - Fridge. Not much of a problem in selecting the model to our liking, since fridge traditionally has limited range of colors. What is more important is to have a fridge of reasonable size with the most efficient power consumption, since its going to be on 24/7. We stumbled upon a website that details the specifications of many currently available fridge and do up an excel sheet for comparison. With a little mathematics, we compared the power efficiency per litre size of the freezer since that compartment is the most resource hungry one. Some fridge boasted the most energy efficient fridge around but that is because the freezer is so small and we certainly don't want that. We got ourselves a white F&P fridge with the most energy efficient of all similar sized freezer. Nevermind that it cost slightly more than other brands, as the cost can be recoup over time with its low power consumption.

Washing machine - Since laundry washing is limited to only once a week, we are not as selective as with the fridge but it must have the capacity for bed linen and stuffs. Our only concern is its reliability or the lifetime before it breaks down. We decided to go with LG as many friends and relatives testified that they were using it for years without any problems. We were not moved by the gimmicks of nano-ions particles that supposingly can kill bacterial. I can do that with a few cupful of dettol into the wash.

My ultimate machine

Blogging is hard work. I always thought so after reading so many great postings which von has followed week after week.

"You need to constantly keep your blog updated with new postings. If not nobody will want to visit since it is always the same post everytime they click on the link." You will also need to state its purpose of the blog; why you created it in the first place.." von reminded me everytime I go online.

So there you go, a mission statement, added in the title block, if you can observed.

Finally, I feel that I need something; something powerful and eye-appealing that I can work on while in the living room working on the blog. I am talking about getting a macbook. Although not critical, since von have a laptop from work and the 5 year old desktop is snagly sitting on the study table urging me to use it instead. The urge to get a macbook is too strong to be ignored. It does not help matter when I realized that it now comes with the new OS. Temping offers like free ram upgrade, MS office or accessories thrown and it is going to set me back by about $2200.

Maybe the feel-good ego of having a totally new experience with the Mac OS is a good reason for one. I can step out of the comfort zone finally, having been accustomed to Windows platform all these years. It is time to end the ara and domination of Windows by first ditching the OS and then be intrigued by the beauty of Mac.

Although, much have been said, no purchase is made even with this year-end festive mood. Perhaps the final crucifix to this will come with the year-end bonus...

Reno work

The reno took up the entire month of April and while the sweat-smelling workers are hard at work, we have our own endeavors as well. It has become a ritual that every weekend or free time, we will heed down to whatever place to furnish our place. I guess it is the same for all newly wed couple to get excited at every advertisement that claims their furniture is heavily discounted during the sale period. It also appears to me that the promotions are already on-going for months and without any hints of when the sale will ever end.

We already have a vision of what we want to see in our home. I, for one, stubbornly insisted on having a ceiling fan. The engaged interior designer suggest doing away with it as it will become an eyesore in the living room.

"Nah... I would rather have a ceiling fan than the ugly standing fan towering over the corner of the feature wall and the need to adjust the optimal fan direction to accommodate everyone." I thought to myself. "Let’s include the ceiling fan into our living room and see how it goes..." I insisted.

Plasma tv will be mounted onto the mirror-finished feature wall. The intention is that the feature wall is made up of several long horizontal strips of black-colored glass across the entire wall to enhance the feature of our long living room space. Unfortunately, the glass has to be divided at the center because there isn't enough space for the worker to manoeuvre in the stairwell while toiling the glass to our home. We also wanted a full length mirror as our dining space backdrop.

Living room has 2 lighting schemes - white energy efficient dowlights for reading and general lighting and warm florescent tubes hidden under the L-box ceiling around the living and dining areas. Warm lightings are concealed under the tv console and full length mirror. We soon realized that we had too much lighting in our house when we shop for the lightings! Too late!!

All the rooms have concrete stabs at the windows and von wanted something special for our bedroom. She opted for cushion covered window bay with a sliding mini table so that she can rest her back onto the wall and do her future blogging there... (I am hoping to see this happening though...)

Study room has customized black/white laminated study table and cabinet. No unsightly drawer handles for everything as the cabinet doors are tapered.

Stay tune for the completed home interior photos with furnishings and different lighting moods...

Lighting wiring

False ceiling

Galaxy grey feature wall

Study Room Window bay

Study table and Cabinet

Ceiling fan!!

Balcony lamp

MBR light

Bedroom light

Dining light

Mirror

Feature wall and tv console

Living and dining

von cosy window bay

Prelude to home reno

The keys were handled over from our ultra-thin indian lawyer, who I in no doubt, long suspected him of suffering from a very serious case of malnutrition and anorexia. The sight of his belt coiling almost 2 turns around his waist almost prompted me to ask him if he is a spokesperson or ambassador of a weight loss programme. Anyway, von gave me a nudge to stay focused in getting the keys from him and get it over and done with quickly.

Without any much delay, we headed our way to our newly acquired home and made our first entry for a quick peek. Armed with only a camera-equipped handphone, we took snapshots of the vacant unit.

Living room

Main entrance walkway

Dinning area

Kitchen

Walkway to bedrooms

Master bedroom window view
Study room window viewBedroom window view

Here we go... House hunting

It all began with the perfect dream of owning a decent flat by putting our names into those silly programmes - Walk-in Selection, Balloting. It was not until a series of crushing disappointment of our successive attempts in getting a queue number did it dawned on us that we have to start looking into the resale market to have the slightest chance of setting up a new home.

House hunting is indeed an eye-opener for us. First-owner flats with its first paint coating barely intact could only be describe in one word: Shocking. Large and long cracks along the kitchen and wash area with spalling concrete ceiling and musty smell were an appalling sight.

"Not a problem, since we have to reno the entire place up anyway. " I sounded positively to prevent our morale from dipping any further.

We soon realized that the asking price plus any major reno to be done was unjustifiable. We could not understand the attractiveness of staying so close to the MRT with the train passing every 15mins starting at dawn! It is even illogical to think that their value of the flat is inversely proportional to the distance to the distance from the MRT station, considering level of noise generated.

Most of the flats do not leave a very good first impression for us even though the older flats are inherently larger than those newly builds. All lacked the so-called "X factor". We began to visit condo showrooms to satisfy our carvings and day dreaming agenda.

Then along came Baywater that both of us liked very much. The agent kindly opened up several units for us to decide and compare. Units near to the busy road linking the Reservoir and Bedok town were out. Flats balcony facing too close to the opposite block were out as well. We were left with only 2 units to choose from - 4th and 5th floor unit, both facing the reservoir but well away from the road. It was ideal, especially so when I first opened the window with the constant gush of fresh air and wind blowing into my face. This is the deciding factor for me.

We spent very much of our time doing financial calculating over and over. And 2 days later upon our second viewing, we sealed the 4th floor unit because the 5th level will burn an extra $30k in our pocket.

Home is finally found.

"... Dear, when can we have our blog published..."

"We should have a blog of ourselves!" exclaimed von, who has been pursuing her friends' blog religiously for the past 6 months.

After much tugging and constant reminder for it, I finally registered our blog space - hovon. Like a behavior of a 3 year old, I made a big hooha over this accomplishment, feeling I am one step closer for a nobel prize nomination.

Then came the bombshell... "Please dear, at least have something there for people to read..." von spoke with anticipation.

So with that, came the1st keynote entry... "hello world"...

Our blog space was very much left empty after its glorious birth and just as quickly as it came into life, it diminishes into the wilderness with only 1 blog entry - "hello world"...

"You got to do better than that, darling."

"Look at this blog... and this... with pictures somemore. Let's start with blogging our newly renovated home first. I'm sure its gonna be interesting for all our friends to read comment."

So, for several months I've come out with several good excuses such as "We got no camera to take our home pictures, let me buy a camera first", "Let's read up on PSP slim instead".

Now, with the already acquired camera and PSP under our belt and the long weekend holiday with von in Suzhou, the very first official blog is written for her leisure reading. I'm sure there are more to come while she is still in Suzhou....

My first blog

Hello World!