Our Exodus (Part II) : There is just something really weird going on in me

When I live with my parents (which btw, I still do... at least for the next 3 weeks), I take it for granted that I will never find a strand of hair on my bathroom floor -- coz really, I don't. It just miraculously gets cleaned up everyday! Then I never realized how FAST dust settled, because like I said, I never came across dusty bedside tables except for my book shelves -- coz there really is alot of stuff/books/ornaments/what-have-you-not on them.

BUT... these days, I've learned that your hair can drop anytime and anywhere -- on the bed, in the bathroom, on table tops!!! ... and DUST -- omg, don't even get me started. You can mop the floor today; open the windows at night and come back to a dusty-muggy-kind of floor feeling when you get back from work the next day. WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!

So lately, I've become this anal person. I think I now realize that I inherited this trait from my mom (which FYI, I dislike -- coz I dislike being told to keep my letters lying on the foyer table after 3 days :P ) Now, I DO THAT TO IRWIN! OMGGGGG *Help me please. Its weird because when I reminise my varsity days when I used to live with my MOH Yee Mun, I also turned anal overnight just because I had to keep a clean house! Everything I did, I thought 2 steps ahead so that it would take me less effort to clean it up later!

So anyways, enough of my anal ways already. I finally FINALLY finished cleaning the whole condo and sorting out 95% of our stuff today :) Everything's in order now-- I've picked up another weird way of arranging everything in boxes and compartments (which I call "a Home" for everything). Perhaps its always been in me, just that I hadn't noticed it earlier. But now that I need to run a place of our own, the onus is on MEEEEEEEE to keep it tidy all the time. Ok, Irwin helps out too. Keke. He's my super mop-person! WEEE~ And I love him best coz he just accomodates my strange meticulous ways. Just hope its not too much of a culture shock for him!!! :D But really, I'm trying my best not to let it get a better of me. Some things just gotta slide, doesn't it?

Our first pizza "party"

Ok, so PIZZA isn't the ideal diet for a bride & groom-to-be. But some things cannot be help. We've been so busy the last 4 weeks that often times, we find ourselves ordering pizza or McD's just to help us save time. Coupled up with our 4-week absence from the gym, Robert our personal trainer wouldn't be too happy... HEE HEE! *sorry Rob -- really no time, ler*

Anyways, we had an impromptu visit from a guest just recently at our new place! Oh, the joy of using my new plates and cutleryyyyyyy. HAHA! Since it was unplanned, we just ordered some pizza, turned on music and had a good chat over pizza and coke :) It was a nice way to unwind on a rainy Sunday night.

To my shopaholic bestie who's been bugging me to let her come over, this was just an impromptu visit! :P You are most welcomed to visit us starting this weekend...

Our Exodus (Part I)

After 3 weekends of massive cleaning, we've finally begun our exodus into the new place. Well, at least I have. Irwin's gradually catching onto the idea of moving as well after seeing it all cleaned up... and being livable!

I started with organizing our kitchen last weekend. After all, the way to a man's heart is through his tummy ;) I figured the espresso machine, ice + water in the fridge and microwave would keep him happy... for now. HEE HEE! Then I started moving my whole molehill of books and weird treasures (like my POLLY POCKETS!). I found MORE weird treasures while packing up my stuff... one of it being my HELLY KITTY FACE CD holders!!!!!!!!

Treasure Box 1: BOOKS!

Treasure Box 2: CD's & DVD's. I just realized I might potentially have more DVD's than some of the peddlars you'd find around town!

Treasure Box 3: MY BAGSSSSSSS

Irwin and I have this mini "challenge" going -- Whoever who moves in more stuff first gets his/her first pick of drawers/shelf space/favorite spots/etc. Of course, whoever who moves in more stuff, gets more space too!!! keke!!! (Its just my secret ploy of making him move now, instead of 2 days before the wedding when we'll also have a gazillion other things to do) ... And its working!!! :D

Here is how our book shelves look like side-by-side. It took me one whole NIGHT to pack my books and another whole WEEKEND to unpack and arrange them -- It only took Irwin 30 minutes to PACK + UNPACK + ARRANGE his ... *heh. No wonder men are from Mars; and women from Venus. They are just SO different.

Vanessa: Baby?!?!?!? Why you never sort your books in order and arrange them properly wan?
Irwin: HUHHHH?????? Arrange dee wattttt... See... Here all business books... and more business books.... and oh, there also business books....
Vanessa: *hmmmm* Why all tall, short, tall, shot, tall, short and not arranged properly?
Irwin: ................

My Laundry Room Gadget

I recently found this cool intelligent remote control clothes hanger advertisement in the newspapers.

I thought it was cool because with just a touch of a button, you are able to lower it down to hang out your laundry and then raise it up afterward to save space and let it dry! I think one of the scariest thoughts about moving into an apartment after living your entire life in a house is how best you can maximize your space so that you won't feel like you're deprived in any way. This clothes hanger really seemed like God-sent the moment I read about it because I am now able to dry our clothes properly in our utility/laundry room without taking up precious space! I will still be able to go about every day life despite having 5 kilos of laundry hanging above me! :D If you look closely, you will notice 2 UV-light points at the roof of this gadget, which is suppose to take away the funky/damp odors from your laundry and kill any germs that might be breading as well. Keke! Ok, that is debatable. I am not banging my buck on it.

To have an Orlant intelligent remote clothes hanger installed at home, you must first get your electrician to pull a new electrical point to the spot where you'd like it installed. Alternatively, you can also replace any of your light points (ie: florescent light) in your room because this gadget also comes with a light of its own.

Best Shopping Place in Damansara Uptown

We recently found a new favorite shopping place in town. Its got floor-to-ceiling wall-shelves packed with stuff. Each item comes in a variety of choices to choose from; you can find almost anything you need, provided you do not faint first from looking at so manyyyyyyyyyy things. Prices are really reasonable too -- plus, there is still room for discount!

The hardware store is truly a shoppers' paradise!!!! :D

This is our favorite hardware store located in Damansara Uptown. The owners are really a bunch of helpful people, always ready to recommend you what they think would best meet your needs. We spent about an hour there yesterday browsing through everything. They really DO HAVE everything we needed -- except for this coackroach house/cockroach catcher which I've been hunting for for the longest time :( It seems like very few places are carrying it now, as compared to a few years ago. Could it be that the chemical they use in it is harmful to health? Or could it be that the Klang Valley has less roaches now -- so fewer retailers are importing it from China?

Our very first spring clean!

Renovation works is still work in progress. Despite being a really small job, its been taking forever to complete. Four weeks has passed by us since we started, and by the looks of it, we need another one more week before we can see 'daylight'-- that's also if we are lucky. The thing about renovation and contractors (and ID's, all the same) is the need to breath down their neck everyday, even if you didn't want to. Missing even one inspection might cause another weeks' delay because by the time you find out the mistake, they'll need to reschedule their workers and redo everything again. Not good at all.

Ok. Enough ranting already.

^ IRWIN AT WORK...

Irwin and I started our very first spring cleaning activity this past weekend despite the delay. I managed to convince him to use a high-powered water jet to 'jet' down all the THICK dust and debris from the balconies surrounding our condo. HEE HEE! It was so therapeutic being able to see the before-and-after effects of our hard work!!! Black-suit-covered railings turned white instantly. We also gave all the walls a good dust down with a feather duster. I tell ya... that five Ringgit thing is an amazing piece of invention :P It takes down all the fine dust particles from every nook and cranny -- you don't even have to exert much strength. Unbelievable!

^ THE AMAZING HIGH-POWERED WATER JET!

Lastly, we also decided to start the 'uphill' task of assembling all our IKEA furniture. It was quite fun :) In fact, it was just as therapeutic as jetting down the balconies! HAHA! We're still working on assembling them this week... so far, we've only managed to get half of every thing we've bought done.

In all honestly, we are really quite exhausted already. Seven more weeks and counting... Keep us in your prayers :)

"What color do you want?"

Remember that game we used to play as kids using a piece of paper folded up into 4? :D

Curtain shopping was somewhat similar in nature to that game -- only that it took longer than we thought it would. What we thought would be a 2-hour affair turned out to be five instead, leaving my poor baby in THIS state! .... *oops :P

But I was no better either after spending 3 hours looking at what seemed like a MILLION types of fabric and :-

1. Deciding on the Look-and-Feel & color scheme for each room
2. Matching fabric and borders for each selected scheme
3. Deciding on the type of curtain tracks/rods to be used
4. ... plus a million other variables.

Anyhow, our account person Pamela from Baagus Curtain was really helpful and PATIENT! She met me early in the morning at the condo to take measurements of the whole place, as well as brainstorm some ideas with me before heading back to her HQ in Kepong for fabric selection. I guess it will be all well worth it when I finally get to see them hung up in the condo in about 4 weeks' time.

Light Hunting...

Have you ever been on a hunt for a particular type of lighting that you would like to fix at a very specific place in your home? If you have, you'll understand the agony of light hunting! So far, I think light hunting has been the most challenging item to shop for -- its simply agonizing especially when you are looking for DINING LIGHTS that hang from the ceiling! If you visit 6 shops in one afternoon, I guarantee you will go home being really CONFUSED... and having a neck ache because you are perpetually looking at 5 million danggly things from the ceiling at a 90-degree angle! You might also suffer from minor (eyesight) glare and heat-burn as a result of being in close proximity with all sorts of bulbs, especially the halogen ones.

After spending 2 weeks hunting just for ONE particular ceiling light for our dining area, we are soooo relieved that we finally found it -- 5 minutes from where Irwin now lives. HEH. So much for traveling to the ends of the earth for 2 weekends. If only we started looking at the places closest by... Anyhow, we got the lights at a bargain! Got it for 65% discount. So if you're looking for lights, head on to the lighting shops in the Uptown area. The other area where you can also find good and modern lighting is in Kota Damansara, although they also do come with a bigger price tag :)

Of Bricks and Mortar (Part II)

UPDATES -- Renovation/refurbishment works at our condo is coming along... slowly... but surely. God is good such that we managed to find good owners for our pre-loved furniture just recently as well!!! I'm just over the moon about it because it really felt like such a HIGH mountain to climb initially, especially with finding the right owner and agreeing on a reasonable price for both parties. I was also up to my neck about where I would store the furniture assuming they didn't need it immediately. Our condo is only THAT small and the workers really need the space to move around and do their thing.

But as always, God proved to be faithful :) So I'm happy. Thank you also to the new owners of my pre-loved furniture!!! :D You know who you are...

I'm also happy that we made the right decision about doing away with our bathtub in the master bathroom. We reclaimed quite a sizable area and I can almost imagine when the built-ins are ready for fitting! It would be the perfect place to blowdry my hair, store towels, shampoo supplies and toilet paper! :P


^ This is how the master bathroom originally looked like.

^ Workman hard at work for 2 days...

^ Looking ugly for a couple of days after water proofing the floor and waiting for the cement to dry up!

^ All tiled up... waiting to fit the built-ins!

Read about Part I here

Of Bricks and Mortar (Part I)

HACKING & REWIRING WORKS -- Renovation & refurbishment works have finally commenced at our condo. This week has been particularly hectic for me as I had to put on the hard-hat and visit the site everyday to make sure that the workmen are on the same page as we are. There were also some minor additional add-ons and changes which I had to relate to the supervisor in-charge while Irwin went out of state for work. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to get it done, yet I was still anxious about everything simply because when I walked into our condo on the 1st day of work, I found the condo in this state... OMG!!! -- Totally not looking like how it was when I locked up the night before.

... Ok but after inspection, I cooled down a bit realizing that they had to do what they were doing to re-wire some power sockets and TV input/output. heehee!

Although a minor project, the whole renovation experience is still somewhat scary for us, especially when it is also our very first time making decisions on which walls to hack and what others to build. We keep getting haunted by questions like Are we doing the right thing re-doing this section? or Did we choose the right color for that wall? and Would this design really work and turn out good? :P

I also took delivery of our IKEA furniture for the library/study room last night. While we could have ordered it a few weeks later, stock for some items were running low; as such we were advised to get it immediately. Since IKEA does not keep purchased furniture for more than 3 days, I was blessed to negotiate for 5 days instead, and had to take delivery of everything last night. Our 2nd bedroom now is piled HIGH with IKEA boxes together with the rest of our existing loose furniture which we packed up before the renovation works started.

Going IKEA (Part II)

After spending 2 consecutive days shopping at IKEA -- first for our study/library room on Saturday, then for our laundry room on Sunday; I can now bring you on a guided tour even if I was blind folded! I am even able to refer to each item using their quirky names, and explain/describe some of the main features, different colors and variations of each furniture series. It really feels as though I am attending a party every time I visit. I get to know more names!

^TOP: How I HOPE my laundry room will look like. BOTTOM: How it looks like NOW in its designated space -- pre-assembled. HAHA!

I didn't seek the help of a space consultant when configuring the ANTONIUS series for my laundry room on Sunday. I just went there prepared with my own real measuring tape (as opposed to using the paper ones that IKEA provides), measurements and photos -- stored on my iPhone. See! Another good reason to get the iPhone :P

It was pretty straight forward, though I still spent about 3 hours with mummy dearest coming up with the most efficient configuration to maximize what little space we have. After what seemed like forever, we managed to finalize on the best setup. The next task was to pick up all the items we had already listed. Going by the article number, I managed to collect everything on the list... EXCEPT for the most important item -- which I hunted HIGH AND LOW for... only to find out that it was out of stock. The adjustable legs for the worktop. *Argh. According to Ikea's system, they are only expecting a batch to arrive on the 21st of April (give and take 14 days). So, I can only check back early May and HOPEFULLY, be able to buy them -- so that my worktop would be USABLE.

Read about Part I here.

Finally...!!!

^ APRIL 2006@ZETA BAR. Our 'early' days :P

12.04.08. Exactly one year ago, I never would have imagined that I would be getting married 15 months down the road... not because I didn't believe that Irwin would eventually marry me ;) but because (at that time) 15 months seemed like such a loooooooooooong time; yet when I have lived through the days, 15 months now feel more like 15 days.

Exactly one year ago, I remember sitting on the couch in the living room of our new condo waiting for our tenants to arrive... and feeling like the end of the world knowing that we would be renting out our brand new place for the next 12 months. It felt like forever till we could actually have real plans of our own to dress up the place according to our own liking -- to have that particular feature wall at the dining area; to get those bar stools to match the kitchen and to hang the perfect wine rack by the counter top. We didn't even have plans to get married yet :P Well, at least Irwin hadn't proposed. So it really did feel like forever to eternity till we would finally have our own place back.

Then 12 months went by just like that!!! We got engaged in July; visited HomeDec in November and incidentally met our ID there; notified our tenant about ending our lease in January; started discussing refurbishing plans with our ID early February and today... (well, actually in 3 days' time) finally starting the refurbishing works and hopefully move in in 6 weeks! :D Time flies. I still can't believe its happening. (I think I will say that again when the wedding day finally rolls around)

Going IKEA (Part I)

A one-hour meeting with a space consultant from Ikea Home Furnishing was all it took to help us decide to go Ikea for our study/library room. Admitedly, prior to the meeting, we had our doubts about going Ikea, however Azri (the space consultant) surprised us when he came up with a rather unique layout proposal which we straightaway took a liking :) Even after all the add-on's -- ie: glass doors, spotlights, etc; the total still amounted to half of what our ID quoted us. Quality aside, I think Ikea's will suffice for our li'l study room at the moment... (till we move to a HOUSE in the future) :D

I was personally quite surprised with the service Ikea offered. With our blueprints and a vague idea of what we wanted, Azri got cracking with a pencil and ruler... and tadah! -- came up with a proposed concept within a short time. The best part was that he was able to simulate it on the computer and hand us a 3-D print out at the end of our meeting :D woooo~~ I was definately sold.

The Driver and The Navigator

Furniture hunting a few months ago was FUN -- when it was just purely for research and scouting around to get ideas. But with just about 2 months to the great exodus from both our current houses (and into our new place), furniture hunting now is more overwhelming and tiring, than FUN... perhaps due to the fact that decisions need to be made... wisely.

With the help of Google maps, we practically combed the whole Klang Valley this past weekend -- driving from Kota Damansara to Segambut and back to Sungai Buluh...TWICE. We have sat on at least 100 different types of leather sofa sets and bounced on another 40 mattresses... and still have yet to come to a decision on what to get. HAHA!

For some reason, I decided to assign myself the task of The Driver; and Irwin The Navigator (maybe because the prospect of burying my nose in the map throughout the whole journey was not very appealing to me :P ) Of all the places we visited, we were most impressed with Even International; a company that produces leather sofas and all types of modern pieces for the export market. Its factory is buried deep within Kampung Baru Sungai Buluh and has this amazing 3-storey showroom... and wow!!! I don't think I've seen so many sofa sets, chair peices and dining tables in ONE place in my lifetime.

Irwin and my latest PINK novelty! :D THE iPHONE! Seriously, its the best thing ever made on this planet... It brought us EVERYWHERE -- through roads and parts of town we never knew existed! The only minor complain is that the battery hardly lasts a full day on heavy usage :(

The (frustrated) Navigator in action...

Our FIRST Wedding Gift!

When I met up with my dear friend Yen Ching (from Purdue) a couple months ago, I was pleasantly surprised when she presented me our very first wedding gift! :) It included an angpow and a gift voucher from IKEA. Making sure that I'd put it into good use, we visited IKEA this past weekend to pick up some stuff for our new place -- It still seems quite surreal that we'll be moving into our very own place in just a couple months' time :)

Since we are also in the midst of discussion with an ID to get some minor things refurbished and built at our new place, we also took the opportunity to scout around IKEA, looking for suitable conceptual ideas for our place. I fell in love with one of IKEA's flagship products -- the BILLY Series; which I found ideal in making our dream library-cum-study room come true.... at a fraction of what the ID would quote us. Only downside is that it won't be 100% wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling as how we initially envisioned it to be. Nevertheless, I am happy that we have found a more affordable alternative for our library/study room should our ID choose to charge an exhorbitant amount. And so... as usual... I am still awaiting for his final proposal/drawings and quotes. Ah, as they say -- Patience is a virtue.


^ Waiting patiently... ;)

New ideas for the newlyweds' pad

I've never been one who paid any interest in scouting around for a microcomputer rice cooker that can double up as a slow cooker and a steamer, or a retractable 50kilo clothes hangar to dry the laundry-- till now. I've even been acknowledged amongst my family members as one who is most updated with the latest in the home appliances/furniture/decoration department these days. I just hope this is not a sign of turning 'aunty-ish', but rather a very clear way of showing just how much of a good wife I can potentially be ;) HAHA!

The 12th installment of HomeDec held at KL Convention Center this past weekend was the very first home expo I've ever attended, and I loved every minute and every inch of it!!! If you're in the midst of renovating your place at the moment, going to this expo will really make you "khee siao" (as the Hokkiens would put it) because you'll not only snag good deals but also collect so many new ideas... you'd be DYING to tear down your house and rebuild it tomorrow.

I spent 2 days at the expo (HAHA!), but we didn't buy anything because we thought it would be a little premature seeing that we will only start getting the condo ready come this April. We did however talk to a couple of interior designers to brainstorm ideas for some new features we're planning to add into our existing layout prior to moving in. I can't wait for the next HomeDec to take place. If I'm not wrong, it should be in April/May '09 -- PERFECT!