The epic move 2011

Throughout my growing days in singapore, I have only moved once (in 20+ years).

I grew up in this neighborhood in outram, not far from Chinatown. Then my family moved to clementi (when I was 16?) And we stayed there since, though I did spend a fantastic 3 years in NTU dorm with Mich, only going back home during weekends.

For clementi, I wasn't involved in the renovation decisions, nor the cleaning up. All I could remember doing was to pick the lamp shade.

I don't even remember if I moved my clothes. My mum has this rule about throwing away 'useless' items - I.e. excessive clothes, accessories, shoes, cards, mails. Thus, I don't own my old school uniforms any more. My mum keeps all our photo albums though - back in those days when you still need to develop pictures.

The move was completely effortless, from what I remember.

Since 2008, I have moved 5 times - in 3 years; the recent move had to be the most challenging.

Uprooting myself from singapore to hk was not too difficult since I was allowed to have a shipload of belongings to be moved to hk - I couldn't be happier! The unhappy part of it was how to fit all my stuff in the tiny apartments I rented. It didn't help that I had to expand my wardrobe to include winter stuff.

Space is so very precious in hk. It is even more precious and delicate when you stay with someone else.

The 6 month cohabitation with j (sep-mid mar 2011) proved so, and even more so when we moved to stay with his parent's for 2 months.

Now, we have finally moved in to the new flat (thank god!)- the project which we had been working on since last Dec, the epic move.

While we still have furniture and some other household items to shop for, the flat is ready for living in. :)

Every corner I turn, I see j's contribution as well as mine (his industrial kitchen look and my aqua bathroom worked beautifully). While the works could have been done better, this is the closest to perfection we can achieve.

Let's hope we won't have to make another move too soon and get to enjoy the fruits of our labour a little longer....

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

I want my door knobs

Our contractor is killing us.

He fixed cheap door knobs when we specifically went to shop for good quality ones.

Now we have a problem. Because the size of the cheap ones don't match the ones we bought. And that may mean we either replace the doors and delay completion date further OR simply accept the cheap ones.

I know, its just door knobs. But I want my door knobs - the ones we spent days looking for, the ones which use magnetic technology instead of the conventional ones. I want my door knobs, and I don't want to fight with jason over it.

Will we be punishing ourselves or punishing the contractor if we insist on changing? When is this battle ending? :(

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Under one roof

I was especially iffy on Sunday, completely irrational and totally irritable.

To the insensitive eye, I'm moody - fullstop.

In actuality, I'm dreading to leave our nest and move in to the parent's nest. And having someone pack your stuff is a disaster - I can never find my things (my acceptance letter from hkust is misplaced, among all things).

My tolerance level is a minimum.

Doesn't help that my boy doesn't pay attention to details. He had packed my only decent looking pyjamus away, and told me to wear my nightie - what?! And he had planned for me to stay in his brother's room, on his brother's bed - completely ignoring how comfortable or uncomfortable I feel about that.

And next week he will be gone to new York (possibly extending his trip to drop by Toronto?!!) - leaving me home alone with his parents.

On the renovation end, the project manager seems to think that everything is on schedule - clearly not supported by the state of progress at the flat.

My goodness.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

The most civil fight

Last night, I witnessed the most civil fight between mother and son. In a most classic fashion, I was sitting between j and his mum, and the TV showing one of Leslie's comedies when the 'fight' broke out.

I saw how frustrated j is with all these renovation stuff, dealing with our project manager and now, with the parent's voices.

On the other hand, I understand his mum's good intentions, by sharing her renovation experience and tips with us, making sure we have all grounds covered. And I do appreciate her constructive and functional input, she didn't have to apologise to me.

We managed the creative input and that was sufficient for me.

When j asked me if I understand his frustrations, I couldn't answer.

I suppose the pressure is on the son who needs to make things right - every time.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

The wrong marble

So our renovation project manager messed up.

J took a day off yesterday and went to check on the flat in the afternoon. To his horror, the window slabs were all placed with a fugly yellow marble and the worker was about to set the same fugly yellow marble in the toilet. We were completely unaware that this was done.

On Monday night, we met the project manager and he even told us we need to go select the colours and type of marble we want. Fugly yellow is most definitely not for the bathroom when the floor tiles is dark grey!! He himself had said a dark coloured marble would match most perfectly.

Hence we were puzzled at why he didn't know what his workers are doing in the flat and we had to be the ones to check on it everyday and tell him. It's ridiculous and j threw a fit at him.

J's mum threw a fit as well, and was sorry for introducing this guy to us- though it's really not her fault.

So after all the anger is released at the project manager's office and at dinner with J's mum, j said - thank goodness I didn't pick another contractor and went with this one introduced by mum. Else it will be me getting the blame for everything that went wrong.

How true.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

An unusual date on Valentine's

We had a date with our contractor on Valentine's day, and what an unusually cold day it was too.

Lotsa things to be finalised, colours to pick, materials to choose, designs and functionality to think of - right up to the tiniest details like how the tiles should be placed - vertically, horizontally or patterned or set. These discussions are never ending.

It didn't help that Jason's mum popped by the contractors place and joined in the discussion. Something about his mum's participation gets on Jason's nerves. Its the same - why can't she just believe in me, why is everything I'm doing not good enough kinda feeling. I understand that feeling and I'm grateful that my mum (usually) supports me.

I think the one of the greatest gifts anyone can receive or give is belief and faith in the other person.

Nothing fancy for this year's Valentine's, but the same feeling of love continues in the air.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Stressed out

Jason is so stressed out these days I caught him sleeptalking to our contractor at night.
Or I think I did.
Must have been a nightmare for both of us that night

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Stressed out

Jason is so stressed out these days I caught him sleeptalking to our contractor at night.
Must have been a nightmare for him that night

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Last night

I don't know how anyone can get so excited about meeting our contractor for the first time (formally) that he can lose sleep over it and stare at excel sheets for hours.

We did that last night - well, jason mainly.

I'm usually the more excelsy person and like to note things down in excel. It was a reversal of roles last night.

Not to say that I didn't contribute much - but it was getting late and the list of construction / renovation items listed in Cantonese did not help. Many times, I kept asking j what this is and what that is.

Since we've decided on this contractor Yeung, j has been on his toes, pledging to be an asshole and make sure the contractor do a superb job.

I have my concerns about Yeung - mostly cos I didn't really like the look of him, and how he slashed prices just to win our bid. But, after some thought, we figured this is only our first flat, let's learn the works first, get a decent renovation done (since we are pressed for time), and talk about interior design later when we next move into somwhere bigger.

As long as this Yeung fulfills his part of the contract and not have any hidden costs, I suppose we are safe.
As j like to say, "if he does not do a good job, I'm gonna bust his balls".

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5