Back at Home - Home Sweet Home

 

More on the adorable little mei mei...she had started gym classes at MyGym. was initially shy during the beginning of the first lesson but soon warmed up and thoroughly enjoyed herself...loved class so much now...that Sunday, all of us went to Westgate together. She sprinted into the gym, leaving her adoring fans aka the siblings waving frantically at the glass window, hoping that she would catch a glimpse of them and say bye...she was the teacher's pet...zealous when it was clean-up time (wondered why she never helped out at home)...daring to try the different stunts and stations...

One night, she asked to eat M&Ms...i gave her one...and left to do some chores...came back to find her gorging sneakily...my goodness...

One day, she asked for Xiao Gege when he was in school. claimed that she missed him...loved the way they would embrace each other when he came back from school

Gege was whining about not wanting to go to school. The very precocious child deadpanned, "It is not a choice." She must have heard me saying those words to the older ones... hahaha still, to know how to use it appropriately, that was amazing and amusing

Jie gave her funny nicknames, like Pigsy. In response, she started oinking.

Loved to lounge outside and sleep at wee hours with Gor Gor and Gege in the living room. Her record was 4am. Woah.

Looked so cute in the photo...Papa stated on FB that mei mei also wanted to work from home..ha

She wanted to help Mummy in the kitchen that day and was tasked to peel the egg shells. She actually did a really good job. The egg shells came off completely and she did the peeling really neatly. 

Should ask her to help Ah Ma peel the quail eggs in future since her nimble tiny hands probably found it easier to peel the eggshells

That day, she asked to have an extra gummy and made sure everyone else get one too...how thoughtful

She adored Baby Dylan...

The kids had lots of fun at the games corner...they were always getting scolded by Papa when they played video games with him..I wondered why they continued to invite him to play with him...

It got really noisy and grimy at home...and at Ah Ma's house...and at Wai Po's house when the kids were around

Mei and Jun were beginning to fight over petty things...like toys and seats...hahah

Yet, they were like glue, playing together merrily most of the time...

Well, we were glad to move home...back to the familiar places in the neighbourhood...to the familiar routines...

Jie could not stop gushing about the little one...She really was a charming one...

Went to IKEA to window-shop after gym class on a Tuesday...ha...here she was pretending to sleep in an IKEA bed..

Lounging on the IKEA sofa...I wondered why kids all seemed to love making themselves at home at showrooms...

Ah, the little imp in action at the gym...one of her favourite stations...

Went for the free gym session on a Mon afternoon...alas...we had not been utilising those free passes...what a waste...

saw 4 panda statues...and Jun said each one represented one of them...ha

I know right...she looked like a hip hop star...she loved those hello kitty light up shoes (hand me downs from Yanjie) 

First birthday celebration in the newly renovated place...ya Happy 40, Papa...

Ah...FB memory...could not recall at what age these photos were taken at...so could not update the montage by including mei's photos...probably near 1 year old?

And hot news: Gor gor was placed on a quarantine order as his classmate had been found to be COVID-positive...well...it was Mama's birthday weekend and I had plans to meet friends for catch-ups....oh wellll...we were all pretty stuck at home now, for 10 days..somewhat like the previous circuit breaker...

Mel Jie Jie and Zack Gor Gor were so sweet to send us yummy yoghurt to help us tide through the confinement...heh...one small cup a day for tong...and three pints for us...how thoughtful...how loved...

God is good...God will protect us and shield us from diseases...IN Jesus' name, Amen. 

2021 The Renovation Journey

So...due to COVID, we could not travel...and I liked to jest that Papa had excess money with nowhere to spend it, so we took the plunge to renovate the place extensively...

We had a truly wonderful journey with the designer and project coordinator. They were very detailed and meticulous and added very thoughtful touches while ensuring that it was a practical (yay, lots of storage, so much so that I wondered if we had planned for too much excess storage and spent money needlessly) and aesthetically pleasing house...the children were thrilled with the transformation...papa was very pleased and fell in love with the house all over again, so much so that he now came home earlier (like one entire hour), took the initiative to mop the floor when it felt too sticky, invited many different groups of friends over... it was indeed a very lovely house...

Let us commemorate this very special event with a photo journey

The designer loved white as she believed that a house should be bright and airy. I did not fancy white too much as I thought it would be too hard to upkeep the cleanliness. I asked for a woody feel - something warn, something down-to-earth...was thinking about darker-coloured wood...but she explained that dark colours were better for young couples with no kids as dark colours imparted a modern and edgy feel...for a family with so many young kids, something soothing and welcoming would be better... I was so glad that we went with her recommendation

Mock-up - din have the white sofa and white fan in the end...haha chose a safe grey sofa and a brown fan...the sofa turned out to be a fantastic choice. We bought it at Fullhouse, it was some $1.6k, an affordable price for being one that could be turned into a queen bed, the kids delighted in lounging there to watch shows every single night...on nights when tong could not fall asleep and waited to wait for me to be done with my work, he would head to the sofa and almost immediately fall asleep once his head touched the sofa... ha...

The final colour of the wood was a little darker, a very sunny Muji brown...she had planned to use that wood throughout the house.. mid-way, she asked if we would consider using grey laminates for the shoe cabinet instead..she thought that would add a different feel to the house... we had no clue if it would be better but we trusted her...essentially, the different shades of whites, greys, woods... gosh the plethora of choices simply befuddled us, we told her, in gist, "Do what you feel is beautiful. SURPRISE US!" It did turn out to be an extremely pleasant surprise. 

The dining area- such a cozy corner with a 1.8m (bought at Loft Living - a wonderful suggestion from Uncle YongSheng. only paid $599, scratch proof, very chic, very easy to maintain) for me to lay out my piles of worksheets ....

ha we called this Tong's toilet. He had expensive taste. wanted to have marble tiles. We always joked that Tong liked the good things in life - like lobsters, meat, marble tiles...probably fast car and big house...well he had better work hard then...

Our toilet... I did not fancy the marble tiles, I thought the black markings made the wall look dirty...

I had wanted to go with the very safe yellow-ish marble tiles...Aunt Joan strongly recommended the white marble tiles...later on, I learnt that they were in vouge...many reno ads popped up on my FB and many of them used those white marble tiles...

First proposal for the kitchen - did not want it to be entirely white ...asked for a woody theme instead...

I was astounded by the kitchen...not only did she create a really spacious dining area, she created a really deep island table that allowed me to store all the electrical appliances away and have a big working space to prepare ingredients for cooking...It was amazing...she was so thoughtful as to add panels of mirrors to break up the monotonous veneer of wood...in the end, she used grey laminates and bronze tinted mirrors...very stylish...very posh...

Our front door

All the hacking going on...bye bye old cupboards and built-in furniture

Taking shape...

Getting closer to the end product

Furniture arriving

It was really messy at the beginning - we had to store those gigantic boxes in the house for 7 days! The kids had a whale of a time though, using them to be pretend houses and pirate ships

The bed frames finally came after a few weeks as the furniture shops in Malaysia could start production again...

Ta-da our humble abode

The actual product totally lived up the digital images...people who came over gushed over the wonderful design, abundant storage space and the reasonable price...well...it cost some $80 plus k...considering we did so much carpentry...it was definitely worthwhile...the place was so clean when we shifted in...in the past, we would have to hire professional cleaners and our usual cleaning auntie to clean up the place before we could store things...but the cupboards were squeaky clean when we shifted in...so we could unpack right away...along the way, they were so helpful with the choosing of furniture, wall papers, curtains...they coordinated all the deliveries of the furniture and accessories...

It was all in all...a dream house come true.