Remember 303 - Dining Sideboard Wannabe

Originally we were exploring if we could build shelving at the inlet by the dining area to house a microwave. However it didn't work out and so we ended up with two simple planks across the inlet. The only brief consolation was that it help to hide the wiring for 2 power sockets at the bottom of the lower plank.

It was a pretty neat place when we first moved in. We had the medicine box at the top shelf together a couple of the decorative plants. Lower shelf is where all the wine bottles were kept. The rest of the clutter you see now wasn't there initially. But as time goes by things started piling up.

I'm still trying to figure out a spot for the wine bottles in our new place. Maybe a wine rack in the storage by the dining table? Whatever it is, I'm gonna miss this tiny spot.

Marble-licious

Norman has introduced a marble supplier, GEM, who he claims may carry slab cut marbles within our budget of $12K. I was particularly excited to hear it and so we were at the supplier's showroom at Ubi last Saturday to view the range of marbles they carry.

The place was pretty stunning with large 2.5m by 1m slabs hanging in gallery rows across the room. They had a wide range of marbles and we were excited to finally see real samples of slabs which shows off the lines and patterns of the marble clearly. After closely examining the selection, we shortlisted a couple of light beige ones for the flooring. One darker marble caught our interest, the Blue Princess, and we requested for a sample as well with an eye for that to go as the master bedroom feature wall.

I couldn't help but put the samples for a comparison, together with 2 we picked from Hafary. Moonstar Beige was the initial marble we were going for until Norman suggest that we explore other suppliers.

So we have the 4 shortlisted from GEM.

1. Mengla Lisa - The sales manager was strongly recommending this. I like the shade but didn't like that there were pin holes and many watermarks on the marble. What's more ... at $320/sqm it came up close to $18K for 56sqm. Sorry but I wouldn't pay that kind of money for what I find is a sub-par marble. I suppose they are pricing it that way for the exclusivity. They claim they are the only supplier who carries this marble ... there must be a good reason why lol
2. Anatolia Beige (one below Mengla Lisa in pic) - I like the distinct lines but the shade is a little too dark for my taste. Again expensive at $280/sqm
3. Kavala White - Another GEM exclusive marble. Like that it has less distinctive lines that can get busy. Interestingly we were quoted $200/sqm for it. I suppose it is one of the lousier grade marbles in the white category when you compare it to the likes of Volakas, Calacatta, etc. This is the only one of the 4 which fell into our budget
4. Sandalwood Light - Woody tones and lines make for a stunning look. Sadly it was darker than I had expected. At 250/sqm it was also out of our budget

The one beside the Sandalwood is the Blue Princess. It's truly a stunning marble with dark bluish tone with bright orange lines cutting across. If we can squeeze out some budget to the tune of $3-4K, I think we might take that for the TV feature.

Having seen that there are other suppliers out there, I've been searching the internet for other suppliers to organise viewings too. It never occurred to me to do so till Norman pique my curiosity with another vendor. Now I'm thinking, "what if there is another supplier who carries a slab cut marble in the same shade as Moonstar Beige and yet with a reasonable price?" Hafary is not a primary marble supplier ... its focus is on tiles. So they are unlikely to be as cost-efficient on the marble front. 

So the hunt for the right marble begins!

A Shocking Seizure

A parent's worst fear, watching their baby in dire condition and not being able to do anything to rectify it immediately. I hope it never happens again. The anguish and silly thoughts of loss is truly unbearable.

Emily has been running a fever since Saturday. We are at home on Sunday since we couldn't go anywhere. It was time for her medicine and since she hadn't ate we asked the maid to feed her milk. We had just sat down to have our dinner when the maid suddenly shouted "Mum mum mum mum!!" constantly.

We dashed to Emily immediately and there she was having fits. I instinctively took over from the maid who had put her finger into baby's mouth to prevent biting. It was truly shocking and numbing to see her shaking uncontrollably. At one point her eyes started rolling upwards and not knowing what we were dealing with, we were shouting at her to stay with us. Thankfully I had the natural instinct to turn her to the side when I notice she was choking.

Meimei dialed 995 for an ambulance and calmly instructed the maid to pack. I love her ... she has this much needed clear-headedness during times of danger and stress to drive the situation. I, on the other hand, is just a mess. We packed and made our way quickly to the void deck. Surprisingly the ambulance was here a couple of minutes after our call. Meimei carried Emily gingerly in her arms and accompanied her on the ambulance while I drove with the maid to KK Hospital.

It was only at the hospital that we discovered Emily's fit episode was not life threatening. Thank goodness. It seems these happens to 3-5% of children and they usually out grow it by the age of 6-7 years. But since Emily was only 15 months old the doctor decided to admit her for further observation.

Meimei wanted to stay with Emily badly but she herself was running a fever so we couldn't risk it. Since only one caregiver could stay, it was up to me to take good care of Emily. I made a quick trip back home to bath and pack for the next couple of days at the hospital.

Over the next 2 days Meimei and Nyama would come first thing in the morning to check on our little precious one. Everyone was worried sick about her. My dad even came down too after hearing about it from Mum. I was happy to get some time to rest during the day since I keep getting up during the night to watch over our baby.

Interestingly I was getting curious looks from the other mothers and nurse in the ward since I seem to be the only male staying over with the baby. Well to be fair it would have been Meimei if she wasn't sick but still ... they kept looking over to see if I knew what I was doing. I think I did alright hehe *proud stance.

I'm glad we were warded. The nurse would come every hour during the night to check on her temperature. We'll never be able to keep that level of vigilance at home. Her tests came back positive for Influenza A but nothing else life threatening.

Although she was running a slight fever we were allowed to bring her home today since she has not add another Febrile Seizure during the stay. For us its not a done deal yet, we still have to shoulder through the week to make sure her fever breaks. We were under strict instructions to come back for follow up should the fever persist past Thursday. I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well!

Remembering 303 - The Monster Storeroom

The original 303 had a traditional longish storeroom where you lose a third of the space simply because there has to be space for the door to open. And then you lose another quarter to cater for a tiny walkway to the back of the room. It was the first thing on my mind to hack away when we first view this unit.

So hack we did and we came up with an alternative storage space. The foyer had been underutilised by the previous owner, they put 2 traditional chinese teak chairs and a coffee table there. The moment I saw the space I knew what I was gonna do to with it.

We build a wooden frame with casement door at the inlet which is a whopping 90cm deep. And instead of building the carcass behind the frame, we left 4 doors empty for metal racking, which saved us quite a bit on the carpentry cost.

So what we have is a stunning monster of a storage space. And because we utilise the existing foyer walkway, none of the storage space is wasted and everything is easily accessible.

We love this so much that we purposely moved the kitchen door just so we can build the same type of storage at 405. I cannot imagine living in a house without this amount of storage. Things would be laying all over the place!

The New Mc LaoSai

An upgrade to Mc LaoSai, with bright red coloured buns as warning to the unwary.

15 Months - Mumbles of Papa & Mama

Emily is finally mumbling Papa and Mama though not distinctively to address anyone of us. Nonetheless we are glad there is progress. She is a roadrunner now and will dash across the rooms, sometimes with her eyes closed ... which of course scares the wits out of everyone else.

Showing off her new Pediped shoes

Helping Nyama with Diaso loot

Sitting on the glass pane guard railing

Our Little Miss SunShine *kiss~!!

The Papi lap sofa ... comfy~!

Father & daughter TV time~!

A rare Girl Girl look moment~!!!!

Walking about in adult slippers

She has natural musical inclinations

Finalising The ID

This has been a tough choice for me. I've had my arguments with Meimei and at some point was ready to give up on the whole renovation nonsense. This whole process of choosing for an ID has put a toll on us.

In terms of cost, Jerry was $3k lower than Norman's. If it was my decision alone without any repercussions, I would have gone with Jerry. He seems easier to work with and is willing to go out of his way to come to our place for all the renovation discussions. Norman, on the other hand, seemed disinterested in taking our business. He never suggest to come to our place to get to know our taste. Meetings with him was always at his convenient timing and his office.

Again it is not my decision alone to make, no matter how hard Meimei tried to point out that I have the final say. We had asked for feedback from other family members and the general comment was that Jerry's renovation wasn't good. So if I took Jerry and it turns out the renovation for 405 wasn't good, I'm likely to be hearing it again over the years.

It wasn't much of a choice. As I explained to Meimei on the decision, I rather suffer through 4 months of crap than hear the complaints for the long term. I'm someone who is easier to forget about things than Meimei. She is able to remember all the things she find nasty since the first day of renovation many years ago. It's better for me to live with the unhappiness since I tend to forget better.

So with a heavy heart and ernest to get this over and done with, we are going with Norman for what I call 'perceived quality'. I hope I am wrong and it all turns out well. But I can live with it if it all falls apart.