A Dent In Our Wallets

Since we are moving next to our parents, we are unlikely to ever move again unless HDB en-blocks us. So this is our one chance to get the renovation done up well. We had experiences from our first so we are more confident of what works and what doesn't.

For living and dining flooring we both agree that marble would be ideal. Meimei offered to front $10k so that shows how much she wants it. I'm keen on marble too, my parent's place is broken marble so I can attest to the coolness it brings to the room. We just need to find a pattern that can take scratches and stains. Homogenous tiles has worked well in our current home but I think we are ready for a change.

For the bedrooms Meimei is leaning towards Vinyl. I, on the other hand, is dead set against it. If something has to pass emission standards, it is not safe. And looking at the recent emission scandals by Volkswagon and Mitsubishi, there is no guarantee the 'passed' flooring actually meets health standards. Imagine inhaling the toxic fumes as you sleep every night ... Argghhh no way I'm subjecting our kids to that.

So I'm electing for parquet or timber for our bedrooms. I like the warm and softness of wooden floors. Meimei finds the traditional colours of teak off-putting so we are looking at lighter shaded woods like European Oak or Canadian Maple. But of course these come at a premium price and hopefully our budget can take them.

Interestingly, this two item alone adds up close to $40k. The IDs we met puts it down to having to use the pre-pack sand mix HDB is selling. However digging deeper into the actual cost differential, the mix would cost homeowners only 2-3k more. So it looks like renovation firms are profiteering across the board with this new sand ruling. Jack up margins and lay the blame squarely on HDB. Homeowners can't help but accept the higher prices grudgingly.

For the rest of the house we are keeping it simple. The standard works on kitchen and bathrooms are a must. We are targeting to keep carpentry at a minimum. Half of our $60k budget when we did 303 went to carpentry and we try not to do the same this time. It's off the shelf if we can help it so we don't fix ourselves to any design or layout.

Even with a more sensible requirements this time, the average quotes we are seeing are in the region of $80k. This is something I don't get .... it took us close to $60k to overhaul 303. Now giving it a 10% increase for inflation and reducing the amount of carpentry (it's about 10k now), surely we didn't have to pay more than $70k? What has come of the renovation industry? It looks like they are upping their margins in tandem with the sky rocketing property prices.

I'm hoping we can get a lot done with our limited budget. I know we are asking for premium items such as marble and parquet but surely that shouldn't put us that far off our original $60k budget. But having met 2 IDs, I've already resigned to having to up the budget to $80k. I think our ID pick would boil down who can give us more for that budget. And the focus would be on the essentials such as flooring, things we can't do after moving in.

14 Months - Still No "Papa" "Mama"

She hasn't start talking yet even at 14 months. She seems to understand what we are talking about but she refuses to utter proper words. She is rather contented to use her "erh erh ah ah" and finger pointing to express her wants. She has new found freedom now that she can walk and everyday she looks to get steadier and bolder.

Durian!!

Braving the playground slide

'Homebase' is always the safest

"Come sit with me"

Slurp Slurp

Why it is still so far away?

*Muach~!! 

Pretty Tulips! I wanna touch~

A Day At The Gardens

Today's our first outdoor excursion with Emily. Well technically Hong Kong was the first but thats a different thing altogether. We were packed full with gear to make the trip as comfortable as possible.

Mama had suggested to bring Emily to Gardens by the Bay and not always to the shopping malls. She wants her to have exposure to all the greens and lively atmosphere. Since it was the Mayday holidays and there was a one for one promotion for tickets we obliged and made our way to the Gardens early in the morning.

Unlike the previous trips to the Gardens, this time we weren't actually watching the flowers and greenery. All eyes were on Emily ... we are doing this for her after all.

“小朋友，我们不要摸这些漂亮花朵哦。”

花花好漂亮！

我.....要.........

我偏要摸......

“惨！爸比你是帮凶！我们快跑！”

“萱萱，妈妈看到了哦！”

以后请不要给我穿凉鞋➕袜子....很土

She is fascinated by the plants, flowers and generally people. I think the cool weather in the dome helped too and she was happily running around. We did have to keep a close watch on her ... she has this tendency to pull whatever she can get her hands on. Imagine her getting a grip on the tulips ....

为什么不可以摸这些花花？

我刚刚偷偷摸过了😁

Flowers At The Garden

One of only a handful of pictures on flowers. The rest were of baby.

Party Balloons

Attended Meimei's ex-colleagues's daughter's first birthday party. They invited a balloon sculptor.

Sold

We had accepted a offer a week ago but it couldn't be effective since our seller agent agreement had expired and we need to go through a 7 days cooling period before we can legally sell our unit.

It's with mixed feelings that we are letting our unit go. The price was an average price ... pretty much without consideration of our 60K renovation. The unit above us had also sold for 530K and it was in a horrible condition. So to sell ours, which was beautifully renovated and in superb condition, at the same price was a bit of a letdown. However having already purchase a new flat we didn't have the luxury of an infinite timeline to sell our current home.

They did however agreed to a 2 month extension to mirror our extended purchase timeline. That is a key criteria since we couldn't freely move into our parents place in the interim now that we have a baby. So reluctantly we took the offer and set our sights on the free weekends where we can start concentrating on the renovation and furnishings for our new place. Its just too stressful to have to try to sell our home while judging the move to our new one.

I need to start blogging more of 303 now so we'll never forget the lovely home that is 303.

Freedom At Night

I'm not sure what's wrong with the both of us ... but we should have gotten a baby audio monitor long time ago. We were taking turns to laid in bed when she goes to bed at 8 plus so we can watch over her. And because of this either of us wouldn't be able to do anything else other than surf the net on the ipad or play mobile games. Imagine the nights we could have spent watching tv together if we had bought a baby monitor from the get-go.

But well ... as the saying goes ... better late than never. So we bought a Philips DECT baby audio monitor for $169 at Mothercare yesterday. And suddenly we were free! We could both be at the study room doing our own things while keep an ear on Emily. If there is one thing I ever regret not buying earlier, it has to be this. Oh the freedom is just priceless!

萱萱叫外卖

我要叫外卖

Ring Ring

老板！我要一个咸鱼炒饭！一个芙蓉蛋！

什么！没有鸡蛋没有炒饭？

那你到底卖什么啊？

妈咪！老板问星洲米粉可以吗？（妈咪：可以啦）

那是不是您给钱？:-p

因为我不喜欢米粉。。。

Copyright@Meimei

Meimei's Drawings - Fishes

Added a nice touch of colour to her drawings. Makes the drawing pop.

Aircon Mayhem 2

Our Aircon installation is giving us problems yet again. It's no longer cool, and has been so for the past month. What's compounding the misery is the record hot weather, the hottest in the last decade.

Like the last time, it was a major breakdown. We had to put the entire system through a pressure test which set us back $450. The fan coils had to be taken down for the test and meant we didn't have aircon for the whole weekend. We had to move our king size bed into the study to get some cool reprieve from the scorching weather.

As it turned out, 2 of the fan coil were leaking ... or so the technician said. I didn't actually believe it to be true since the two that 'leaked' were the ones in baby and middle room, both of which we seldom use.

And to replace them cost a crazy $500 each. Arrgghhh seriously? This aircon has practically cost us as much to repair as it did to install it new. I really wish we have better luck in our new place.

The Jujube Stash

Mama, what are all these? (Mama: these are my Jujube bags! someday they will all be yours!)

You bought SO MANY???!!

13 Months - The Walking Milestone

She has learned to walk on her own the past month and suddenly everything changes. It's a whole new experience for her and us as well. She gets bolder by the day, attempting to run around even when she is still not sure footed.

Helping her on the walker

Loving playtime with Mama

Her first walk outside ... without shoes!

Making friends with strangers

Practising her 猫步

Fun at the playground

Pure glee when she managed to drink from a cup on her own

Disabling Meimei's Phone

Meimei let's Emily play with her phone occasionally. Emily knows how to disable it.

Emily's Milk Milk Buddies

Emily doesn't like to drink milk. But when she does, she has taken a habit of having her Mr Lion and Miss Pumpkin by her side. She'll usually hugs and play with them with one hand while holding the milk bottle in her other. So these two now have a special spot in the bedtime crib.

I love cuddling them too. But mostly because they have Emily's baby smell. Notice the pants that Mr Lion is wearing and the one piece on Miss Pumpkin? My mother in law had dressed them up for Emily :-) 

Every time I smell them I'm reminded of a younger Emily. Oh ... it's true ... kids grow up too fast. How I wish time will slow down so I can enjoy the many moments more.

Remembering 303 - Study Room

This is a luxury that is rare amongst new homes. We have a 4th bedroom which we converted into a study room, fully decked with all the essentials for working from home. Most new 5 rooms have a tiny area labeled as "suggested study" on floor plans. Ours is a full flight bedroom which can fit a king size bed and more.

We are not going to get this sort of space in our new home. We are dropping from 126 sqm to 119 sqm and loosing the study. Look at the end to end cupboards on both sides. Amazing storage space, space which we need to find for all the stuff to go to in the new home ... oops.

The room also holds many goodies which is not readily visible. And sadly we may not be able to replicate them in the new place.

Notice the overhead lighting shining on the monitor? It takes away the shadow being casted when I turn on the room lights. And best thing is its hidden behind cupboard. We are not building any overhead cupboards in the study so we're gonna have to get standing reading lights which may or may not do as good as these.

And behind my IMac and work laptop is the hidden trunking for the power and network cables, similar to those you find at the office.

Then there is the cabling setup in the tall cupboard. We have 2 Cat5e cables to the living room TV console and 2 in each bedroom. We also ran 2 ports to the left side of the study where we sat the network printer. We had this place wired up so well. I hope we can do the same in the new place but I'm realistic that we may not have a customised cupboard to hid all these wires.