After our wedding, my sister gave me very sound advice. She said, "Your first home doesn't have to be your forever home." She said that circumstances change and sometimes you have to move. I guess she gave me that advise because it was my first time to move out since birth. 

Sweetie, Miggy and me moved to an apartment a few streets away from my parents. We decided to live near my parents because it was close to Miggy's school. We tried to look for a home closer to his school, but rent in the area was more expensive. TBH, we got so busy with wedding planning we forgot to plan for our first home. 

December 2009

We stayed there for almost a year and decided to end our contract earlier because of plumbing issues. Luckily, our landlady was my Mom's friend so we did not get penalized. Mom heard about a duplex that was being rented out a hundred meters away from her. The place a bit bigger and it was easier to manage since if we were still at work we could just pick up Miggy from his grandparents. 

December 2010

We stayed there for more than two years. It was a nice home since it had a lot of space. That was when we learned it's really hard to move homes. We made the mistake of hiring a small vehicle to help transfer our things. It took a lot of trips.

During our stay at home #2 I suddenly got an offer to move to Singapore. After a few months after reviewing our finances, we decided to invest and buy a condo unit. Since turnover kept moving, we ended up extending the rent of our second home. Luckily, our second landlord was also very kind. I moved all our stuff by my lonesome self with help from a professional moving company. 

Early 2013

Moving to the condo was much easier for the boys. The timing though was very hard. It was Christmas, so we were not able to furnish our new home properly. Our old furniture were too big, so that went to Mom's house. I also had heart surgery in Singapore a few weeks after we moved. Well, at least we weren't paying rent anymore.  Our furniture was finally complete just before I was allowed to go home to recuperate. 

We lived in a couple of other homes in Singapore. All of those were rented. As a family we always talked about eventually having our own house. The condo eventually became too small for us. It was during the pandemic when I was convinced by my doctors to retire when we started to watch house and lot videos. One house caught our eye and I found out a friend was the agent for it. 

Will it be our forever home? Probably not. As my sister said, circumstances change and sometimes you just have to move :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Busy day today taking care of things for our homes. Really need to work on our to-do list. I hope our home can be organized properly by my birthday. It may be a tall order, but I hope we can finally remove all the boxes by then. We're also working on getting our old home cleaned up so it can be useful. We have a lot of Marie Kondo-ing to do! 

Well, to be honest, my day didn't start well. I was already stressed within 30 minutes of waking up. The shipping company that brought our stuff from Singapore just dropped a huge tax bill on our lap five months after they delivered our items. We had asked about the dues after our items were delivered, but they said there wasn't any bill anymore. We also didn't hear back from them after completing the delivery in late November, so it was a huge surprise to receive a huge bill (more than 2x of what they originally quoted). Gaaah, Sweetie's taking care of this for me. Just super disappointed in the shipping company. 

The beautiful trees we passed on our way to our other home helped calm me down. There's really something with nature that makes you feel everything will be alright. As my friend, Ms. Myna, posted the other day, "There isn't enough room in your mind for both worry and faith. You must decide which one would live there." I choose faith. 

I was happy though to hear that friends found yesterday's blog post on what I did to my GSuite Legacy accounts. I shared it because I felt other users like me were procrastinating about it (haha!). I fixed my accounts the other night on a whim so I could tick it off my to-do list. I was glad to find out it didn't require me to do any cash out. Yay for small wins! 

Well, must chill and rest for now. Tomorrow will be another day. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

One of my favorite boardgames is "The Game of Life". I got it as a gift when I was a child and I was fascinated with the spinner in the middle. The concept of the game was to go through different phases of your life. From what I remember you start being single, get married, have children, acquire property, have debts etc. The day of reckoning is where you get paid a sum of money for each child, pay debts and this is where you make a decision whether you think you can become a millionaire. 

It's been more than 3 decades since I last played the game. It did give me a glimpse of what was ahead. There were more challenges, more issues, more pain than what the game teaches you. There's also a lot more happiness and love. 

I'm declaring today as a day of reckoning. It is the day I finally resolve an issue that has been plaguing my family for at least 2 decades. It was born out of a quest to help rehabilitate someone. That decision caused a lot of problems and got worse. The lesson from it is that sometimes when you want to help someone, but that person has a different motivation for sticking around. 

My family has given many opportunities for remorse, but the last straw was a lie. It led me to uncover a huge can of worms. It has caused my family a lot of pain, but it ends today so the healing can start. 

Please pray for us. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Built over a half century ago, my childhood home has seen better days. Back in 2019 I had the structural integrity of the house checked since I noticed a lot of cracks across the house. Surprisingly the house was intact, but the lanai area where the garage used to be has started to crumble. The floors and walls showed evidence that the area was sinking. 

Plans to have it fixed were put on hold due to the pandemic and it was hard to coordinate offshore. When I first visited Mom when I got home I saw the house had deteriorated further. I immediately reached out to the architect who checked it for help. We finally got around to doing a second inspection today and he brought along his team. 

My childhood home is our family gem. I cannot imagine anyone else living in it. My Mom always tells me she wants me to live there again eventually. Our home was built with love. The architect was my Dad's brother, Tito Bert who's probably turning 100 years old this year. We hope we could still find the original plans of the house. It'll be a big help for the team who will fix it. 

The assessment today made me happy. The team said that our home was well maintained especially the bedroom wooden floors. A lot of work needs to be done to make it more livable and I gave the team two tall orders -- reduce the heat and solve the flooding issue. The heat part is easily solvable, but the issue of flooding will be harder to solve. It doesn't flood as much anymore, but fact is it still floods. 

I'm excited to see the plan to save my childhood home. Of course, my siblings would need to approve the plan as well. I promised my Mom we'll bring back the beauty and love for our home. 

#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely

The week just flew by after we had our New Year celebratory lunch with Mom. I've only been keeping track of the day through my meds, LOL. I've been writing the day of the week on my primary medication to make sure I drink it on the right day and time. #titahitz

Hello Brownie! Not mine, but she lives in Mom's house.

At this time of the year I'm normally finalizing my work goals and targets. My whole year would revolve around it and whatever I wanted to do outside of work had to adjust to it. I just realized I have a very clean slate, haha. I'm keeping things slow for now to make sure I remain stable. 

The first week of the year brought alarming news. Cases have drastically gone up and even those who have been very careful have gotten infected. It's reached our family too and all we can do is pray for each other (the Paranaque contingent remains safe don't worry). It's really best to stay home if you can. 

My project to get my childhood home fixed has been put on hold for now. I'm just praying it won't rain so that the roof won't leak and cause more damage. I told the contractor we'll schedule when things are safer. I'll also have my Mom stay with me while the roof is being fixed. She'll probably make a fuss over not having access to her garden, but her safety will be the priority. Other home projects are also on hold. Best we can do is finish organizing the kitchen and focus on planning. 

Mama Mary protect us.

I think the most productive thing I did this week was work on my garden. The bell pepper seeds Miggy and I planted before Christmas has produced 23 sprouts! The spring onion and leeks are stable now and growing nicely. I was also able to re-pot the citronella plants I got a month ago. They've outgrown the temporary plastic pot and needed a new home. I got really nice clay pots for them. 

I have gardening gloves, but I want to feel what I'm doing better so I use latex gloves.

There's a meme showing that 2022 means 2020 too. Much as the case numbers are going crazy now, I think we're in a better position to win over the virus. We all know what we need to do -- get vaccinated and stay home as much as possible. Help where we can and pray. 

#BeKind #StayHome

We had just moved to a new apartment when the first lockdown in SG started. We got lucky then because the day after we moved everything was restricted. One of the difficulties we experienced was getting groceries. Getting a delivery schedule was really hard since that was the time a lot of people shifted to buying supplies online. 

I realized we had to be more resilient and that's why I started to plant veggies in our balcony. I'm starting to do the same now in our new home. Getting groceries is easier now, but I noticed there are some veggies that are hard to get, i.e. lettuce. My Mom had  a lot of it when Kuya set up a hydroponic garden, but it's been replaced with ornamental plants now, haha. I've been trying to read on setting up a small hydroponic garden for green leafy veggies. This way we can have the needed ingredients to prepare salads. 

What's easy to grow: mustasa, spring onions and leek. For spring onions and leek, just use what you buy from the store. After a day of soaking the stem in water with a drop of honey, I just planted it in soil. Now I get it anytime I need it (nice to top sinangag!). Mustasa was the first veggie I was able to grow successfully. If I was going to have a farm, I'll probably have a mustasa farm hahaha. 

What takes time but fulfilling to grow: tomatoes and bell pepper. I prefer to grow stuff from seed. I had a good run of growing tomatoes and bell peppers in SG. I hope I can do better here since the soil is richer. Ahh, will have good use for our rice wash again. 

What I'm wary to grow: calamansi. I used to have calamansi in one of our previous homes, but it attracted caterpillars and I had a hard time controlling it. We had to transfer it to my Mom because it got crazy. It is very useful though to have one or two calamansi plants, so will think about it. 

What I want to grow: onions, lettuce, eggplant, cucumber and maybe carrots and kangkong. I thought about growing garlic, but apparently it takes a long time before you can harvest (six months). I already planted two red onions, but I made a mistake and will have to pull it out to fix the error. 

We don't really need a lot, so I hope planting veggies can help us have access to what we just need. Also this will help us prevent wasting supplies. I haven't thought about what herbs to plant. It's Sweetie who has been interested in planting herbs. I hope he'll plant basil, rosemary and oregano since I use those for pasta hehe. 

My Mom has been upset that I don't have any flowers in my garden. She's already started to give me plants. I don't want to have too many plants because I want to make sure we're able to take care of them. Watering our current garden already takes up an hour to finish. Good thing Miggy's been able to help me since there are days when my energy is MIA. I have to think of a way to keep Mom's garden from overflowing into mine, hahaha. 

I'm also grateful that I'm able to do some gardening now. I had to give it up when things got hairy health-wise. So need to make sure it's manageable for all of us. 

#BeKind #StayHome

Just came from my childhood home. I lived there for more than 30 years. I only moved out when Sweetie and I got married. We lived in seven different homes since I moved out. I must admit, there was always one thing I couldn't get in the other homes we lived in -- space! 

My parents built a spacious home. It ended up that way because the architect, Tito Bert, made it bigger than originally planned. It took my parents 15 years to complete the loan they made for the house. I remember that's one of the things that was celebrated on my parents 25th wedding anniversary. 

The day the house was completed is etched on one of the walls - January 30, 1970. Our home is turning 52 years old already. It has seen better days, but the structure is very much intact. I had an architect check it just before the pandemic and he affirmed that it just needs a little sprucing up. 

Everytime I visit my Mom I make notes on what needs to be fixed. The ceiling was leaking when it rained last month and I've been trying to find a reliable roof service provider. I tried an app, but the provided was overcharging us. Geez, it's really hard to find trustworthy help. I found a roof service provider that's been around for 29 years. Let's hope they give a better quotation. 

The one thing that's stayed beautiful as ever is my Mom's garden. It's always stayed so lush. It takes at least an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon to water her garden. I know because I covered for my Mom whenever she traveled. I spent a lot of afternoons playing on a banig in her garden when I was a child. It's where my Mom taught me how to sew and do other crafts. I hope I inherited at least half of my Mom's green thumb, haha. 

Anyway, looking at my childhood home I realized my dream home is almost a replica of it, just a much smaller version. We looked at many houses in the last few years. I was drawn to our current home mainly because it looked a lot like my childhood home. At least now I can no longer complain about having enough space, haha. 

#BeKind #StayHome

*Tito Bert is probably turning 100 years old this year. 

How I wish I could use Molly Weasley's spell to magically organize everything at home. I am getting anxious because I haven't been able to sew and do other creative stuff. Since I overdid things last week which ruined our media noche, I'm going to limit the clean-up time so I can get enough rest and do other things. 

I was on a roll yesterday. My arm was hurting so I was forced to just sit still. I ended up writing 4 blog posts and edited one video. It was good to just relax for the day. It also allowed me to work on the design of the maker/craft room.  That task has been pending for a few weeks now. Interior design isn't really my cup of tea. It makes me go zzz, hahaha. 

Watch my December 1 second everyday here.

One of the things I've enjoyed doing the past few weeks is cook with Miggy. I have been involving him whenever I cook so he could learn firsthand. He is a natural like his Papa Lolo and he seems to enjoy cooking more than me. We've been able to film short videos and that's what I've been editing (check it out and subscribe to Recipes for My Son). The videos are meant to serve as a guide for Miggy. I started doing this because I realized we weren't able to preserve the family recipes of our elders. 

On gardening, I think I mentioned in passing that I almost killed the bird nest fern. It was overwatered. The good news is I realized my mistake early and it looks like it's recovering. I should have researched about the existing plants first before I went on a daily watering rampage! Apparently I should just water the plants 3x a week. Since I was on a roll yesterday, I also made a post on The Balcony Farmer. We're still debating whether we should change the name of the blog since we don't live in a condo anymore. Well, our pocket garden is a floor higher than the road, so maybe we could just stick to the name. 

I planted some bell pepper seeds before Christmas. I used the seeds from the bell pepper I used for the chorizo pasta. It's been exciting to check on the progress because I didn't expect many of the seeds would sprout. Well, from experience it takes a lot of care to get the plant to bear fruit. I hope to get a couple that would mature so I won't need to buy bell pepper anymore. 

See progress everyday on my FB page.

The cuttings I brought from Singapore are still alive! I separated the pothos into two jars so they can grow better. Only two leaves of the the baby rubber plant survived when I transferred them to a pot. They look okay, but I'm monitoring them closely for now. My Mom has been wanting to give a couple of plants. I told her I'm taking it slow for now since I want to make sure I keep everything alive. Maybe I'll pick up the plants in a week or two. 

Whew! Looking back at the past few weeks made me realize that I've been doing a lot. I'm supposed to be slowing down. I just have this odd compulsion to stay productive even when I'm physically challenged. I told myself I'm going to do what Sweetie does and write down daily tasks. I think that would help temper my compulsion to stay productive, haha. 

How's your January going?

#BeKind #StayHome

Living in a condo is honestly much easier than living in a house. We did condo living for ten years and got used to the convenience of living in one. Whenever we felt like going on vacation we'd just up and leave. We never worried about security since that's provided by the building. Living in a house requires you to have someone around all the time. 

It's almost a month now since we moved to our new home and here are things I've learned:

1. When you live in a house there are things you need that you don't need in a condo, i.e. garden hose, shears to cut grass and shears to prune tree branches, a rake and a Nimbus 2000 (walis tingting).

2. Inverter appliances is the way to go. Our electricity bill was so far lower in the past month compared to our condo. Well, I will have confirm if this is still true in the next three months. I thought it was due to zone pricing, but upon checking the kwh was actually the same. It must've been because we switched to inverter appliances. 

3. Condo association dues are much, much more expensive compared to a landed house, like >3x.

4. You're going to need to have a directory of people/companies who can help you to fix things or help with home management. Good thing I have friends who have businesses I can count on, i.e. Squeaky.ph for home cleaning, a neighbor who does landscape lends her gardener when needed. There are apps too, but I get wary using it because they tend to overcharge (I was trying to get help to fix my Mom's roof, but they were obviously overcharging us. What they don't know is my Mom and I used to export furniture so we know how to price stuff). 

5. Sourcing for groceries has become a sport for me. I've had to be  smart about it because online groceries don't sell everything online. Oftentimes you have to find the store of the brand on Shopee or Lazada and you're forced to buy stuff in bulk. Having to purchase from different brands means you have to pay for shipping multiple times. I know it's probably more profitable for them, but it's not good for me as a consumer. Unfortunately, I have to be more cautious since I'm high risk (and the boys too), so I can't just go out and buy groceries. Well, at least it's disciplining me for overbuying. 

6. It's been a bit harder finding homemade food where we are now. Our condo community had a classifieds page where home cooks and bakers would post food for sale. It was oftentimes cheaper than resto meals and the servings was good. This also allowed us to get to know our neighbors. 

7. I also miss our neighbors who sold fresh fruits and vegetables. They normally source them direct from farms and were much better than those sold in supermarkets. I'd buy from the fruit/veggie stores, but usually they sell by the kilo which is oftentimes too much for us. I don't want food to go to waste. Maybe I can think about splitting fruits and veggies with my Mom. 

8. More floor space to clean. I think the best decision we made this month is finally buying a cordless vacuum cleaner! It has really helped us keep the dust away and it's much easier than using a walis tambo (even though it's Scotch Brite one lol). Mopping is a pain, but at least I just need to do it once a week. I'm still thinking about how to manage our wood floors. My Mom trained me how to use a bunot when I was growing up. I could probably still do that by parts, but the waxing part will be a huge pain. 

9. Basura day is twice a week. We used to clear our trash every night and just had to go down to the basement to throw it when we were still at the condo. Now we have to carefully wrap everything since the trash collector only comes twice a week. Sweetie decided to buy two large trash cans to use as storage. Our neighbor told us to leave the trash outside the night before because the collection doesn't have a set pick up time. 

10. Every new sound still startles us. When we hear a kalabog somewhere everyone comes out of their bedroom to check, haha. We're still getting to know our new home. We're also trying to understand how things work. We've so far had to run to our contractor especially for things that require electricity, i.e. half of the garden lights aren't working again. Good thing the contractor promised they'll fix anything within six months of move-in. Whew!

And the last thing we had to go through the past few weeks is battle ants and mosquitoes! The mosquito issue was easily fixed when I got a bunch of citronella plants. They were gone immediately! The ant war is still ongoing and we tried several solutions to reduce the infestation. I think we're winning now. Will update in a few weeks. 

I have been fully focused on organizing our home the past month. The only thing I've been able to create is a 3.5 yard curtain for our crazy huge window. I haven't touched my sewing machine since I made it more than two weeks ago. Aside from being together with my boys 24/7, what's also important for me is I'm able to breathe better. I've had less asthma attacks and I'm more active now. I still take naps when I feel unwell, but it's not as often compared to before. Yay!

I'm super looking forward to progressing with organizing our home. Maybe next month I can finally fix my closet noh? Haha.

#Home56 #NewG190 #StayHome #BeKind  

I was going about my day as usual yesterday. I told Sweetie I'll plant the leeks, sow the bell pepper seeds I got the other day, water the plants and I'll eat a fruit popsicle as a reward. I was happily reminiscing on the past 12 years Sweetie and I have been married while I was watering in the backyard when the mishap happened. 

The water hose "blew up"! Water splattered all over my face and the front of my shirt. It took me awhile to realize that the hose broke off from the spray head. I stared at the spray head for awhile and then saw water starting to puddle on the ground. I sprang into action and turned the faucet off. I heard Miggy call me from his window. He asked if everything was alright. Told him I was dripping wet because the hose blew up. He said it probably gave way due to the water pressure. 

Of course, I just laughed at the matter. Even after 12 years the home mishaps still happen. Our newly delivered washing machine broke, which had our neighbor knocking on our door to check if everything was okay. Our first cooking attempt didn't turn out the way we wanted. Almost poisoned us trying to clean our sink. More mishaps happened after that, some are on our Mabuhay ang Bagong Kasal blog. I'm glad we were able to blog about some of those disasters because we can come back to it when we need a good laugh. 

Back to the hose, I was bent on finishing watering the plants so I called Sweetie for help. He patiently worked on getting the inner hose out and said he could probably use the washing machine adapter to fix it. Holding the inner hose firmly I went on watering the plants even though I was dripping wet. Soon enough Sweetie came back and magically fixed the hose! Ten thousand pogi points for Sweetie! Weeee! 

I then asked Sweetie to accompany me while I watered the plants outside. I was scared it might break again, haha. It didn't and the chore was finally finished. It's just funny it happened to me because Miggy and I usually take turns watering the plants. I'll have to warn the gardener who's going to help me do some cleaning not to open the faucet too much. And maybe I'll ask the contractor to adjust the water pressure hehe. 

And yes, I had a fruit popsicle after the incident, a mango popsicle from Pan de Manila. Yummm!

P.S. I'm re-thinking whether I should buy the water hose for my Mom. I was raving about it just the other day. Gaaaaah.

#Home54 #NewG192 #StayHome #BeKind  

Our dining table finally got delivered yesterday. We've been using a folding table the past three weeks. It took five people to carry and set it up. Yup, it's a huge table. We've always had smaller 4-seater dining tables. It always got messy because we used it as our tambayan also. After meals we'd hang out as a family, do our work/hobbies also on the dining table. So when we moved to our new home we wanted a bigger table. 

The key to unlocking the new door for me was my family. I realized I don't need to look far for my purpose. It's just within reach. It's my family. So the past few days I've been working hard to organize our home. The contractor finally finished the kitchen and I'm finally able to tidy up. It's taking awhile though since I can only do so much in a day. Well, slowly but surely. 

What I'm enjoying now is the company of the boys and random visits by friends. We feel so loved this weekend because we received goodies! Kuya and Ate Joy sent some pastries. My seatmate, Rica, sent baked taco (mmm they were super delicious!). Got some puto Binan from Leejay and Ate Rose surprised us with kakanin. I just checked my weight the other day and I have so far kept stable since I left Singapore. Whew!

Bottomless... you can get bottomless amounts of love as long as you allow yourself to receive it. That's what I learned this weekend. When I got sick I did not want to bother anyone about what I was going through. Many reached out to ask if there was anything they could help with, but I always said we could manage. I guess because my love language is "act of service" I didn't feel I could reciprocate. So I mostly kept to myself and expressed love by making quilts for friends. 

I'm honestly empty handed this Christmas. I'm still unable to reciprocate since I'm using my energy to fix our nest. I'm focusing first with my immediate family because I feel I have to make up for the many years I was busy at work. So sorry to everyone, cards and gifts will be super delayed as we haven't found them in the boxes. 

And, of course, always remember Papa Jesus provides bottomless love. He is our forever <3

#Home46 #NewG200 #Xmas6 #StayHome #BeKind  

Moving to a new home is hard. We're lucky we didn't have to go through 99% of the construction process and we're just working on finishing touches and some tweaks. I honestly haven't moved as much in the past few months because I have to contend with SOB* and other medical issues. I feel though I could push myself a bit more and I try to do what I can. 

To help us manage a bigger home, we've been investing in a few tools. Miggy unboxed the cordless vacuum cleaner yesterday. It was a joy to watch him be so happy about it. He tried out all the accessories and imagined them to be space weapons, haha. I felt so contented watching him play around with the vacuum. I guess that's what being blissful means. Your heart is so full, it feels like it might burst. 

I realized I should have gotten the cordless vacuum earlier. It would have helped us keep our home cleaner and dust free. I have very bad allergies, so it would really have helped. And good thing I let my budol friend, Anne, talk me into getting a better brand. I was really hesitant at first since I feel other options would be okay. Well, thanks to the huge 12.12 discounts, I got it for the same price as the other brand I was planning to get. 

Of course, there are things you need to do using traditional tools. I got a shiny new walis tingting (broomstick). I got one with a stick which I aptly named my Nimbus 2000. I brought it out for a spin today and tidied up the garage. I'm properly well-exercised now and would make my physiotherapist proud. The stick made a huge difference since the regular walis tingting gives me backaches, plus I can't really bend that much. I'll probably use the Nimbus 2000 twice a week as part of my exercise regime, haha! 

Sweetie brought me out for a joyride since I haven't been outside for over a week now. We also had to leave the premises for awhile because manong is varnishing the floors. I now feel what kids experience when their parents bring them out for a joyride. We're still really taking a lot of precautions even though our barangay listed zero cases yesterday. 

Typhoon Odette is now in the Visayas region. It's been gloomy all day. Please take care wherever you are.

And thank you Nina (of Therapy ni Tita) for the amazing mint chocolate cookies! It was a good reward after zipping around the garage in my Nimbus 2000! You can order these yummy cookies via her IG page.

#Home42 #NewG204 #Xmas10 #StayHome #BeKind  

*SOB - shortness of breath

I started working while I was a student. My main goal was to work hard to give my family a good life. I spent my money on basic needs and it was always easy for me to buy stuff that would make my family happy. I was almost 30 already when I was able to start saving. My salary went to Miggy's tuition and my grad school tuition. Dining out on weekends with friends was our one indulgence. 

Keeping the future family room warm.

I could have adjusted our lifestyle, but I became more careful about spending when my doctor told me I was due for heart surgery. I wasn't sure whether insurance was going to pay for it. So I saved and saved and saved. I was scared something would happen and I didn't want to burden my family with liabilities. 

Eventually my Kuya taught me a new perspective on managing my earnings. He said part of your earnings should be spent on upgrading yourself, investing and celebrating (breakdown is here). That really changed my outlook on life. For many years, I just saved and spent for basic needs. I wasn't rewarding myself for my hardwork.

Well, I guess procrastinating on rewarding myself paid off, haha. When I had another PE* I understood better what "you live only once" meant. I was in ICU when I heard my doctor worriedly calling my name. I had dozed off and was lying in an awkward position on the hospital bed. I must've looked a fright for my doctor to sound so worried. I promised myself then that if I survived I would work on my dreams. 

For many months after that incident in ICU, my dream of living in our own home kept nagging me. Looking at properties made me happy. I'd look at houses and imagine how we'd live in it. Then one day I saw the house again. There was something about it that drew me to it. The location was within walking distance to my Mom's home and it looked like a smaller version of her home too. It felt right. 

So through prayer and a lot of family discussions, the boys agreed to the biggest indulgence of my life. Sometimes I still ask myself if the decision is an over-indulgence, but when I look at how pretty my kitchen is I just smile and tell myself, "You live only once." 

#Home39 #NewG207 #Xmas13 #StayHome #BeKind  

*PE - pulmonary embolism

I always look back at the first week in the homes we've lived in. It's always chaotic, but what I appreciate about it is the thought of opening a new chapter. Last year when we moved to our new apartment in SG, we felt relief. The previous place we lived in was showing a lot of the pains of living in an old building. Sweetie experienced a waterfall in the bathroom. The water and electricity were turned off for more than a day. The unit also had other plumbing issues which got quite expensive to have fixed. We lived in fear for a few months until we could move out. We only relaxed when we were able to move*.

Spent an hour last night washing flatware and cooking utensils. We'll have to wash everything before we use it since our stuff either spent time on a ship or was transferred from our old home. This is part of the process we need to do to consolidate our things and finally merge our homes. As we do this clean-up we'll get to assess what we will be using and we can give away the excess. Our goal is to be clutter-free and just keep what we will use. 

We've had a very busy week. The boys have been covering the activities that require muscle, carrying stuff and unboxing. They also take care of everything that's needed outside. I take care of thinking about what we need to find from the boxes and purchasing things we don't have. I also take care of finding who can help us where needed. I've been trying to water the plants, but usually cover only 70%. Miggy usually finishes the job. 

Unboxing is a Painful Task

Sweetie and Miggy have done a stellar job making a huge dent on unboxing our stuff. It is a painful task since the boxes were only labeled based on the room they came from. Our place in SG was small so rooms held things that may belong to another room, i.e. the dining room had books and kitchen stuff mixed together. The two were able to clear out the boxes from one side of the room and the Squeaky PH team was able to unbox 30 kitchen labeled boxes! 

Organizing is Hard When You Don't have Cabinets!

Organizing our things has been hard because the contractor isn't finished yet with our cabinets. They had to adjust the cabinets because of the stove, oven and rangehood. I also requested to customize the cabinets based on how I'll be using them. Hopefully they'll finish soon so we can finish organizing our kitchen. Save for our clothes everything else is still in boxes because we don't have cabinets yet haha. That's where my busmate, Peter, now a business owner will help us with. 

Condo Living vs. Living in a House

Living in a condo is much, much easier to manage. In a condo, you just mainly take care of what's within the four walls of your unit. In a house, you have to manage everything from the roof, down to the ground and within the perimeter of your property. I've been purchasing things we never needed before, i.e. a water hose for the pocket garden (our balcony farm has been upgraded). Just ordered a walis tingting which we need to keep the premises clean. I'm also looking for proper faucets to replace the garden faucet. We're lucky our contractor just lives a few houses away and the house is "under warranty" for six months. Hope we don't have to annoy her too much. 

The Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge we've been facing is insects! The house was left open when they did touch-ups. There was a lot of mosquitoes and ants (no roaches thank God!). The cleaning helped a lot. We can't really use pesticides because of my lungs, so I got a lot of citronella plants. The mosquito population is dwindling away now. 

We're now also taking care of the ants - red fire ants! They've been strangely going up to the roof! It's probably because of the trees and there may be debris on the roof that needs cleaning. Honestly, I have no idea how to get the roof cleaned (if needed) so will ask our contractor. For now we're trying different methods to get rid of the ants without pesticide.

Mom told me to take things slowly. She said no need to rush and things will just fall into place eventually. Told myself I could tackle things the same way I did to improve my breathing -- at least 1% better than yesterday. My immediate goal until Christmas is to get the kitchen functioning better and unpack my clothes. The other stuff will progress next year. 

Overall, our first week has been amazing. We're just happy to be living together in our dream home. The best day was celebrating Mom's birthday. We were able to eat lunch together with my Kuya and his family. The work we did to get things up and running in time for Mommy's birthday was worth it. <3

#Home37 #NewG209 #Xmas17 #StayHome #BeKind   

My favorite color changes every few years. I've gone through mint green, red, yellow, peach, violet, pink and then it went back to red. I haven't had a favorite color for a few years now, but friends noticed I have a lot of blue colored clothes. I think I'm used to wearing blue because I wore a blue uniform throughout elementary and high school. My bags and device covers are mostly red. I have a lot of random pink stuff. 

I've been thinking about what to do with my craft room. Should I make it colorful? Or stick to neutral colors. We just have everything in white right now. I had the kitchen cabinets repainted to dove gray from midnight blue. I wanted it to be brighter and just chill. We haven't considered coloring anything for now and will probably keep things as it is for now. 

I've been struggling with choosing colors right now. I used to be so decisive about these things! I decided to make our curtains, but it's been two weeks and I haven't chosen a color yet. Gaaah! I've been changing my selection for the fabric almost everyday. I'm not sure why I'm dilly-dallying over my choice. I already had a long discussion about colors with a friend and we agreed on warm neutrals. That's how I ended up with dove gray for the kitchen cabinets. 

Maybe I'll stick to neutral colors for now. I can always have add colors through accessories. Did you notice it's easier now to change how things look? One can easily buy sofa covers or chair covers. I can easily make themed quilt throw pillow cases. I plan to also make different covers for my appliances based on the season. That should keep me busy for a long time. 

Now that I've thought this through I think I'll make gray curtains for now. It should help accentuate the Christmas tree more (well... when we get around to setting it up!). 

What do you think? On hindsight, I could have thought about this before, but decorating isn't really my cup of tea, haha. Recos are welcome!