diy disaster
27 Aug 2009 6 Comments
in home
when we moved to our flat, one of my favourite things in the place was the litte wardrobe thingy in the hallway. big enough to hang our winter clothes when it’s not winter (in winter they have to be closer to the door). i also had a few pair of shoes in there. and my ironing board.
the door was sliding doors with floor-to-ceiling mirrors. i happen to be one of those people who think you can’t dress properly without a floor-to-ceiling mirrors. sure you might look good from the waist up but how do you know your flats/heels/sandals/boots go with your pants or even the whole outfit? how? how???
anyways. i was loving those mirrors. until my handyman of a husband decided that that wardrobe wasn’t properly done and that he wanted to do it properly. down came the back and side of the wardrobe itself. that time, you could see the bedroom from the hallway because that wardrobe was part of our wall. but he did put the sides back up.
waaay before that, we stripped the walls in the hallway. no more wallpaper, just bare woods. or whatever it is.
i was supposed to make a decision on what colours we want the walls to be painted in but i couldn’t (still can’t )make up my mind so it’s still bare. to make things worse, when he put up new sides for the wardrobe, nothing’s been done about the wall of the bedroom which means i now sleep in a bedroom which has two wallpapered, one painted and one bare walls. funky, no?
a few days ago, MOH said there was a bad smell in the house. i could smell it too but couldn’t place it. he decided that it came from underneath the floor in the hallway. when i went out to take the rubbish, i thought it smelled pretty bad outside too. it was raining pretty bad that day so i thought maybe there was a problem with a cloak or pipe or whatever outside. but mr handyman was convinced that it was from the floor.so much so that even i was convinced it was from there. i told him to rip it off because there might be mould underneath. so he ripped the parquet off. everything was fine there.
now my hallway looks like this. it’s like a building site!
(to the left is where the wardrobe was. where all the junk is right now)
sob sob. MOH is going to do the floor on our holiday two weeks from now. the good news is that because we have to buy materials (getting new parquet for the whole hallway to match the three bedrooms), we can’t go on a holiday. he wanted to go to sweden and/or latvia. i wanted to stay home. now we’re staying home. yippeeee!!!
back to basic
03 Feb 2009 2 Comments
so….. it’s been a long time 
i have been doing… absolutely nothing. just being a complete lazy arse. nothing surprising there.
it’s winter, ok. it’s constantly dark. and it’s been so cold. at 6am this morning, it was -4 degrees. really, it’s cold. anyway. that’s my story and i’m sticking to it.
but i’ve been enjoying myself. trying to make the best of it and all that.
up until a few weeks ago i’ve been watching tv a lot but now that i’ve got all of my books from australia here (will write about that later on), i’ve realised how much i’ve missed reading.
so i’ve been reading. i read books and listen to b105 online. it’s very comforting, listening to the (still) familiar banter of laid-back aussies, a familiar book in hands.
here are the books i’ve been reading in the past three weeks or so.
all done at my favourite spot in the house, my little corner in the living room.
that’s how it looks most of the time. the laptop next to my head on the table, a single candle, the minimum light needed for reading and one of the girls sleeping on that cat thingy beside the floor lamp.
it’s pure bliss, i tell you.
a few of my favourite things
12 Jan 2009 6 Comments
so i’ve been feeling a bit down lately. i”ve been grumpy, tired, moody, bitchy. i just feel blah.
everything felt wrong. the snow. the constant darkness. the cold.
i couldn’t concentrate on things. i started on a lot of books but couldn’t go past the first hundred pages on any of them. i struggled to finish reading an article on magazines. i channel-surfed like nobody’s business because no tv show was interesting enough to follow.
all i was capable of doing was sleeping. and that’s all i wanted to do. i wanted to stay in bed all day long with the doona pulled over my head.
it was ridiculous.
so this is my attempt to cheer myself up. i looked around our place for the things i absolutely adore and therefore make me happy, and turned out, there are lots of them.
like this new cabinet we got for christmas from my mother-in-law.
i love this thing! i love the colour and i absolutley love the fact that it’s slim but big enough for lots of things.
our bottles and our fancy glasses are in there.
so are my cookbooks, some vases and the things for serving water.
and because it’s so grey outside, i like a little bit of colours around the house. houseplants are the solutions.
ildtopp. they’re strong and very low maintenance and they come in the happiest colours around (bright red, yellow, orange, pink just to name a few). i suck when it comes to taking care of plants but these babies are so strong, even i have a problem killing them.
i bought some amaryllis right before christmas and i’m pretty sure i’ll be having problems keeping this one alive but while it’s still alive, i’ll enjoy the pretty flowers.
MOH bought this wooden elephant a couple of months back. we were at the shop together and i said i liked it but i didn’t want to spend money on something that didn’t really serve any purpose other than to be looked at. MOH went back to the shop later on and bought it. i’m glad he did because i think it’s pretty gorgeous.
and of course, my girls. who sleeps so much these days, it’s not even funny. but they’re cute even when they’re sleeping.
and of course MOH. but he’s shy and i don’t think he’d like it if i put a photo of him here
i kinda feel a little bit better now. i even started on an old book yesterday and i am now on page 151. yaaaaay!!! maybe i can ready my way to summer 
juletre
26 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
a little bit of red,
,
a little bit of green,
,
a little bit of silver,
,
a glass angel,
and some shiny gold decorations (no photos),
make a beautiful christmas tree:
our home, part 3
24 Jul 2008 3 Comments
in home
it looks like a cabin, i know. i quite like it. better than boring old white, no?
my car is called the little red riding hood. MOH still hasn’t found a name for his car yet. i reverse park every day. am i good or am i good??? notice baileys standing on the right side. curious little kitty came running to me while i was taking the pic.
i’m not too keen on the blue door. i don’t like blue. it kinda goes with the brown tough. the door handle is super ugly. it’s in the shape of flower and it’s in gold colour. yucky. we’re changing it but we bought the new one right after we moved in and i think MOH’s misplaced it. typical man…
here’s where we bbq all the time. absolutely love the balcony.
this picture was taken last week. the weather was horrible that day. it was raining like crazy and it was blowing. as you can see, the chairs and my poor plant were knocked down.
the sun was coming up when i took the picture. it was a bit cloudy but you can see the very pale pink/purple colour on the clouds.
yesterday, we saw a cruise ships sailed pass us. a few weeks ago, we saw queen mary 2 (the longest, tallest, widest passenger ship ever built, according to wikipedia).
it’s very green arond us, lots of trees. there’s a path from our place down to the water. and we also get to see the mountain. it sure is different from where i grew up.
and lastly, here’s the view from our living room. every day i wake up, go to the kitchen to get a glass of water and get to see this. how many people have this kind of view from their living room? i’m a lucky girl
our home, pt 2
15 Jul 2008 5 Comments
the kitchen. bright and airy with lots of storage spaces. i am itching to renovate it. the yellow/orange/brown woods in there really bugs me. i want a dark benchtop and colourful tiles. white is so boring.
one of the best things about this kitchen is the big windows. when i cook ‘smelly’ asian food, i can just open them all the way and the smell won’t linger in the house forever.
MOH is pretty strict when it comes to recycling. hence the blue box filled with papers and pizza boxes at the bottom of the photo. it stands on a big cardboard box which we use for bottles. also in it is a plastic bag for cans. if it was up to me, well… i’m indonesian. recycling? what recycling…
white, white, white everywhere. except for that little black cat on the bottom left corner. the poor thing is hungry.
even the fridge is white!
MOH used to have to come to the kitchen all the time to get things for me if they’re up high. i guess he got sick of it because he went out and bought the little ladder. hey, it’s not my fault that the houses here are built for tall people. isn’t that discrimination? what about us short people?
that messy part on the wall, they’re papers with recipes. they haven’t made it into my recipe folder yet. ok, i lied. i don’t have a recipe folder. i plan to arrange all my recipes into a neat folder but there are so many of them and mostly are on loose papers. they make my head spins.
oh, that little black thing on the floor, that’s not rubbish. that’s the girls’ toy that’s been ripped apart and chewed to death. they still play with it.
i don’t know why those cups and glasses are still neatly in place. they’re freaking me out. too organised.
and did you see my bottle of kecap manis? kecap manis and olive oil are very important to me so they don’t get a place in a cupboard. they stay outside where they are within reach.
my jars. ah, how i love them. the mess needs to be organised. possibly into jars. even the baking stuffs must go into jars. i need more jars. must buy jars. i love jars.
this is the freezer. it’s not in the kitchen, it’s in the storage room. it is filled with frozen goodies (duuuuh). we always have: frozen pizza (MOH has the meaty ones, mine is the spinach pizza), ice cream, fish and other seafood, sausages, meat patties, frozen dinner (seafood) and spring roll wrappers. it’s not all bad, okay. we also have a bag of frozen berry. and my fridge is full of vegetables!
all in all, i’m happy with my kitchen. it’s the perfect size for us. if only i can paint all that white away!
our home, pt 1
14 Jul 2008 3 Comments
the battery charger is finally here. i can use my camera again, yaaay!
so i’m going to take pictures of our home and put them up because i want to show it off. we’re finally not renting and that’s something to brag about, no? yeah, yeah, whatever. i just have nothing better to do. and this way, my mum and dad can just go online and see the place. finally.
the first room to show off: bathroom.
why bathroom? because it’s still clean. i’m doing the laundry right now and because it’s raining outside, we’ve turned the floor heater in the bathroom on and that’s where the laundry is going to go once it’s done. in about half-an-hour, it’ll be cluttered in there.
here’s the bathroom.
crowded with my stuffs. the white wicker basket on the left corner is filled with… things. i love that basket. on the right side of the photo is the cute little ‘bathtub’ i got from MOH for christmas two years ago. it had soap, sponge and cute little stuffed duck in it. one of the legs is broken but i refuse to throw it out. love the tub.
my pretty laundry basket and its matching drawers. we looked for laundry basket for ages. MOH didn’t want the usual plastic one, i just wanted something big. we bought the laundry basket first and i said to MOH that we should get the drawers later on. not right away because they weren’t cheap. a few days after we got the laundry basket, MOH bought the drawers. just because i said i like it. he had to assemble it himself. i love watching him assembling furniture
the washing machine and dryer aren’t in the bathroom. they’re in this tiny little laundry room next door. nothing else in there so i’ll just chuck the photo in with the ones from bathroom. they’re both brand new and they’re awesome. the washing machine is super quiet and washes clothes beautifully.
so there. the bathroom is actually what made me wanted to buy the place. it needs no extra work and the white tiles make it looks so clean. i’m not a big fan of white but it looks nice in there. and it’s so good to have tiles on the bathroom walls again. at our rented place right before this, it was wallpapered. orange wallpaper. i kid you not.
i haven’t used the tub for a bath so far but i’m planning to. scented bubbly soap, big candles and a sudoku book. lovely.
a depressing sight
13 Jul 2008 6 Comments
i am dying for a cup of warm, sugary tea. but i can’t make myself to go into my kitchen. it’s a total mess in there.
look at it. just look at it!
how can a small barbecue for three people resulted in this kind of mess?
ps. i drank a whole bottle of sparkling white wine yesterday. one whole bottle. started around 8pm, finished around 2am. one whole bottle. don’t tell my mum.
nh10 makeover, pt 4
30 May 2008 Leave a Comment
in home
we ordered wallpaper for the main bedroom yesterday. we went in there to measure the room and decided on where we would put this and that and stupidly thought that we were ready to buy things for the room.
first, the furniture shop. we ordered the wardrobe. it’s big, it has a lot of space and it has the most beautiful dark chocolate doors. love it. it’ll take six weeks to arrive.
we then picked up some paint colour samples from the shop next door. i basically took everything that’s not bright hehehe. paint colours are so pretty.
as we were leaving the parking area, MOH went, ‘oh, we forgot to order the tv cabinet.’ we turned around and went back to the furniture shop. ordered a huge tv cabinet even though we both weren’t sure about it. it’s dark brown but the style doesn’t really go with the rest our furniture. and it’s huge!
lastly, we went to choose wallpaper for the bedroom. i love, love, love wallpapers. so much better than just paint. unfortunately, most of the wallpapers they have at the shop had kinda flowery pattern and even though MOH has said again and again that he wouldn’t mind, i don’t have the heart to make him sleep in a flowery bedroom.
some of the wallpapers are just so beautiful. rich colours, amazing textures… expensive ones, of course. i wanted something a bit masculine and dark in colour and it wasn’t easy to find one. at the end, i picked three that i thought would work for us and after a long time going back and forth between the three, i finally chose one. we put an order for it. they weren’t as expensive i thought it would be, so that’s a good thing.
after the wallpaper, MOH said he was having a second thought about the tv cabinet. after a short discussion, we decided to cancel the order. so we drove back to the furniture store and cancel it. lucky we didn’t have to pay any deposit when we ordered it so we didn’t lose any money.
and speaking about having a second thought, i’m not too sure about the wallpaper anymore. when we went to pick up the keys today, we had more time to look around the place and we have now realised the furniture placement in the bedroom would have to be re-think. we’ve decided on the final one and we now have to wallpaper three walls (the one behind the wardrobe isn’t getting wallpapered since you can’t see it anyway) instead of just having a feature wall. the wallpaper we already ordered is a bit too dark and rich for three walls so we now have to find another one in a lighter colour. it’s a bloody good thing they’re not too expensive otherwise MOH would’ve kicked me on my backside.
so tomorrow, back to choosing wallpaper. in between moving the furniture and the boxes of our possession. and cleaning the kitchen and bathroom (they cleaned it of course but i want to do it myself. i’m weird that way). and unpacking some of the boxes. and getting new flooring for the three bedrooms.
so many things, so little time. i feel tired just thinking about it all 
petrol price, friday 30/05/08:
- petrol – 13.10NOK
- diesel – 13.49NOK
what! ‘cheap’ petrol on a friday? they usually put the price up on the weekend. i just don’t get it anymore.
a BIG day
30 May 2008 2 Comments
it’s ours!
last papers were signed today. the keys are with us. some of our furniture are already there.
our first house.
…
wow…
