It Got so Gnarly, Goodbye Bamboo

To be honest, I already wanted to change the bamboo back in 2022. It took several tries to find the right team to do it. 

I pushed to do it this time because I was alarmed when I saw a snake skin on my neighbor's car. I messaged our architect and he immediately referred us to a landscaper.

The whole process from inspection, to buying plants, removing the bamboo and planting took four days across two weeks. We told Mang Henry that we wanted something easy to manage. He suggested a tropical resort feels look. 

I let him choose the plants, but had some switched since I didn't want any plants related to tobacco plants. We also added two trees to the plan. I'm amazed with how fast they worked on clearing and planting everything. 

Ahh, I'm so happy we finally did this landscape project. It's my belated birthday gift for myself. We just need to make sure the newly planted plants and trees adjust well!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Flood Proofing Your Home

We were really surprised a few weeks ago when it flooded on our street. It was the first time it happened. What surprised us more was water gathered on our side garden. 

That happened because the water in the drain got stuck because the street was flooded. Not a good sign for us even if our house is higher than the street. We didn't realize it could still flood in our house if the drains are clogged.

DOST-PAGASA announced that La Nina can bring more than usual rain. The flooding due to the typhoon happened just before the La Nina advisory was announced. I did some research to find out what's the best recourse for our issue.

The easiest way to prevent water from coming inside our basement is to keep the water out with sandbags. I ordered some bags online and then we bought sand at the hardware. One long bag requires 3 small bags of sand. 

I read you have to put the sandbag at your door to prevent water from coming in. We put the bag at the door nearest the drain. It's the door that's always been problematic for us. (Water used to leak in from the wall. We resolved this by adding a canopy.)

We're keeping the sandbag there until after the rainy season. At least we can sleep well at night and not worry about unexpected flooding. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Factory Store Shopping: Uratex

We needed additional chairs for our get togethers last month. It was practical to get some monoblock chairs since it's easy to store and lasts long. I tried ordering online, but surprisingly you can only order two of the items I wanted to buy. 

We knew there was a nearby Uratex store and headed there on a Sunday. We went around three in the afternoon and traffic was light. We were in the area a few months ago to check out pre-loved musical instruments. That was how I was reminded that Uratex has a showroom. 

We were greeted by staff as we came in and was immediately assisted. We quickly found the chair I was eyeing from their website. They luckily had stock. After putting in our order we went around to look at the other items they were selling.

Of course, they had a lot of mattresses on display. They had the bigger items displayed on the second floor. You can get ideas on how to organize and decorate your bedroom from their bed displays. They also had some tables and chairs and sofas. We were really curious about the sofas since we need one for our family room. They had some really good deals and we were tempted, but we forgot to measure the area and said we'll just come back. 

Aside from chairs, they also had pillows, living room and kitchen items, on the ground floor. I decided to buy throw pillows. I had meant to make my own, but since that's taking time, I just got some since I have made a couple of throw pillow covers I could still use. I also got place mats since I only have sets of 4 (not enough if you have visitors). 

It was fun going around the shop. Staff were very helpful, though they could be more organized in the billing section. They have free soda while you wait to pay. We'll probably come back to buy some of the nicer chairs for our small family room dining table. I'm also just currently using a monoblock chair as my sewing chair. It's a cheap weaved one and not very comfortable. 

Next time we need to buy new mattresses, we'll just go back to the Uratex store. We should probably check out Mandaue Foam's store noh?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Preparing for the Rainy Season

It finally rained a lot yesterday. The rain that poured the past week wasn't enough to water the plants. Only the top leaves got wet, so I was happy it finally rained for real yesterday. I expect the plants would look healthier today. The rain provides them additional vitamins and they like rain water better than Maynilad water. 

One pain we had for a long time was water would come in through the sliding door. We had sealant placed a couple of times, but water kept coming in. It was annoying since we've had to check for water when it rains hard in the middle of the night. After careful observation we realized that the sliding doors needed to be protected with a canopy. 

So after almost three years we had a ready-made canopy installed. Since we had the floors replaced, the floor area of the sliding door was also adjusted. The tile was removed and the cement was applied. It's now a bit slanted to allow water to roll down. This will also help prevent water from coming in, although the canopy should do the trick. 

The canopy also helped cool down our family room since it's tinted. It's pretty cool in the family room already, but we can now do away with curtains. This means we can see the cats whenever they roam around. We also don't need to worry about rain anymore.

I think this will be the last upgrade we'll do for the house for the meantime. We'll focus on organizing it so we can have visitors. We're delayed once again since we all got sick and we're still recovering. We'll have to schedule the house to be cleaned and disinfected, then have the display cabinets returned. Hopefully next week when we're feeling much better. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Tiles vs. Vinyl, What We Chose

Our home had tiles in the living room, basement and kitchen when we moved it. After a few months the tiles started breaking. The contractor who did the house replaced a few and then disappeared. We were forced to get help from an architect to fix things. We had the living room and kitchen re-tiled. We used tiles for the kitchen and re-engineered bamboo flooring for the living room. 

We only had the basement flooring fixed these past few weeks. I wanted to do it last year, but the architect said they were still okay. We had to cover the floor with rubber mats for safety. Things got worse and we decided to fix the issue. We reviewed options for flooring. Wood flooring was out of the question because they're expensive. 

We also wanted something that would be easy to install. Something foolproof. Tile was out of the question since we had a bad experience with it. The foreman explained to us that the tiles were not installed properly. I used laminate for my childhood home's basement. It's still intact after 2 decades. It requires rugby for installation. The smell would be bad for me. 

We watched a couple of videos and we thought the best option would be vinyl tiles. It could be interlocked, so no need for adhesive when it's installed. We were given the option for waterproof or water resistant SPC vinyl. Waterproof vinyl is a bit more expensive than water resistant. We thought waterproof would be better in the long run, so that's what we chose. 

It took a few days to remove the tiles. This is the noisiest part of the process. We were able to save some that came off cleanly. We'll use it for a future project. After the tiles were removed, cement was laid out to make the floor even. After cleaning up the interlocking vinyl was installed. Part of the process included removing the baseboards and cabinets to ensure the planks were installed properly. And now it's done!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Planning My Sewing Room Triangle

New flooring for my craft/sewing (a.k.a. maker) room has been installed. It made the room look more cozy and it removed the "bland" feel to it. It previously had off-white tiles which gave the feeling you're in a commercial space. I had the door with glass changed last year since it made me feel I was at a doctor's office. 

Since I removed everything in the room I now have a chance to re-organize my fabric stash and other materials. The room is quite small, so I have to be smart about the space. I joined a quilting/sewing room group to see how others with small rooms organize their rooms. 

Kitchens normally have a work triangle. I learned this from an architect. The kitchen workspace should have the refrigerator, sink and stove in a triangle. I did some research and found out that sewing rooms also have a triangle. In this case, it's your sewing table, cutting table and ironing station you need to consider.

I've been using my sewing table to do everything. It's annoying since I can't multitask. I have to do everything by step, so proper planning is key. I'm going to take advantage and plan first before I return all my things. I also found a couple of unsorted boxes and will re-categorize everything before placing them back. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

New Gate with Paw Prints

We finally got rid of the polycarbonate we've been using to divide the cat family areas. We had a gate installed last weekend. We chose to have the bottom part to be transparent to socialize the Brimsley family with Meredith. The kittens have grown and have been itching to explore the rest of the house. They have to be friends with Meredith so they could pass through to the other side. 

The work finished a bit late last Saturday. We were told that the paint was still wet. We inspected the gate just before we went to bed and funnily saw some paw prints on it already. Haha! It's probably Grogu's paw prints since he's the most adventurous one. Either his or Grey's since we saw him visit the kittens. 

Now that there is a gate, it would be easier for us to access the side garden. We'd be able to water the plants easily. I hope they're still okay since I haven't been able to go to the area because of the work being done. 

The heat today was terrible. Heat index was at 42'C. I think that's the first time it reached that number in our area. I could still feel the heat from the window even though I was in an air conditioned room all day. Whew! I hope we get some respite from the heat. Stay hydrated! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Summer Spruce Up

Our house used to be the newest on our street. Not anymore since our neighbors had their homes renovated after we moved in. The construction, the dust and the noise that comes with it have been challenging for us. Good thing our homeowners association has been very efficient and kind. They came to our rescue a couple of times already. 

It's been almost 2.5 years since we moved to our current home. Since we're having the flooring fixed in our family room, I thought it would be a good idea to do some improvements outdoors. Took the opportunity to have some things re-painted. I think it's been five years since the house was renovated, so it's about time to re-paint.  

We recently changed some outdoor lighting fixtures. It's smaller than the old one, so the gate post needed to be fixed. I found an old photo of my childhood home and the post lamp looks a lot like what we have just installed. Sweet! We like the new lamp better than the old box one. We kept the old one for future use (maybe for Mom's garden?). 

The cats had also scratched out part of our front wall, so we had that repaired too. What needs to be fixed though is our front lawn. The Bermuda grass is almost dead. Annoying weeds that have been hard to remove have taken over. The bamboo though is still very healthy, but hard to manage. I'll probably work on that later this year when it's cooler.

Since there's a heat wave, any outdoor work is only done early in the morning. Gary and Marvin move to indoor work by mid-morning to make sure they don't get heat exhaustion. We also remind them also to stay hydrated. My target is for them to gain 5 pounds by the time they finish the work (hehe).

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Yoda Moved

It's just been a few weeks since I organised my Yoda collection. While fixing I accidentally discovered an issue with the wall behind the glass cabinet. Since the issue was growing we decided to move up our plans to fix another issue in the basement.

All fun activities have been suspended this week. We're busy emptying our basement (ackkk!). So, Yoda has moved for now since the glass cabinets will be dismantled tomorrow. 

More packing to do tomorrow. Tata for now.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Out with the Old, In with the New Lights!

A few weeks ago we bought some lighting fixtures from Robles Heritage. We finally had it installed last week and I'm so happy with the results.

Roy, the electrician, finished the installation in a jiffy. We had to wait to see the full effect by evening. 

The best thing about changing the fixture is it lights the pocket garden better and you could see the front steps better. I don't have a hard time anymore when I water the plants after sunset.

Small upgrade was worth it! :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Make Your Home Cooler

Summer is around the corner, but it's been quite hot already. We had issues with heat in our house and found ways to make our home cooler. We got advise from architects and contractors. The most important thing to do is to make sure that the heat trapped in your ceiling has a way to exit. 

Here are some tips I learned the past few years:

• 
  Cross ventilation - the key to having a cooler home is to make sure that the hot air is not trapped inside your house. Air should be able to flow across the house. 
• Put vents on the eaves of the roof - an architect told us it is better to have bigger vents on the eaves of your roof. Even better if the whole stretch is a vent. The roof usually has a gap from the wall and that's how the hot air escapes out. 
• Use high quality insulation for the roof - insulation is sandwiched between the roof and the trusses, so it's best done while your roof is being built. The only way to add insulation is to physically remove the roof again. So don't scrimp on roofing. 
• Attach indoor vents to your ceiling - I see this more often in offices, but it can also be done for houses. If your home doesn't have windows across each other to allow cross ventilation, installing vents on your ceiling will help release hot air. 
• Whirlwind - most commonly used in factories, but there are available smaller whirlwind for houses. We went for this since it's cheaper and less obtrusive than other solutions. We opted for the non-solar whirlwind since it's windy in our area. 
• Tint your windows (window film) - this helps if you have a lot of windows for your home. If you're just building your home, you can order tinted windows/doors. If your home is built already, there are options to have this installed. Of course, don't use reflective window film for your house. Be nice to your neighbors. 
• Use block out curtains or blinds - we use both for our home. We normally bust out the block out curtains when the temp starts reaching 32'C. I normally make our curtains at home, but have also used the block out curtains from Ikea. They're really effective. 
• Air circulator - we recently discovered the availability of air circulators. We got one for our sala and have been happy with it. We like its timer feature the best and it also displays the room temperature. 
• Airconditioner - I think this is the most expensive solution to make your home cooler.

There are so many options, best though to integrate plans to keep your house cool from the time you build your house. It will be cheaper and you won't have to find solutions post-construction. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Home on Mondays: 10 Home Care Tips Mom Taught Me

From what I know, Mom has lived in at least 6 different homes. The longest was in our home where I was bred and born. She stood her ground and never wanted to leave it. She was great at managing the house and the household. She knew everything about managing and maintaining the house. It was only in the past few years when I stepped in to get help to fix things. 

The portal to Mom's lush garden. Say hello to Pops.

Our house was built by Tito Bert. He's the architect and helped get the house built. I wasn't around yet when it was built, but I must say the structure of our house was solidly built. From what I remember Mom only had it repainted once or twice. Only the roof has had major changes. Here's what I learned from Mom about caring for your home:

1. Don't wait for damage to grow before getting it fixed. 

2. Keep good relations with those who can help fix your house. Mom always had a long list of people she could call. 

3. Always keep your pantry full in case of emergencies. 

4. Take care of your things. Mom only had her furniture re-upholstered once due to wear and tear.  They still look quite new to this day. That's a mean feat for a 50+ year old house. Don't replace things unless it's damaged. I had to force Mom to retire her 25+ year old ref. it was still working, but it was guzzling a lot of electricity. 

5. Have your own tools, this will save you money from getting things done. 

6. Always clean your house. I would actually see Mom cleaning at 2 in the morning when she's not satisfied with how the kitchen was cleaned. 

7. Keep a garden. It will give you enough exercise and stable. Mom's safe haven was her garden. The garden gave back the love by blooming beautiful flowers. 

8. DIY what you can. Most of Mom's home solutions were DIY'd, even her furniture was made by our craftsmen. This is also what I did when I moved out.

9. Your home's center should be an altar. That's the first thing my Mom looked for when she came to our house after we moved in. Good thing we set it up as soon as we moved in! 

10. Love your house, it will love you back. 

Mom super loved our home. It is filled with many happy memories. She told me never to sell it and refused to have any renovations done, not even to fix her bathroom. I didn't give her a choice when I had the roof fixed last year. She grudgingly agreed because I told her the damage would grow. I managed to have all the locks changed last year for her safety (the front door locks were older than me!). 

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Dream Kitchen

In between bouts of dizziness, I've been pushing myself to move more. Discovered some more things that needs attention in the kitchen. A tile broke, another one is jutting out from its place and the cabinets are smelly. Not really sure what's going on there since the pipe isn't dripping. Also discovered that the cabinet is breaking up. The cabinet doors were just installed when we moved in last December. One of the original workers who built the house mentioned there's an underlying issue that wasn't fixed before. 

Monica's kitchen (Friends). Not the look I want, it's just nice and cozy.

I honestly want to re-do the kitchen. It looks nice, but it's so far not working well for me. I told my friend who's going to fix it I want to have a proper place for everything. He advised me not to spend a lot on it and we can work on the "face" for the meantime. I agreed, but the kusinera in me wants a better one. Well... since I found the cabinet issue this morning I think I have an excuse already to have it customized. For this, I'm invoking the mantra, "You Live Only Once". I've always wanted a nice kitchen and I just worked with what I had when we moved to the condo. 

So I thought, I'd list out what I want in my dream kitchen. Maybe the universe will finally give it to me:

Current kitchen.

1. Granite countertop, not the ugly fake one that always needs cleaning. 

2. Properly planned cabinetry where I have enough cabinets and drawers to fit my kitchen items. I need a place for: pots and pans, serving dishes, glasses and mugs, plates and bowls, baking stuff and a place to keep smaller kitchen gadgets. Also need a proper place to dry dishes. 

3. A decent coffee nook. I have my eye on the coffee maker that Anne recommended. I need a better place for it. 

4. I have the induction stove and oven which I like. Just probably need to work around it. 

5. A better functioning pantry cabinet. I have a big one, but I haven't been able to open the door fully because it's hitting the drawer beside it. Also thinking of switching it with the fridge (my fridge is so fat though). 

6. Maybe replace the kitchen table to a bar table. Not sure how it'll look aesthetically, but I think it'll work. 

7. I also need enough space for prep work and baking. 

Now that I'm retired, I'm finally living my dream to be a housewife. I may not be able to fulfill my duties fully, but one can hope and pray for a better quality of life. 

Happy Monday everyone. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Craft Room Update

We've now lived in our new home for six months now. Slowly working on fixing our home. There's a lot of things that need to be repaired and we still have a lot of unopened boxes! We decided to get help already from an architect to get things going. Maybe we'll finally be able to have visitors by Christmas! 

I've been spending most of my time in the craft room. I wanted to customize cabinets for it, but it's going to take time so I just got steel cabinets. We've moved it around a few times and it gave me a chance to re-arrange my fabric. I'm not satisfied with it yet, so I might re-arrange it one more time. I also need to organize the sewing accessories better. I'm thinking of getting a thread organizer, but I'm holding off buying anything since I'm waiting for a proper room design. 

I also got a bench for the room. It's a cute dark pink bench which I use whenever I feel like resting. Miggy sits on it whenever we eat at the craft room. The bench also doubles as storage, so that's been useful for me. I'll make a quilt cover for it when I'm done with the memory quilt blanket I'm working on. I had the bench customized by a shop in Tarlac. 

The craft room has it's own toilet and bath. That's one reason why it's the perfect tambayan for us. We used to hang out in the dining room, but I had to move downstairs at the beginning of summer. Last week I had a brilliant idea to spruce up the bathroom. Thought it would be cute to upgrade it with Hello Kitty items. I found a rug set and a cute box on Shopee. I was looking for a towel holder, but so far have not found any I like. I just got the rug and box first and will do further improvements later on. 

The craft room is functional for now, but it needs to be improved. The space will be more useful with proper cabinets and hopefully by then I don't have to keep my sewing machine on the floor when I'm not using it. The sewing table I got from Spotlight was a good investment, but I don't think it's going to last long and it's too fragile to move around. Maybe I can have a portable one made so I can sew anywhere hehe. Slowly but surely.

Happy Sunday everyone!

 

Home Improvement: Reducing Heat

A huge chunk of my time has been spent solving issues at home (mostly at Mom's house). One of the items on my check list was to reduce the heat at our home. I noticed that at night our living room and dining area would still be very warm even with fans. The heat that goes up to the ceiling apparently goes down at night according to Architect Ed (watch his video on ventilation). 

Architect Ed has several suggestions on his video how to reduce heat. It's ideally implemented though during house construction. I don't have budget to get a floor mounted airconditioner. If I did that would also increase electricity cost. We do have enough windows for air to come in. We realized though that the issue was the glass windows were bringing in and trapping the heat inside the house. Mom's jalousy windows bring in more air than our modern sliding windows. 

Our windows made us feel like we were inside an oven. It wasn't good also for our things and I had to move my medication downstairs where it's cooler. I saw an ad a few months ago for window film. It works like car tint. After months of weighing pros and cons we finally decided to have our windows tinted. They explained it's used for heat reduction and privacy.  We prioritized heat reduction. 

Kuya Francis, Kuya Jayson and Kuya Danilo worked really fast yesterday. They finished the windows upstairs yesterday. I was cooped up downstairs while they were working, so I just got to see their finished work after they left. And wow, I immediately felt the difference. It was definitely cooler and the area did not feel like an oven late in the evening. The kitchen also felt cooler this morning when I prepared breakfast. 

It's just been a day so we'll see how effective it is in the coming days. The tint also helped reduce the glare of the street light across our bedroom. We've been using block out curtains the past few months to keep the heat out and block the outdoor night light. Now maybe we can use normal curtains, we'll see. 

Now that we've reduced the heat in our home, I can probably move on to other home issues haha. I've been trying to figure out how to bring in more air to Mom's house. Some of the improvements they made in the last two decades, blocked air from coming in. Ahh, it's a problem I listed for the architect to think about. Gotta get better though so I can work on it. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

My Statement Curtain

I wanted a pink parol, but I couldn't find any. We have a huge window that can be seen from the street, so I thought I'd just make a statement curtain. I found a cute pink fabric online and ordered 11 yards of it. The fabric actually reminds me of a pink suit I had many years ago. I think the fabric I got is normally used for clothing haha. 

My very pink curtain :D

This year honestly feels like 2020. That year started with the eruption of Taal Volcano and then the pandemic started. That year was really hard since we had to adjust to many things like staying home and being away from family. The rise of cases is making me feel like it's 2020 again. I learned a lot from that year, so I'm going to make sure I don't go through this year the same way again. 

We had planned to do something fun this month. We wanted to visit the cemetery and do a day trip somewhere. Just really wanted to get out of the house. Now that it's too risky to go out, I'm just keeping myself busy with home projects. I already made 3 curtains. Two yellow ones for the kitchen and the ginormous pink one for our front window. Good thing Sweetie and Miggy set-up my sewing nook. 

We also finally unboxed the last box from Singapore. Hooray! My motivation was to find my box of threads, haha. The last box we opened was Sweetie's toys. The box of thread was sitting in a closet. I'm now working through checking the list because the mover said there were two missing boxes. Gaaaah. It's been hard to track since they duplicated some numbers and some boxes didn't have a number. The naming convention of the boxes was also messed up. We'll see. 

I was hoping to have my Mom see the very cute curtain I made. I haven't been able to visit her for a week now. I'm avoiding unnecessary exposure for her. The three of us have been sneezing off and on the past week. It might be allergies. I also inhaled a lot of dust when I tried cleaning the top of the water tank. Ugh. So just keeping safe for now. Mom has been in high spirits whenever I call her. 

So for now, we stay home. No joyrides to spin Pokestops. Hope to finish the rest of the living room curtains this week so I can work on my blanket project. I was planning to bake cupcakes for friends, but will just delay it for now since we're avoiding unnecessary external interaction. 

Stay safe friends and praying for those who are sick. 

#BeKind #StayHome

New Home Experiences and Discoveries

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  

After Christmas, Leftover Buffet

Team Blue or Team Green?

It's three days after Christmas and we're still eating leftovers, haha. We took a short break yesterday and got some Goldilocks pork barbecue, dinuguan and arroz caldo. By evening we had a leftover buffet. Miggy helped me turn part of the cochinillo into paksiw (video below). Then Sweetie and Miggy figured out how to use the oven to heat the lasagna. It took us 2 hours to prepare dinner, haha. We'll still be eating leftovers today hehe. 

I thought I'd be done with organizing the kitchen by now. It's going so slowly since Sweetie brought some of our stuff from the condo yesterday. It's taking awhile to organize because I'm also setting aside duplicates to be given away. I discovered yesterday we have three can openers, three graters, and too many cooking utensils. Now that we're merging our things we can cut down. 

I haven't even had time to organize our Christmas gifts since they are still in the boxes. We haven't been able to organize our closets. Still just getting clothes from the suitcase. The good news is our washing machine is finally working and we'll work overtime today to launder our clothes. Yay!

The state of our garden was also causing some stress for us. There were leaves all over and the front of our home has become unsightly. Good thing a neighbor offered to lend her gardener and Kuya Romer came yesterday to help us do some cleaning and trim the grass. I'm really happy the garden looks clean now because my Mom started to do the cleaning the other day. I hope the branch pruning shears arrive soon because the bamboo is growing taller by the day (I'll be using the bamboo we cut for a project). 

I told Sweetie though I'm going to need a break from all the organizing we're doing. One of the things we hope to do this week is visit the cemetery together with Mom. I also hope we can do a day trip somewhere. That would be so fun and we all really need a break. 

Here's how we cooked the paksiw. I just followed the recipe by Chef Tatung. You can check out the full recipe here. 

*We dove in when it was served, forgot to take a video after it got cooked, haha.

#Home55 #NewG191 #StayHome #BeKind  

Our Grown-up Dining Table

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. 

All our previous tables were also made of wood. Our childhood homes had the traditional round table with a lazy susan. The table was huge and served as a food table whenever we had parties/reunions at home. Eventually, my Mom had a rectangular stone-inlaid table made. It was placed in the lanai which became a favorite dining area. We only got to experience other types of dining tables in our rented homes in SG. 

TBH I struggle when it comes to design. I'm more into function than aesthetics, so when I was looking for a dining table I ended up just browsing and browsing. I asked helped from Marja, our contractor/neighbor who's an interior designer. She sent me a couple of photos and I liked one. We immediately had a family meeting. We decided to try something different and ordered a glass and metal dining table. 

After the table was set-up, the three of us stood at the kitchen and just stared. The table is more than double the size of our usual dining table. It was a proper dining table that would make our parents proud. We approached the table carefully, scared that we might cause the glass to drop, LOL. 

Our first dinner on the dining table was prepared by Miggy. We sat across each other and it felt weird to be far from each other. We'll probably move around the table for now to find the best place to sit. We're excited to have Christmas lunch with our parents on Saturday. Glad we were able to make the dining area decent in time for Christmas. Yay! 

#Home50 #NewG196 #Xmas2 #StayHome #BeKind  

Christmas Preps

My heart is heavy seeing our kababayans in Visayas and Mindanao still having a hard time after #OdettePH. I have been focusing my time more on organizing our home than preparing for Christmas. I finally pushed myself to set up the tree last Saturday when our contractor sent a base to replace the missing tree stand. Sweetie and Miggy put the lights on the tree, but I'm still finding the strength to decorate. (Please see below where you can send help).

Our target for this week is to prepare for Christmas lunch with our parents. We hope our dining table will be delivered (it's delayed for two weeks now). The boys have been doing all the heavy lifting while I figure out where to keep stuff. It's hard to merge homes. I'm also setting aside pre-loved items which may be useful for other homes. 

The rain yesterday helped me move around more. I apparently function better at a certain temperature. I overdid it and felt unwell by early evening hehe. Today's it's 31'C (feels like 36'C) and I'm melting so I'll adjust and do planning on my computer for now. That's the problem when you have heart disease, you're prone to be affected by weather. That's the reason why my former director wanted to put me in a bubble, LOL. 

Anyway, what's important is for us to prepare to celebrate Papa Jesus' birthday with our parents. I pray that the situation of our brothers and sisters in VisMin would improve soon. If you can help, you can send it through the following:

#Home47 #NewG199 #Xmas5 #StayHome #BeKind