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  

Scenes from the First Week

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*.

Our happiest move was probably our first home. It was an apartment a few minutes away from my childhood home. We loved that place and spent many nights playing Angry Birds in our "den/study room/work room". We left the place to move closer to my parents and well we had septic tank issues. I think this "hopefully final move" exceeds the happiness level. It's just really nice to have more space and breathing room. 

Here are the memorable scenes from our first week at our new home:

Delivery of our boxes from Singapore.

Hanging out in Miggy's room.

Our first welcome gift from Marja. 

Stormtrooper moving into his room (Mom's room actually).

Spent only one night sleeping on the floor. Beds got delivered the next day. Whew!

Our first visitors - Ate Maya and Ottie & Elmer.

Move-in cleaning by Gab's Squeaky PH team.

Most important event of the week, celebrating Mom's 86th birthday.

We capped our first week with a simple birthday bash for Mom. I really looked forward to this day. We didn't have everything we hoped for (i.e. a proper dining table), but we made do with what we had (and Mom I think didn't notice anyway haha). I was also hoping to hide our clutter in the kitchen, but the cabinets are still in progress. What's important though is we had a joyous day with Mom which we got to celebrate together with Kuya and his family via VC. 

We hope to settle in better during our second week. We also hope the kitchen would be fully functional already. We've started to plan the rest of the cabinets we need with Peter. Goal for the week would be to set-up our Christmas tree (the base is still missing zzz) and I hope to re-pot my plants. Still loads to do! I also pray my body cooperates coz I've had to take plenty of naps to rest! 

Happy weekend everyone! Stay happy!

#Home38 #NewG208 #Xmas16 #StayHome #BeKind  

*We couldn't leave earlier even though the premises wasn't safe for us anymore. Our landlord wasn't too nice and she had the most horrendous agent. 

First Week in Our New Home, the Merge and Learnings

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   

Living Without Deadlines and a Functioning Kitchen

I haven't been using an alarm to wake me up for almost a year now. I have been struggling with falling asleep and staying asleep. There are nights I wake up out of breath. My lungs were damaged by the PE and it's very sensitive to bad air quality. For the first time in a long time, I slept like a baby last  night and woke up well rested! I'm really thankful to Squeaky PH for deep cleaning and disinfecting our bedrooms. I think that helped a lot. 

The angels of Squeaky PH with Gab :)

I'm also waking up earlier now because I'm better rested. This means I can drink my meds at a better time and I can be a better citizen at home haha. It got me thinking about deadlines. I honestly work better under pressure, so I've been slacking off on a lot of things. I was assigned to unpack the kitchen boxes, so when Gab said they'll unbox the stuff I did not resist. Good thing they did it for me because I ended up super exhausted even though I was just giving some directions while seated. Tita Pet kept reminding me not to over-exert. She knows me well. 

My kitchen is now functional thanks to the Squeaky PH team! They organized the groceries in the pantry and unboxed my pots and pans and baking stuff. I could just take my time now to re-organize as I see fit. Gab was right when he said one of his angels is really good at organizing cabinets. I don't need to hunt for things because they were able to categorize the items properly. 

For the next few days, I hope we could clear up more boxes, set up the Christmas tree and celebrate Mom's birthday. Things are slowly taking shape. Hopefully we can make our new home look more decent in time for Christmas!

Christmas! I'm seriously super behind on this. I'm delayed on everything including mailing Christmas cards and organizing gifts. The only thing I have for now is Fiesta ham hahaha. 

#Home34 #NewG212 #Xmas20 #StayHome #BeKind   

Home Clean Up and Planning My Craft Room

We got help from Gab's company, Squeaky PH, to do move-in cleaning. Our new home is still dusty from the construction work and it would be really hard just to clean by ourselves. I'm so glad it's easy to get help now for home cleaning. 

Our home though still looks like a bodega right now. I'm still hopeful we could make it look decent by Christmas. I hope our dining table arrives today. It would be perfect to have it in time for Mommy's birthday. 

One thing I'm really excited about is my craft room. I've been pouring over ideas on Pinterest. I want to have floor to ceiling cabinets to house my fabric and materials. Then put a desk area on one side where I can put my books, printer and small equipment. I'm still deciding what kind of center table I should have made. I'm thinking of a folding table which can be expanded and hold small knick knacks. I saw some being sold at Lazada and Shopee, so I might consider that. They're smaller than what I need, so may still consider just having it customized. Dealing with design is not a strong suit of mine, so suggestions are welcome :)

The nice thing about being home is I could get help from friends who have businesses. I prefer to work with people I know because we're also taking a lot of precaution for now. I contacted my school busmate earlier to see if his company can help with our cabinetry. I've been going through his profile the past few months looking at projects his company has made. Hopefully he'll be able to indulge my whims haha. 

Update: dining table is delayed. Arggghhhh...

Happy new week everyone!

#Home33 #NewG213 #Xmas19 #StayHome #BeKind  

Beautiful Bonding on Our Second Day

Everything is still a mess, but we're settling in nicely in our new home. Sweetie and Miggy got our picnic folding table and that's our makeshift dining table for now. The good news is our beds were delivered and assembled by the very nice crew from Our Home. That was really great because the boys needed to rest well. They went through many boxes and hauled some of our things from our old home. 

With Ate Maya :) 

We had several surprises yesterday! Our contractor and new neighbor sent us freshly cooked pandesal from their bakery. Ate Maya dropped by and brought us some delicious pili. The biggest surprise was seeing my high school seatmate, Ottie. She pinged to ask for my address because she was distributing gifts and surprisingly showed up on our doorstep ten minutes later. It was a happy reunion since I haven't seen her for a few years now. 

Giving food I think is a universal Filipino language of love (if there's such a thing). Instead of asking "how are you" we more commonly ask, "Kumain ka na?" (have you eaten?). I have received a lot of goodies from friends since we arrived. The three of us bonded over the gifts. Reminiscing on our previous homes while planning how to organize the new one. 

We realized though that there's a lot more work to be done to care for our new home. There's a lot more plants to water. Bigger floor space to sweep and mop. We don't have enough curtains to cover all the windows. We also had to battle some ants and mosquitoes. Moving into a new home has it's pains. Tomorrow we're getting some help to do a post construction clean-up with my friend Gab's company, Squeaky PH.

Whew! Today we're just taking things slow. We'll hear mass online later and prepare for the clean-up tomorrow. 

Happy blessed Sunday everyone!

#Home32 #NewG214 #Xmas20 #StayHome #BeKind   

First Night in Our Dream House

We moved to our new home yesterday! This is the final phase of our transition back home. As usual, we're scrambling to find things we need in the boxes that arrived the other day. It's part of the fun of moving to a new home. Sweetie and I learned a few things last year when we moved. We ended up going through a maze of boxes to find beddings and bed clothes. This time around we made a list! 

We always wanted to live in a house. It was our dream from the beginning. Circumstances though had us move from one place to another in the past 12 years. Doing that eventually made us yearn to find a permanent home. The past three years our past time was to look at property listings and watch Presello vids. We would look at the houses and assess whether it would fit our needs. 

Welcome home Stormtrooper!

We knew we had outgrown our first owned home. SLEX was also nearby and the pollution forced us to keep all the windows closed. We were also worried about living in the condo because there were several COVID-19 case surges at our place. We saw a few places that we found interesting, but we really wanted to go back to the place where I grew up. 

I saw a listing last year, but the price was way over budget. Fast forward to May this year, I saw the place listed again. I kept coming back to the listing because it looked like it would be perfect for us. Eventually I found a video of the house on YouTube and was even more fascinated. Sweetie liked it too. We didn't consider it because it was beyond reach. The strange thing is we started to imagine how we'd live in it. I started to pray because I could see us living in the house. 

When things are really meant to be, God will make a way. In late June, I saw the listing again. The price was reduced by 16%. Still too pricey I thought, so I moved on and tried looking for another place. Then I saw the listing again listed by a friend, Ate Maya. I've known her since I was a teenager since she's my choir mate. I pinged her and asked about the house. After some negotiations to further reduce the price, several family meetings and a gazillion prayers, we got the place!

The funny thing is Sweetie and I only saw our new home after we got home and finished our quarantine. How crazy is that noh? Yes, it was really a crazy decision, but we felt it was the right decision for our family. We prayed hard for a permanent home and finally found it. God really leads you to where He wants you to be. :)

P.S. We slept on the floor, haha.

#Home31 #NewG215 #Xmas21 #StayHome #BeKind