Our old clock quit on us some weeks back and it's so inconvenient not having a time-telling instrument at home... We saw this cool looking clock in the Ikea catalogue and Calvin went to get it this morning to bring us back some convenience. Nice?

A couple of weeks ago when Calvin was on leave, he decided to give our home some new additions.

We've been wanting to get ourselves a coffee table. It's really not convenient and not conducive when you have guests and there's no coffee table in the hall. We saw something pretty decent in the Ikea catalogue and decided to get it. The coffee table seems to complete the hall. Now, we can have our drinks and snacks within reach when we glue our bums to the sofa and fix our eyes on the TV. :p

Oh, that beautiful butterfly candle holder was a wedding gift from my colleagues Natasha, Faylyn and Hazel. Fell in love with it the moment I opened the gift. Now I can display it prominently. (^__^)

We've also been searching for wall decals to decorate 小B's room. Our first choice was a zoo themed decal, and it's really really cute! But they don't deliver to Singapore... sad.. So, we settled for this just-as-beautiful decal, the lollipop garden. Daddy-to-be excitedly put it up with careful precision one fine day. I came home after work and was greeted with a brightly coloured room for 小B. So colourful it brings a smile to my face every time I step into the room. 小B, I'm sure you'd love it too!

Here's our visual version, beautifully and flawlessly painted by Esther Lim and Joeel Lee!

We had always wanted to have a cross at home but had no idea where to buy it from or if we'd ever find anything we really like. So, getting it custom-made would be the solution. And who else to go to, but your most trusted, talented artist friends. So a few months back, we decided to check if they would like to do a painting for our humble home.

They were all for the idea and came over to take measurements and discussed extensively how we should be doing it. Then came the illustrations. All we needed was just 1 change and we fell in love with the next illustration that came.

Today, Calvin managed to engage his colleague's uncle's help in transporting the huge painting from Esther's place to ours. Calvin' cousin Dexter also readily agreed to lend his strength and sweat to carry it up 7 storeys to our flat. Thanks Dex, greatly appreciate it!!

Now, the beautiful painting sits at the end of our corridor, greeting us everytime we come home. We love it!!!

But I think we need to change the lighting at the corridor. The white lights really doesn't do any justice to this beautiful piece of work. We need some warm spot lights shining on it to bring out its beauty even more.

When?? Soon, I really hope.

We bought a new piece of "furniture" today! This is the 1st step in jazzing up our "black & white" home, and it's in the ME-colour!! I LOVE IT!!!

Bringing FATBOY home
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FATBOY variations
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Our guest room had been the "hang-laundry" room since the day we moved in. Last week, with the help of Dennis & Eunice, we moved Calvin's single bed over from his mom's house. My handyman Calvin painted the bedframe black and it now looks totally brand new!!

We've also been blessed with a brand new mini-compo from Choon Yng & Shunliang and an almost brand new writing table from Winnie & Kim Seng. Now, the "hang-laundry" room is officially converted into a guest room cum study!

We started moving our things on 11 Feb. We had wanted to rent a van for the move but didn’t manage to. Thank God for sending Dennis at the eleventh hour! Thank you very much Dennis, Eunice… without you guys, it would have been near impossible, you’ve really been a Godsend. We moved the remaining things bit by bit, day by day. Today, we finally brought over the last bit of things from Calvin's parents' place.

We didn’t have our unit # at our door for the longest time and have caused a lot of inconveniences to the delivery men. Even our neighbour Ah Ma kept asking us about our "meng bai"... Finally, we hung our 门牌 up. It’s the one & only in the whole wide world, uniquely handmade by yours truly. Nice? Calvin loves it, me too!! (*_^) totally proud of myself... hehe

There's also a whole lot of people that we'd like to thank. You guys have been of great help in the whole process of our home-building.

Corinna/Rick & Mimi ~ our greatest supporters when we build our home. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Without you, history would have been different.

Sok Sok ~ Thank you for being my hotline whenever I need answers to my questions. I wish I inherited more of your ingenuity.

Calvin's Mother ~ Thank you for your generosity, we're deeply grateful.

Joeel ~ our chief design consultant. Thanks for all the great & practical ideas that you've given us. A lot of what's in our home today are results of your ideas. We wish we were able to materialise more of your great ideas.

Jasmine ~ our official "garang guni" babe! Thanks for the many offers of day bed, fish tanks, etc and finally thanks for the 26 inch Sony TV. It made our home more like a home now.

Noi, Randy, Winnie, KS, Xifen, Jo, Scott, Eunice, Esther, Betty, Alvin, Ban, Edmund ~ our tip-givers. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Thanks for the tips and the contacts. They were all very useful!

TTC ~ Thank you for never failing to offer your help. Can't wait to invite you guys over.

Adam ~ Thank you for your generous gift.

Lastly, Thank You God for blessing us with our dream home. Thank You for the overflowing blessings and supply that You shower upon us. Thank You for loving us. All glory and thanks be to You!

Yesterday, the workers came to fix the solid tops for our island and sink. Calvin started vacuuming the other rooms in the morning while waiting for the workers to be done and for me to come home after my morning meeting. We had wanted to start washing the place after lunch, but these workers are still filling the air in our kitchen with white dust particles as they grind the solid tops to smoothen the joints. So we decided to start cleaning the wardrobe & shoe cabinets... Cleaning all the cabinets already took us half a day... phew!

Today, the electrician came to fix up the remaining sockets in the kitchen. And that was the final piece of work. Our home is officially fully renovated!! Uncle gave us an estimation of 2 months to complete all the renovation works. Well, his estimation is a bit off... and it's due to the delay from the original carpenter!! But, thank God we engaged this carpenter. Good workmanship and he's a very responsible fellow. Soon, I'm gonna compile a list of "good" and "bad" contacts for your benefit (if you're ever looking for contractors/ lobangs).

Praise God for the 89 days of renovation. Thank God for giving Calvin strength and patience throughout the entire renovation process.

Baby, thank you so very much!!! Thank you for putting in so much effort over the last few months, for enduring the painful process of getting approvals from the authorities, for spending heaps of time and effort in putting our ideas into 3D drawings for Uncle to visualise, for going through the agony of coordinating amongst the different contractors, for putting up with all the ridiculous "demands" from the contractors (and me!), for combing the entire Jln Besar and Balestier Rd in search of our lights & toiletware so that I don't have to, for finding the best deals, for the many sleepless nights you had trying to think of the best ways to deal with issues and problems, for taking leave whenever you're needed to ensure that the work is done properly, for giving all you can to build our dream home.

I LOVE YOU, the head of my household!! :* MUACK MUACK!!

The main gate is up! The lights are up! The glass fixtures are up! Up up up and [almost] away!! We've got 1 more glass swing door between the kitchen & the dining room to be installed. And the carpenter's coming within the next few days to fix our cabinets and wardrobe. AND WE'RE DONE!! And the cleaning nightmare starts!!

"Recruitment for free cleaners. Please sign up here!"