Countdown Time

So much has been happening here that I haven't had time to update everyone. But the latest and most exciting news is that our handover is in less than 1 week. That's right folks- we get the keys to our new house next week. We are all so excited, especially my little girl who can't wait to have her own bathroom so that she doesn't have to share with her two brothers anymore!

But for those who have built before, you know that the hard work only starts after handover. The concreter has been booked to come in immediately, bamboo flooring will be laid by hubby and then the carpet gets laid. Then we have the guys install the decking and another lot install the shutters. Then it's the turf and landscaping. So much to organise and manage,but hopefully it won't be long until we can finally settle into our new home.

I wanted to upload some photos but I thought I might wait until we get handover....oh what the heck, I shall upload a few now to give you folks a glimpse of what it's looking like. Don't mind the dust and dirt everywhere- the cleaners come next week to get the place sparkling.

The view of the kitchen from our library. Btw I love the red glass splashback!

I love the dark stain of these sliding doors. I love these doors, period!

Our ensuite- hubby chose most of the colours

The large bathtub in our ensuite- what a luxury. We may even get to use it as we have a huge watertank installed

Our library doors, stained in a dark chocolate colour. Our other splurge but well worth the extra dollars I think.



Absolutely Breathless Speed

I had a lovely chat to our Site Supervisor and our Adminstrator who advised that our handover is scheduled for the 3rd week of June, which means that the house will be in our possession in less than 2 weeks. OMG!!!!

As exciting as that prospect is, there is just so much work to be done in terms of organising the concreting and the decking. And honestly, I have been so wrapped up in other insane, emotional stuff this last week that I have neglected all these chores. I guess I better get a move on it. I did, however, manage to secure the aluminium shutters on Friday at a reasonable price.  And they are willing to install them in just a few weeks time so a YAY for that.

In hindsight, it would have been so much easier to get the builder to organise everything so that the house is all ready to move in at handover. However, as we wanted items not readily available (bamboo flooring, aluminium security shutters, anti-allergen wool carpet) by the builder and we did not want to pay the 20 % mark up, we forgo that convenience. I just wished I had been more organised; actually I really wished I had more hours in my day to do everything I need to do. Does this sound familiar anyone? Alas, I will simply have to crack the whip. So here's my checklist (hope this helps those in the same boat!):

To do by end of this week:

• Organise 3 concreting quotes
• Organise 3 decking quotes
• Order lounges for family and lounge room from furniture maker
• Organise 3 fencing quotes
• Organise quotes for the pool
• Organise turf quotes

To do immediately after handover:

• Lay bamboo flooring
• Get carpet laid
• Get decking installed
• Get concrete driveway and paths laid
• Get turf laid
• Get fencing constructed
• Have security shutters installed

To do by end of June:

• Buy our daughter's new bed and mattress
• Buy dining chairs for our new dining table
• Buy new bookcase to go into our library
• Buy and install garden shed
• Get electrician to install dining room pendant light

The rest of the landscaping will happen once we move in. Anyhow I feel like I am missing a few important things but not sure what? If you notice something missing, drop me a reminder please. Oh yes, we are having a walk through the house with our Site Supervisor this Tuesday so I should be able to update you further then. Until then folks, enjoy the long weekend if you are here in Oz.

Packing Time!

What a busy few days! I have managed to ruthlessly declutter my closet (giving away about 40-50 items of clothing- makes me sick to think that I had that much to give away in the first place), yet my closet still looks quite full. I will have to reassess the situation in a few weeks time and see if I can give more away.

And I got my youngest boy to declutter his toy drawers. I am proud to say that he was willing to give many of his toys so that other kids could have a chance to play with them. He also decided to give away many of his books. So this is what our decluttering has amounted to (minus my two bags of clothes I took to LifeLine today or gave away to friends):

But I think this is only the start. I will get my other kids to declutter their rooms when they get home from the farm tomorrow.

I have also started packing. I know we haven't received a handover date yet, but by all indications it looks like it will be end of June. And with my commitments to uni, community and family, I don't want to panic and be overwhelmed end of June because there is just so much to do.

So far, I have packed most of my linen closet, keeping only a few towels and a set of sheets for each bed out. I have also packed away most of our books, leaving only my books I need for my PhD. And this my friends is what one bookcase packed looks like:

I still have 2 more bookcases to do. While it hasn't been difficult to declutter my closet, I find it very difficult to part with my books. I still have books I read in high school, carrying them from the US to Malaysia and now finally Australia. My books are too precious to me. But I know I will eventually have to summon the courage to give them away, if I truly want to comitt to living minimally.

A minimal, intentional way of living

Hubby is away this weekend so it's time to clean and declutter to my heart's content. The decluttering is especially important as I don't want to bring anything that we don't NEED into our new space. My vow to myself is to try and take steps towards a more intentional way of living minimally.

Up until a few years ago, I lived very minimally- I had 1 pair of jeans and 5 other bottoms: skirts, pants included. I had about 10 tops and 2 jumpers and 1 jacket. I had 3 pairs of shoes. And now I am embarrass to say that I have more than enough clothes and shoes to outfit a village. It is time to go back to living minimally.

Now that doesn't mean that my family and I will do without material things. It just means that we will do away with things we DO NOT NEED.

And so this weekend, I am going to start with my closet. I do this all the time, but it seems like I still have so much stuff. I guess I am going to have to be absolutely ruthless and only keep the essentials. Deciding what is essential used to be easy, now it is not so straighforward...does anyone else have this problem?

Perhaps it's time to find inspiration from fellow bloggers- http://www.becomingminimalist.com/ and to reflect on these photos. 



My mom, who loves her clutter, feels that my house is already "empty!" She is going to freak out further when she finds out that I am getting rid of more STUFF. Perhaps what I need to tell her as well as remind myself is that having so much stuff does not make me happy. In fact, the clutter bogs me down and makes me anxious. The physical clutter I see around me becomes emotional clutter inside of me. It is time to start releasing that clutter. And a move in the next few months gives me that perfect nudge to get started.

Find your decorating style

Following from my last post, a few people emailed me wanting to know how to go about choosing a style for their own home. Frankly that is a difficult decision. My gut reaction is to advise people to go with what your heart sings. But then that begs the question: what if you don't know what your heart sings or if it sings to every style? LOL.

As I mentioned in my last post, my own style has evolved into what I now know I absolutely love and what suits and reflects everyone in our family. How did I come to this realisation? Honestly, from reading and devouring home interior magazines. I soon found looks that I liked, simply by being exposed to them and seeing them put together professionally by an interior artist. From there, I developed my own confidence and started to play with looks. Looks which I think suit my family to a tee. Looks which people who know me know that that is "so me"!

Now, if you don't want to spend all that money buying interior magazines (and they can be quite pricey) and want an even more straight forward (and free) way to finding your decorating style, perhaps an online quiz is for you. Try this out and let me know how you go. Perhaps it will reveal something about your own style you did not even know existed.  Have fun folks finding your "look"!

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-style/

Our global inspired home

A few people have asked me what decorating styles inspire me, which looks make my heart skip a beat and hold my breath. To be honest, I have changed a lot in terms of what I like in home styles. The furniture in our current home is a collection of so many different styles as I wandered about, finding what makes my heart sing. Yet I still have to say that while it looks to be an eclectic mix, all the pieces somehow work to convey a sense of coziness and warmth. My house is never a museum and although it is filled with things I loved, it is ultimately a home where people can literally put their feet up and find comfort and even solace.

But building a new home means being able to start fresh, and while I have loved so many of the pieces we have in our current home, some will have to go to new owners. Our new home will not just reflect my style, but also my husband and kids. They have been very involved in the process of choosing colours, styles and even their own furniture for this new home. And so yes folks I am reigning in my usual control nature to bring more balance to our new home. I know some of you are shocked by this admission. Trust me, it wasn't easy!

For instance, anyone who knows me knows how much I love wood. But hubby made a request from the very beginning of this build for a leather uphostlered king size bed as he keeps knocking his knee into the wooden foot of the bed and of course hurting and bruising it in the process. He wanted something softer. Of course my control nature said no way! Upon realising that I need to give a bit, I went about looking for that perfect leather bed for hubby. And many months later, we found it at Forty Winks. It is still quite minimal which is important for me and  hubby can bump into the bed all he wants and it won't be an issue. Win, win for all involved.

So what is this style I am alluding to which is able to marry all of our styles? I call it the minimalist, global style. My family and I have had the fortune to travel quite a bit and in our travels we have witnessed the beauty of people's lives from all over the world. We want that reflected in our new home. We have picked up gorgeous handmade rugs from Turkey, and wooden accessories, a beautiful antique painting, and a camel hair runner from Syria on our last trip. We also have things we bought and things friends have given us during our 4 year stay in Malaysia I have items my parents and I bought from Vietnam, reflecting our heritage. But I also have Morrocan laterns, tangines, candle holders, cushions I have collected throughout the years. I also have a love for ornate Chinese dishes and vases in my possession. And we have solid mahogany furniture from Indonesia. This is what we are bringing into our new house and for me this definitely represents who we are.

But at the same time, I love the restrained, minimalist look. So while I want our love of the world to be reflected in our new home, I don't like our house full of clutter. So there it is- the look I love and the inspiration in our new home is the minimalist, global style.

While I can't show you photos of how I would I style the rooms just ye t(perhaps in 2-3 months time after we have moved in), I can include other global style to inspire you. Enjoy folks!

More decisions made

After hunting around for "the carpet" we finally settled on the Norman Ellison "anti-allergen" wool range from the Carpet Man. Thanks Fadzilah for pointing us in that direction. We got a few other quotes from other carpet stores, but in the end, we decided to go with them because they had the carpet which we thought was a perfect balance between what I needed and what Hubby wanted. The kids and I suffer from horrible hay fever and this carpet is guaranteed to be anti-allergen. It is also a textured loop which I love. For hubby, it had to be wool as natural is very important to him. And with wool, it will give us that great appearance even after many many years. Besides we were happy with the sales rep who was patient, offered us excellent advice and seemed to know what he was talking about.

So here's the photo of our chosen carpet:

The colour is called Fawn and while hubby and I liked one of the darker shades, we thought that we've got enough dark things happening: walls, floorboards, dark wooden furniture... so we need light carpet to balance things out a bit. At least that's another decision done! Hurray!!!!

Now, let me share some other photos I took while I was at the house the other day.

 I love these resort style fans- very retro, yet funky and modern at the same time. The kids aren't fuss about them so luckily we only got two of them- one in the family room and one outside under the alfresco area.

These satin light switches are so pretty. We got most of the downstairs' switches in this satin range. Upstairs is the simple, white utilitarian ones!

At the top of the stairs is the glass partition. It looks yucky at the moment but I am sure that once the cleaners are done with it, it shall be sparkingly beautiful! Oh the balustrade needs to be stained yet...and of course it's a darkish one!

Our youngest boy will have the best view in the house. This is what he gets to wake up to every morning. Bliss!



An updated photo of the house from a frontal view. The garagedoor is on, Colorbond evening haze, and the render is basically done, but the two pillars there with the light fittings still needs to be painted- Taubmans Canyon Black (which is supposed to be a Charcoal Grey). And they got a bobcat in yesterday to clean up the outside. So it looks pretty neat, without all that construction mess everywhere. I can't wait until they clean the inside!