The Insatiable Pile of Bricking

Although the joy of living in my own space still hasn’t diminished (and I hope it never does), the reality of being a homeowner is that it does hit your bank balance pretty hard.

Contrary to what some people might think, my dad did NOT buy me this apartment (I wish!!). I paid for the down payment through selling something that I owned and by working hard all these years. He was generous enough to give me a bit of money last year to furnish the place, but I invested it along with my other savings. Luckily the market experienced a bull run, and I then used the returns (thankfully not having to touch my principal) to buy fixtures and fittings for the apartment.

I am an avid list maker and had budgeted for what I thought was all I needed to spend. However, as this is my first home, I know now that I really didn’t have a clue as to how much it would all be. As I have said before, there have been so many unexpected costs and they keep on coming!

I have thus come up with a budget for myself until the end of the year and in conclusion, I can say hand-on-heart that I will not be:

1. Buying new clothes, shoes or handbags,
2. Eating at restaurants,
3. Partying outside of happy hour and
4. Taking taxis

In the foreseeable future, if ever again! So if you guys want to see me, you’ll have to pay for my meal and drinks unless we go to a hawker centre. I wish I was joking, but I’m not!

Is all the sacrifice worth it? To me, that would be a definite YES. To achieve and maintain something of value takes work. I am not the type of person who looks for a quick fix or to other people to bail me out. Although I love to spend money, I have never been in debt before, having always been careful not to spend more than I earn. Well, that's gone out the window now! Although some people have said that a mortgage doesn't count ha ha.

P has been great in offering to pay for some bills, which has helped, but the apartment has a voracious appetite that seems to know no end!

P said something to me the other day that struck a cord: That my new home to me is like I am to him. You love it with all of your heart, but it just keeps taking without regard for your feelings and costs you so much money!

Well, you know what they say: what goes around comes around. So now I know how he feels!

Note to self: Be much more appreciative of P from now on.

A Typical Saturday

7.00am: Wake up to the sounds of birds chirping, draw open curtains, lay back in bed and enjoy the view of “my” big tree and watch the sun rise.

7.30am: Make coffee and prepare (take out of fridge and microwave) breakfast. Get back into bed. Eat.

9.00am: Walk to favourite new hang out, the neighbourhood wet market, and buy big juicy grapes and fresh flowers

10.00am: Change into cute pink Brazilian bikini and go for a swim in the condo’s lap pool which is always warm as it catches the sun the entire day

11.00am: Run bath, scatter rose petals, slap on a face mask, condition hair, lay back in stone tub and relax

2.00pm: Attend scrapbook class to make French tunnel book (should be renamed French torture book, fiddly and takes about eight hours to complete)

6.00pm: Go for dinner with scrapbook friends

9.00pm: Get into bed and talk on the phone to P

11.00pm: Snuggle down into 100% feather pillows and fall asleep thinking that I’m the luckiest girl alive!

Reality check:
Of course I also have to pay the bills and do boring chores like the laundry but that just doesn’t sound as fun, does it?

For All My Single Girlfriends

Now as you all know, living in my new place has been great. In addition, I had mentioned meeting my upstairs neighbour in an earlier blog entry, a very nice British guy. Now that I've settled in properly and have some time, I can tell you more about him.

New to our Small Island, he is in his early 30s, single and bears a striking resemblance to the young John Cusack but with slightly smaller eyes and ears that stick out. A couple of my girlfriends have seen him and agreed that he’s definitely a cutie!

As a “born again” engaged woman and out of the generosity of my heart, I would like to set one of you up with this handsome young(ish) man. However, I have tried hooking people up before and it has always failed. They end up liking someone else other than the person I tried to introduce them too!

So to prevent this sort of inconvenient cross wires, I am thinking of inviting him to the wedding so that you can ALL meet him! Those of you who send me nice presents beforehand will definitely have paved an easier road as I’ll put in a good word for you. Naturally, the more expensive the present, the better the word!

But you guys had better be quick because the mother from the Canadian Family also has some of her single friends in mind for the young JC! I have told him of our plans to set him up so he has been warned.

See you all soon and have a WONDERFUL week!

Happy One-Week Anniversary!

Well, it’s been a full week since I moved into my own apartment and so far it’s been wonderful. I’m still in Mary Poppins mode!

The decking and shoe cupboard have been installed, as have the curtains in the two bedrooms and living area. A very big THANK YOU to my dad for supervising the renovations so that I didn't have to take time off work.

There are still a few home improvements needed, but I’m going to enjoy just being there for now. P’s dad is a contractor and what’s the point of having this skill in the family if you don’t use it? He will be flying into our small island for the wedding, but I also want to tell him, "Don’t forget to bring your power drill!"

I have tried to keep the deco simple in order not to clutter things up, and I think it looks lovely and very 'zen'. However, instead of going on and on about what a wonderful place it is as I am apt to do (just ask P), I will just let the photos do the talking.

The front door and entrance area:

As you come in, the dining corner is on your left and the kitchen is on your right. The door leading off the dining area is for the master bedroom:


Through the kitchen is the wash area and store room/bomb shelter:


To the left of the kitchen is the balcony and living room:


These are some photos of the view taken on the balcony moving from left to right:



The second smaller bedroom is next to the living area, which I’m leaving empty for the moment:

Then the guest bathroom:


Furthest away from the kitchen and living area is the master bedroom:

And my master bathroom with the stone tub and rain shower:


To give you a better overall idea, this is the floor plan:

It is so small that I can plug the vacuum into one socket and clean my entire 807 square feet of perfection! Luckily I'm small(ish) too, so it has all worked out beautifully....

Superb Sundays!

In case you guys can’t tell, I am in 7th (floor) heaven! This morning, I woke up to gentle sunshine streaming through my bedroom window and a feeling of pure joy. The sun stays till about lunch time and in the afternoon, it visits my living room.

Feeling adventurous, I got out of bed and decided to explore a little bit of my new neighbourhood. I called my dad as he and my stepmum live just around the corner from me. I’m sure they’ll loathe that when I show up yet again for another home cooked dinner! He gave me directions to the wet market, which is only a 10-minute walk away.

This neighbourhood still has little touches of past times. At the corner of the block, I heard the sweet sound of birds twittering. As I walked by the bird shop, the distinctive smell of feathers and seed reminded me of when I was young and my parents would take me to the wet market to choose a pet. Invariably, I would always try to handle the birds once I got them home and they would die shortly afterwards. Go figure!

As I crossed the street, I looked up and saw a beautiful piece of architecture on one of the shop houses with colourful peacocks:

When I reached the market, I was pleased to find many shops selling fresh meats, fish, vegetables and all sorts of provisions. As I don’t cook and have no intention of doing so in my pristine little oasis, I headed straight to the flower section, where I picked up eight gorgeous stems of yellow orchids for only 50 cents each! And even if I do say so myself, they look pretty darn good on my living room bay window sill:

A friend called me this morning and asked if I even left the apartment yet ha ha. Of course I have, but only to run inevitable errands. She is going to come over this evening and we’ll crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

I feel like a new, improved version of me. P said to me yesterday that I sound like a different person. It’s true. I have been so depressed the last few months as I felt trapped living in that horrible situation. Work is stressful enough as it is and a person’s home should be a place of rest. But as I would walk up to the apartment door, my heart would drop if I saw that the living room light was on, meaning that someone was at home. Thankfully, I can leave all of that behind me now. What it has shown me is that if I can help it, I do not want to share my living space with anyone other than P from now on.

I feel like I’m in a Mary Poppins movie and find myself breaking out into song and dancing around the apartment for no apparent reason. And when I’m washing dishes and looking at my view of the construction site, I start to grin inanely and feel like my heart is going to burst with happiness! Corny I know and P has said that as a happy person, I am extremely annoying as I’m on such a high and can only talk about my property ha ha.

It’s been great sharing the experience of owning my own place with my ZA friend on the 10th floor. He is visiting for a week to set the apartment up and will go back to ZA in two days. We had some friends and colleagues over last night and they noticed that our washing machine, fridge, TV and lights are all pretty much the same! It has worked out well because I did all the research and legwork before he came over. And as I had to work this past week, he stayed here to ensure the goods were delivered and the lights installed for both our apartments. Now that’s teamwork!

Time is just racing past and in less than 10 weeks’ time, P and I will be getting married. I haven’t even chosen the bridal flowers yet! Better tell my stepmum to standby as she and her sister are helping me choose them. They have offered to pay for the table decorations as I am too cheap to do so! I want to spend all of P’s money on alcohol hee.

Anyway, have a great week everyone, I know I am!

Lights, Washing Machine, Move!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize that owning your first home is a tiring but exhilarating experience. By sheer coincidence, one of my friends from ZA bought the 10th floor apartment (mine is lucky number seven) in the same stack for investment purposes. It’s been fun to share the joy (and financial pain)!

Last night, we went to choose lights and managed to keep it at around the $1,000 mark for the entire flat each.

There is already someone living on the 14th floor, the lone resident for the moment. We went up to meet him, a friendly guy from London. It was nice to see the completed apartment, which he is renting from a local gal who lives in Russia.

I will be very busy over the next few weeks getting things sorted but it is all good. I am so looking forward to moving into my gorgeous apartment and enjoying my own space!