Category Archives: Home Improvement

I have been having tough days since last week. If you have followed my blog for some times, you will know that my son and I have unusual sleeping time. Usually we will sleep from 4-5am onwards. So by the time it is 8-9am (the peak time when normal people go to school or work) we will be in our bed sleeping soundly..do you think we are somehow related to vampires..haha!

Anyway since last week, my next 2 door neighbor has started massive renovation work on their house which I believe has been abandoned since the last 2 years. So the contractor they hire has started working since 8am till 5pm and on Saturday too (as it is allowed by the gated neighborhood handbook). Imagine the noise of drilling and more drilling, knocking the wall and more knocking every now and then that both of us have to endure in our sleepless sleep. Just as I thought the contractor has stop working, there will be some knock, knock here and annoying drilling there.

If only Malaysian’s house are built like these modular homes Massachusetts. Check out how the owner get his second story house addition completed just in a day.

Since the land in city like Selangor and KL is really precious and expensive, I doubt that we can have such spacious home to equip the sunroom which I could use as my craft studio. But hey, give this cranky, sleep deprived mom a chance to dream. After all I don’t know how long the renovation next door will continue, Hubby said he saw piles of sands and more bags of cements in front of the house..huhu!

I almost didn’t notice that the purple cattleya orchid I have was blooming again. After closer inspection, I found out the first flower was already wilted and this was the last one on the same stalk..huhu!

Sometimes on certain days I can hardly get out from the house and water my plants. I have to really steal the time every now and then from all the house chores to actually get to do some gardening. So whenever I get to see some of the flowering plants bloom, it really cheer up my day.

I hope as my son grows up, I get to have more time to spend in the garden (well, actually we could if we live and sleep like normal people..haha!)

Oh, I have also decided not to buy any new flowering plants from Floria 2011 bazaar as I think I won’t do the plants any justice. You see, plants need care and a lot of nurturing in order to thrive, for now I have to concentrate all my energy on making sure that my dearest son is growing up well.

I love gardening. It’s like a break time from the mundane daily routine especially when I am all day and night mothering my son. It surprises you, in the sense that sometimes the plants you nurture with love and care everyday suddenly blooms their best on day you least expect to see. Even when you are out of hope or not hoping at all, plants never fail to cheer up my day.

Each day I cherish the time I get to water my plants, and check whether there’s something that need my attention, like pruning some dying leaves or pull out weeds in the ceramic pot. On day that I have more time, I take the chance to fertilize them.

I guess in the bigger picture, gardening is like the relationship you have with people. You need to pay attention when the needs for nurture and care arise. You have to make time for it to work no matter how caught up with life you seem to be. Otherwise even the best rosy relationship will wither.

(Picture taken when my cattleya orchid blooms back then in February)

After some calculative thought, I decided to buy this UDDEN console as the kitchen island for now.

Well, I don’t really need an island in order to cook daily dishes to feed the family, but having some special space to cut and put ingredients are definitely a good way to save some stress running around in the kitchen.

The console is stainless steel so the cleaning up is really a breeze. Plus it is quite high, thus I don’t have to worry so much about leaving the knife on the chopping board while I go to the fridge to get some more cooking materials.

I also bought the wire shelf so that I can put all the pots that I use on daily basis. I am the type of person who forget about tools and things that I have in my possession if I can’t see them in front of my eyes..heh! Well, some would say it’s a sore to their eyes to see things not hidden in kitchen cabinet, but I rather be a practical person than someone who values appearance more than its real value.

Oh, the best part is I managed to have this sideboard with minimal cost…thanks to handy manny Hubby. After browsing IKEA hackers website, I told Hubby about my plan to make my own sideboard, so that I can put more kitchen equipments (that are rarely being used but will be fully utilised if put outside) like food processor and mixer while using the power point at that side of the wall.

Hopefully Hubby will have some free time soon to write about his hacking experience. The sideboard project is not fully completed yet as we plan to find MDF or plaster board and make panels for both sides and back of the sideboard. Maybe we will put wallpaper on the handmade panels later.

This hacker sideboard is also great to be made into a counter bar as it is high enough for a toddler to climb onto..(you wish!!)

I have to admit, I am bad when it comes to house chores like cleaning, arranging, decorating, scrubbing, mopping…well, you get the ideas. I think the only thing I’m good at is sweeping (if compared to Hubby..haha!) You see, 13 years of being together and almost 8 years of being married certainly won’t impress Hubby when it comes to my skills in keeping the house (or whatever space I used to live in) neat and tidy.

However since we bought this house and I somehow read an article about how we the mothers should do fewer things at home but do them better, I decided to implement some of it. So a few hours ago I tackled a part of the “junkyard” at the family area upstairs, threw the stuffs (which must be sorted but not sure when) in the blue IKEA bag, cleaned up the shelves using broom, and dragged the shelves inside the bedroom cum play room.

Those shelves are now meant for Dear Son to practise his arrangement skills. He is supposed to arrange his toy cars, trucks, backhoe, skid steer, Lego toys and such on the shelves. Or at least that’s what I understand by reading the Montessori books that toys need to be arranged neatly on shelves rather than dump them all in toy box. Hopefully dear son will have a clearer picture and better skills than his Mama in years to come when it comes to this home improvement matter.

Errkkk, the “junkyard” is now a mess because I accidentally killed a lizard while moving the shelves and it turned off my motivation to finish up the cleaning tasks..(what a lame excuse..haha!)