My ‘Go with the flow’ progress for the new home

I think this year has to be the year where I can attest to God’s goodness for my family. I never expected that I would be able to have a place that Hb and I can own, what more have this opportunity to incorporate what we hope our home to look like.

IMG 9490K looking into the Master Bedroom

 

The home renovation has been a rather organic process for me. Hb and I had some requirements of what I hope to have in the new home, but I was not very specific about what I wanted it to exactly look like.

In fact Hb and I had a short disagreement on this.

It started when he didn’t like the look of the stone tiles on the feature wall, despite my efforts of letting him look at it and getting his ‘approval’ before implementation. For him, these stone tiles on the feature wall was looking ‘pasty’ and he considered having this wall removed when it was 70% done.

I had to convince him that any feature in a home cannot be isolated as a single element, as it needs to interact with the fixtures around it. At that point, the black-frame doors weren’t even up.

IMG 9950This stone wall almost got torn down after hb changed his mind after thinking that it looked ‘pasty’ 

 

Then he brought up this concern he had with me not being specific enough to let the ID know exactly what I wanted for the home. There I was trying to incorporate what he hope to have, as well as my preferences for the home. As the home was a combination of ‘us’ and not just a single person’s preference.

In my frustration, I told him that if this home was just all about me, I would have preferred a white-based coloured kitchen and lighter tiles in the bathrooms. However I took all his preferences in and adjusted it according to what I felt would look best aesthetically.

That ended the disagreement.

Fundamentally the issue was really this; It was a difference in our personalities. Hb knows what he wants for the home, but there were limitations locally to the kind of materials that were available in the market. So our ID had to find alternatives and I provided my inputs on how I felt things can come together aesthetically.

Hb is not able to visualise how the material would look like in a space, while I could imagine how things would look like in a space. I just needed to see the tile’s design, and I would visualise how it would come together with the other elements in the home. So his peeve became, “Not the specific material I want to have, vs how this alternative could be congruent with the look we wanted in the home’.

So I learnt that from this process, that having different taste can create disagreements between a couple when it comes to renovating a home.

Besides, I was really caught off guard having this opportunity to create a home from a ‘blank palette’, and I did not have a long list of expectations for any new home from the beginning, except for a few specifics. I didn’t spend time in recent years dreaming about what my house could look like, or looked through interior design styles on Pinterest, until the planning for the renovation started. Since I was rather caught by surprise this year that we were ready to get our new home

So that’s how the look of the home ended up evolving rather organically.

I didn’t pay any visit to the tile shops to choose what I wanted for the walls or the flooring. All I did was to tell my ID, I wanted hexagonal tiles in certain shades for the balconies, as well as some areas of the home. Added with some marble and some wood in the other fixtures. Even the tiles to my kitchen was somewhat organic, as the contractors hacked a little too much of the marble from my living room leading to my kitchen, so I said “Why not have a combination of tiles leading to the kitchen?’

IMG 9882

Even the craft room floor tiling was a result of ‘Why not do this since we needed some form of congruency across the flooring of the home?’

Jack, our ID from Three D Conceptwerke got used to my free-flowing aesthetic style, when his ideas for tiling (which was more retro style) for the type of tiles got thrown out by me mostly, after a number of times 😬.

There are many details in the foundation elements of the home that reflect my quirky preferences.

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Case in point; Hb don’t like this wall in the kitchen, calling the tiles ‘toilet-looking’ tiles’. This was my choice, as I felt it added a quirky personality (which is so ‘me’) to the rest of the kitchen, which will be in marble and darker wood. I feel that a variation in the type of materials used in a same area will bring some layers and textures, while the shade chosen has to be congruent with the rest of the shades selected for the kitchen.

So how is the house looking after ‘adding this and that which we like’?

I think it is looking exactly what I hope for in our home, a combination of hb’s and my preferences. If hb had it his way with the home, it will be all marble and wood, and natural stone everywhere. He likes the ‘Lux’ look for the home, while I think can be nice, but lacks warmth, as it’s too ‘glamourous’ for my liking, with little personality. So that’s where my geometric shape tiles and texture come in!

Having engage an ID worked with us on our new home, the look of the home is a good representation of hb’s and my personality and preferences, rather than what the ID planned for us.

Jack from Three-D-Conceptwerke has been fundamental in maximising our space and layout in the home, giving us invaluable advise when it came to whether ‘this or that’ will work, and proposing ideas to allow more light and making the movement in the home more intuitive. What more his project management skills. positive attitude, patience and efficiency was most commendable.

The Interior Nazi in me rose up to the occasion when it comes to lighting and tapestries in the home. As long as I can get a neutral palette for the home that will age well, it is really more about layering in this home for me.

In slightly more than 1 month, we are moving into this new home, I am still considering if I should reveal more of what we are doing for this space on the blog in the coming months.

But if you are keen to see the real time progress, do check in to my Instagram posts and stories for updates!

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The New Home – T Minus 84 days to Moving In

For a while, I have been mulling over whether to continue blogging about new home. As I have good friends who are currently going through financial challenges in their lives, and blogging about my breakthroughs might make them feel worse about their current state, so I did consider that I should be more sensitive about their situation.

Then I was reminded why I planned to blog about this in the first place.

The new home is a blessing from God and I am full of praise and thankfulness for all He has done in my life.

If you have followed my journey since 2011, you might have chanced upon posts about our first home, and how we move on from this home.

What I didn’t add then was the circumstances surrounding why we had to sell our home.

My hb chalked himself a huge debt through his business and we were in a very bad shape financially, so selling the home was the only way we could think of to pay off most of the debt.

We could not afford to buy a home anymore after that so we rented, but less than a year later, we had to move again from the rental home, as renting a house prove to be something we could not even afford monthly. So we moved into a room in hb’s Auntie’s house.

Again what I didn’t add was that debt was still there, and due to some very unwise choices, the debt hole become bigger. The hole was big enough not to ever own a home for a rest of our lives, if God didn’t bring us through this. I never dared to even think or even ask God to give us a new home, I just lived my life a day at a time.

Subsequently hb and I had to live separately (that was the most poignant time in our marriage), and since 2013, hb has been working out of Singapore.

In 2015, things improved financially and we could afford to rent a home, which we are still residing in today.

Being able to rent a home has been no short of a miracle breakthrough, but God went further and gave us a bigger miracle to have finally owe a home which we can call our own.

Looking back, hb and I can both identify to the story of Abraham in the bible. Except that being stubborn asses as we were, we would probably not be willing to give up our ‘Isaac’ (our home). But we had didn’t have a choice as we had to deal with the consequence of the bad choices we made.

After letting go of our first home, there were more tests and difficulties that came along (which are too complicated to list them down here, but I will share if you are ever keen to hear my testimony personally) which brought us to the lowest point in our life.

Eventually it became worse than just losing the home. But it was at this point that we decided that in our own strength, we can never save ourselves and we needed a miracle from God to bring us a breakthrough.

This new home is more than an answer to our prayers, hb’s specifically was, to have our finances restored. Upon retrospect, it has been more of a resurrection rather than just restoration. As for me, my prayer was “God please take care of my family. I will do what you tell me to.” So I have been very determined since then, to be able to understand the will of God and learn to hear Him speak to me for every situation in my life.

So in a way, our situation then it was a ’no choice’ surrender to God, vs the story of Abraham who was willing to give up Isaac as a show of obedience and surrender to God. But I learnt surrender, obedience (my trips to Jakarta to share a testimony over a two year period, God made it very clear to me that I will lose my inheritance if I did not take the obedient step to go 😱), repentance, and the fear of God through this journey.

Even then, God made everything work out for good. That’s how wonderful the God I serve. And true to His word in the Bible, as He has blessed my family abundantly, having all that we need. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

So when you see this ‘silly’ woman share bible verses and faith messages on my Facebook status, know that I am walking out and truly experiencing this life with God. These verses and words are like fire, fire in my heart and in my bones (Jeremiah 20:9), I cannot hold it back, simply because He is so good and He is a true and living God.

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I would have never expected that one day I will be able to create a nesting place that hb and I both envisioned.

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It has been exciting seeing the transformation of our new home step-by-step. Even with this stripping down to bare walls and floors, with only ugliness and mess, I am still reminded of God’s goodness for my family.

This is a milestone for my family, as it is only because of Him, that I am able to share this process and the joy of building up this dream home for my family.

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The New Home – Design Concepts

My interest in aesthetics span from design to illustration, I have never been trained formally in art and wished that I had shown interest when I was a child, instead of music. My parents got me to take up piano lessons in primary school, when they found that I showed some interest in learning the instrument. My interest in music waned when I stopped taking formal lessons to focus on studying for my ‘O’ levels exams.

Art would have been a better choice, and would have more longevity for me to pursue in my adult years.

I discovered my interest in Home Interior when I got my first home in 2004, when there wasn’t Pinterest, and the Internet was at its early stages. So I referred to local Home Interior Magazines for ideas.

With this new home, I was thrilled to have an almost blank palette to plan for, and I spent time pouring through the photos of house interiors in Pinterest. I wasn’t keen in following trends or adopting specific styles, but creating a home that will have concepts that I love.

It wasn’t the easiest at the start to integrate what Hb preferred to so I was sure to get his brief for what he wanted.

 

His requirements were ;

1. Feature Wall in the living area with irregular rock-shaped tiles (this had been hard to find, as the popular choice for many home owners locally are white or red rectangular bricks)

2. Spa-like wall materials and colour scheme in the Toilets. (Personally a prefer a lighter shade for the toilets, but I didn’t want to have to scrub grout between the tiles over time).

Screen Shot 2017 08 02 at 2 35 23 PM

 

3. Do avoid busy prints, Peranakan prints like that are a no-no as we don’t want retro concepts for the home. (I would specify this as no-retro-for-shared-areas, I would still add some retro decor in my craft room 😘)

Screen Shot 2017 08 02 at 2 47 04 PM

 

4. I want a ‘man-cave’, with more dark wood features.

5. You can plan for a dog room if you want, right next to the kitchen (Hooray!)

 

While my requirements were;

1. Some Geometric shapes (I want monotones not coloured ones) in my flooring, segregating some areas from the main living area with clear black frame doors.

Floorndoors 2

 

2. My dream kitchen with Marble and Wood and an Island, and pendant lights above the Island.

Woodisland

 

3. No spot lights in the home, I want cooler lighting options and ambient lights (through lamps) for warmer lighting

4. I want a craft and prayer area

 

Interestingly, hb and I did not put much thought into the design of our bedrooms or the boy’s bedroom, so we left it to Jack of Three-D-Conceptwerke to propose the ideas.

Since we only spend our sleeping hours in the bedroom, we wanted it simple but cosy. While flexibility is needed in the design of the boy’s room, to accommodate him growing into his Teenage years.

The new home currently looks like this, since the previous owner renovated a couple of years ago. She was renting it out for the last couple years and never stayed in it. We are planning to strip the current feature wall, polish the existing marble in the living area, change the windows (as the current ones are more than 30 years old!) And there will be plenty of re-furbishment needed to be done around the house!

IMG 7456

 

Next Post : T-84 Days to moving in!

Other posts in this series; Selecting an Interior Designer

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