Busy Sunday!

My HP’s alarm rang at 8am and I reached my hand out to turn it off. I was still lying on my bed and refused to get up as I did not sleep well the night before. Thinking about the schedule I had planned for the day, I got up from my bed reluctantly and went to wash up. After I washed up, Jer called me to check on me as she feared that I might still be sleeping soundly.

I quickly swept and mopped the house and went to Jer’s house at 9.15am. Jer was still taking her time to get ready cos she would be having her driving lesson after the appointment with Sebasten. We left her house and hurried to our new house. Luckily, we reached there before Sebasten. Sebasten came limping shortly with a swelling foot from a fall he had a few days ago. We went through the whole house with him and he gave several suggestions to us on how to renovate the house. He took some measurements and notes in his notepad and informed us that he would try to design something for the living room by the end of the week.

As the time was creeping near Jer’s driving lesson at 10.30am, I told her to go first and I would settle the rest. Jer left for her lesson and I continued to discuss with Sebasten. Before he left, I asked him to provide me a rough estimate quote of the cost of the renovation when he produced the design at the end of the week and he agreed.

I went home and took a bath to prepare for the next appointment. Jer came back and I meet up with her to go to Sattine for her trial make up. We reached Sattine exactly at 12.30pm and Jer informed Mandy about our decision to change the photographer to Yen instead of the recommended Xiao Xin (Edmund). Mandy told us that we are the 6th couple who has decided to make the change. However, the photo shoot date will need to be changed to another day as Yen is not free on 6 October. Mandy can only confirm the date tomorrow evening. Yesterday night, Jer had done some research on Yen and Xiao Xin and to our horror; the comments about Xiao Xin are not complimentary. The make-up artist Jessie came and began her art on Jer’s face. She was chatting to Jer but her hands never slowed down. She completed Jer’s make-up in 30 mins and Jer was quite satisfied with it. Mandy then told us to go for lunch as it was late and to return later to try out the dresses for the photo shoot.

We had lunch at Tanjong Pagar Plaza. We returned to Sattine and Jer tried on a few dresses but only 1 design caught our attention. We decided to MTM the evening gown in 2 shades of purple from the design. Mandy was busy attending to another couple and told us to return at around 6pm to select the dresses.

So we went off to Novena Square to spot-check on Mavis who is working at a makeover shop. We found Mavis working on a customer effortlessly but she was so engrossed in her work that she did not notice us. We went to buy waffle to eat and bought her share too. Yet, she did not see us again. So we walked around Novena Square to kill time. We went to buy ice-cream and went back to the shop. This time, Mavis finally saw us and she was so surprised. We gave her the waffle and Jer asked her to accompany her to Sattine later cos I had to work night shift. We waited for Mavis but I left first at 6.30pm.

While I was working, Jer called me and told me that she had decided on the dresses for the photo shoot. Jer was very excited. We are a step nearer to the photo shoot.

Eventful day

I woke up earlier than usual today. I'm still having the flu from yesterday and my tummy and neck are aching from the yoga practises I had yesterday. It's irritating whenever I have flu. Sian...

I called the contractor Sebasten Soo to arrange an appointment with him on the coming Sunday. Jer and myself are thinking of doing up the living room, re-paint the whole unit and maybe to build-in some wardrobes in the rooms. Sebasten was unable to confirm with me right away as he was not in office to check his schedule and told me that he would call me later.

I also called HKTC and asked about the re-painting for the corridor. No one has called me and I can't believe they are so inefficient. I was transferred to the officer in-charge, Mr Lim. He told me that he had gone to the unit himself and the re-painting would be starting soon and completed by mid-October. At least, he has done something about it.

I had lunch at home and called the plumber for the appointment. We set the time at 1.30pm. I was to carry a ladder from my home to the new house. Then Jer asked me to buy a mop with changeable head to bring to the new house. So I carried the ladder on 1 hand and carried the mop in another. I met Jeremy along the way and he told me I looked like a contractor... Thanks hor brother... (-_-;)

I reached my new house and the plumber was outside already. He told me he just arrived and we went into the house. As we did not have the mirror, he just applied some PVC gum on the pipe and told me to call him again if there is any problem in the future. He left shortly and I started to sweep the floor. The house is kindda dusty even though there is no one staying there. I thought of mopping the floor but my nose was leaking like a pipe... So I gave up the idea and left. I went to open the letter box and discovered a few envelopes and a lot of flyers in it. There were 2 envelopes attentioned to the lady seller and 1 envelope from DTZ. In it was an official receipt stating that they had received the commission in full. There was also a recycled envelope from the sellers which contained the CCTV manual and installation CD. No wonder I cannot locate them in the box haa!

I sent an sms to Mr Lim to inform him about the 2 envelopes and went home. Shortly after I'd reached home, Mr Lim called me to ask me to put the envelopes in his in-laws' letter box at Blk 338. I told him I would do it later. Well, if he had called earlier, I would not need to make a trip back again. Feeling sick, I went to take a nap.

I woke up at 6pm and luckily, I was feeling better already. I went to Blk 338 and dumped the envelopes into the given unit's letter box. I went back home and called Sebasten. Sebasten had an appointment in the late morning on Sunday and he would try to change it with his clients to accommodate my appointment. He would call me again.

At 7.10pm, my HP rang but it was not Sebasten but the catering manager, Colette Seah, from M Hotel. She informed me that the dates for the food tasting were out and confirmed my email address to send the details to me. I called Jer and told her about the good news. We set the date on 17 November. I called Sebasten again and he told us that he would be able to make it on Sunday at 11.30am. Actually, if he could not make it, Jer and myself would not mind meeting him earlier haha. I also asked him to bring along the paints catalog and some designs (he had done before) which he thinks are suitable for my living room. I even sent him the floor plan via email.

So everything will have to wait on Sunday. But I just received a call from Jer saying that Sattine requires us to be there earlier on Sunday at 12.30pm... OMG, I immediately sent an sms to Sebasten to ask to meet him at 9.30am instead. Hopefully, he will be able to make it. I feel so bad to make him change his appointments. But what can I do?

The customer is always right hahaha! ;-P

The Big Sweep

Today is Monday and poor Jer has to go back to work... What about me? I'm enjoying my second off day haha! So the chore of sweeping the house will be solely undertaken by myself.

After I had my breakfast, I called up Hong Kah Town Council (HKTC) to ask for someone to check the kitchen's toilet which was supposed to be leaking as informed by Mr Lim. The staff arranged the plumber to meet me at our house at 12pm. Besides that, I also asked the staff to get people to repaint the wall and ceiling along the corridor and for the block as they were all darkened for unknown reasons. However, the staff told me that the repainting of the block would only be done every 7 years and they would do it next year for my block. As for the corridor, it would be on a case-by-case basis. The staff informed me that she would send an officer to take a look and the officer would call me to arrange for an appointment. The completion of the coming lift upgrading programme (LUP) will depend on HDB and it usually takes a year to complete. This means that by the time we are having our wedding, the lift will not be ready yet.

I had my early lunch at home and went to the house to wait for the plumber. I reached there slightly before 12pm and while I was waiting, I swept the entire house and took slightly more than an hour to clean up all the green beans, tea leaves and dust. The result: a clean house but a blister on one of my fingers... But still, the plumber had yet to arrive. Irritated, I called up HKTC to enquire. The staff gave me the plumber's HP number and asked me to call him. Apparently, the plumber had forgotten about the appointment and promised to come to the house immediately. He only arrived at 1.25pm... He began to check the toilet pipe. After some scratching and removing of scotch tapes from the pipe, he concluded that it could be the ceiling that is leaking. However, he will require a ladder and a small mirror to confirm it. So he fixed an appointment with me on the coming Friday to inspect the pipe again. Sigh... This is so troublesome... :-(

The plumber left the house after 5 mins and I returned home.

In the evening, Mavis came to view our house. The neighbour's dog barked at us the moment we walked past it. Jer was frightened by it even though it is just a small dog haha! After we had finished viewing the house, we returned home as Jer had not eaten her dinner. The next thing we have to do is to plan what we want for the renovation! Lots of things to do....

Opening Ceremony

It has been 2 days since we had taken over the keys to our new home. But as according to Ben's mother, we could only enter the house on an auspicious date and time which is today.

Filled with excitement, I couldn't sleep well the night before. My mother was telling us that according to Chinese customs, we should buy a pineapple, a "fa gao" and some oranges to place in the house when we first enter. We should also burn some offerings to the "Tu Di Gong" a.k.a. "Earth God" to pray for safety at the void deck. The pineapple should be rolled into the house following with a shout of "huat" to pray for good fortune for the house and occupants. The "fa gao" should be placed beside the pineapple after the carrier had said "huat" 3 times. Then according to Ben's mother, we should bring two red colour bamboo sticks tied at the front, center and rear with red strings, and the person carrying it would enter the house first and placed them in the kitchen. This is to create an illusion that there are people staying in the house so that there will not be any "dirty things" coming to the house. Every corner in the house will also be scattered with green beans and tea leaves for that same effect.

So we went to our house at 10am. Although we are not that superstitious, we rather believe than to regret in future. We followed what our mothers had told us and decided to combine the two customs. I have listed down what we had done in the house:
1. I opened the metal gate and door and Ben shouted "Huat ah" as he rolled the pineapple on the floor. It landed nicely just before the grey TV platform. Yeah it's a "X"!
2. Ben carried in the two tied red colour bamboo sticks and placed them in the kitchen.
3. I brought in the "fa gao" and said "huat" 3 times.
4. We placed the oranges beside the pineapple and Ben's mother went around the unit to scatter the green beans and tea leaves. After that, she placed the remaining green beans beside the oranges.

Ben's mother then instructed Ben to sweep the floor and to clear the things 3 days later, which is on 22 September. Ben had brought along his measuring tape and floorplan and we measured the dimensions of the washing machine and fridge platform. We also did a rough measurement of the dining table and sofa.

After all that had been done, we left the house and went to Bukit Gombak Central for lunch. Ben treated us for lunch. After our meal, we went around to shop for the cleaning devices for the house.

I had wanted to shop for furniture but we put off the idea as we were tired already. Well, we finally have our own HOME at long last! :-)

Finally, the most awaited day!

Today is the day for us to go HDB Hub for our final appointment to take over the keys from the sellers.

I have applied for half-day leave for the afternoon appointment at 3.45pm while Ben is having his off. Initially, I have arranged to meet up with Ben at Tiong Bahru Plaza to have our lunch before going to HDB Hub. However, at the last minute, I need to go to Standard Chartered Bank at Anchor Point to remit a very imporant payment so I have to meet Ben at Queenstown MRT station instead.

I arrived at Queenstown MRT station at around 1.40pm and Ben was there waiting. Fortunately, he has got his PSP to keep him company. Ben had an appointment with Mandy who is kind enough to make amendments to his ceremonial dress which is needed for the PS in 2 weeks' time. We proceed to Tanjong Pagar Plaza for our lunch. Ben had wanted to bring me to the famous nasi lemak stall over there and I have been longing to try it. By the time we reached, it was 2pm and all the 3 nasi lemak stalls were packing up and closing the stalls. Oh well, I guess I have no fate to eat the nasi lemak... We settled for yong tau foo and herbal chicken and since there was still some time, we went to SingPost to renew my PDL.

After that, we went to Sattine. Ben tried on his ceremonial dress and Mandy suggested that she would only tailor the top to make it more fitting. We were both amazed that Ben has such slim legs keke! Mandy told us to wait for a while as she only needed 15 mins to tailor the top. As we were meeting our agent, Patricia, at HDB Hub at 3.30pm, we told Mandy that we would collect it later and rushed off to HDB hub.

We reached HDB Hub at 3.30pm sharp and met up with Patricia and the sellers. We got our queue number 4142 and went to the 2nd floor to wait for our turn. The queue slip showed our room number is 235 and we waited just outside the rooms. We waited and waited and suddenly, our seller, Mr Lim, went to the next rows of rooms and saw our queue number was being called at room 234. So why was the wrong room number printed on the queue slip? We quickly went to the room and our resale officer was waiting for us. Mr Lim then handed over the keys to us in the presence of the resale officer and he also gave us a file containing all the renovation and relevant documents to us. Wow, Ben was right. I did not believe that Mr Lim would be so nice to give us the file too! ;-P He's really a very nice guy!

After all the procedures, we are finally the official homeowners of our new home! But, this is also the beginning of more tasks to be done... We paid Patricia her commission and made our way back to Tanjong Pagar. We are having our wedding photo shoot in two weeks and I still have not source for my wedding shoes. We went to International Plaza first as Mandy had told us that I could find my wedding shoes there. We were walking around trying to find shoes shops and suddenly Ben pointed to a display poster and exclaimed that the shoes are beautiful.

Agreeing with him, we went into the shop, Leaping Lizards. Inside the shop, most of the shoes are designed for weddings and we found the shoes that we had seen on the poster. I tried it on and like it a lot. They were comfortable and elegant. The lady boss (whom we presumed she is) informed us that she has a similar design but it has Swarovski crystals on it instead of the normal crystals. To show us the difference, she put the two shoes together; one with normal crystals and the other with Swarovski crystals. The winner is no other than the shoe with the Swarovski crystals. The shine from the Swarovski crystals was really stunning and so was the price... The pair of shoes cost more than $300, which is double the price of the one with normal crystals. OMG! I didn't want to invest so much in a pair of shoes and so I decided to purchase the pair of shoes with the normal crystals. After all, I may not wear the pair of shoes again unless I am attending a grand function or dinner. *heart pain* This is the most costly pair of shoes i owned.

Next, we went back to Sattine. I told Mandy about the shoes and she took a look at them. When she saw the shoes, she informed us that one of her customers had also bought the same pair of shoes. Haha, what a coincident! In addition, we met the same people who were also at Leaping Lizard earlier on. So it was double coincidence haa!

Ben collected his top and we decided to go for dinner. Ben suggested to have our dinner at Sakae Sushi at Icon Village as a form of celebration for officially becoming homeowners. Yippe! On our way to Sakae Sushi, we went to IsRose to say hi to my friends. I briefly updated them on my wedding preparations and we went for dinner.

After the dinner, we took a stroll to M Hotel. I wanted to see whether I could have my photo shoot there but to my disappointment, the place is not so ideal. It does not have the kind of beautiful stairs that I liked. I have to source for another place then... Sigh...

After a long and tiring day, we finally embarked on the journey home. At least today was a fruitful day for us to finally owning a house and we are almost prepared for our photo shoot. Hooray!

Wedding Bands

For the past few months, Ben has been asking me when I would be going to look at wedding bands but I have been putting the issue aside as I kept thinking we still have time. One fine day, while walking around bugis, we were approached by the sales exec of Lee Hwa jewellery so we decided to pop inside to have a look.

We were browsing the rings section and the sales exec (A) asked when we will need the ring so I told him next month. A then informed us that we would need to wait 3 months if we were to custom made the rings. We were surprised that the wait for custom made wedding bands is so long! We had intended to have our wedding bands ready for our photo shoot next month and yet only now we are looking for them...

We went around a few other jewellery shops but nothing really caught my eyes until I saw something at Citigems and we managed to shortlist the design. It has 6 diamonds all round the ring and a single groove in between the diamonds. The sales exec told us that we could get our wedding bands in time as Ben's finger size is small and he has to take the ladies' design. We will be taking the identical pair of rings. Ben's finger size is 12 and for guys, the ring size is from 16 and above. Satisfied, we asked for the product code of the design and left the shop.

Today, we went to Citigems at Lot 1 to look for my brother and gave him the product code. My brother does not have that design but West Mall Citigems has it. While we are still browsing around, we saw another design which previously we had forgo as the guy's design is too plain. The design is similar to the one we saw in Bugis except that it has an additional diagonal groove at the diamonds and looks more dazzling. I tried on the ring and like it. But I was pondering which design to choose over the two. Knowing me that I won't be satisfied until I tried on the other design again, we went to West Mall Citigems. Once we set foot inside the shop, immediately I asked to try on the design when I spotted it on display.

The conclusion?

I decided to choose the design I saw at my brother's shop.

Finally, we have selected our wedding bands and according to my brother, they would be arriving at his shop in a few days time. So we will be able to have our wedding bands for the photoshoot!

Inspection of Unit

The date to our 2nd HDB appointment draws nearer and we were required to make a final inspection before the official handing over of keys to us.

As Ben's sister's family would be coming back to Ben's house for dinner, Ben had asked his sister and brother-in-law to accompany us for the inspection. Ben's brother-in-law is an engineer and is experienced in electrical installation and inspection.

So we went to the void deck at 5pm and guess what we saw? Ben's sister was doing exercise at the workout area in front of the block LOL! She told us that her husband was parking the car and would be coming over soon. Another surprise yet again! Ben's brother-in-law came with his two children. The day before, Ben had called a contractor recommended by the seller Mr Lim to come to the unit to take a look. The contractor is Sebasten Soo from Frontier Concept Pte Ltd. But he was nowhere to be seen. Ben called him and he informed that he would be reaching soon. So Ben told him to go up to the unit himself while we made our way up.

We were received by Mr Lim again. Mr Lim informed us that his wife had gone to Shanghai for a meeting and therefore she was not at home. Ben's brother-in-law began his inspection with a floorplan given by Ben. Ben's brother-in-law went around the unit and told us that everything seems alright to him. But he instructed us to get a copy of the electrical installation from Mr Lim just in case we need it in the future. Ben's sister told us that if we were to change our curtains, she would like to take the yellow curtains for her home as they matched the colour of her furniture. Wah so convenient haha! While we were at the kitchen's toilet, Mr Lim told us that the toilet's main pipe is leaking and suggested us to call Town Council to take a look. :-( Only until the last minute, then he told us about it... In our minds, we are thinking that he should have asked Town Council to settle the matter while he is still staying there.

After the inspection, we were all waiting for the grand arrival of Sebasten. Ben told Mr Lim about the appointment of Sebasten and Mr Lim immediately called him. Mr Lim was basically reprimanding him over the phone and he said he would be coming soon. We waited a while longer and it was Ben's turn to call Sebasten. Ben was also demanding him to come quickly as we were going back to his house for dinner. In the end, Sebasten came at 6pm which was an hour late.

Mr Lim scolded him again before we started back on track. I kindda like Sebasten's personality as he was very frank and honest. He told us that the floor is in a good condition and doesn't require reconstruction. He gave a lot of recommendations to us which I feel that they are very good. At least he did not disappoint us after an hour of waiting for him.

After Sebasten had finished giving his recommendations around the unit, we bid farewell to Mr Lim and went back to Ben's house for dinner.

The next upcoming event would be the 2nd appointment on 18th September. Stayed tuned! ;-)