The long list - update

It is nearly the end of winters* as it is only two days to August and it brings to mind a self imposed deadline that I have been chasing - that of having a cosy clean home for winters. It seems like I have lost that race, but it sure made the days go past quick. I'm thinking about the last time I lived in a properly organised home (it was years and years ago) - everything had a place and everything was in its place!

 

For most part of my life I have lived in a properly organised home, not very cluttered, clean inside and out and a messy desk or bed to just balance it out that little bit. It would take about half hour to take it to hotel-looking cleanliness; and I got properly balanced meals to boot! Home, as it should be, was a launching pad** and not an energy sink^!

 

But now as winter is beginning to end, I have another, self imposed, deadline to chase - the race to get everything organised before Coffee arrives!

 

So, lets get the lists going:

Living Area

1, Shelving in the kitchen - OUTSOURCED

2, Book shelf in the living room - OUTSOURCED

3, Tidy up the baking and occassional use dishes shelf! - DIY

4, Not on top of the list: Update dining table and curtains (for curtains, see picture below!) - DIY

5, Not on top of the list, but expected to happen really soon: new TV system - FRIENDS!

6, To be done right after 1 and 2, ledge for artwork -DIY/Friends?

7, Electrician needs to put new power points - OUTSOURCED

8, Buy handles for cabinets - DIY

9, Buy some kind of step stool - DIY

 

What has already been done:

1, New appliances and cupboards have gone in

2, Pantry is satisfactory now

3, New dinner set is out

4, Old and doubles removed!
5, Created some kind of a flow, so that moving around the apartment is not impossible!

 

Balcony - DIY, all of it!

1, Clean concrete floor - maybe I need to buy a pressure cleaner

2, Seal it

3, Tile it - materials bought

4, Put the bench on

5, Buy Coffee's Potty

6, Not on the top of the list: Organise the plants

7, Put the light there.

What has already been done:

1, The body corporate have replaced the balustrades and roof slats

 

Powder Room/Laundry

1, Fix the vacuum cleaner and maybe move it out of the powder room?-  DIY

2, Tidy up - use up Ikea shopping materials to update the rest of the house - DIY

3, Replace mirror and paint the walls. - DIY??

What has already been done:

1, Some amount of decluttering

2, Opening up the wall to create a laundry

3, Moving the washing machine

 

The area under the stairs

1, Tidy up - will happen once the book shelves are put in place! - DIY

What has already been done:

1, Removed rubbish bins from here and put them where they should be - in the kitchen

 

The upstairs is more in state of disrepair

 

Bedroom

1, Tidy up

2, Put art up

3, New power points - eventually to put the bed side lights on

What has already been done

1, The light fitting has been changed

 

Bathroom

1, Demolish

2, Retile

3, New Basin and Bathtub and curtain

4, New heating light

5, New exhaust

6, Declutter - I am drowning in the amount of toiletries I own

What has already been done

1, Washing machine has already moved downstairs

2, Dryer disposed of!

 

Study

1, Declutter the shelving - I expect that to happen once the book shelves are up in the living room

2, Put Coffee's food and toys in this room

3, Declutter my clothes - oh my god! so many clothes!!

4, Get Annette to please return my money for the mirror!

What has already been done:

1, Shelving put in place!

 

Guest room (This room has turned into a dumping ground!)

1, Go thru boxes and find a spot for everything! Some of it is expected to happen once the storage in the living room is completed!)

2, Use this room

What has already been done:

1, Got rid of the white cupboard

2, Got the sofa downstairs

 

On the wish list, for the moment

1, Light fittings

2, Painting the apartment

 

*famous last words!

**how immensely grateful I am to my family for that!

^that my married home felt like
'I've just added 'Lists' as one of the labels, in case you might want to peruse my love of lists.

Lights

I went to IKEA yesterday and bought a whole lot of things, including some beautiful light-fixtures. I'm trying to make up my mind about how to arrange them around the place, and end up writing the following.


I got three of these (IKEA Krusning pendant lights) ; one large and two small: these were the cheapest and yet, my favourites. I am rather sure that the large one will be the centre light for the bedroom; and I am wondering about the other two.

Option 1: Put them as bed side lights (picture below) on both sides of the bed;
Option 2: Put one of them in the entrance and the other on top of the sink

 

 

The other lights that I got were two of these (IKEA PS 2014):

 

 

Option 1: Put these as bed side lights while the Krusning are at the centre, which would mix it up a bit;

Option 2: Put these in the guest room, where people can have a bit of an option about how much light they want.

 

Then I picked up two Kappa lights

 

 

Option 1: On top of the dining table

Option 2: Hanging from top of the stairs

Option 3: Bed side lights in the bedroom

 

I also picked up a single Klor (tho, I can always pick up another one, if need be) and there are two things that stand out to me about the Klor

firstly, it doesn't have any visual weight (and hence having it next to a large window would make sense, because it wouldn't block any light from there)  

and secondly, I've read on the internet that it has a narrow range of light, and I particularly like that because I don't like any light shining in my eyes (or more like glaring in my eyes)

 



 

So because of both these reasons, I would like to
Option 1:put it on top of the dining table - see the food clearly and each other in a very soft light;
Option 2:put it on top of the stairs, so that only the stairs light up and not all the bed rooms around it!

 

I have from my previous buys got this light already and I am thinking it will stay where I always wanted it to go, in the kitchen.

 

 

The centre light in the living room, I'm hoping will be a simple close to the ceiling light and give a feel of these kinds:

 

 

Though, wouldn't this last one be a dream:

 



Costs

Since this is the blog of my home renovation journey, the joys and the griefs - the place to put in black and white all that is taking up my thoughts at the moment so that I don't vent it out at the next person who happens to say hello - it would be rather counter productive not mention the stuff that is really taking up my mental space at the moment - the costs!*

I am of the belief that whatever needs to be done, needs to be done well - especially if I am not actually doing it, and just paying for getting it done! But costs are not always financial, a lot of the times it is patience, at others it is clarity, sometimes it is being a good communicator, or trust, sometimes it is getting advice from the right people, or a lot of people and then using your head to make sense of it all!

Now, I need to get the kitchen/living area renovated which includes basically,
- the kitchen itself,
- the appliances - including the range, oven and range-hood
- the bench top (you wouldn't believe how expensive this darn thing is!)
- the living area cupboard
- the TV island
- the flooring;

I'm not sure how much information to put out here about my finances, but basically, it is not being covered with my meagre savings; I have to get my property refinanced (which in plain English means, since the property value appreciates, you can get more loan money against it.) This would be simple enough, except my car is breaking down and I need a new one! And I don't want to compromise on what I really want, so I need to gain clarity of what I really want - because not having that clarity costs dollars, which I don't have! Right! Now, I can get car financed thru work, and to be honest, I don't particularly mind that but I don't want to be paying money that I could have not paid. That means I need to be talking to people, a lot of people and figuring out how it all adds up! But it doesn't end here - of course, it doesn't, what were you thinking (!?!) - I have a holiday planned (or two!) Did anyone tell you holidays don't come cheap? Well, they don't and I don't have too much savings, and hence I am back to the question of what on earth do I want out of my life - back to basic level clarity!!

Do realise here, I am NOT whinging, when your life's most difficult decisions involve holidays and renovations, you've got it good - you've got it excellent!! But don't tell me that if my head is going round in circles, I don't have a reason - I do and I am still tired and grateful!   





*and with that sentence, I have joined the rather illustrious company of Mr. Charles Dickens in having an opening sentence a whole paragraph long - I hope my sentence lands on its feet as well! (where I am referring to White and Strunk, I think)     

The Very Beginning

While it is a really good rule to start at the beginning, go thru the middle and end at the very end, it can be quite impossible sometimes. In the case of this blog, I am not very certain where it all started - was it with my discovery of design*sponge and apartment therapy; or later, on getting an apartment or the fact that even after apartment therapy and getting the apartment - it has been nearly 6 years before I have been able to do anything about it.

And even now, when I have moved into the apartment, you'd think I'd photograph it before the furniture arrived and while I pondered over the furniture decisions - but I was too busy trying to limit eating out (and gaining ridiculous amounts of weight) and getting the internet connected (while the laptop is still completely dysfunctional!) to get anywhere with this blog.

So, let's just start in the middle, where I possibly can. Let us start with the kitchen, because that is on my mind today.

Some file pictures of the kitchen, over the years:

And then a little bit on what I think could be done:

Black Bench-top:

White Cabinets:

(with black handles, they do give a nicer touch than just steel, don't they?)

Open shelving:

Quite like the sink in the second picture!

Better Pantry storage:

Wooden (Bamboo) Flooring:
 Not entirely sure what kind of colour would I be going for, but here are some shades just to keep dreaming for now:

Better lighting:

(From here)

I'm also considering changing the placement of the fridge but that's for another post with the floor plans.