Tiring month

It has been a crazy month getting the house ready for CNY. For some reason, close friends keep asking if they can come to our house. We hosted the first group of friends last week, it was fun and exhausting. I did an 8 course dinner for 11 pax. Most of the food turned cold and everyone couldn't eat at the same time as there was an ongoing mahjong game.

Good experience though. 2nd batch of friends this week, going to take it slow, so we are having steamboat!

Looking forward!

Closer to a real home...

We moved in on 31st Dec 2011. Yes, New Year's Eve.
Unfortunately, most of my carpentry were done halfway, hence, we couldn't unpack. There were delays and hiccups, furniture delay, and worst of all, they forgot to wire up the storage heater. Almost had to shower in cold water on NYE. Lucky for me, toot, not wanting the last day of 2011 to be miserable, we bought a pail and boiled hot water to shower. Very kampung style.

Anyway, here are the unfinished stuffs, lots of touch up to do. Amazingly, I have not really flared up with the contractor. We are flying off to Taipei tomorrow, everything will be completed by today and they will do the touch up next week. I hope all goes well!

Love my Grey Dim out curtains!

Tall Cabinet in Kitchen

My incompleted kitchen. Much more spacious now

Incompleted MBR Wardrobe

Love my MBR now with the curtains

Incompleted shoe cabinets

The Entrance

View from the entrance. The walkway is still spacious after we moved out the kitchen

My canvases!

Almost there..

Long Hiatus because there's a lot of packing to do.

Box up done.

Painting is ongoing.

Most of the lights are up.

Now pending for carpentry next week. Curtains and furniture next week.

And move in date - 31 Dec 2011. What a way to spend NYE!

Food, Food and Food

I'm made so much food during the weekend and is trying to squeeze them in now. Haha.
Well, I learnt to make cola pork ribs and Fried Prawns! Really love them. I'm also pending for my happycall pan, hope to get it soon!

So all the food are here till I have time to blog them!

Cola Ribs. 1st try and they tasted nice. Should have garnish them. 

Mummy and my recent obsession. Korean Seaweed. Yummers!

Baked Salmon

Another one of my favourite. Fried Prawns with Egg Tofu

Xiao Bai Cai with Mushrooms

I, for one hated mushrooms. I'm never a mushroom person. One day, I decided, no matter how much I hated mushrooms, I still have to prepare it with my food so that others (toot) get to enjoy them. :p

This dish is extremely simple too!

Xiao Bai Cai with Mushrooms




Ingredients
1. A handful of mushrooms
2. A bunch of Xiao Bai Cai
3. Stock - I used leftover prawn stock that day
4. Oyster Sauce - I ran out of it that day!
5. Minced Garlic

Mushrooms
1. Add oil into frying pan.
2. When the temperature is hot enough, add in minced garlic and quick fry for a few moments. You should smell the garlic aroma.
3. Throw in the mushrooms.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
5. Quick fry for a while till the mushrooms absorb the sauce.
6. Dish up the mushrooms.

Xiao Bai Cai
1. Boil a pot of water with 1 tablespoon of oil
2. Once the water boils, add in the vegetables
3. Remove the vegetables in about 30 sec. Yes, it will turn dark green when overcooked.
4. Dish on to plate.
5. Add in the mushrooms together with the sauce and stock.
6. If you have oyster sauce, you can add it in too.

Ham & Cheese Wholemeal Wrap

Recently I have been buying wholemeal wraps and making them into healthy wraps for meals. It's easy, quick and healthy!

I just wrapped, Ham and Cheese, and whatever fillings you want into the wrap, made it into a square shape cos I can never get it to look like a spring roll and pan fried it! No oil needed. Just flip it around when it's browned. Oh, good to have the edges done first so that the wrapping doesn't come off.

Enjoy!

Trying to get a shot of the Ham & Cheese

Perfecto Kitchen

Finally hacking and rebuilding wall has been completed.
My perfect kitchen is in sight. :p

Love the spaciousness of the kitchen now.

Didn't had the chance to take more photos because contractor has fixed some of the lights, hence we were busy discussing about the options. And also, I almost blackout. Had to leave.

Today is lamination and design selection day! Hopefully we can complete by end dec. :p

Layout of our home

Since we don't have a proper 3D design, I did my own layout. :p

It's not to scale since I was too lazy to use Sweet Home 3D. But that's basically the whole idea.

PS: Yoga room needs to be transformed!

Hacking was finally approved on Mon and Building an additional wall was approved on Tue. Apparently the contractor did not hack on Mon as he promised cos we went there after work and nothing was done.
toot  went to the house on Wed afternoon and saw that the hacking was done. That was also when the contractor sms me to say it's completed. Requested for the photos and they never came till today.-_-"

Anyway, we went last night and took some pictures! Apparently, they have started building up my new wall. :p

The Mini Kitchen previously

Now the Right Wall has moved further out

Kitchen looks more spacious

toot says we can fit in a mahjong table. -_-"

Can't wait to see the final space when the whole wall is up

Will be going down again tonight, hopefully there is progress!

I'm personally starting to get pissed. There has been no updates from my contractor at all. I don't even know whether the wall has been hacked. I've chosen him because he had such good reviews, responsive, and provide updates. Responsive yes, but why do I always have to ask him what is going on. This really sux.

We paid him the 2nd payment 1.5 weeks ago, he said he would want to meet us last week to discuss on the laminates, until now, I have not heard anything from him.

I'm so disappointed now. For someone who has such good reviews, and we are not even a nasty couple. But I don't really like the fact that I paid him so much and I have to follow up with him.

Is that even the norm?

Hack away!

Last week, I called HDB on Monday only to find out that the contractor has submitted insufficient documents for the hacking. Sent a 'harsh' sms to ask him to follow up. There was no updates from him till Friday even though he was supposed to meet us to confirm our carpentry. Finally, on Friday, I smsed him for updates and he told me that the permit is approved and they will hack on Monday.

Yesterday, I had a terrible headache, but we still decided to head down to the flat. And to my disappointment, it has not been hacked! I kinda of expected it as the permit was still not approved on Monday morning. So far, in terms of dates, the contractor has never been able to keep to the time he set. I was so disappointed and was contemplating if I should asked him about the hacking.

Decided to give him till wed or thur before I lash out on him. This morning, I finally saw the approval for hacking on HDB website. Hopefully they start the hacking in these 2 days!

Anyway, last we checked, all the items are already waiting patiently in the house, lights, oven, hob, hood, sink, tap, water heater bleh bleh bleh!

Looking forward!