Post-Reno update (after 4years....)

Assalammu'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog. Well, it has been a long while since I wrote. I got a comment to ask for an update of how it had been since we shifted with the renovation that we had done and if there is anything I would change or if there had been an update of any sort.

Well, all our built-ins had served us well and as much as we are glad we did what we did. There are little things that I could have done better. Then again I wouldn't have known any better without having the chance to try living with what I thought was the best, would I?

Oh before that, I shall just add that we finally agree to have aircon for the house, after going through super warm season a full 2years. Every time it is that super warm season we literally had all the fans out to cool us down and it is ridiculous really. So we decided to have one installed in the master bedroom and another in the living room. We decided to leave my mom's room and the activity room without first - but we may change our minds and decide to have it installed in them too just maybe next year. I think this is the only major change we did so far.

Let's get going with the kitchen & service yard first?

We are by far happy with what was done here. Having the refrigerator in our service yard was actually one of our best decision as all our kitchen cabinets are getting full now and yes, we obviously need to purge and get organized soon. The only thing that we wish we had thought about is the humidity in this area. I had put up a mini fan in my service yard because my laundry just don't seem to dry fast enough, we even added a standing fan to help speed the drying. 

We didn't get a dryer because it will limit the space we have to hang our laundry if we have a dryer stacked on our washing machine. A 2-in-1 washer + dryer didn't fancy us as it would mean trouble should it decides to just kapoot. We prefer a machine doing just 1 job. Also, because we cant dry our laundry outside because our dearest neighbour upstairs just love and enjoy giving us waterfalls on every rainy (or about to rain) days. It is humid and really warm in our kitchen also because we had to keep our windows shut unless we want to risk the waterfall getting into our service yard and destroy our fridge and laundry. So no thank you. Also, if I am only getting my house now, then I'd probably consider the drying rack thingy - sorry i forgot what it was called but it replaces the in-built drying rack given by the HDB with the one that has light and warmer? to help with the laundry drying. Please do comment if you know what I am referring to. If that is not within my budget then perhaps have a wall fan installed in the service yard or something so I can just have it help me.

My gaming area:

Husband added storage wall cabinets as he picked up cycling so those cabinets serves as storage for his cycling needs. It also act as a photo gallery as he decorate the cabinet doors with all our photos that we got at random. We added a fish tank + cabinet there as well, so it sort of became a calming corner for us all too. 

My living room:

No addition other than the aircon, but we changed the position of our sofas to open up some space visually. 

Activity room:

Bicycle standing rack added. 

Study table added.

Printer replaced.

If I could change anything :

the built-in tables height and position - current position limits my sewing. I should have gone for that island idea!

the build-in shelf/cupboard - I should have insisted they do the specific measurements I had - esp the depth and maybe ask for a magic cupboard that can have 2 layer of shelf with short depth so my fabric didn't get hidden and I don't need to take out the front layer to get to the one behind or worse, forgot the second layer existed. 

I guess this room would need a wall fan as well, a standing fan occupy too much space.

Mother's room:

We changed the layout and it looked spacious visually instantly.

Master bedroom:

Apart from the aircon, we changed M's wardrobe and its location.

We also changed our bed to a bunk bed so M gets more privacy and space when she wants them without compromising the limited floor space we have. 

The built-ins are great although we do occasionally wish we can move our chest of drawers - but i strongly believe it would have broken apart if it is not built in. 

Toilet:

We didn't do much for our toilets except installing mirror cabinet, heater and some shelving. All works well so far except the shower head.

If I could change anything:

I would install a rain shower head instead so there will be less handling and wear & tear to the shower head holder. 

I would also do a separate tap to on the shower and the one that goes down to our leg. It gets hard for my mother to handle that "switch". 

Storeroom:
We only had the shelving done and it was one of our best decision. It stayed and did what it was meant to do. 

That's all for an update. How about you? What would you have changed if you could rewind time and redesign your house renovation?

Till my next entry.

Wassalam,

Jun

Working from home....

Assalammu'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog. As we would have known, during this Covid-19 pandemic period, many are having home-based everything, from doing courses online to working from home.

I am an introvert, so obviously I love this arrangement. I like being confined to my private space to do what I need to do. However, there are days when it was hard for me to remain productive. I did all the trial and error I could find. I am in the essential service, so the days I am schedules to work from home was pretty spaced out. So it was easy for me to set targets and remain productive because I had a list of things to accomplish on those work from home (WFH) days.

However, after the 21st April, the measures got stricter and we were scheduled for 2-3days WFH a week. I became pretty lost with my own direction of what I want to achieve after a week. I lost the drive after a few hours. I got distracted with my house chores and things I want to do that is not related to work. I tried several things, sometimes it works and sometimes it distracts me even more.

I like music or some talking in the background while I work. I have had F.R.I.E.N.D.S playing in the background (I know all the scenes so in my head, I feel like I can let it run and not be so bothered) but guess what? I got distracted in some seasons. 😅 There was one day I ended up binge watching a whole season and left my laptop up and running to "work".

So I stopped (to continue and finish the whole 10 seasons- again!). I tried listening to Qur'an recitals. It went okay on most days. Helps me revise my recital as well. Alhamdulillah but there are days I became sleepy. So I went to spotify to find something interesting, listened to Michael Buble, then I got flashbacks and had to stop. Then I went to let Instagram live stories to play, but some got me distracted to watch with full attention 😅.

So right to end, I didn't find what works for me. Oh also, I found myself super tired on the 2nd day of WFH, like super tired, i feel sleepy at 5 and I can't help it. I doze off sitting down, I doze off while replaying an email/text. And that day I had to sleep so early to revive the energy. Is it just me?

I had this drafted 2 weeks ago, but I left and forgot all about it and before I knew it life will somewhat resume to pre-circuit-breaker period. School are reopening phase by phase starting 2nd June with some measures to follow.

Anyways, please do share with me what works for you to stay motivated working from home as there are businesses that would continue to allow their staff to work from home.

With that I will end my entry, until my next (hopefully with a personal reflection spending time at home during this circuit breaker - I had made time to continue my Tallaqqi, and got myself watching lives with ustadz sharing beneficial knowledge in various ways of deliveries)

Till my next entry.

Wassalam,
Jun

Corono, Covid-19, Circuit Breaker

Assalammu'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog. I know and well aware that I've haven't blogged in the longest time ever! Well a lot of things happened since my last entry which was in September 2019🤯!! 8 months had gone eh.. 8 long months...

Well, since being a full pledged educarer, I became the main teacher in charge of little children aged 19 to 30 months. I got myself a great partner who had her methods, priorities and mindset in line with mine, making our work seamless and smooth.

Just as we were doing great with awesome plans, all hyped and ready to do observations and write up for their upcoming Parents-Teachers-Conference, the world got invaded by a virus. Started from Wuhan, and it travelled and soon it became a world pandemic. Country after country went into lockdown to contain the virus.

Being a small country with only its people as its resources, Singapore could not afford to go on total lockdown. We tried social distancing, have some measures in place. The cases keep going up and the government decide act on it and call it Circuit Breaker and put in stricter measures so its citizens could abide with social distancing and protect themselves. Non-essential companies had to arrange for its staff to work from home, schools had to close and only be open for limited services. Everyone had to adapt quickly to new arrangements, everything was new to everyone. The circuit breaker was in place from 8th April to 4th May, but on April 21st the government decide to extend it for another 4 weeks till 1st June 2020. Stricter measures were put in place.

Business wise, I got into mask making mode. I wanted to give back to the community so I charge very minimally so everyone is able to afford to own multiple fabric masks so they can wash and have another one in hand. I have so far churned out 3 batches. The first batch has 51pcs, the second has 54pcs and the third batch has 51pcs. I will be stopping at Batch 4. I keep running out of notions, and my fingers get sore fitting the cord stoppers. Alhamdulillah, some customers pay more than my below-cost price, and this enable me to get more notions, make more for those who needs and insyaAllah, my niat grants us both good deeds.

Oh this circuit breaker brings our neighbours closer. It is during this trying times that we will see the good, the bad and ugly. Alhamdulillah, my neighbours are mostly nice people. Food brings us together, we join each other's orders and we began to know each other virtually (because we cannot meet and mingle during this time) but we promised to do a get-together when the situation is much better and when it is allowed again to meet and mingle with people from different households.

It also brings our families together, we teach our mom how to videocall and we would video call each other every other week to catch up. And I am grateful too that we celebrate Ramadhan during this pandemic, it enables us to reflect on how our past Ramadhan had been. We never truly bother about our neighbours in the past year, this year, we got united regardless of race, language and religion. When we know of someone restricted to the four walls but needed something, we jumped in to help. MasyaAllah, I am so grateful to know that I am in a good group of neighbours who I can rely on in dire situations. Alhamdulillah.

I hope we will find a vaccine to help tame the virus and can protect us from it soon. As much as I love how the situations brings the basics back to us, I do hope we can resume back to a more normal. As much as I hope this would be our normal, being home, working from home, staying at home and only leaving home for essential duties and needs, I do hope we can go back to being able to head out and enjoy the air without worrying about catching a deadly virus. As much as I love the fact that the world is healing with all the humans being cooped in their homes, I do hope we can go back to nature to enjoy it.

Let's pray for a better tomorrow.

Until I blog again,
Jun

Wassalam