::Nigelrene Loft:: TEAMWORK

Gymming 2 times a week is fine

Gymming 2 times a week and mummychores 3 times a week is fine

Gymming 2 times a week, mummychores 3 times a week and 'household chores' every available other time of the week is energy sapping!

It is certainly tough juggling between a gym schedule, a mummychores schedule and a home building schedule. And that's even before renovations commence! We soon found that we are literally energy-sapped from doing all the 'household chores'.  So we try to hit the big screen at least once a week to keep our sanity in check, though we usually end up in some kind of electronics store to check out gadgets for the home *gags*

We ve decided to try out something different tonight to make maximum use of OUR time BEFORE our big late night movie date! Taking the cue from "How many man does it take to change a lightbulb?"

ONE!!!!

SO, the man's gonna hit the gym by himself tonight ,while I go check these babies out! Sucha win-win situation, I m sure we both make a great team!

 

GSS gives us even more reason to shop now ;) And I think he s leaving most of the aesthetic aspect up to me....so I hope I dun break our own piggy bank ;) I think I will still ask him for his opinion after his workout ;)

::Nigelrene Loft:: WARDROBE ISSUES

The biggest problem of living together....

Fighting for sharing space :D

There is no way this could be enough for us because we each own one + spillover at our current homes, and there is no way we could extend the wardrobe space within the same room. Not even with a queen-sized bed. And because of this...........

We are going to have a wardrobe room!!! 

I didnt say WALK IN WARDROBE because that's not going to be what it is, takes up too much space and we have intentions to have that room easily converted back into a usable space ;) We were at IKEA over the weekend for some ideas :) 

Every aspect of storage is well thought out...

Choice of bifold doors, sliding doors, hinged doors, clear/mirrored/wood/frosted/laminated

They even have corner spaces tackled:)

Now it's whether we want to salvage/rebuild/buy off the racks from IKEA :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: SOFA

After being on a 3-weekend hunt for a right-sided L, plushy comfort, aesthetic appeal and high headrest :)

We finally found The Right One.

It wasnt the intended brand we were looking at though. We just chanced upon it while heading for another showroom in Kaki Bukit. An "Up to 70%!" caught our eyes. We popped in and saw exactly what we have been hunting for! With double concurrence from Atsu, who was here in SG with us over that weekend, we struck a deal. N&I are now one step closer towards our home building! :D

and we never got to that showroom ;p

Waiting...

for Daddy!

So cute how his ears got all perked up the moment Daddy's car arrived. He knows :)

Aglio Olio

With the leftover bacon from the re-created mackers meal the day before...and almost a full bottle of Quely's Extra Virgin olive oil that is expiring soon....the red chilli pepper that The Sis bought (less the wrong kinda mushroom - button mushrooms do not work well in Italian dishes O_o")

And LOADS of garlic.... (Garlic chopping made easy with my PINK garlic chopper)

TAHDAR!!!!!

An aglio olio is made

And hence I learned why EXTRA VIRGINs cannot be used in cooking. They evaporate too fast! Lucky I had an almost FULL bottle to play top ups with! :D

Just have to be quick in your stirfrying and everything is still as good! :)

I reckon everybody should start learning how to cook with pastas. They are idiot proof! :D

I eat I shoot I CREATE

Bringing the glorious wrap back to homeland. Everyone BUT papa claimed he is Chinese and hence attacked the BaZhang in the steamer instead. O_o" Mum had it but headed out to buy Chilli sauce before digging in... I bet she would have loved it better if there was some balachan to go along... That's how we create fusion, aite? :)

Mackers wrap meal was foodiebulously addictive! I had to re-create them! Hence, a lil food adventure this morning :)

Left: Mackers in Aussie

Right: My version in SG ;)

::Nigelrene Loft:: GOOGLE SKETCHUP

The Fiance and I agreed that we would not be splurging on an interior designer for our home. So we set out to design our own little nest. With no prior designing background, nor any home decor experience, we heavily invested in our interior designing bibles - the Home and Decor; and the Squarerooms magazines. We even bought the debut H&D's Renovate magazine which was selling at S$10, only to find that our estate has been given free copies of the magazine! 

But pictures can only do so much. We could pick out the best of every design that we heart and have them jigsawed together to build our little nest. Question is, will the mix-and-match concept work? To answer that, we needed more visuals of the whole house, pieced together. And we couldnt simply embark on the renovation journey just to find out how it would look like, and hopefully rectify our mistakes along the way...

So I first started drawing out my some of my concepts in 3D on art papers in my attempt to show and convince my co-owner some of MY concepts. I even had them colored. Even N, being the typical nonchalent man that he initially was towards the whole reno project, who told me to leave everything to the contractor, picked up the pencil and drew me to-scale pictures of HIS concepts.  *that did touch me a little*  We even meet up sometimes during lunch in our excitement to show each other our ideas ;p of course, it is not always smoothsailing, and we do have our little arguments over the other party's idea. We are afterall two separate individuals who have different views and ideals of how we want our dream home to be like. But we have always kept our arguments objective - argue over the idea only. 

Most of the times, an argument starts because one party has no idea of the picture the other one is trying to paint - READ: never attempt to use words to explain what you can do better in pictures, because we never SEE the same picture. -__-" And if two persons, who are supposedly telepathic because they are in love, can't see the same picture, imagine the disaster if we plunge into renovations with our contractors/carpentors?! Manual 3D diagrams take too much time. And in paper forms, they dont allow us to see the nest as a whole...

Everything starts with GOOGLE.

I found us a FREE software from Google called the Google Sketchup.

And this is a to-scale view from our balcony with our latest agreed-upon kitchen idea ;)

It has been a headache trying to figure out where to place the fridge. The current 80 by 73 allocated fridge space is too small. We have decided to shift it outside the kitchen after much deliberation and shifting around using the Google sketchup. A 360 degree 3D image is possible at the click of a tab and a scroll of your mouse! I was able to have a preview of what it ll look like from the kitchen stove out through the little glass window beside the fridge and all I could say is I am still very pleased with the sights because the fridge will not be blocking my view :) If there's anything I hate, it s the feeling of claustrophobia.

Aside from its fabulous toolbox which includes a measuring tape, the Google Sketchup also includes a wide variety of material and color selections for you to mock up your wall colors and carpentary laminates! It even allows you access to its huge online collections of Google 3D images so that you may not have to draw out every piece of furniture yourself! If you intend to buy a Samsung 46" TV, google from its collection and you will get EXACTLY what you want ;) I was even able to find a 1.87 3D mini man to fit into the house. Of course there will be some limitations here and there as not everything has been inventorised - Like I wasnt able to find our 52" Philips LED TV and a shihtzu to add to our 3D home image. But with the existing tools, I was still able to make the nest as near to what we envisioned it to be as possible.

Now I am sure my meetup with the carpenter this weekend is going to be good :)

If only I can find another software that allows us to have interaction with the 3D images. It d be great if I can open up my cabinets and show the carpenter EXACTLY where I want each compartment to be placed :p

::Nigelrene Loft::AIRFRYER!!

Now a proud co-owner to the latest kitchen gadget - The Philips Airfryer!!!

Enjoy deep fried food without the extra oil! We brought it to N's home and made some fried drumlets and hashbrowns on the same night. It came with 2 cookbooks too and the variety of things you can cook with this machine is quite impressive.

With min purchases, there were great deals for brides-to-be too! ;) Pocket friendly substitutes for bird spits you get from medical stores. Saves time too!

Atsu flew in on the same day for the weekend.. 

And as a parting momento to last for the next 6 months until our wedding day... :)  

Too bad we couldnt hang out as much as we d love to due to various bridal and lofty commitments already planned before he announced his grand arrival 2 days before it happened! But we did get A LOT of things settled. And I am secretly glad that I unknowingly missed my 6-week post-op review on Sat *heh* Now I am 2 photoshoot gowns, tv, theatre, sofa, vacuum, iron, hairdryer, rice cooker and airfryer all down!

N's gonna be away over the weekend and has left me to take charge over the house! Going to be Home Alone!