::Nigelrene Loft:: CNY MEAL #2

After our mini reunion, there was a mini bakernanza for the weekend. Dessert for the girls on Saturday (which is today z.z) - NUTELLA pie!

Crust with nutella spread. With hazelnut praline (homemade!!). Nutella cheese fillings. Praline and fererro halves. It's going to be hazelnut overload!! Me LOVES!!!

Cant wait to see how it tastes like tomorrow! 

Happy Chinese New Year Everybody!!!!!!!

Eat more!!

Love more!!

And grow fat!! :):)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CNY MEAL #1

It's the eve of the eve of the eve and before we go on our rounds of reunion dinners, N&I had a mini one at our home.

Prep and cook time: 1.5 hours, and dinner was served at 9pm :x

The FIRST time using our rice cooker, FIRST time cooking rice. The result was too little rice! So we had a tablespoonful each

蒜（Suan4) with taukwa - Suan4 also means count in Mandarin. 

Symbolizes good wealth and fortune ahead for the new year - because can count lots of money!!!!

Steamed fish － Fish is 鱼 in Mandarin 

Symbolises 年年有余 （鱼）- Abundance and plentiful every year!

Happy Chinese New Year!!! :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CHINESE DUMPLINGS (JIAOZI)

 N&I have had many major cookouts at home. But this is the only one where we got photo to show of us slogging away in the kitchen, yet also the only one where we didnt prepare the meal ;)

Chinese dumpling from SCRATCH!

 Recipe for the dumpling requires an agar-ation of ingredients. So the only takeaways for everyone present that day was how to roll your dough into a round shape and how to wrap the dumpling without making it look like a curry-pok :S

::Nigelrene Loft:: GIFFYS!

When I saw these on K's Facebook album one day, I knew I HAD TO get them!!

So for the records, I just shopped off the FACEBOOK!! :p And all thanks to O for remembering the whatsapp "Purchase Order" I sent 3 months back with a picture of the picture on Facebook. :):)

Here's the taller Giffy, who can reach our bar counter!

1 more day till I see baby!

Sis sent me a series of his NUA FACE picture updates midweek. 

 

::Nigelrene Loft:: WEIGHING SCALES

This hand-me-down traditional weighing scale from my mum that has served me rather well for all my previous baking adventures, all the way till the Kueh Balus last Saturday.

We ve bought new scales now!! 

Pull out digital display and super slim. Got it in black to match our granite top too! :) Love digital scales - precise to the 2nd decimal place!!! 

Kueh Balus from Saturday - still needs fine tuning before they can see the world :D

Little man was all ready to take the first bite! :D And first bite he did take!

::Nigelrene Loft:: GIFT

Came home to a cute little parcel...

Early blessings for the home! ;)

::Nigelrene Loft:: 55" TV

The television was one of the first few pieces of electronics we got for The Home.

It saw 1 price match amendment, 2 delivery postponements, production discontinuity, nationwide sold-out situation....

And one day, we saw (with our names marked on it) it in the retail showroom because there was no room for a standalone model of its own kind to sit by itself in the warehouse...

Until one fine day, N got a call from Courts to inform him that they have sold away our TV because there was a ready buyer for our TV!!! Imagine the horror!!! But they offered us a nice lil surprise for an upgrade! So now it's 3 inch BIGGER and a lot SMARTER and for a little price! Fabulous wedding gift from Courts! :)

Sometimes screw ups can be blessings too! :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: TV CONSOLE

The most anyhow buy but carefully evaluated piece of furniture in the home. Contradict much?! Happens when u are unsure of the exact dimension of your wall less the space needed for your woofer, and not familiar with all the existing beams in your house but yet u fell in love with a TV console!

This 2-piece console gave us the flexibility of managing the space constraints!

::Nigelrene Loft:: ELECTROLUX SIDE BY SIDE

24 Sept 2011 - Fridge was here!!! Whee! :):):) But the carpenter wasnt ready yet and so we had to contain our excitement for another week to open up the parcel!

We hacked down our favorite wall and sacrificed a dining area to make way for one of these! We were back on the following Friday night to open up and shift our parcel, all by ourselves ^_^ The delivery men must have been trained to exaggerate the weight of the fridge when they hie-yak and huffed and puffed into the house last Saturday O_o"  

Important Fact Sheet

Energy Label: 3 ticks (but energy consumption not materially different from a 4 tick)

Energy saving mode: Set it on the holiday mode when you go on trips! 

Alarm: Door alarm

Free gifts: Useful freebies like vacumm+microwave, pressure cooker, thermal cooker etc for new home-owners like us who need everything!

And also, the fridge can never be accidentally left open because of an ingenious stopper at the front of the fridge that tilts it backwards so the door closes automatically. We only found out cos the misalignment with my wooden panel touched on a sensitive nerve ;)

::Nigelrene Loft:: M11SU

Our ceiling fan from KDK

The M11SU is the shortest fan in the KDK range of ceiling fans and suitable for low HDB ceilings like ours. Being anal when it comes to ceiling space, we opted for a white one so that it would do a better job camouflaging into the ceiling..

What the internet tells you:

- Wireless remote controller
- 3 speed selection
- 1,3,6 hours timer
- Sleep mode
- Blade made of ABS material with painting
- Thermal fuse prevent overheating or power surge
- Safety wire provided
- Cut-off safety switch equipped
- Fall prevention of blade adopted
- Permanently lubricated ball-bearing assembly

What they do not tell you:
1) Being of a lighter make as compared to the V series, motor vibrations of 2-3mm as seen by the naked eye is normal.
2) Natural wind velocity in your house may be causing the vibration
3) Squeaky sounds coming from the fan is due to the high wind velocity in your house that dislodged the blades
4) #3 Can be resolved by stabilising the mount and the motor with a PVC tubing, but that will cost you S$25
5) If you hadnt paid for #4 they would have charged you a servicing fee (although still within warranty) of S$20 instead because the flaw doesnt lie with the fan

Although we were abit pissed off with the before sale information available to us for making an informed decision and the after sale service, the fan has served it rightful purpose after we paid the $25. It is still vibrating but at least we have obtained verbal assurance from the service man that everything is functioning perfectly. :S

::Nigelrene Loft:: KITCHENWARE!!

Shopping now has a new meaning.... :p

We are now proud owners of 24 pieces of cutleries and 6 knives! :p

I wonder if we can find a use for all six knives in the knife set though...but we DO have big ambitions to become little chefs in the house yo!

::Nigelrene Loft:: COLORS

Wanted to have something green in the house and my green sofa proposal was rejected. 

we ve brought the green onto the walls instead! :D

::Nigelrene Loft:: KITCHEN CABINETS-I.P

LOOK MA! My kitchen! :D

We were there on Sat to "check on" the progress of our woodworks ;p

Everything is going according to plan :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: LIFE BEFORE THE GOOGLE SKETCHUP

Ploughing through my pictures folder on the renovations journey. Here s how our first few drafts of the home building project look like. Totally re-lived my childhood memories when we had to draw "My Living Room" for Art & Craft lesson, although it has upgraded to a 3D format now..

I dug out my collection of color pencils; Some of them followed me through from my Primary school days and which meant they were the underutilised colors during their glorious stint in the mega biggest 36-colors color box/or was it 48? Some of them were later collections when my baby-est sis last attended art&craft lessons, and that was about 8 years ago. Old but still usable. Limited choices but still can find the nearest looking color. The biggest problem I had was finding a decent piece of paper to draw "My Home" on. All I could find was an A3 sketchbook, and that meant I had to join up several piecessss to create the look for the whole house :S

Thank God I found you, Google Sketchup! You made our lives neater now! All I need is a laptop and wifi! :)

This is what the living room will look like. I have made it as close to reality as technology could possibly allow. See? That's my ball of cane right there in the balcony!

::Nigelrene Loft:: DULUX COLORS

We had some "GOTTA HAVE IT"-sized (read: large) comfort food while ploughing through the color book.

Sometimes being spoilt for choices is not a good thing. :x

::Nigelrene Loft:: WARDROBES

We had a closet issue with the given wardrobe space - not enough for two!

After exploring ALL options of building a bigger wardrobe, IKEA/closet specialists/built-to-orders, we have decided to combine 2 units of our existing wardrobe to save some moohlahs and the trees.

The carpenters came in yesterday to fix up our wardrobes! 

And it was in the symmetrical facing that we wanted! He had to shift ALL THREE units in the house just to get this exact layout that we want. The shortcut method will require him to shift only two wardrobes, but the layout of the modules would have been different/not symmetrical = cry

YAY to a good carpenter! :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CEILING and etcetra

PROGRESS REPORT!

I was there over the weekend to install the eyelet lock for the main gate.

And surprise surprise!

N&I decided that we couldnt leave with an unaligned structure in the ceiling. So we got Allan to rebuild it again. It looks more pleasing to the eye now! S.T.R.A.I.G.H.T lines can become a fetish that even the lights are specifically chosen to be straight and dreams like a round downlight can freak me out of bed. :p 

Chengal decking is up too! 

Granite tops are in partially and we just realised how bad the existing laminates would fit in. SO we've also decided to make more changes to the existing kitchen.

(>.<)

Carpenter's back from holidays and is coming in this week to do up the wardrobes!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Do you categorise your friends into their respective activities?

I do. So does N. We associate a a different type of activity to each friend we have.

When we wanna do buffets, we think of the eat-a-lot-like-us friends.

When we wanna do MJ, we think of the people-with-itchy-fingers friends.

When we wanna rollerblade, we think of the blading friends.

When we wanna cycle, we think of the cycling friends.

When we wanna KTV, we think of the singing friends.

It seems we have a social circle that can keep us entertained from the indoors to the outdoors! And recently, I have a new-found category - One who is beyond the social network of the indoors. This friend has an OCD with toilet cleanliness!! And my numerous woeful cries over the disastrous condition of Nigelrene Loft's toilet bowl has earned me a good recommendation of a fab stain remover, but which could not solve our problem...  

With more cries over the failed attempts to achieve a sparkling clean and white toilet bowl and several more failed attempts to snap a pic to show and tell, I have since earned ourselves a personal house-call to check on the condition of the toilets to see what solutions to be recommended for our case (oh the pun!). It comes with complimentary cleaning too! *here's when true friendship comes to test HAHA*

So next time you come visit Our Toilet, be sure to check out the credits I leave on the toilet roll ;) I have a keep-my-toilet-in-check friend!

::Nigelrene Loft:: RATTAN LIGHT

The only thing that was executed according to original googlesketchup plan - The rattan light for our balcony!

This ball of cane costs $120 after discount but I am not complaining! :)

::Nigelrene Loft:: CEILING

After going into great lengthy research on the ceiling options and ruling out those that would clutter the space above, ie L boxes, we have come to a greater conclusion that we can live with the L box for now because we wanted to have a ceiling fan for practical purposes. Also, the possibilities of breeding any sorts of creepy crawliers in the boxed up ceiling above didnt quite appeal now that we are the adults of the house who has to do all the dirty work. tsk.. pa and ma no longer at our disposal to kill those things :(

Here's Day 20 at our place and we found the L-boxes up. We found a slight misalignment that didnt flush well with the walls - on the right side of the ceiling in

the middle of photo. That was apparently done like that because of some miscommunications/misinterpretations from a previous project conversation we had with everybody (electrician, carpenter, contractor).. haha.. will need some aesthetics coverup from our carpenter.

Actually I m abit paranoid over how the overall result will look like. There can never be enough planning or a finalised draft so to say on a project as big as your home. Some days I wonder how each color we choose, each piece of furniture we bought and each lighting we put will look like when placed together and get secretly scared that it wouldnt turn out beautiful.

Just 2 days ago, I had a terrible nightmare that someone replaced all the square downlights that I bought for the L boxes into a mixture of rounded + square + tubes of 2 LED spotlights, and they were erected in a non symmetrical manner on ouor ceiling :(

Guess its the unwanted stress from all the plannings, shoppings, meetings and wanting to build a beautiful home that's getting into me. 

The mind needs to take its well-deserved break! And guess what?! A break it is!

We are going for a dive trip this weekend!!!

Nothing beats swimming with the fishies and blowing bubbles. Because that's all you do on a dive trip. EAT. SLEEP. DIVE!!! (and in repeat mode)

Happy Friday!! :)

BloOooOOop bloooOOooOp