Officially a Home
Today, September 21, 2010, marks the first year anniversary of the day we moved to our "new" house. It was a memorable date not only because we spent the entire day loading and unloading a truck three (or was it four?) times to move things and furniture from two households into one, but also because Mike bothered to consult his Chinese friends to find out the most auspicious date of our moving would be. Turns out it really was lucky, because not a week had passed after we moved that Typhoon Ondoy came and even if parts of our village were flooded, we were safe and dry in our new home.
It's not really that new anymore, since we've lived here a year. It wasn't even new when we moved because it was first built in the 70s, but you catch my drift. We are really quite settled in. We love our home, we are now familiar with the house's features and quirks, we know where to go if we need anything, we have friends in the neighborhood, we are happy here. This house truly is one of our greatest blessings as a family, so I decided to celebrate this day by finally FINALLY fixing up the former mess room.
Here's the story of the mess room: Our master's bedroom has a small sub-room that leads to an even smaller storage closet. When we moved, this sub-room did not have a use other than to contain everything that didn't have a place yet in the house. Boxes of old clothes to be given away, broken sports equipment, paintings that had no walls to live in, basically stuff that we didn't intend to keep in storage but also had no where else to put just yet. And then when Christmas season came around, all my Christmas shopping lived there too. When we had parties, all the clutter in the living and dining areas (strollers, tricycles, etc) would get dumped into the mess room. Hence, the name. It stayed a mess even after all the Christmas gifts were wrapped and placed under the tree because, well, guess where a lot of the gifts we received went. That is, before we were able to open them all and put them to use. It was easy to dump things in the mess room because we could close a curtain and not see the mess at all. Until you need to find an old photo, or the tennis racket that kills mosquitoes... then you'd have to open that curtain and wade through the mess, opening and closing boxes and not really finding anything, just making the mess messier.
In early January, before Mike left for England, he teased me about the mess room still being mess when he got back in April. And I replied with "I'll show you!" Which are the words we take seriously in this marriage. They are never said lightly. At least, never said lightly by a hormonal pregnant woman. Within a week of Mike's departure, the mess room was clean. It looked more or less like this:
Yes, this was the clean version. I couldn't bring myself to take photos of the MESSY mess room because I was too ashamed. Now I regret it cause if you could all see how mess it was, it would make this clean version look so good.
Anyway, I couldn't stop with just cleaning it. I was determined to make the room functional AND of course, beautiful! At around this time, Real Living came to our old house in Katipunan to make over Ayo's bedroom and the whole process inspired me so much, I spent sleepless WEEKS imagining and re-imagining what I wanted this room to look like. I even wanted to paint the back wall bright yellow at some point. But later on decided against it, because the whole house had just been newly painted and adding a layer of paint seemed like over indulgence. Nesting instinct in high gear, I measured, and surfed and shopped, and emailed and bargained, and shopped, determined to make this room awesome in time for Mike's arrival from England in early April. It was to be my special welcome home surprise for him.
Of course, it wasn't really a total surprise because I had to run the projected expenses by him. But he had no clue (or say) as to how the room would look. Hehe. Of course, he had suggestions, but it was just so much easier to make all the decisions without having to consult him about each and every piece. Buti na lang it was meant to be a surprise. And I was carrying his unborn son, so he DAMN BETTER LIKE IT OR ELSE.
Unfortunately, a couple of key pieces weren't available in time for his arrival, so instead of having the two red chairs I ordered from Mobler, they lent me one white chair until my orders finally came. So the room was fully functional when Mike arrived but it wasn't perfect yet. So I didn't take pics yet either. Mike loved it, of course and it was so functional, he used it constantly straight away. So functional it was that it attracted a whole new kind of mess. As an office, it soon had piles of bills and receipts, charger wires, office supplies, and just a whole general sort of office clutter. Even when my red chairs arrived and I swore that was when I would clean it up to take photos of it, I still didn't. I was just too... what's the word? Oh yes, NEWLY GIVEN BIRTH. Until finally, today, on the anniversary of our move, I tore myself away from the TV and iPad, successfully weaned from Farmville, I spent the whole morning cleaning the office and the whole afternoon taking photos and writing this entry (all in between Ramon's feedings).
I now present you, our office:
When we still lived in Sampaloc, Mike and I would talk about our dream house, and how it would have a room for his musical instruments, and my posters, and photos from our travels. And here it is. And as you will see, it also serves as a library and exercise room.
You'll notice I did that thing magazines and design shows do, where the before pictures are not necessarily ugly, but always poorly lighted, and then the after pictures are super well lighted? Eh? Yeah! I didn't have any of those fancy big lights on stands with umbrellas and reflectors and stuff, but I made do with what I had. Yellow lamps, a tripod and a camera. Ha!
The marriage of our book collections turned out to look like the science fiction fantasy section of any well stocked book store. His side has Robotech, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonlance, Eddings, Jordan, etc. I have Gaiman, Pratchett, Tamora Pierce, and the complete Lemony Snicket. Our CDs are almost all alternative and rock.
My special surprise for Mike, I framed some Magic the Gathering cards, which he used to talk about doing, even before we were married. These are not the real cards, just scanned images printed out. He might have killed me if I framed the real ones. I framed 5 of his most expensive and powerful cards, including the Black Lotus.
I enjoyed decorating this room IMMENSELY. When my kids are older, and they all spend most of their days in school and I'm just at home feeling bored and useless, and Mike is telling me to go out and study something, I would definitely take up Interior Design, more likely than anything else.
Happy anniversary house! We love you. You keep us safe and well, and you keep our family together. You take care of us, so we take care of you.
It's not really that new anymore, since we've lived here a year. It wasn't even new when we moved because it was first built in the 70s, but you catch my drift. We are really quite settled in. We love our home, we are now familiar with the house's features and quirks, we know where to go if we need anything, we have friends in the neighborhood, we are happy here. This house truly is one of our greatest blessings as a family, so I decided to celebrate this day by finally FINALLY fixing up the former mess room.
Here's the story of the mess room: Our master's bedroom has a small sub-room that leads to an even smaller storage closet. When we moved, this sub-room did not have a use other than to contain everything that didn't have a place yet in the house. Boxes of old clothes to be given away, broken sports equipment, paintings that had no walls to live in, basically stuff that we didn't intend to keep in storage but also had no where else to put just yet. And then when Christmas season came around, all my Christmas shopping lived there too. When we had parties, all the clutter in the living and dining areas (strollers, tricycles, etc) would get dumped into the mess room. Hence, the name. It stayed a mess even after all the Christmas gifts were wrapped and placed under the tree because, well, guess where a lot of the gifts we received went. That is, before we were able to open them all and put them to use. It was easy to dump things in the mess room because we could close a curtain and not see the mess at all. Until you need to find an old photo, or the tennis racket that kills mosquitoes... then you'd have to open that curtain and wade through the mess, opening and closing boxes and not really finding anything, just making the mess messier.
In early January, before Mike left for England, he teased me about the mess room still being mess when he got back in April. And I replied with "I'll show you!" Which are the words we take seriously in this marriage. They are never said lightly. At least, never said lightly by a hormonal pregnant woman. Within a week of Mike's departure, the mess room was clean. It looked more or less like this:
Yes, this was the clean version. I couldn't bring myself to take photos of the MESSY mess room because I was too ashamed. Now I regret it cause if you could all see how mess it was, it would make this clean version look so good.
Anyway, I couldn't stop with just cleaning it. I was determined to make the room functional AND of course, beautiful! At around this time, Real Living came to our old house in Katipunan to make over Ayo's bedroom and the whole process inspired me so much, I spent sleepless WEEKS imagining and re-imagining what I wanted this room to look like. I even wanted to paint the back wall bright yellow at some point. But later on decided against it, because the whole house had just been newly painted and adding a layer of paint seemed like over indulgence. Nesting instinct in high gear, I measured, and surfed and shopped, and emailed and bargained, and shopped, determined to make this room awesome in time for Mike's arrival from England in early April. It was to be my special welcome home surprise for him.
Of course, it wasn't really a total surprise because I had to run the projected expenses by him. But he had no clue (or say) as to how the room would look. Hehe. Of course, he had suggestions, but it was just so much easier to make all the decisions without having to consult him about each and every piece. Buti na lang it was meant to be a surprise. And I was carrying his unborn son, so he DAMN BETTER LIKE IT OR ELSE.
Unfortunately, a couple of key pieces weren't available in time for his arrival, so instead of having the two red chairs I ordered from Mobler, they lent me one white chair until my orders finally came. So the room was fully functional when Mike arrived but it wasn't perfect yet. So I didn't take pics yet either. Mike loved it, of course and it was so functional, he used it constantly straight away. So functional it was that it attracted a whole new kind of mess. As an office, it soon had piles of bills and receipts, charger wires, office supplies, and just a whole general sort of office clutter. Even when my red chairs arrived and I swore that was when I would clean it up to take photos of it, I still didn't. I was just too... what's the word? Oh yes, NEWLY GIVEN BIRTH. Until finally, today, on the anniversary of our move, I tore myself away from the TV and iPad, successfully weaned from Farmville, I spent the whole morning cleaning the office and the whole afternoon taking photos and writing this entry (all in between Ramon's feedings).
I now present you, our office:
When we still lived in Sampaloc, Mike and I would talk about our dream house, and how it would have a room for his musical instruments, and my posters, and photos from our travels. And here it is. And as you will see, it also serves as a library and exercise room.
You'll notice I did that thing magazines and design shows do, where the before pictures are not necessarily ugly, but always poorly lighted, and then the after pictures are super well lighted? Eh? Yeah! I didn't have any of those fancy big lights on stands with umbrellas and reflectors and stuff, but I made do with what I had. Yellow lamps, a tripod and a camera. Ha!
The marriage of our book collections turned out to look like the science fiction fantasy section of any well stocked book store. His side has Robotech, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonlance, Eddings, Jordan, etc. I have Gaiman, Pratchett, Tamora Pierce, and the complete Lemony Snicket. Our CDs are almost all alternative and rock.
My special surprise for Mike, I framed some Magic the Gathering cards, which he used to talk about doing, even before we were married. These are not the real cards, just scanned images printed out. He might have killed me if I framed the real ones. I framed 5 of his most expensive and powerful cards, including the Black Lotus.
I enjoyed decorating this room IMMENSELY. When my kids are older, and they all spend most of their days in school and I'm just at home feeling bored and useless, and Mike is telling me to go out and study something, I would definitely take up Interior Design, more likely than anything else.
Happy anniversary house! We love you. You keep us safe and well, and you keep our family together. You take care of us, so we take care of you.