home improvement diary

january 19

lalit called to say to meet him at 8:30pm in front of the house so we could get the house keys. arrived around 10 minutes after 8:30pm and waited 30 minutes but no lalit seen. we even dragged tito rod and tita bebs to "witness" us getting the house keys and access to our very own home. went home disappointed...

* later that night, lalit called and said that he was there at 8:30pm but left when we didn't arrive at the agreed time. he couldn't reach us (and we couldn't reach him!) since he left his mobile at home.

january 20

met with lalit at 7:30am to have a walk-through inspection of the house. we didn't get the keys though. later that afternoon, i got the keys from caldecott & williams, our solicitor managing the sale for us. before eric arrived from work, i went shopping for every imaginable disinfectant (must be hospital-grade!), cleanser, deodorizer, sanitizer, insecticide, scrub, sponge and sweeper. that night we gave the entire inside of the house a good sweep and took down all the curtains with the help of aris and jen.

* we had about six garbage bags full of curtains!

january 21

i worked on the entrance hallway of the house, garage and patio while eric cleaned the laundry area and the bathrooms. our lg washer/dryer was delivered later that afternoon, just in time for the newly scrubbed laundry area. we "bombed" the entire house to get rid of insects. went home with my body aching all over...

*i'm just not used to all these manual labor! oh well, time to get used to it now i guess...by the way, "bombing" is a diy pest control.

january 22

heard mass at 8am so we could start working on the house early. passed by kitchen connection to request a quote for a new kitchen. tito rod and tita bebs helped us clean today. we started with the master's bedroom and then moved to the study. tita bebs and i were assigned to windows and blinds duty while tito rod and eric were assigned to inside cabinets, walls and ceilings duty. aris and jen dropped by so i took advantage for aris to change all the bulbs around the house.

* i hate yellow lighting so i'm partial to philips compact fluorescent lamp in cool daylight.

january 23

met with kitchen connection's design specialist at 6pm in our home (feels good to write!). we decided on their sierra traditional range but we're thinking of getting the appliances (built-in gas cooktop, built-in fan forced electric wall oven and a ducted canopy) someplace else (they carry their own brand but we want a more well-known, established brand). would you believe the meeting ended at 9pm? i was impressed by how the design specialist presented to us our new proposed kitchen. first, he measured the cabinets, appliances and benchtops. next, he took out his laptop and entered the measurements in the kitchen renovation program indicating the style and layout that we wanted and with a click of a button we were able to see (in different angles!) what our new proposed kithcen will be like. what dragged the meeting was we couldn't agree on the cost of the renovation. he threw at us all kinds of discounts, freebis and promo just so we'd sign a contract then and there and pay 10% deposit. we eventually did only because of the cooling-off period building law in nsw which gives us the right to get our deposit back in 5 working days if we decide not to push through with the job. we will be meeting with another kitchen renovator later this week and then we'll be deciding early next week whom we'll getting to do the job. assuming that they could start next week, our new kitchen will be ready by end of february.

* eric and i dream of a miele or a smeg but it's way beyond our budget. what's a good brand of cooktop, oven and canopy?