All Things Old

We love all things old. If they are still usable and have sentimental value, even better.

I have inherited a few old furniture from my Granny. A GE Electric oven and stove, a book cupboard, a metal egg basket, a abacus set with instructions on how to use it, to name a few.  Funny that at one time, nobody wanted it but once it was displayed or used in our home, it was admired and comments such as "can I have it", "we should have taken it", "do you have anymore" are uttered.

This GE electric oven holds a lot of memories for me. I spent many year-end school holidays with my Granny making tarts and fruit cake for Christmas using this oven.  Story is that my father's brothers found this oven in the jungle during WWII and had to carry it back piece by piece and assemble it.  It took 4 people to carry this oven when we shifted our home as it is made from enamel.

This egg basket belonged to my maternal Grandmother.  I remember her using it to collect her eggs from the hens in her back yard.  After she died, it as sitting in my mother's store room for the longest time.  I asked my mother if I could have it and she said 'YES'

Now I am using this egg basket to store my eggs.

What furniture or sentimental items have you inherited from your loved ones? I would love to hear them.

 

Baby Rocking Chair Update

Hubby has fixed the baby rocking chair and it now rocks!  It took two cans of spray paint for the baby rocking chair.  I am so happy with the color and so is CinaBoy.  It is now his favourite chair in the house.

Here are the updated pictures of the baby rocking chair.

The Before ...

The In the process ...

The After ...

A close-up of the baby rocking chair

DIY Patio

We love the idea of a cosy patio, where we can have breakfast, tea and entertain families and friends.  A patio surrounded by comfortable furniture, lush green plants and beautiful and colorful flowers.  So when Hubby said that the patio will be up before Christmas, I was excited.  Hats off to Hubby who built the patio from scratch.

The wood that we used for our patio is Chengal wood and it is recycled wood.    We acquired some of the wood from a public playground, where the multiplicity council decided to replace wood with high quality plastic, and some wood were purchased from our regular lumber yard, which were also recycled from old kampung houses.

For the roofing, we will be using roof tiles.  Initially, we were contemplating to use glass sheet or poly carbonate glass.  However, we felt that this would not give us that cosy feeling.  We wanted a resort like feeling, and to match the house so we decide to go for roof tiles.  I will save the story of our roof tiles for another blog post.

So here are the chronicles of our DIY Patio ...

Recycled Chengal wood from a public playground.

Our home before the patio

Wood purchase from our regular lumber yard.
We sanded down and varnished the wood.

Hubby cut the edge of the wood for some design.

The wood cut to shape.

The wood is varnished and will be used as beams.

Here Hubby sets the beam.

Beams all set.

One of the pillars is secured to the wall.

The pillars are up.

Another view of the pillars.

Now the beams go up.

The patio is almost done ...
The roof is covered with roof aluminium sheet.
This will act as a cooling function for the patio.

Baby Rocking Chair

I found another Chair! ... rather I picked up another chair that somebody threw away. Hmm ... note to self, I may have a weakness for Chairs, besides Bags and Fabric.

Anyhow, it's a Baby Rocking Chair made out of rattan.  My little CinaBoy just loves it, he sits on it like a little man.  Of course, this chair would need some repairing, why else would someone throw it out.  Not to worry when I have Mr Hubby as my handyman.

Who would have thought that fixing this little chair would take almost one whole day. Hubby had to restring the chair together with rattan strips as well as nail them together. I am rather keen on spray painting the chair to a blue or teal color.  Hubby thinks that I should leave it as it is ... maybe I should check with my CinaBoy what color he wants ...

The Baby Rocking Chair

Different view of the Baby Rocking Chair

Needs repairing

More repairing needed

To use the rattan strip to tie and nail

Love the color, I think would look great on the Baby Rocking Chair

Home Decorating ~ Think BIG

We have not had an official house warming since we moved in in October 2012, but we have received a few house warming gifts already.  To add, these gift are meaningful and we just love them.

The first is a lamp which a couple of friends gave us, JP & CMG.  It's installed in front of our main entrance.  It's to light up our lives, that we may have happiness always.

The light that lights up our lives

Then there is a BIG picture frame of a Chinese character "Fook" which means luck and fortune.  This was also given to us by a very good friend, LO.  Sometimes, the picture is placed upside down as a good luck charm.  This means that the luck or fortune is pouring in, in other words luck is coming your way.  It is normally displayed at the entrance of the home to welcome good luck and fortune. For us we displayed it at our hall.

The Chinese character "Fook" that means good luck

Then there is another BIG picture frame of green peonies with some Chinese characters also given by LO.  This picture is suppose to be harmonious and to bring the good luck to the occupants of the home.

The green peonies which means harmony

Missing Links ...

It's been 7 months since we've moved into our new home.  We are still in the settling down mode.  Some items are still in their boxes, so many stuff to clear and get rid off.  So many projects lining up:-

1. Fix knobs on all room doors
2. Varnish all room doors
3. Make study table for daughter's room
4. Clear Mezzanine floor
5. Put up photos & picture frames
6. Make back splash for kitchen
7. Refurbish a few furnitures
8. Re decorate master bedroom
9. Put up curtain rails  
10. Sew curtains
11. Build patio
12. Sofa hunting

And the list goes on and on ...

One item on this list that we are taking our time is the sofa, we are taking our time as we do not want to rush and end up buying something that we are not happy with.  We do know roughly what we want but we have to look around at other retailers.  The EKTORP three seater sofa from Ikea is one that we are considering.

EKTORP three seater sofa in White - RM999.00

EKTORP three seater sofa in Risane Beige - RM1,499.00

Right now, we are temporary using a Teak two seater chair that is meant for the patio.  We purchased this Teak two seater chair from Kedai Kaki Lelong in Ara Damansara.

The Teak two seater chair in our Hall

Another picture of the same Teak two seater chair

Home Decorating ~ Think BIG!

Decorating your home can be fun and at the same time challenging.  However, I personally feel that you don't have to hold a certificate or degree to decorate your home.  All you need is a good eye for things and the internet!  We can consider ourselves lucky as there are so many write ups, photos, ideas and tips in the internet.  People are sharing and exchanging information about decorating from the patio to the backyard and everything in between.

When we owned our first home, we had a lot of small items that decorated our home, like small picture frames, small little trinkets and we had to wipe the dust off every now and then. One of our friends who has the same passion and 'weakness' for furniture and home decorating like us said "Think BIG and decorate BIG!"  This was an eye opener! Her home had all the BIG mirrors, BIG frames, BIG furniture and it worked out well!

So now all my small decorative items which have sentimental value are kept inside a display cabinet and the bigger ones are displayed out.

The teak cabinet with all my little displays

Divided into three sections : 1st shelf, all things Chinese
2nd shelf, all my miniature chest box
3rd shelf, some of my Dutch heritage on display

My brass Monk and a little puppy
Love the details on his facial expression

My three candle holder Monks, a Christmas gift from a dear friend

Recycled and Reused Crate

There are a lot of projects on the internet for recycled crates and pallets.  So we decided to give it a try too. When I saw this crate, I fell in love with it!  I knew exactly it's purpose and where it would fit in our home. A shelf in our laundry area that could hold all our detergents for clothes, dishes and floors.

It was not in prefect condition, we had to change the base and make a few repairs but other than that, this was a pretty easy and fast project.

The condition of the crate when we first brought home.

Love the text at the side of the crate

Had to remove the foam from the box.

Had to remove the remnant of the foam by using a blade.

The crate had to be repaired here and there.

The broken piece.

A little nail and hammer did the job.

The broken based was removed.

Replacing the base with a thin plywood.

Our little laundry area.

It's up! We now have a laundry crate shelf!

The laundry crate shelf with a hook board at the bottom.

The laundry crate shelf now holds all the detergent.

A close up of the hook board.  It was priced at RM29.00 but
because it was missing a hook and the picture a bit torn,
I managed to get it for RM10.00 AND I suppose
it's a blessing in disguise as the 'missing' hook
is missing at the right place because of the plug point.