Sanity… is for the Weak

Shoryuken!

Ian has been home with us for almost six weeks now, and we’ve kind of settled into a predictable routine. With both parents shambling about in a zombie fugue, he’s starting to make his demands known more insistently. Just like his big brother, he doesn’t really like the pacifier, spitting it right out after a few sucks and yelling (only not as loud as Sion used to do). Also, he’s no longer shy about yelling (a little) louder for feeds - still nowhere as ear-shattering as big bro, but it gets attention.

Building a House, Building a Home
Things have been going at full speed at the construction site, and ther workers are now getting the place liveable and putting in the final touches. We’ve had the inspectors coming in, and we should be getting our TOP soon.

Sion certainly seems to like the new house, if this reaction is anything to go by:

All that’s left is to finish up the wiring, lights, and the kitchen, final polish on the wooden floors, exertior shades, final coat of paint and landscaping. We’re looking forward to moving back somewhere in Nov (hopefully).

Whee!

With the baby due anytime next month, and the fact that Sion’s getting tall enough to climb out of his cot, we decided to “upgrade” Sion to a larger kids’ bed and recycle the cot for No.2. This of course meant a trip to the local Swedish Furniture Porn Shop. This decision to do so was also highly influenced in that the original baby cot did not have collapsible sides, so it was getting harder and harder for mummy to attend to Sion, especially since he insists on having only mummy feed him his milk at night.

So aided more by the little one’s enthusiasm than his inexpert help, we had the bed put together in short order:

The work all done, Sion decided that a reward was in order, and so decided to help himself to some pizza we had set aside for lunch.

And people wonder how he grows so tall….

Building a House, Building a Home
Separately, while we were shopping for his cot, we were also keeping an eye out for new furniture for when we move back to the completed house, probably some time in November. This week should see the paint work going in, as well as the floor and bathroom tiles delivered.

Strangely enough, it seem that we were impacted by the Japan Quake in April, as the suppliers informed us that the deliver of air-con compressors would be delayed by about two weeks due to shortages of parts in Japan.

Oh well. Adapt, React, and Overcome.

We’ll be looking at lights, as well as door handles next…

As the in-laws are away for these two weeks for a holiday, I’ve gone back to cooking our meals like before.

Last night’s dinner was a simple affair, rice with sides of grilled stuffed Portabello Mushroom with some pan-fried Spam and stir-fried Baby Corn and Lady’s Fingers with Miso sauce.

Of the lot, the mushrooms turned out the best, and it’s a relatively simple thing to make. Just finely chopped tomatoes placed on top of an overturned portabello mushrom cap that’s been rubbed with olive oil and topped with some grated Parmesan cheese and grilled in an oven at 240 deg C for about 10-15mins. Some herbs added into the chopped tomatoes would add flavor, but is not really needed.

Building a House, Building a Home

The house is coming along nicely, with the workers finally adding the roof after torrential rain delayed works for a few weeks.

This week will be plumbing, electrical work and plastering the walls, in addition to finishing up the tiling on the roof. We’ll swing by later in the afternoon to check up on the work.

After weeks not not much happening, the ground floor and bomb shelter suddenly went up at the worksite like mushrooms after a storm.

Two weeks later, we went back again and saw that the construction company was getting ready to build the second floor:

That’s FAST.

Last weekend was spent looking at sanitary fittings: basins, taps, toilets, shower etc. Who knew that the shiny ones would cost a bomb? But on the upside, I picked out a very nice kitchen sink and a funky tap with a pull-out nozzle. Happiness.

It’s getting exciting, as we see visible progress on the house. And the speed at which the place is going up could mean that it might actually be ready to move in by the time the second baby comes along!

+Flickr Set

And so, with the beginning of the new year, work finally started on rebuilding the house so as to house all of us comfortably.

We managed to go back for a final look around before work started.

And then the following week, the demolition crew came in and started working.

I’ll post pictures of the work in progress as things go along, but hopefully, it should look something like this when fully built:

Hopefully, we’ll be able to move back in by the end of the year.