Past few months have been the busiest time of the year. Here’s how my third quarter of 2012 looks like:

End of July
- Finally receive the house key! We’re oh so happy, our mind and days were filled with house-renovation-and-decoration-idea. Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas in the new house and have our first Christmas tree. Basically we were one happy first-time-house-owner!

August
- Paperwork: register water & electric bill as the previous one was cut after house sales was final and change address for the broadband. All’s done in a timely manner.
- Found a few renovation contractors and have them quote us; we’re so much into budget that we forgot about quality work and others. We were torn in between choices but finally made a decision (which we regret BIG time now!).
- The renovation work commenced. First week was all about hacking and dismantle the old-wooden-windows, grill, etc, progress was pretty good so we just came after/before lunch time and still get to work most of the day.
- Approaching end of first week, things didn’t go on the right track especially the work quality. That’s when the nightmare began. We can’t let things go down the drain, so hubby went to monitor the work starting from the second week and his work time was shift to the evening. Thank God our work allowed us to have such flexibility.
- The renovation work was completed in 3 weeks, just in time before our flight back to hubby’s hometown where I had my pass renewed – still for one year only, bummer!
- Too busy for shopping mall, think we only go out for once.

September
- Basically it’s a cleaning month, we’ve never been so hardworking before. Thank God we didn’t go with a larger house. The hardest part is on the upper floor as we turned it from parquet to cement-based, so it’s pretty hard to clean up all the debris – take so much time. At one point, I’d love to hire a one-time domestic helper but hey, it’s our house, we know it best and we’re still young with so much energy *confident*.
- To avoid running around like a headless chicken, we made a to-do-list and plan the week ahead; from cleaning to buying lighting fixtures.
- Mid of the month: brother-in-law came to KL and help us to install the lighting fixtures, that includes which line goes to which, earth line, etc I have no idea about electricity. It took one whole Sunday from morning to night, whew!
- So, we have lighting and the house is in a clean state, ready for moving in! But, one thing leads to another, we said f*ck off the budget, let’s do electrical wiring now for the whole house. That means, we’re back to square (read: making the house dirty again with all the debris from wiring work).
- We got busy packing the entire stuffs in our apartment and wrapped them nicely (learn from previous moving experience). Packing tips: categorize things in boxes and label them and don’t hesitate to get rid of items that you no longer need/use – throw or donate away.
- Wiring work was completed in four days. On our moving day, the workers were still doing the final touch. So, imagine all the wiring leftover, luggage, aluminum briefcase, boxes here and there, CHAOS! I almost break down, but thank God for friends who help us with the moving and unpacking.
- We spent the first night after moving in without curtains and the rest of September without window-and-door-grille (it’s not completed yet). So much so for the insecurity feeling.

October, 4th quarter of the year but let’s just put it in
- We finished unpacking in less than two weeks.
- My parents came here, my brother had his mid-semester break, so family gathering it is!
- This month is all about settling down, filling up the house with necessary stuffs from Air-con to sofa. Paid a visit to IKEA twice to buy a few stuffs here and there. Decided to make a complete list from the online catalogue site before making a 3rd visit, that way it’s more efficient.
- Finally have our front yard done with Philippine grass and pebbles – just a small car park area. We bought them from a plant nursery and DIY by hubby. I foresee that cutting grass will be our post office-hour activity along with evening jogging or strolling the park.

All in all, it’s been a hectic months, juggling between the new house and our work. Yet some people really think that we have time to do all the above stuffs because we don’t need to work *looking at the imaginary money tree at our backyard*. Worse, the opinion doesn’t come from a stranger, ironic eh? It strengthen my belief that “they can’t do it, therefore they think you can’t too”. Oh well..

As we’ve served the house (read: cleaning, fix plumbing issue, fill in furniture, etc) for quite some time, I’m looking for the house to serve us back – I mean, let us sit back and enjoy the home sweet home.