It was not even 2 days since the lockdown, that I already wanted to strangle my husband, lol. Luckily, we got busy. The world was on pause, but we saw a different perspective on life, and somehow made that crisis a productive one by building the interior of a flat we thought we would spend the rest of our life living in.
I just started a new job in Kuala Lumpur, when the flat keys were turned over to us. As one of the most developed countries in Southeast Asia, we were appalled by the amount of defects we found. Yes, newly built condo, but swarming in defects already - from hollow tiles(about 60%) to leaking ceilings and screeching doors. It was the peak of covid so repair and construction were limited.
We went hands on, instead of hiring an interior package that would not have caused a single drop of sweat. We swallowed more than we could chew, but it was not that bad overall.
Here are snapshots of the empty spaces of the flat we would be working on.
We wanted to have the sky and the ocean feels in the house, so we made the kitchen island blue, with our own design. We painted the tiled wall white, quite fun learning in the process.
Malaysia is well known for its rainforests, but KL is just packed with concrete. We brought the rainforest through the wooden furniture and green plants (about 50% were plastic though, an irony that you have to forgive).
Kevin was so particular about his wardrobe; the ceiling height is about 12-feet. He was ecstatic about the amount of storage we could have so he designed it by himself and made sure all spaces were optimized. We also installed a huge barn door for the bathroom.
When the lockdown rules eased up, we rewarded our bellies the delicious food they deserved. We had enough of months of home-cooking rather.
I had 2 requests: a swing in the kitchen counter, and a tent-bed, which I just blabbered out of the blue. I thought it would be nice to express the idea of playfulness in the house. And Kevin made them possible!
After months of work, dusts and noise pollution, piece by piece, the interior we envisioned had become a reality. We graced our new home by celebrating with our friends during the holidays and Kevin's birthday, cooking Filipino dishes and baking pastries.
It was not all rainbows and butterflies. Adulting is exhausting but lots of fulfilling experiences at the same time. We had to go through a lot of arguments, sulking, reviewing our finances for the mortgage but we eventually sorted things out. This is the funny part - about a month after we finally started enjoying our new home, his company offered him a job he could not refuse, in Tokyo. Can you imagine the whirlpool of emotions we had gone through, leaving pieces of our heart here, xoxo.
I remember taking this last photo when we were on the way to pick up a jute rug and kitchen wares. We were tired but excited to shop. This was also when we found the bamboo poles we used for our tent-bed. Ahh, life is indeed unpredictable. You point your sail to a course but everything depends on the wind. Nonetheless, every wave, no matter how unnoticeable, takes you to where you should be, xoxo.
