Vacations, I find are expensive, but if you ask me now if I would stop taking them, I would say, NO. In the near future, YES, but in the months to come, heck, I will again go back to them. And I suspect, I shall do that again and again and again. My line of credit has to recover a bit I think, until I feel more comfortable and the numbers are nearing a black, positive balance.
My 20 days home were great. Not that I saw lots of my friends and neighbors and former officemates and got to hang out with them. Of the people I was lucky enough to see, I almost never saw them again, I felt the time I spent away from home to see friends and neighbors was time ahmmm…NOT spent with my parents and brother and sister and their daughters. Given that little time necessitates time priority management. And seriously I just want to hang around my not-so-young parents and my very young nieces.
I would have wanted to go to Camiguin and crash my mom's tiny town of Hubangon's fiesta, but was unwilling to spend time apart from my parents. I wanted to jump off that bridge and go whitewater rafting soon thereafter, but again some things just took priority over that frivolous activity. And I really wanted to just lay in the white sandbar of perfection (aka White Island) just minutes off Camiguin and lay in the sun in communion with mother nature's pristine creations. Did not happen.
What happened? Ceiling planks gutted out and replaced. Same went with a number of plywood that made the walls. A nice, coral-brickish theme of a kitchen was erected. The kitchen got a new refrigerator and matching metallic airpot and rice cooker and garbage can. It also got a couple of glass sliding windows which I think is pretty.. well.. pretty!
I am quite excited with the kitchen. My sister is quite the master executor of my, her's and our mother's wishes! Well, not totally my mother's as she wanted flowers on the back splash, a decision my sis and I vetoed against! A beautiful brick style tile is now vertically installed as back splash perpendicular the huge 24-inch coral tiles. I think the twin sinks are both functional and beautiful. We finally got to use the sturdy-looking, handsome 3-burner cooktop sometime before New Year's cook off!
The carpenter working on the kitchen has started on November and my sister calls him, "Forever Raul!" He seems to like to stay working with us (forever!), much to my sister's frustration. But the kitchen basically up but I think it still needs a bit more of a polishing. But whatever, I saw a kitchen albeit not perfect, it is our kitchen. A far cry from its predecessor that was composed of the basic 4" white tile counter top and a sink. Raul is still at my parents' home doing stuff. My sister stopped camping over at my parent's house after I left, a fact that surely made Raul's days easier! J
My sister and I also picked colors for walls and ceilings. We decided to go bold! We got basic white for the ceilings, Irvine Peach (translation: beige) for the living room, True Orange for the new living/sitting area and Bittersweet (translation : soft coral) for the adjoining eating area and the kitchen. I kinda like it! Major decisions for big girls! True Orange does not even have a touch of orange in it, more like hmm a stronger, perhaps strongest hue of coral. And it provided the background for newly framed and reframed treasure pictures! For those who want matching frames and non-glare versions of glass pieces, prepared to part with a couple of thousands or more. Kimshoppe is quite happy with me last Christmas as I probably was their biggest customer. We now have 15 happy pictures and frames on the wall of our new favorite space to hang out, and I am quite satisfied.
As I looked into the dining area, I saw our old chandelier of sorts and I met my sister's glance, yes, it also has to go. After we went to the store and bought gazillions of meters of curtain material, we hopped off to go to the nearby lighting store. She wanted something understated. I wanted something obnoxious! She wanted the very simple Japanese lamp, I wanted the ornate-looking brassy lights. Bwhahahah.. we settled on something in between, I love our new chandelier!
And ah yes the curtains! When it seemed quite clear to me and my sister that Raul couldn't possibly finish the kitchen by himself let alone the other stuff we wanted done, we found 2 young guns willing to earn some bucks. We had them demolition the wall, and painting! Well, they weren't really so meticulous with the jobs, but at that point, we weren't exactly looking for quality anymore. We just wanted stuff done… and boy did they ever made us happy. And they sang too, which made me happier! April Boys anyone?
When we begged the boys to render extra hours, they did without complaining. My brother drove them home at 8 PM on Christmas Eve! They were awesome! Which brings me back to the curtains. My sister and I bounced this thought between ourselves, maybe they could also sew the curtains! Bwhahahaaha! J By the time I left, the chocolate curtains, well the supposed chocolate curtains were still panels of jagged edges in a corner somewhere waiting to be sewed. We did manage to sew the 3 huge panels of beige-ish curtains to cover the new wall opening…. Well our dearest male working student did! J My sister worked and I shopped… nobody had time. J And Eper enjoyed the sewing machine, as much as my sister and I do when we have time.
