Cupboard Mushroom

My otherwise beautiful bathroom cabinet

Mushroomies springing up and out from the side!

Who knows what else is inside the wood? Eeeeek! ~~~~

Those of you whom have been to my place, you know i do not have a single plant in my house. Greens appear only on my table and no where else. I had wanted to install some life in my balcony but later decided against it lest i become a fauna murderer by my slothfulness.

Little did i know an unusual species of "life" actually silently crept into my bathroom without permission.

Bought my bathroom cabinet from I*ea when i moved in Aug last year, which makes it less than a year old. Some mould must have been hidden in the wooden sheets, plus the warm and moist bathroom atmosphere these mushroomies thrived so well that it sprang up and out!

I so wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Can you imagine seeing mushrooms out of your cupboards?! Truly what a sight, but at the same time some tinge of anger flickered through my head and i'm considering filing a feedback to the store. Mushrooms in (new) cupboards?! Oh please. Just in case the manager thinks i'm making up stories i have pictures here as proof! ~

Getting a Maid

Some of my friends have been checking in with me regarding getting a maid, since i just got mine a couple months ago. Below are some information if you are thinking of getting a maid.

1. Required by law to take a e-learning (FDW-EOP) certification before you can employ a maid. Go to http://cec.sp.edu.sg/webapps/login/ to complete the online course. Should take you less than an hour and $30. After you complete it, your particulars will be sent to MOM so you are ready to apply work permit for your maid.

2. You need to first determine your criteria, e.g. Nationality? Age? Married? Height? Language spoken? Primary Role (baby-sit or elderly care)? You can contact any maid agency by looking through newspapers, or recommended by friends, or surf online. Give them your requirements and they will try to match against their current database. For my case, i email my request to many agencies through the web and they send me bio-datas of maids which they think might fit my criteria.

3. The bio-datas will tell you the basic particulars and experience of the maid. Of course photo is also attached so you can find someone who is pleasant to your eye. You may want to ask the agent more about the person, e.g. Can i interview her? Can i speak with her previous employer?At this time, you do not have to pay anything to the agency yet.

4. It is important to ensure that the maid meets your primary need. For example, if you want the maid to take care of your children, then look out for her experience in this area, even if she cannot take good care of your dog! After looking through so many bio-datas, it is true that it is almost impossible to find the "perfect maid" (just like we can't find the perfect mate!!), so you have to weigh the most desired criteria.

5. Once you finalize on your choice, this is the time to pay $$! Three types of fees:

a. Agent Fee - this is one time service fee to the agent, may range from $88 to $588. Look out if the agent will provide free replacement if you are not satisfied with your maid. Some agents have unlimited replacement within one year; some only one free replacement within six months.

b. Insurance - mandatory to buy insurance for the maid. There are different plans but the most common one is about $200 plus.

c. Placement Fee - this is a little difficult to explain, please bear with me. For the maid to work in Singapore, she has to pay a sum to the agent for finding work for her. It could be 4 or 5 months of her salary. Suppose her salary is $350 and she has to pay the agent $1400 (4 months' salary). So the maid will "borrow" $1400 from you, and you pay $1400 to the agent on her behalf, and she works 4 months for you free of charge. On the 5th month, then you start paying her the regular salary of $350. Sometimes, the agent will require you to pay the maid a nominal $20 from month 1-4, of which you will then deduct $80 on the 5th month from her pay. In summary, you need to pay upfront a lump sum though in actual fact you are not losing out in any way.

6. The amount of the placement fee, as well as the salary actually depends on the maid's experience. A worker without any experience may be paid $320 while one with two years' experience may be $370. For those whom have worked in Singapore for many years may command $400 or more. You also need to take note if the maid is entitled to any days off. If there is mutual agreement without days off, then you have to pay additional $20 to "buy up" the leave. For example, her salary is $350, and you buy up her off day, so you have to pay her monthly salary of $370.

7. Other considerations include

- Does she have a handphone? Would you allow her to have one?

- How many friends does she have in Singapore? Would she want to call/write to them?

- Does she want an off day?

Ok, hope this helps! It is definitely not easy to get a suitable helper, but exercising caution and doing detailed planning in advance may mitigate the risks involved.

Happy searching! :)

Bitten by a Big Bed Bug

Ok, enough of twisting the tongue. We've indeed got attacked by bed bugs recently. Not sure how it all began, but anyway one night we started to get bitten and at first we thought it was mosquitoes. But this went on for many nights and one time i got up to check only to find a murderous bug crawling on my bed!!

We tried spraying the bed frame for abt a week with insecticide but the problem did not go away. In the end we have to call the pest control company.

One company charges $450 for two visits and will fumigate the whole place. It takes around 4 hours for the entire operation and you need to wash all your clothes and clean up the house after that. Sounds more frightening than the bugs!

Called another company and it is $500 for three visits. They will spray a very deadly (to the bugs) water-based odourless chemical around the affected areas and the skirtings of your house. Takes 1.5 hours and then life goes on as usual.

Took the latter option cos it seemed to have less impact on the little baby. The bug man was here yesterday for the first spray so we shall see how it turns out in a month's time.

Pray for us!!

A Place Call Home

YAY! I'm back!! Have been overwhelmed at work for the past weeks and thank God i'm alive and kicking! :)

We finally settled nicely into our new home, though there are still many unpacked boxes lying in the store ... hehe ... maybe i can junk those things if i can live without them for the next three months woahaha ~~~

Seng Kang is a wonderful town. Quiet, serene surrounding without the hustle bustle of the CBD. Thought the city girl in me would find this place boring but i was all wrong. I have grown to like this place very much and am so thankful we finally have a place call HOME! ^_^

We are also very near to Ikea Tampines so it's a breeze to eat meatballs (and there's free parking too!) Quick drive to workplace, direct MRT from church and mom's home. All too convenient that works perfect for our lifestyle!

Haven't been taking many photos but here's a glimpse of our home http://picasaweb.google.com/erkuan/SKHome?authkey=PJ_lGGCB5Ks Enjoy! ~

I'm Alive

Just a quick post to say "I'm Alive" ^_^

It's been a long time since i last blogged because:

a. We just moved to our new home on Monday 4Aug - Thank God!! Busy cleaning up the place and unpacking the hundreds of boxes, thousand pieces of clothes and million pairs of shoes;

b. Assigned to a new project at work with an extremely tight timeline. Been having night meetings nearly every evening and working through the day to catch up on the tasks;

c. Starting up the toddler's ministry in church and preparing materials for the 17Aug kickoff

Many things going on right now; forgive me for not being in touch!
i'll update details soon!

Reno Progress

Woohoo! ~ The hacking is now all completed and the house looks truly empty, except for the debris waiting to be disposed. Electrical works will begin this week.

We spent any spare moment we had last week checking out toilet fixtures . Found a decent looking American Standard WC for $252 at Hoe Kee. Store assistant says the pump is very good and durable. Anyone has any tips??

Reno Begins!

Hack hack hack!! Yes hacking begins early morning today and we were there even earlier to catch some shots of the place in its "original form" before it got faced off. It's exciting to know this is the first step in building our new home!

Of course, there are still many details to attend to, and we continue to choose colors, doors, make various decisions of all sorts. It's kinda a role reversal because usually i would be the project manager driving others but now i'm the one being driven to provide decisions by certain datelines! hehe ~~ now i understand how much stress i give to others!

Hacking will continue through this week before they do the electrical works next week. For a sneak preview on the flat, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/erkuan/SengKangHome?authkey=w3RJ1oWJMhk

We Got the KEYS!!

So many choices!! We are our own designer hehe ^_^

Finally finally after many months of patient waiting, we got the keys to the new house today!! I can't tell you how excited i am just thinking of this impending day. In fact i was just too thrilled to sleep last night ... hehe ... imagine being a REAL home owner?! YES it's coming true!!

As we look back on the entire procedure, we really thank God for His provision. Whether it was the finances, the location, the environment, timing, everything, the Lord has been so gracious to us in every way.

Just as the author says in Psalm 116:12-13 "How can i repay the Lord for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord." Indeed we want to dedicate our home to God, that our Lord Jesus will be the Head of the household, and that we can effectively use the space for His ministry! Amen!

Renovation will begin tomorrow, and we are right now caught up with having to decide all the details: color of the walls, texture of the floors, what tabletop, what cabinets, what doors, what design etc. It's quite fun being our own designer but at the same time there's high risk that everything will come out very "sa-la"!! haha ~~ OK we'll see ^_^

First Appointment

YAY! Finally our first appointment with HDB took place last saturday. It was a 2 month's wait since we submitted the application. Didn't know what to expect, but the three things everyone told me all came true (of course): lots of forms to sign; all your CPF will be wiped off; you feel poor as you'll have a big debt for the rest of your life.

Woahaha ... guess this is the path that every married couple must take, so i'll be no exception. Guess i'll have to continue to work hard till i'm 70!! hehehe ~~ If all things go well, we should get the keys on 25Jun and then we can begin the renovation. YAY new home here we come soon! ~

First Encounter with the Contractor

All tiles in brown/cream/white theme.

See that shiny mosaic on top? That's going to spice up the place! YAY! ~

Finally finally, we had our first (long overdued!!) meeting with the contractor! He's a really nice guy to work with and listened patiently to our requirements and also offered very helpful tips. Let me know if you need contacts for contractor and i'll be happy to pass it to you :)

We plan to have a very simple design, nothing fancy (yes it's quite unlike me haha). House is going to be in brown/cream/white theme. We chose the tiles on the same day so at least it made us feel we have accomplished something hehe. Not going to disclose which tiles for where lest i rob you of a surprise when the place is completed :)

In the end, i couldn't resist the shiny shades of brown mosaic (yes this is more like me) and chose something, well still complimentary to the overall theme, but had a bit of "cha-cham-bo" style in it. Woahahaha ~~~