Carpet from Carpet Call installed!!

Got our carpet installed today!! Yipee!!

Getting the carpet was a total nightmare. We didn't want to spend a lot on the flooring but yet we wanted to walk comfortably on the floor barefeet. We aren't the typical ang mohs who like wearing slippers indoors. There were a variety of different materials ranging from the cheaper to the more expensive ones. Then, there were so many different stores that offer different types of carpet, patterns and colours, offering different services from pulling out the existing carpet and throwing them away to installing underlay etc etc. We just didn't know which to pick from!

We initially wanted to get some leftover carpets from a store that sells to the developers. We could get them at a cheaper cost because they were practically leftovers. But by the time we got our house measured and decided to go with the one we picked, the last bits were taken! Boo! So we had to start all over again.

In the end, we decided to go with Carpet Call. I initially didn't really the store because I thought they were just too commercialized - they have many advertisements on the TV and radio that I could even just remember the song by heart. LOL. I always thought that these kinda stores are very pricey and they don't want to bother negotiating prices with customers. But we still invited them over to our place to give us the best quotation for a wool carpet.

And yes, they did give us a very high quote (which wasn't much to my surprise) although the quality of the carpet is undoubtedly better than the previous one we were interested in. David Minchin from Carpet Call, was very helpful in beating the price for us. We had in mind how much we would pay for a carpet and we told him our budget and also told him the quotation price that another store gave us. David called up the Accounts Department of Carpet Call to convey our message and the quotation we had from another store and from close to $5000, we manage to secure the carpet at a cost lower than $4000! :) :D It was a typical Chinese negotiation that took place at our home. Haha. And all those were inclusive of tearing out the existing stuck-down carpet, putting on underlay and the new carpet as well as the plastic edges at where the carpet joins the tiles in the bathroom to prevent water in the bathroom from seeping and wetting the carpet when I wash the bathroom. Hehe. We are so happy! Even the Cambodian workers who installed our carpet were shocked that we managed to get a good quality woolen carpet at a lower price! They said that it was worth the money!! Double grins! :)

So anyway, here are the pictures of how the two Cambodians installed our carpet. They did a very great job and we are so happy at the quality of the product and the service provided by Carpet Call and the Cambodian workers.

The "Before" picture

 Our underlay is Luxury Plus!

 

We stood outside the balcony so that we weren't disturbing them

Our furniture's coming tomorrow!! So excited!!!!! :) :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

It's been a busy week! As Chin Fei has 2 weeks annual leave for Christmas, both of us take this opportunity to paint our house, shop for furniture, carpet and everything to settle in for Chinese New Year! :) As our new place doesn't have a clock yet and we didn't wear our watches while painting, we were so engrossed with painting the house until we had dinner at 10 pm on Christmas Day! By the time we realised it was late and we didn't have any food to eat at home (because everything was a mess), we went out to only find that McDonald's open at that time. Thank God for 24 hours McDonald's store nearby!! Tee hee hee. For once, I am so sick of fast food! We have been eating KFC, Hungry Jacks and McDonald's all the time!!!! Blek.

Boxing Day was mad for us. Luckily, most stores had started their Boxing Day sales weeks before Christmas so we purchased most of our stuff, including bedding and furniture before then. But still, it was mad sales as we had to wake up early to take the bus to Bunnings Warehouse (because it was the first store to open at 7 am) to get some hardware stuff before heading to Carousel Shopping Mall and join the crowd for some shopping frenzy!! Evening, we spent our dinner at Justine's place, together with Hui Min. That was the first proper meal we had at a home. Can't wait for our whole house to be fully set up so that the kitchen is functional and we can stay at our home!! :) 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Boxing Day sale! Looking forward to ushering in the New Year and the Dragon Year when my parents will come!! :) Cheers!

SKM-RTIOEP Xmas function

Attended Chin Fei's company Xmas dinner in Frasers, Kings Park; where one of the CHOGM gatherings was held. The theme was Hollywood and there were "paparazzis" standing at the red carpet at the entrance to the venue, all carrying cameras and one even had a microphone, on a pretext of swarming all the attendees. It was indeed hilarious. LOL.

There was a professional photographer hired during the event. Because we were walking around, mingling with everyone in the party, we were always caught by the photographer who asked us to posed for her. Obviously, she couldn't remember us and thought we were just one of the many people in the crowd, and I think we had one of the highest number of shots in that event. Hehe. :)

With Chin Fei's colleagues

Our new place

As mentioned in the previous post, I will be busy shifting this Christmas. It was a crazy and havoc week. We had to managed two places - the previous rental property and the current place that we purchased. We had to pack our 3 years of belongings into boxes and prepare for inspection for the prospective tenants, clean the rented property upon vacating, as well unpacking some things in this new place. For those who were following me on Facebook, would have known that I was very annoyed at one of the carpet cleaners here, for making me wait for 2 hours before they finally arrived and demanded us to find a parking spot for them; which wasn't what they requested in the phone conversation when I booked them a week earlier!

Thank God for this "trolley wardrobe" that we have so we can transport our things to the new place

Now that finally we have shifted in, we still can't unpack our things as we are planning to change the carpet which will be coming in on the 30th December. So far, we have been just painting the whole place and make do with sleeping on the floor because we have put the furniture delivery on hold until New Year's eve, after our new carpet has been installed.

Our new place! :)

This is a sneak peek of what our place looks like now. :)

The ugly green wall before being painted

Chin Fei painting our yellow room! :)

Chin Fei pulling away the masking tape after finish painting the walls

It's nice to shift in with your loved one and then think about the colours of the wall, the type of sofa, how we are going to decorate this place etc. Like what I said on Facebook; you can't call your house your home until you are involved with in, including painting the walls yourself. :)

It's Christmas today and we're busy painting the walls. At least, we have a home to live in. :)

Our home!!

Updates!! The bank loan has been approved by and we just got the keys for the house! We're totally excited to move in! But first, there's lots of things to be done. Like cleaning, painting and designing the interior of the house. It will take time but it will all be worth it because it is our home. :) :)

A special thanks to Brett Johnston from Brett Johnston Real Estate, the seller's real estate agent. Brett has been particularly helpful and patient, driving all the way from Kalamunda to Perth to meet up with us, explain the details and sign the documents. We especially appreciate how quick and prompt he attends to our queries and how he liased with the seller to allow us to move in prior to settlement without charging us rent nor paying for strata and water until our settlement date. We owe a lot to him. Thank you again.

Also thanks to Adrian Slater from Slater and Muir, our mortgage broker. Adrian is a fantastic person who, not only gave us the best lender by comparing the interest rates, he was also helpful in giving us tips and advices for the next investment. He was happy to disclose the commission rates he earned from the lenders so that we were allowed to make a fair comparison and decision. We would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone and also to use his services again for the next purchase we make. With him doing all the run-arounds, it makes our lives easier that we could just concentrate on making our home a place to live in. :) Thank you, Adrian!

It certainly is a good buy, as our place is located right in the heart of Perth CBD and best of all, the furniture is all inclusive!! Including the washing machine, dryer etc!! We asked the seller to remove the beds and sofa though because we wanted our own personal items for those. :) Now, for some pictures of the house (obviously before any cleaning and painting):

The kitchen, dining and living room

The second room, bathroom and kitchen

The master bedroom

The second room

Standing in front of the master bedroom. The sliding door from the living room that exits to the balcony

Standing outside the living room. We can enter the balcony through a sliding door in our first room too

The balcony that wraps around, and ends at the second room

Watch out for the next updates as we revamp this whole place! Gee... :)

Suang's visit to Perth

Last week, Suang Suang came to visit me!! :) She flew from Melbourne for a 4-day conference but we only met up for two mornings and one night because she was busy at the conference and I was busy at work. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay longer over the weekends because she had some experiments to do or else I would have brought her to Fremantle and Cottlesloe. If she reads this, she will again be mad. LOL.

Suang Suang's arrival in Perth was a funny one. Early that morning, when she was in Melbourne Airport waiting to depart, I whatsapp her, telling her that the weather in Perth wouldn't be good that day. It was very cloudy and there was a forecast thunderstorm and hailstorm later in the afternoon. Well, the weather forecast was right. By noon, a very heavy thunderstorm hit Perth that all of us were stuck indoors. I didn't know what time Suang Suang was arriving then, but I got a whatsapp message from her at about half past 3 telling me that she was stuck in the plane on the airport tarmac and that she had already touched down an hour and a half earlier but the passengers weren't allowed to disembark the plane yet because it was unsafe for the airport ground staff to work. Fair enough. We exchanged numerous whatsapp messages while she was on the plane; I thought I should keep her company since she was travelling all alone. Haha.

Hours pass and the thunderstorms cleared and I went home. She had already had 2 movies showed on the plane since she touched down and there was no news of when she was getting out!!! Apparently, there were many flights delayed/cancelled and so there were no parking bays for incoming planes to park and disembark their passengers. Ahead of her were 6-7 planes and she said that two planes that touched down later than hers managed to disembark earlier because there were emergency cases - an anxious pregnant lady and another anxious man. It had already been 4 hours since she landed on Perth soil but have not touched it nor smell the air yet. We were supposed to meet up for dinner that day so I told her to message me when she left the airport.

Came 7 pm; 5 hours after she touched down and there was no news of her yet!! I texted her asking if she was still on the plane and yes she was! What seemed funny initially became frustrating. I couldn't imagine how she could ever tolerate that! Thanks to her laptop and her wireless USB, she could go online and happily chat and update her Facebook statuses; so at least that kept her sane throughout that whole waiting period. Haha. And I thought that once she left the plane, she was all good to go and we could meet up slightly later than planned.

Well, one bad thing led to another. She was totally taken aback looking at the chaos in the domestic airport. There were thousands of people in the small airport, all waiting for their luggage. Now, this dear friend of mine, thought it was fun to check in a 7 kg bag. So well, she had "so much fun" just waiting for 1 and a half hours to get her luggage! By the time she arrived her hotel (after waiting for 30 minutes for the bus shuttle, that is), it was almost close to 9 pm!! Since her body clock was 3 hours ahead of Perth's time, we rescheduled our meet-up til the next morning at 7 am. So, well, I pitied Suang Suang a lot for having to face with this nightmare on her first visit to Perth. I'm glad that it didn't leave a bad impression of Perth to her and she said that she liked the place and want to come back again with her fiance! Ooh, can't wait for the next visit!! :) 

Suang Suang's paid accommodation at The New Esplanade Hotel

I can't believe that it has been almost 3 years since I last saw her. The very last time we saw each other was during my graduation day when she came and took a picture with me. :) Even though we hardly kept in touch with each other; just once a while on MSN and whatsapp, Chin Fei was still surprised at how much we could talk on and on, like there's no stopping at all. Haha. I think he kinda saw how much I really miss my friends in Melbourne and I think he was happy that Suang Suang came and accompany me. Haha. It's funny how this time when we met, it wasn't any awkward at all and we just clicked immediately as if we were just continuing a conversation from yesterday!! We talked about our PhDs (most of the times), our friends, families, our weight and exercise regimes and even each of our proposals!! Haha. :) 

Anyway, here are the pictures of us. I hope that it won't be another 3 years before we meet again. I'm looking forward to having another friend from Melbourne dropping by Perth. You know, Perth is really not that far. It's still in Australia, okay? :P

Northbridge Piazza #1

Northbridge Piazza #2

Northbridge Piazza #3: Where you can watch free movies on the screen with a free bean-bag provided

Near the State Library

Christmas decoration in Northbridge

Near the Art Gallery

The upside down man on Hay Street Mall

The ONE MILLION DOLLAR cactus statue in Forrest Chase. Waste of money, if you ask me

Bell Tower

A morning in Kings Park