Calm before the chaos

Chaos begins on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the workers come in and start their job of giving Riang a facelift.

Its been 9 years since we moved into Riang. June 26 1998 marked our first night here. I remember we slept on a mattress in the kids' room (all four of us) and could see the moon rising above the trees, with the smell of new paint and newly varnished wooden floors in the air.

We moved in with two children below the age of 7. Gillian was then in K1 and Isaac was in Nursery. This house has seen my life change in so many ways, including the arrival of three new little ones. Owain, Caitlin and Trinity are my little Riang babies. Now, with flaking paint on the outside, a leaky roof, a backroom that floods when it rains and numerous black finger/hand prints on the walls, Riang is showing her age and needs a good shot in the arm to perk her up a bit.

It's about time.

So we're going to tear down the front porch roof and build a new one. We're going to scrape off the old paint, re-plaster the old walls, put sealant and paint again. A new gutter is going up on the second floor roof. Checks will be made to see if there are leaks up there and to fix it if there are (which I think is likely even though we re-roofed the 40-year-old roof when we moved in). At the back near the kitchen, the gutter will be torn down, replaced, old roof boards will be changed and repainted, cracks replastered and sealed and so poor Lolita's room will finally be leak-proof! No more rushing in with a bucket, mop and various assortment of rags everytime it starts to pour!

In the ground floor room which Lolita now occupies, the room will be split into two. Lolita will get a smaller space. A new opening will be cut in the wall to allow access into the kitchen. The 'new' room that is formed by the split, will be the study room. We will move the study from the second floor down (a very good time to clear the loads of files, knick-knacks, photographs etc). That room will now be Isaac's and Owain's room. Cait will move from the master bedroom where she has been sleeping with us since birth, to Gillian's room. Eventually, Trinity will also come to share that room with the two girls. I don't think Owain will be moving to Isaac's room anytime soon since he still nurses a lot at night so for now Isaac will have a room to himself!

There will be other small stuff to be done eg the plumbing, changing of taps, repairing the toilet bowl, repainting the other rooms etc.

Not a lot of massive changes but some pretty significant ones. Not so much in the area of aesthetics but more for practicality and functionality. The family is growing and we just need the space. We do have the option to move out but Riang has grown on us. Isaac is constantly pleading for us to just stay put since all his friends are here and ditto his favourite wanton mee! My mum is just round the corner and really, I can't find a more convenient location - just minutes from the CTE, a new MRT station being built, a couple of bus-stops away from Toa Payoh and Bishan. So unless the price is really really very good, it looks like we're staying right here...

The contractors will take about 3 weeks to finish, so we do have to put up with the noise and dust for a while and it looks like the Malaysia trip to the East Coast is off the charts for now too. But meanwhile, I'm having fun looking at the paint catalogues and browsing the Ikea catalogue.

The garden too needs to be rejuvenated. There are a couple of plants I am thinking of getting. In particular, a large pot of jasmine. I love the scent and I don't care if it is commonly associated with the scent of spirits! We already have a plumeira tree in the garden and this too has been linked with cemeteries and spirits etc. But I love the bright pink flowers and that, plus the new pot of jasmine, would be a lovely combination in the garden. I can just imagine sitting on our porch on a moonlit night and taking a large deep sniff of the fragrance of the jasmine! Lovely!