Home Office Evolution

Hi, I'm Talia. I'm a mother and I work from home.

Family Picture 2008

A little background for you: Being that I grew up with seven siblings, I have always craved for a place of my own. Eight kids means one room for boys and one room for girls. In our case, that means I had to share a room with four of my sisters. Eventually, my older sister had her own room and I then shared a room with three.

The one on the left was my workspace when I was sharing room with three of my sisters. I was a landscape architecture student then, so yes, a drawing board is in order.

And then I got my own room (although my older brother will disagree because that's his room. I just loved claiming it when he moved to the room downstairs) which is colored aqua blue and is much too masculine in my opinion. Too long a story but the point is, I wanted to have my own space that I can decorate. 

Please ignore the face. Pretty please.

When I got married and my husband and I rented our place, I asked him if it would be possible if each of us had our own workspace. One table for my things, another for his. It was a luxury given that space in the city where we live is precious. Think goldmine. That's how I would describe it.

There are times when I would bring my computer (no matter how heavy it is) to the bedroom temporarily just because that's where the air conditioner is. I would like to think this happened around summer time because there is no way I will lug the computer around unless it is scorching hot. But then again, I am known to push around humongous cabinets as a hobby so I guess, never say never, right?

And then me, the biggest-furniture-mover in the world, the one in charge of space layout in the house, I changed my mind. Not just once. More of a hundred times. We don't need a table for each. One is enough for both of us. 

After giving birth, I was tired of sticking to a color palette. Motherhood made me crave for different bursts of color. Red is my favorite at present. It shows. Oh, yes, it does show.

But who am I kidding? I am a mother now and I enjoy being with my kid. So I was demoted to working on the floor with my daughter in front of me. Total joy. Except when she's crying her eyes out and I just don't know what to do. In that case, I whisper to myself, "you love your daughter, you love your daughter, you love your daughter".

How about you? How has your home office evolved? Is red your style? Do you love working on your bed?

PS. Take a look at my new domain name. Isn't it awesomesauce? (Name that TV show!) Gives you a clue on what to expect in the future, huh? The site is still on the works so stay tuned.

Renting sucks! (Or should it?)

The master bedroom when we first moved in (March 2011). Yes, I thought it was acceptable to curtain of just one side of the window.

We all know that renting is discouraged by many. You are paying for a property that will never be yours and more often than not, you allot the biggest chunk of your budget to rental fees.

But for some (read: us), it is the only possible way to live. Unless of course, you can think of a way where you can live by yourself without paying for rent and buying a property. In that case, please tell me how you do it.

Living room circa March 2011. I put contact papers to an otherwise blank white wall. I am in love with contact papers! I think it's the answer to everything. Blank wall, dining table, computer table, world hunger. Seriously. Except for the last part.

Husband studying in one part of the living room then.

My husband always believe in looking at the positive side (must be why he's been with me for so long. Good luck looking for my positive side! HAHA). We may be wasting our money but he told me to look at it this way. Renting allowed us to be experimental. Had we bought a property early on, I may not have had the courage to always, always, always (don't ever think I'm exaggerating) change the look of our house. 

Because my solution to a leaking ceiling then was puzzle mats, garbage bags, and pails (June 2011)

Aside from being experimental, we, at least, have an idea how to manage a house if ever we bought one now. Leaking ceiling, dripping faucet, tangled extension cords--not foreign to us anymore.

I know you're tired of this picture. It's what the master bedroom looks like now.

What our living/dining room looks like now

Thanks to renting, we also know what our house style is. We used to think brown, black and white is our style. All neutral, no excitement. But now, pops of colors everywhere. Having a child really does make ones house an exciting place.

 

Because every post looks cute with a Laika on it

 How has your place evolved?

Living Life to the Maximum

People think that my decision to declutter is my way of converting into a minimalist. On the contrary, doing this have made me into a maximalist--I want to use the things I have to the maximum and exhaust its potential. I have just recently adopted this lifestyle and let me tell you, this is not an easy path to take. Here's why:

1. Dilemma: I am a first time mother. An excited one at that. That means I have the tendency to shower my daughter with material things just because I think she needs them. The moment the pregnancy test showed two lines, I was in a need-to-shop-badly mode. This was aggravated by the discovery that my first child is going to be a girl--my own little doll! Imagine the amount of baby clothes I accumulated.

Lesson learned: Babies are all different, and my child--a low-maintenance one. Out of all the gifts she received during her aqeeqah, she only plays with two toys. That's it. Two toys out of all the many. The other ones, she likes to believe they are all teethers.

My action: I have requested my family to minimize the urge to shower Laika with toys. I have also stopped buying things that is not in the "need" column. Bumper pads and teething guards? Need. Cute dresses that she will most likely not enjoy? Want. After all, at her age, what she needs are non-material things.

Who needs three chairs? No one, I tell you. Although we have been using all of them most of the time. 

2. Dilemma: I am a girl. I was pre-programmed to like all things sparkling and beautiful especially if it starts with a sh- and ends with a -oes. I. Can't. Stop. Buying.

Solution: I bought a rack that can house just a dozen pairs of shoes. When I buy one pair, I have to give another pair up. This way, shoes are kept to a minimum. And I mostly stay at home now. No use owning too many when I am usually in a shirt-pants-slippers getup.

3. I love magazines. I also can't bear the thought of throwing one (as if I need to read it again or browse through one when I need inspiration. Hello, internet!).

Solution: E-subscription. This is one of the things I love about having an iPad mini. I can still enjoy magazines and books without worrying about clutter. I am no book purist. I am for reading a book even if I cannot touch book pages physically.

4. My husband is a doctor. Every time he has a convention, you can just imagine the amount of freebies he gets! I get a headache every single time I see him with ball pens, USBs and markers he doesn't even use!

Solution: I asked him to refrain from hoarding things just because it's free. One ball pen is enough. USBs are useful but who needs a lot of them? Markers? We will just buy when he needs one. I am not a snob. I just think there is no need getting things just for the sake of having one especially if it's free.

Those are just some of the things I can think of at present. What pushed me to declutter is now, I think of any space as a real estate property. When I need to throw something, I have to think of the last time I used it. There are times when I feel like I am wasting something but I am now choosing to think of it this way: The storage space that an object occupies can very well be used for something that is more useful. I can live in a smaller space but I can't because of the amount of stuff we have. Now, we have reduced the amount of our things and I can't wait to reduce it again in the future. I also disagree with the notion that you need to have a big storage space. Big storage space means more things you accumulate. At the end of the day, these things don't even get to be used. I say no to more storage, yes to proper place for everything.

Decluttering, anyone?

When I was pregnant, I was struck hard by the nesting syndrome. I felt the need to purge, purge, purge! 

My thinking was, if something does not have its own proper place, it does not belong to this house. I was so much struck that I was able to declutter and live with less than 15 pairs of shoes (that's modest, ask every girl you know) and four bags.

On a good day, meaning Sharon or I had to urge to clean up, our rented apartment looks like this.

The bamboo mat does not belong to the living room anymore

The master bedroom is divided into different areas as we live in a small place

However, if Monica Geller of FRIENDS has a Secret Closet, I have my Secret Room. Whenever I entertain guests in the house, the door to this room is shut very tightly.

It looks like this right now.

I KNOW!!!

Good thing when I accepted a certain thrift shop challenge, I was able to discover this beautiful place.

In time (I wonder when?), I want to be able to tackle my Secret Room and sell stuff at that Thrift Shop. I read somewhere that the philosophy when decluttering should be, if you were to move to a different place, what will you be bringing with you? And since we will really be moving before the year ends (in shaa Allah), all the more we need to do this.

Repeat after me: No more clutter. No more clutter. No more clutter.

Revisiting our future home's model unit

Who here is tired of hearing me say that I am a frustrated interior designer? Show of hands? None? Good.

Let's get it on with this post then :)

We will be transferring to our future house late this year and I can't wait to design our unit. Yawning now? No? Cool!

I want to walk you through my design process and the first order of business is to let you in the model unit by showing pictures.

But a side story first. How did we decide on getting this condominium unit? It was August 19, 2011, the Quezon City day (think of me as Ted Mosby ala-How-I-Met-Your-Mother), both the husband and I did not have work as it was a holiday. I had to process my visa for China that morning and he accompanied me. We did not have anything to do that afternoon and then I remembered my very good friend April's constant reminder to please, please visit their showroom in Megamall as she was one of the people to design the room. We decided to go there from Makati.

When we got there, we were amazed by the showroom. It was tastefully done and, our agent, convinced that we were buying, entertained all our questions. I want to clarify that we did not have any intention of getting a unit that day. It's just one of our hobbies as a couple to dream and look at model units, hoping that one day, we will have the ability to afford one.

That night, I was not able to sleep. I really, badly, wanted to buy a unit just because I loved the location, the price, and the design (please note that I am not carried away by showrooms. I know how to block out the furniture as I know when the unit is turned over, it will be as blank as a coupon bond).

A week later, the agent we talked to told us that the project we were considering to buy had a promo that month. We can pay for a measly 10% for 23 months. That's it! Now we can afford to buy one.

Still, we had to consider many things. And in the end, we bought one.

Phew! That's too long a story, isn't it? On with the rooms now!

 

 

Can you tell I'm super excited? Anything you're looking forward to this year? Are you just like us who will move from one side of the region to the other? 

The Young House Love Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge

Before I begin, I just want to apologize for not having the chance to update this blog for over two weeks except for the occasional posts here and there. Life happened and Instagram came. Dub me the Latecomer as I have just discovered the beauty of this social network.

Because of that, I installed a good plug-in so you can still be updated with my life. Yes, I'm talking to you, my three loyal readers.

I have also just devised a way to organize my schedule without compromising time with family, work deadlines, personal enrichment and blog-writing (in that particular order). Allow me to explain: My day starts at 5:00 am after Laika's crying for milk, then I start pumping milk, praying, sleeping a little until husband wakes me up for breakfast. The whole morning is dedicated to Laika until she takes her morning nap and in the afternoon, I enjoy lunch with the husband (who conveniently works in the hospital right in front of our apartment), take Laika for a bath, and play with her until her afternoon nap. That's when I get some work done. Evening is for dinner, exercise time (because I really, badly need to get back to my pre-preggy weight), and then that's when another round of work is done until I sleep by 12 midnight, if I'm lucky, or 2 am, if insomnia strikes.

Phew! That's a whole lot of explaining for an I'm-sorry-I-don't-post-as-frequently-now post. That is to say I hope to be a better blogger next time. I'll be lucky to get a post done a week now but I will try.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, where was I? Right, the Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge. Remember my favorite bloggers, John and Sherry Petersik? Well, they are the bloggers behind Young House Love and they are the awesomest dork bloggers ever!

John and Sherry posted a Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge in their blog and I heard myself thinking, "challenge accepted!" So I dragged my sweet husband to the nearest Thrift Shop. As in five-blocks-away-from-the-house near.

The challenge says to bring $20 and because in the Philippines, that means P814.30, I prepared myself to bring in stuff for the house.

See, I have never, for the life of me, thrifted for things for the house. Clothes, sure I have. Other than that, nada. Zero. Zilch.

On the drive there (yes, five blocks and we still brought the car. What? I don't know if we were going to buy something massive), we heard, for the first time might I say,  the Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, on the car radio. True story.

When we got there, as it was after office hours, we were clearly losing natural lighting. That is to say, "sorry for the crappy photos, I did not think to set my camera to the correct settings".

As soon as we got there, the first thing that caught my attention was this beautiful cabinet made of rattan. I would marry it if I could. Sorry, Saud. Good thing for him, it costs P4000 (about $100) and that's about 5 times more expensive than what I brought. So, goodbye, gorgeous cabinet. I wonder what could have been?

I continued browsing, not even knowing what my P815 can buy. Saw a lot of things with potential. And then it happened. My husband's jaw-dropped.

Yes, that's genuine and pure awe. I stole this shot and I heard him say, "if I see a Gameboy and a Pokemon here, I am going home with them." Gotta love that despite having our own, he is still a child at heart.

Unfortunately, he found none.

I was also in dreamland as I found a place with lots and lots of furniture. I always had to remind myself that we had barely a 50-square-meter apartment.

To make the Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge turn into a genuine Young House Love Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge, I photographed two things in the list. Two, because I cannot bear to do silly things in front of the camera (bonus points for that?)

But! Unlike my husband, I did not go home empty-handed.

 

Two wonderfully-patterned vases for P300 each and a nice oriental tray for P200 (I haggled from P250). Oh yes! Challenge done!

And here they are in our dining table.

photo from my Instagram. Yes, I'm an addict. Get me to the rehab.Fast!

And to prettify our new kitchen stuff, we bought flowers from the nearby Dangwa. I love our neighborhood!

How was my Thrift Shopping? I had fun! Too much fun that I swore I will come back. This time, I want to sell stuff. Goodbye, clutter-in-our-house!
 

Moodboard: Living-on-a-High Living/Dining Room

I was awarded Ms. Moodboard by my students last Teachers' Day as I always require them to have one. I am a believer of putting all your ideas in one place. It doesn't matter if you will create a hodgepodge of an image. That's how you know if the design will work.

Someone very close to me asked me to design his one-bedroom condominium unit. As the space is small, we had to plan the space strategically. His unit is in one of the topmost floors. I have already made my schemes and I would like to show you my favorite among the two.

P.S: I am not an interior designer. I only do this for people who are very close to me. I believe in professional courtesy. If you have a place you want done and we are in no way close to each other, please contact a licensed interior designer. 


The Space

The space is a one-bedroom condominium unit located in one of the topmost floors of the building. The site is at the busiest city in the metro.

Strengths

• The bedroom has a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city. 
• The unit comes fully-finished once it is turned over.
• It has high ceilings.

Weaknesses

• There is no window in the living/dining/kitchen area.
• The space is small. 
• The bedroom has space for one occupant only. 

The Solution

• I reconfigured the bedroom to make it bigger and to accommodate a bigger bed and a bigger closet. 
• I designed a customized bedroom door to avoid a space-consuming standard one.
• I rearranged the recommended furniture for the living/dining area.

The Moodboard

This is what I envision the living/dining room area to look like.

• Light grellow (green+yellow) walls all over to make for a sunny room. This is essential to compensate for the lack of natural lighting.
• A wall-mounted table to act as a dining table for two. The TV will be mounted on the wall as well to save space.
• Three tall mirrors will be put on the walls to emphasize the height and to give an illusion of space.
• A two-seater sofa bed for emergency sleepovers. 
• A teal (or any striking color) pouf to give a pop of color to an otherwise very neutral room. It can also be a coffee table if you put tray on top of it or it can also be an additional seat. 
• A sunburst mirror to bounce off more lights.
• A bamboo rug to differentiate the living from the dining area. Bamboo is essential as the owner is asthmatic and may be allergic to other kinds of rug.

There's my vision for the living/dining area. I will be posting more on the bedroom soon. 

Home Office

People who are very close to me know that I am a frustrated interior designer. That explains my fascination with chairs. Anyway, that's a story for another day. What I want to share is my home office.

To keep me sane from lack of sleep, I channel my frustration by looking at interior design blogs. My computer used to be in the living room. But since giving birth, I have never spent much time there. So we had to transfer the home office in the corner of our bedroom.

My home office

I use a console table as my study. Here are my tools for blog hopping:

1. My 2-year old iMac 21.5" desktop. I love that it has a big screen and I can open many programs and work on them side by side.

2. Leftover box which hides our chargers and remote controls.

3. iPod Touch 3rd Gen for when I have to be mobile. It has been with me for three years and I still never get tired of it.

4. I do my pumping while reading so I have my breastfeeding tools with me in the study. And, yes, that's 8-oz. worth of milk for one pumping session. Thank, Mommy Treats.

5. Alarm clock to time my pumping intervals.

6. Battery-operated lamp and electric fan combo.

7. Lamp.

8. Laika's storage boxes.

9. Bright orange chair.

Being fickle-minded, I may redo this arrangement soon when I get the inspiration. What do you suggest?

How to Design a One-Bedroom Condominium Unit

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Disclaimer: By no means am I an interior designer. But I am a decorating enthusiast. And a designer in our family=free interior decorator. It’s a win-win situation.  

When my older brother got his condominium unit in San Lorenzo Place, he assigned me to design it. It is located right in the middle of a central business district which means great views, high-rise buildings, and super expensive lot prices!

I can just imagine him, sipping his coffee right in front of his floor-to-ceiling window as he stares into the horizon. What. A. Life. Anyway, what do we have?

·      He got a 25.5 sq m one-bedroom unit. As I have mentioned, it is located in the heart of a business district. Space is precious. So we need to make use of the space wisely.

·      It is located at one of the upper floors. I think more than 30-storeys high up. Amazing view! Have I not said that enough?

·      It is fully-finished. We will make use of the same finishes. Got to use what we have.

·      Anyway, here is the floor plan provided by the developer. We will change it by the way.

 To be honest, I have never been to the site as it is still under construction although I have made my schemes. I will show it to you later.