I recently received an invitation for a free livelihood training somewhere in Cubao. I saw this ad in sulit.com and phoned in to inquire. Read more…

image credits: mobile-phone-tips.blogspot.com

Early this year, I decided to replace our old blender that got busted after our household help tried to use it to grind ice! After much thinking and consideration, I ended up getting the Philips HR2027. I find it rather expensive, but the main selling point for me is the filter. But before I get carried away, let me give you the reasons in bullet points why I think this is a good buy. Read more…

We’re embarking on a project of renovating the house this year. First part of the project is the roofing. It’s summer time and it’s the perfect time to fix the roof so it’ll be ready for the rainy days. 4 years ago we had people, well okay, neighbors, who built their houses on the left and right side of our house and since the house is only one storey high, they stepped on our roofs while they were constructing their houses. And of course when the rainy season came in, some parts of the roof started to leak. Well, don’t get me started anymore on how I had to talk to them about sharing the expense in having it fixed. I swear it wasn’t easy.

Well, going back to the plan, we’re also thinking of having the house checked for termites. Next to that, we wanted to get a stainless undermount sink. And finally build a home office. Although how we’ll manage to finish all that this year is beyond me. We aim to finish at least two. And hopefully before the year ends the other projects have been started as well.

Aside from rest and recreation, weekend also spells out house repairs. This is especially true if there is a need to hire someone to work on the repairs. We are unable to do so during weekdays as we are out for work and it is only during the weekends that we are able to watch over the hired help work over the repairs. Fortunately, we only had to work on the leaky bathroom faucet this week, which my husband can work on, saves us money! Which reminds me that I have to have the roof repainted this summer. Oh well, that’ll have to wait I guess.

Back in the time when I took a leave from the corporate life and stayed at home to be a full-time mom and house wife, I learned that there are things a home-maker can’t just live without. Here are just a few:

• Non-stick pans – Being married to someone who likes fried food, I cannot imagine life without Teflon-coated pans. It certainly makes cleaning up a breeze. Saves you a lot on the dish washing paste too!
• Washing machine and dryer – Thank God for washing machines! Given that I’m very particular when it comes to our clothes, especially our whites, after spinning the clothes on the laundry machine, I do another round of hand washing. Yes! I’m that OC when it comes to our clothes. So you could just imagine how tedious it would have been for me if we don’t have a washing machine and dryer. Add to that the fact that my husband is 6 fee tall and loves wearing denims.
• Vacuum cleaner – If you have pets in the house, this will really save you a lot of time. Whether your floor is carpeted or not, this would really come in handy if you have dogs or cats in the house. If you have wall to wall carpeting, it will be great to have a steam cleaner as well, a good brand of choice is the Ladybug steam cleaner.
• Microwave Oven – You can thaw meat from the freezer, you can make pop corns and even make cakes (thanks to Betty Crocker for microwave oven mixes) and of course re-heat food in the microwave.
• Electric Kettle – This is a basic necessity if you have babies. Well of course, next to that would be a bottle warmer if you have a kiddo.

Well, those are the items on my list. Feel free to comment and share what items you cannot live without as a home maker.

Our house is a bungalow 2 bedroom house with 2 toilet and bath, a typical choice for starting families. We’re actually renting the place from a relative. Yesterday, I saw a friend’s house through her Facebook albums and it was just really inspiring how she transformed their house into a really cozy abode from a simple bungalow house. Then, I thought of suddenly embarking on a house makeover project. I guess not this year, but perhaps next year. We have to finish up paying all our liabilities for now and start building our savings. There are a lot of things that I wanted to design, like a contemporary sofa, a book shelf, side tables, kitchen cabinet and so the list goes on. That is why it would be wise to put it off for now, and better break it down to smaller, achievable plans. Dang, I’m still talking about SMART goals even if I’m talking about things to do at home. Anyway, for now, I’ll just have to do with reading through back issues of Real Living magazines.

image taken from topazhorizon.com

Last November, I told you we finally decided to get a new TV set. The transaction at Robinson’s Galleria Appliance store went smoothly, and we’re actually happy with their staff who assisted us. A few days later, we even got a call from them to ask if we are hapy with the item and if everything is okay. Well, anyway, going back to the TV, well, we’re mostly happy with  this purchase. The picture quality is great, we just have to wait for Sky Cable to upgrade the signal (which I think will take time considering that our area is still serviced with analog signals and we have yet to get a digibox….hmmm, thinking of switching to Cignal), although for our downloaded videos, we don’t have any complains. Just have to also purchase a blu-ray player (hope they become more affordable in time).

The only downside we could think of, is the audio. Hubby already reconfigured the settings but its still low and when you turn up the volume, the sound quality becomes “basag”. So what we did, is just to work around it and bought home speakers instead. Well, we got the TV for a song, so we’re not complaining. Just hoping the manufacturers could take that into account next time.

Updating this post as of Dec 25, 2011.

I wanted to update this post 6 months ago. We do not have any complains about the TV, the only down side is the remote control. The signs especially for playing a movie were all erased. It started fading as soon as 3 months from purchase. Now, you kinda have to press all the buttons to find out where is rewind, forward, pause and pretty much all the controls. Other than that all’s fine.

I work right in the center of Cubao, and my office is situated between two malls and one huge grocery store that also markets furniture and different appliances. And so yes, window shopping is absolutely inevitable. One thing that I haven’t had the chance to cross out my wish list is a gas range. I wanted to learn how to bake and so I’ve been trying to check out different brands of gas range. La Germania and Elba are the most expensive and also most functional and durable brands out in the market. And between the two I’m gravitating towards getting an Elba gas range. Although, the specific model that I want comes with a very pricey tag price. It’s so posh, it looks like the kind that you’d see along rich people’s kitchen, with equally posh granite counter tops and smooth and functional kitchen sinks. Oh well, may be next year…. Until then, I’ll have to contend myself with window shopping.

If you guessed that we finally bought a TV, you’re absolutely right. The husband was giving me the puppy eyes while looking at our old tv set, when his ps3 games are not playing in colored. So about 2 weeks ago, prior to going to church we decided to look around and check out the deals of electronic stores. Lo and behold! We found one that is absolutely a good deal. Since we’ll be using it inside our bedroom, we decided to go for something not more than 30inches. We bought a Ganzklar 24inches LED TV, the husband is absolutely ecstatic! Since the price is really good for a LED TV, no freebies were offered despite that we were paying for it cash. But it was a sweet deal really, it comes with 2 usb drives and is capable of full HD, something I cannot describe. I’ll ask the husband to blog about it in detail though. Everything is good, the only thing we don’t like is the sounds, good thing we can always opt to get an Altec Lansing pair of speakers to go with it. Oh and if you have reservations about the brand, like we were initially, well don’t worry because it’s made in Germany.

I remember a friend of mine bought a foosball table for almost PhP13,000, which is roughly $250 – $300, depending on the exchange rate. I wanted the same thing at home, since it’s a good gaming piece, especially when you are entertaining a bunch of people. I came across a really nice deal at buy.com, they are currently offering foosball tables for only $95.99, which is not even PhP5,000. If only they could also offer free shipping here in the Philippines, that would indeed be a great buy.