The small cosy one.

My first apartment.. it wasn't entirely mine to begin with. The ground work was instigated by my eldest brother and all I had to do was to "agree" on it. He was the one who searched for the location,  chose the apartment that he thought would suit me and of course, was within my means (given my salary at that point of time).

The thing about my brother is, he always think that he is the saviour for all of us; the rest of his siblings; and being an opportunist, I couldn't agree more. Lol. He is the responsible and good-hearted; generous to boot; rich brother. I'm forever thankful for him. So when he offered to "buy" an apartment for me, I said OK. (In my defense, if I had said no, I'm pretty sure that I'd be deemed fit (financially) and no longer entitle for any favour or assistance, and who in their right mind want to do that? LOL)

I moved into the new apartment in 2008 and it was already renovated because I was not in the country when the developer completed the project. I think my brother thought that he was being nice (and he was) by forking out all the money upfront to renovate the apartment. Well, although many was not up for me to decide (you know, not being there and all), there was nothing much that I could do except to move in and think about what I can do to make the apartment feel like "mine".

With little money I had in my savings, I started to furnish only the important part of my home. The bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. (not much of a kitchen if you ask me because i bought a single burner stove just so I could cook something easy if need be for a start.But now a full-fledge stove + oven although it has not been fully utilised yet..lol. lazy I know). Lucky me, because I have this habit of keeping all the good furniture in good condition and with the built-in fitting of the wardrobe and whatnot, there's not much to buy but to recycle and reuse of what I already owned.

I'm quite frugal when it comes to buying things for the apartment and quite picky as well. I never spend money on things that are not necessary or don't have any sort of urgency. I take my own sweet time to furnish my home and make it homey. It has been four years since I started this journey and I'm not even half way there.

First; I don't have money printed in a factory somewhere (duh!). Secondly; I would hold the unnecessary until it becomes necessary for as long as I could. (read: cheap)

So as of today, this is the result of my 4 years journey (so slow!!!!). Still have so much to do. I plan to install the laminate flooring, I have this faux fireplace design in my head for the entertainment centre and lots of other stuff. All I need is money, money and more money. Since that is the only department that I'm lacking, so I just go with the flow - the cash flow.

The living room + work nook. 

The most used area in my apartment. I seriously need to paint that entry door to some nice bright colour. The plain beige is killing me slowly inside. Seriously.

All the paint job is done by me, simply because I can't afford to hire one. 

All art works displayed were purchased while travelling.

The dining area. Not so much dining activities going on here. But you know, just in case someone decided to drop by with free meals.I need to provide the seating area.

The big mirror gives out the illusion that I own a few extra square feet of space. NOT. I hate that mirror because it gets dusty all the time and I hate that I have to constantly wipe it off.

 Wardrobe's big ass sliding doors need to be replaced. It kept going off the rail. I took it out because it was such a hassle. Isk. But had contacted the contractor and they are going to come and fix it soon-ish, I think. 

Will continue with the 2nd part of this entry. Soon.