The study is done!

21. January 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Life in Kuwait · Tags: , ,

It took me a few days, while hubby went to Sharm al-Sheikh on his business trip, to get things in order in our new study. He did set up my basic workstation before he left and I started with the major task of arranging our books in the new bookcase.

Halfway done with the books...first round

But just as I thought I had finished, I’d discover another box of books. And another. And another. I must have “found” five boxes of books tucked away in the built-in cupboards in the study. All because we didn’t have enough space to put all of them out. Well now we have and now they can come out of their hiding place!

I managed to arrange the books in some kind of order – I chided hubby that we needed librarian skills to arrange our books! Anyway I did the best I could to arrange them so that we could find what we were looking for whether they were language study books, self-improvement, management and “mumbo jumbo” stuff, dictionaries, travel guides, coffee table type books, history or novels. I reorganised a few times but I think I got it right now! Lucky for me there are bookshelves in my studio now, so my art books happily have a home of their own.

All the books are in the new bookcase now!

We decided to put our tables facing each other so I face hubby and the books and hubby faces me and his world map on the wall..great inspiration eh? I want to read more and he wants to travel more…LOL

Our new workstations..

IKEA calling

12. January 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Life in Kuwait · Tags: , , , , ,

Its hubby’s birthday today and a BIG day for our study too – the IKEA furniture arrived with a team of three to carry out all the assembly and installation. I saw the delivery order – we had bought a total of 397 kilograms of furniture! There was a lot of stuff in the room.

Everything out of the boxes...and the assembly starts..   Furniture starting to take shape

On goes the glass table tops..   Fixing the drawer and computer stand onto the table

Building the Billy book cases   One book case up, three to go  

Book cases all done...in go the glass doors   That's it....only the chairs now... 

The team was very professional, very organised, neat and tidy. They didn’t work super-fast like the guys in Malaysia when they were installing the study furniture, chest of drawers and laundry room furniture – they seemed much more conscientious and friendly too!

And another thing – a key difference actually – in Malaysia, IKEA only delivers and assemble furniture but they will NOT install anything on walls or ceilings. You’d have to arrange that yourself as I did. Here in Kuwait they do everything for the same fee.

Marking the location of the small hanging cupboard   Cupboard hung..in go the doors

The guys took exactly two and a half hours to assemble and install everything. I was pleased that everything fit exactly where we wanted them to be and that we still had a lot of space to move around in the room! I was quite worried that it might be a bit tight.

We cleaned up after they left. I sent the maid home because she had been around all day…

This was hardly the end of the project. More like a new beginning. Tomorrow I start filling the book cases with our collection of books and hubby will put all the electronics where they belong, well at least my workstation, before he left on a business trip to Egypt.

For now, its time to go out and celebrate hubby’s birthday.

Happy birthday to the man in my life!

Deja vu…

10. January 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Life in Kuwait · Tags: , , , ,

My first “project” for 2010 began on Friday. It would have been last year’s project except for the fact that we had to find a time when both of us had our feet on the ground i.e. not travelling. LOL

And so it entered my long list of resolutions for the year. More like my to do list now.

The project involved refurnishing our study but first – transferring a group bookshelves including a workstation to my studio. We affectionately refer to these bookshelves as the “Clarendon” stuff. They are solid wood “very country” furniture which we bought for our study in the UK when we first got there. In Dubai, it served as the furniture in my very large studio. Here in Kuwait, I don’t exactly remember why, but they went back in the study and I had all kinds of loose furniture in my small studio.

Since we got our new Macs last year, hubby had also got us new, larger monitors and we both agreed they didn’t exactly go with country-looking Clarendon. Not only that, we had been adding on all kinds of loose furniture from around the house as the need arose. It was an interior decorator’s nightmare. The room was a mess and since we spent a lot of time in our study, we also agreed it merited a revamp.

We decided on a contemporary look and where better to get them from than IKEA eh? I convinced hubby that we should complete the project before the end of January. So on Friday we went to IKEA and bought all the furniture we needed for the study and booked the delivery and installation for Tuesday.

It was truly deja vu as the last time I did this was last year in KL when I was furnishing our study at our new apartment there…

Yesterday morning, hubby surprised me by starting to remove all the books (and we have a lot of books!) and everything else from the Clarendon shelves.

And so began the big move. I worked with our twice-a-week maid to move my desk and other stuff out of the studio. After a quick clean up, we started moving the Clarendon to the studio. Piece by piece. Until our study was completely empty. Except for the TV and the built-in cupboards.

Panoramic pix of the almost empty study

I spent the evening arranging all my projects in their new old home and everything looks nice and country now. Like a studio should be.

Panoramic pix of my refurnished studio.

Now all we had to do was wait for the IKEA team to deliver and install the new furniture.

Got art

14. November 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Art, Our new apartment · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

My eyes wandered around the empty walls of the apartment as I spent the greater part of Thursday and Friday stuck here again with workers buzzing around their busy-ness.

Removing the adhesive backing from the tinting film

Thursday – The people from V-Kool finished installing the tinting in the living room and all the bedrooms around 3:30pm and I went around checking what they had done.

I wasn’t happy at all and called Helen to ask her to do her own quality check. I waited an hour for her to make her way over.

Cleaning the windows before applying the tinting film

She agreed it was a botched job and apologised saying they would re-do everything. The supervisor couldn’t believe it and wanted to see the work himself!

I left as soon as Helen left to pay my respects and offer my condolences to Rosena and her family. After that I didn’t feel like going anywhere to do anything so I came home. I love our apartment but the walls were so bare. I really had to do something about it before I leave.

Curtains removed for window tinting waiting to be hung again...

Friday – The supervisor came bright and early to see for himself and agreed to have the “bad” pieces re-done the next day, Saturday. At 11:30 Mr. Ong the furniture man, finally arrived after days of postponement, to fix the AV cabinet one last time. They took all afternoon.

I kept myself busy – I sorted out the home contents insurance AND I called Ain at Haus and asked her if she still had two particular paintings that I had seen there. I described them to her and she said yes, they were still there.

I had seen them there every time I went to the store but I still wanted to look around so I didn’t get them. Now, I couldn’t stand to look at the empty walls any more! Even CP had exclaimed when he walked in “Ma’am…you don’t have any decoration, aah?” Wah…that made me feel awful. So I had to do something. I told Ain that I was grounded and couldn’t come to purchase the paintings till everyone of these workers had left. Ain being Ain, she said, “I have break in half and hour. I’ll bring them over and you can play around with them in your apartment. And if you like them, you keep them. If not I’ll take them back to the shop.

She’s only a tiny lady but she actually lugged them to the apartment single-handedly, just like she lugged my rug three weeks ago! The paintings looked nice on my walls and made the place look really different, so I kept them!

After the workers left I went down to pay Ain and on the way back stopped at a Spa Shop, Cemara Ayu and saw some paintings collecting dust in a corner. I saw one I really liked. It was sooooo cheap I paid for it and took it back with me.

So now I had 3 paintings. Now we have art. The walls won’t be so bare anymore.

Next….we have to hang them!!! I know exactly what to do…

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