Building a home

The morning after we moved in we all woke up early. Not sure how well everybody slept, but impossibly the best night ever. We made sandwiches and sat on the cold hard floor waiting for the furniture.

The time of arrival was said to be around ten o'clock. John even called to confirm this. The woman in the phone said they should be there in fifteen minutes. Surprised happiness. We waited. Waited. Waited. After forty-five minutes John called them again and were told that they were now fifteen minutes away. After that the hopes of an estimated time were blown out the window.

Eventually there was a knock on the door and we opened. I had a list of things ready and while three men carried it though the door, I marked it with a green pen. Everything was there. The apartment was full of large cardboard boxes. John and I proceeded with laughter and giggles. We decided to go outside before we started to put everything together. Travelled to Tiong Bahru to go to a mall where we could get internet (M1 at HarbourFront could not get it to us in less than three weeks) and buy tools. On our way there we stopped at a hawker stall (outside version of food court) and had lunch.

When we came home again we had a vacuum cleaner, a tool for opening cardboard boxes (I do not know what it is called in English) and somehow a sound bar system. While we had been away Annika had received our TV. Another box to open! This was like Christmas in April. We put on some music and started with the purple carpet to protect the furniture when we opened them. The carpet was perfect. I love it! Then the hard work started and we worked all day to put everything together.

It is very satisfying to have a home where you can say we built it all in one day. Technically we did. IKEA-style. We now have a home in Singapore with IKEA furniture. A bit unreal, but in every way as real as it gets.

Checking the list.

Wondering what we bought that is in those bags.

On Sunday morning, while John was cooking breakfast for the first time in this new kitchen, I built the living-room table. Later we put legs on yet another Linnmon table (same size and colour as our last computer table but this one had one extra leg) and did the last thing; put together the computer chairs. We only have one computer so far but will eventually but another one.

When we unpacked the computer something rattled and we peeked inside. The cooler had detached! We looked for scratches but found none. John put it back in and everything was working fine. Lucky us.