Enjoy the space

If there's one thing I learned from mother (because I happen to listen to my dad a whole lot more) is that once you get your own place, hold on to your wallets first before getting furniture. I know, I know, it's like trying to stop an itchy finger from pulling the trigger.

"Bang! Sofa goes there! Bang! Bookshelves go there! Bang, bang, bang!"

If it's your first time moving into a place of your own then I am assuming that you don't have any furniture as of yet. That's good. The first piece of furniture that I ever got was a bed and it took me almost two weeks to find the perfect bed frame, which was reconfigured to my specs. Yes, there are furniture shops that will allow a change of specs of the design providing you wait and pay for it. Sometimes it becomes a tad more expensive than the original price, but hey, it's your bed (or furniture) and you're going to sleep, relax, have sex, etc. - you get the picture, right? :D

Anyway, going back to holding off on buying new stuff in the beginning: try to spend a few days without the furniture you've always been dying to have. Let yourself grow into it and try to imagine all the stuff you're bringing from your parent's house into the place you now call your own.

Now, can you imagine where the sofa will be? What size it has to be? The color? Once you ask these questions, hunt for the answers in several furniture shops around the city. Or you can also bring whatever it is you need to bring from your old house and position them in an empty wall - which I did when I didn't have my bookshelves yet.

I can still remember placing my television on top of a cardboard box full of books and using my laptop on the kitchen table for a couple of weeks before finding the right furniture for my place. I miss those times myself and sometimes wish that I was still in the process of moving in. Now, my place is just full of stuff and sometimes I have to keep reminding myself not to look a furniture stores.

But for you, lucky bastards, it's just the beginning.

Any carpenter just won't do

Believe me, in the numerous times I've had to move in and out of one place to another, there has been at least two or three carpenters that has been in my employ. And I thought that just getting one or even sticking to one will do. Nope, that simply won't do.

Apparently, there are some carpenters who are simply better in doing furniture while the better ones are more skilled, not just in carpentry, but also in the things around the house that most people never see. These guys are the foremen, the head carpenters. Quite hard to find them, because they do other jobs being contracted by small construction companies. But if you do bump into one, keep them, they're really handy.

When I was ready to move in, I called up my foreman and had him see my bare empty space. Since he was already doing work on other condo projects, he was quick to make suggestions on what carpentry work was needed to be done prior to me moving in. And while most people never really notice the details, its only when you actually leave them to do the work and wait for a couple of weeks until the day they're ready to let you in your house with all your stuff.

Really, I could have simply moved-in if I wanted to. My place in Mandaluyong seemed okay, but I promised myself that I wouldn't spend on anything else but renovations to the condo. I could see how the six-figure amount I saved up prior to moving in was decreasing week after week. But really, worth it. You may spend less on simple carpentry work, but getting foremen to do the thinking part for you is well worth it.

There still are some things that you have to decide for yourself like the kind of lights you want in the living room or the exact palette of your wall, but for everything else - they'll get the job done. That's why you're paying them extra, right?

When is your laundry day?

Mine is actually on Saturdays, like most people I suppose. But the bigger question is: who does your laundry? We did say we wanted to be independent, right? I know, I know, it's cheaper getting your laundry done in your parent's house and simply picking it up the following weekend when you go home again.

If you're like me, a guy, who doesn't have a clue how to use a washing machine - then you go to a laundromat. And you'll find a lot of them where you stay. If you live in a condo or an apartment building, there's bound to be one in the ground level. But it's always good to scout for the next best laundromat in the area, right? Now why shouldn't I stick with the nearest one, you may ask. Because not all of them are that good. They may be cheap, but your sock may lose its twin if you're not too careful. And you don't want them to lose that lucky shirt you always wear on a first date either.

Some laundromats can finish your laundry in less than 24 hours, provided you give them an extra fee. I don't mind getting my clothes after two days, though - I just make sure that I have enough clothes to last me for another week or so. Having said that, you might want to just buy a new wardrobe altogether.

Anyway, back on-topic. I've been going to this laundromat in Salcedo Village for years and it was located at the ground floor of the former Blanco Apartments. Sad to say, they left when the apartments were going under construction and I haven't the slightest idea where they're located. And when I moved from Makati to Mandaluyong, I had to find a new laundromat as well. I remember this one incident where I snuck my iPod Shuffle into the front pocket of my jeans and they returned it when I came to pick up my clothes. It happened again of course (these devices are just way too damn small!) and they returned it to me again. It's hard to find that kind of trust from other people and finding a new laundry place was just as difficult.

There's a laundry place inside Dansalan Gardens, but they're always a day late and my clothes still smell like me on an afternoon under the sun playing football. Not good. So, I went around and found Lavandera Mo (really, they're another company of Lavandera Ko). The girls who run the place are nice and you really want to be nice to them as well since they do your dirty laundry. Some laundromats are merely stations where you can drop-off or pick-up your clothes, because they send it to a factory where your stuff goes through some heavy-duty cleaning and pressing, but the Lavandera Mo girls do your clothes right inside the shop.

They have one parking space reserved for their clients, so you can have the luxury of picking-up your clothes without having to worry about your car getting towed (happened to me once when I was dropping off my laundry, when I got to my car it was already being towed away - especially if you're in Makati). Anyway, this post isn't really about my laundromat, but it's how you find yours. If you have to run a test, why don't you drop 3 kilos worth of clothes in two laundromat shops, find out who gives you a better service or who can even deliver to your place. You have to remember that you're not simply dropping off dirty laundry but these clothes are part of who you are and you really have to find people you can trust to keep your secrets secret. Ha ha.

DIY: Traffic Cone Lamp

Good-looking lamps are hard to find. I can spend a Saturday visiting the Home Depots in Metro Manila just searching for that one unique lighting fixture to accent a dark corner or light up the whole living room. Now if you're not like me who can drive around the metro visiting the four Home Depots in a day, you just may have to resort to some DIY-ing.

The project at the moment was to find a bedside lamp for my room. I'm not the type who reads before going to bed, alright. I simply wanted a lamp I could switch on without having to stand up and flick open the room light.

Several months back, I purchased an inexpensive touch lamp from IKEA. There's a small outlet here in the Philippines, located in the Quezon City area. Now, the touch lamp wasn't that bad. Silver sexy body with a white cone which you can screw off or on, depends on how dirty your mind is - shame on you. Anyway, I got bored with it soon enough. It was too plain.

I was looking through one of the posts in Apartment Therapy and found a rather inventive way of salvaging what I already had and simply adding a mundane piece to make it more interesting. I went to True Value in Rockwell and got myself an orange traffic cone. It comes in two sizes, small and huge. I got the small one, okay. The bigger sized traffic cone was just overkill.

Anyway, I unscrewed the white cover of the old lamp and just placed the orange traffic cone over the silver body. But really, you can simply buy a bulb, a socket, a switch, a lengthy cord and a plug - put them all together if you have the skill, right? So, where was I? Oh yeah, actually, it's that easy.

Now, place on your bedside table or wherever you choose. I was actually thinking of putting it somewhere in the living room, but it looks better inside the bedroom.

By the way, I could no longer find the post where I got this idea from. But Apartment Therapy is a great site to visit if you're looking for stuff to do in your house. It has several links at the bottom page leading to other sites, one of them is Unplggd where you can satisfy your tech craving.

Welcome!

Back in the day, it was rare for a twenty-something to leave the nest and go off on their own. I used to live in Fairview, Quezon City, 20+ kilometers away from where I was working and public commuting was one of the worst during that time. It would usually take an hour and a half for the bus to arrive in Makati and I would still have an hour to spare for breakfast. Going home was a different story altogether and I usually ran out of books to read from my small library.

Working in the creative department of an ad agency, I realized that sleep and rest were a luxury I couldn't do without. So, when I had enough money saved, and the confidence to actually pull it off, I told my mom and dad that I was planning to live away from the house and closer to where I was working.

Mom wasn't so keen on it, but you know how mothers are, right? As much as I love my mom, she's one of the reasons why I always come up with excuses not to stay too long in their house. I'm already obsessive-compulsive, thanks to her, but I still get irritated when she insists on visiting my place. But this blog isn't just going to tell you how to avoid such circumstances.

I've had my share of living alone for more than 10 years. I've moved five times during that period of time, living with a group of people, living with my sister and my mom, again, and going back to living alone. From Quezon City, to Makati City and now to Mandaluyong City. From sharing a place with friends, renting my own space and to finally getting a place of my own. And what you'll find here are some of the things I've learned, passed down from obsessive-compulsive parents or picked-up from other weary travelers who have finally settled in their own nests.

To everyone, welcome home.