first in

My mom told me that when moving to a new house, the first items you must bring in are rice, salt and water.

As these are the essentials for survival, I believe the act is to symbolise that the home will not run out of the basics.

Included also is a small religious image that my sister in law brought back from a retreat in Rome. It is now situated at our future bedside.

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More photos (and not from my mobile) of our first home on the next entries.

signed

Today is a very happy day for my me and my fiancé, we have officially secured our first home.

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It won't be till after the wedding that I am moving in, but it is ready for him to move in anytime he pleases.  He jokingly said that he wants to take it slow--as if in a relationship, but later this evening he said he could hardly wait to start staying there.

He has one more month on his current lease and I think he intents to stay in both places the month of September.

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I used my engineering skills today!

I was able to download a scaled (with no dimensions) floor plan of the unit, and on that I wrong the measurements as I took them.

In all honesty, it was a lot of fun.

Next step is to see if the furniture we are eyeing would fit--and deciding the best set up to make the most out of our space.

kitchen starter pack

Finalising the paperwork for our first flat is taking longer that I would have liked--despite my fiance's prompt (with thorough review) replies.

In the meantime I had been scouting for things we would need and planning our move.

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The whole consulting-before-purchasing is quite new to me.  

I am so used to managing my own money and buying things based on needs, wants, moods and admittedly, whims. 

Truth be told, I can (still) spend on whatever I want with no issue.  But buying things for the house really isn't about the money but rather planning and building a life together.

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How much stuff will fit in our home?

What kind of activities do we intend for our home?

What are the absolute musts?

When should we buy? (eg. now vs. after the flat is turned over to avoid doubling the 'transfer')

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Yesterday, I revieed the items in my cart with my fiance. 

It reminded me of project budget review with Management.   

I told him which items I thought we needed as soon as possible and the basis for my choices.

Most of the items got an easy 'Go', but there were some that required an answer to the follow up question 'Do you really need it?'.  

There was also the occasional, 'How is this different from xxxx, can't you use xxxx instead?'.

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I ended up getting everything 'approved' :)

Cart, checked out! 

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What items?  

A cast iron skillet (high maintenance but so worth it!), non stick frying pan, caldero with glass lid, mix of wooden / nylon / silicon cooking utensils, can opener, corkscrew, space saving hangers (which I decided not to buy yet), mortar and pestle (my favorite buy!), grater, pizza wheel, chef knife, bread knife, santoku knife, pastry brush (essential to a calzone maker!), whisk (two words: salad dressing).

plato

I am not about to write something philosophical.

I want to write about plates.

I know that I am supposed to by writing about wedding preparations but somehow, I can't stop thinking about dinnerware.

I know I want white and other near white shades with various textures and finishes.  The mixing and matching is keeping me up at night!

It doesn't help that I imagine preparing various dishes to test my shopping list.

Soup and salad, porridge with tokwa't baboy, pizza (of course), pasta, tacos, spring rolls, grilled squid and pancit.

I am thinking of more dishes as I am typing this--which means that I am currently re-evaluating my list.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no.

So apparently I need to add another item--a bigger serving dish to cover pancit.