minor renovation

We recently did some minor renovation around the house. The main change was putting tiles on the driveway. We have been thinking about doing it for some time, but never got around to it. Only when we saw the Indonesian contractor doing tiling for the kindergarten next door, we decided we should do it. So we asked the same guy to do it for us. He is the same guy who painted the children's room for them, and has also helped fix other things before.

1 Jan 2012. We changed the kitchen tap to a double tap. The old tap has been dripping water for a while, and we always put a wash basin under it to catch the water. It's more convenient to have a double tap.

The piping under this downstairs toilet sink was broken, and I had previously put a temporary fix, making a funnel out of half a plastic bottle. That lasted quite a long time. Now finally we have a permanent solution.

A new power point, for our energy saver / voltage stabiliser. It is supposed to help reduce energy consumption. Let's see how effective it is after a few more electricity bills.

An external tap.

Tiles at the front of the house.

The front door.

One of the hinges of our front gate was damaged. We got it fixed. The contracter cut out all four of them and re-welded them, to position our gate slightly higher.

The driveway. This was before it was cleaned up.

Now Shee Yun waters the plants almost every morning.

I think I have managed to convince Chen Rui to start taking piano lessons. I have been trying a few times, and she has always tried to delay. But I think today we reached an agreement. To make sure she keeps her word, we even did 勾手指. Am I being childish?

Next: swimming lessons.

Shee Yun likes her Saturday afternoon swimming lessons because she has made friends with the other children in that group, and she likes being with them. She feels disappointed if sometimes we need to switch to another time slot, even if it is with the same teacher, Zoe. She is still not doing the backstroke well yet. I think it is because of her fear of water getting into her nose. Maybe I need to bring her to the pool some day and try to teach her. Perhaps a different approach can help her learn.