If you've read my previous (very long) post about the what-the-hell-is-going-on-about-project-dream-home update (thank you!), then you might remember that we needed to relocate the bf's mom to another room since the room she was using would be part of the tiny home renovation. That was a so-so room, a single bed, and lots of clutter she doesn't own/need. So this is a great opportunity to give her a space she could relax in, meaning, take the grand kids in which happened as soon as we revealed the room to her! :)

This is the room where we relocated her. It was just a spare room that houses all stuff not needed elsewhere. Don't be fooled, this was shot after we have cleared most of the stuff in here. 

It needed so much tlc. Rundown of what we did to this place:

1) Put a proper wall between this room and the maid's room.

2) Added pinlights

3) Repainted everything

4) Sanded and sealed the floors.

5) Installed aircon and exhaust fan

5) Wiring for new outlet / light / aircon / fans

6) Move in furniture

7) Accessorize

On reveal day, we actually had a ribbon cutting "ceremony". Haha.. 

This is what four days can do to a space. TADA! 

It's a very simple makeover, but it is so so worth it! We painted the walls a bluey purpley pale gray. We think it would be great with all the wood tones we're bringing in. All of the furniture in here are from around the house. They have a lot of beautiful vintage pieces so we have no trouble furnishing this room.

Oh and some of you might remember the curtains, it's the curtains I used for the very first makeover of my bedroom. (Pre-professional-decorating days) I love the print, but never loved it in my room. It just didn't clicked. But in here, it's perfect. Bf's mom loves plants, so this is a great nod to that. And the colors works better with all the wood tone in here, unlike my very ordinary furniture.

Just look at these wardrobe cabinets, gorgeous details, solid narra wood, and a very nice finish as well, not the plasticky shiny thing we used to seeing.

A simple gallery wall is in order. Even all the frames we already have. The main peacock print is something we found while cleaning up, and we have more of those prints! I need to decoupage something with those. There's a vintage portrait of their family, and others have placeholders that we're planning to replace with family photos. 

So that's the four day makeover challenge. She loves it so much, she even texted the bf that night to tell us how much she loves the new room, and all the details we put in there. Super worth it. 

As for the bf and I, we're still in a hazy organizing spree. And I'm guessing we'll be on it for the next couple of weeks. And after that, it would be a hazy renovating spree. We are looking forward, and a little bit dreading, the process. We know that this will be a step closer to the dream home, but I can just imagine the stress! Haha.. We'll get there. Slowly, very budget-consciously, get there.

Had a few more tweaks to the plan especially of the rooftop level, but that's the basic idea.

Here's a moodboard of the living space on the third floor.

Obsessed I tell you.

5) I showed the plans to different contractors and asked for quotations, which of course came way higher than we can afford. Haha.. I know it's four freakin' floors so it should well be expensive. But we didn't let it bother us so much, we thought that we can start building the lower floors first, then just add up as we go. Or maybe live in a a very raw house without windows, tiles, working toilet, and paint? We wanted industrial so we might as well live up to it. Haha..  

6) Then the real problem came. LOT of issues. Literally, issues about the lot itself. Haha.. Since my dad is not the exclusive owner of our house yet, and some people didn't like my idea as much as I love it, it just won't push through. I won't be expounding on this since it's a very sensitive topic, but God has a plan so I'm just letting it be.

7) Back to the drawing board, which means back to the bf's house idea! He then asked if we can buy a small portion of the house and build there, and the answer is yes yes yes. Thank you! 

As I've said earlier, their house is in an apartment compound, meaning much smaller footprint. Here's a diagram of the tininess of the Dream Home.

Small, yes. Doable, of course. It's basically just the garage so the width of the house will be just a bit wider than your car. Thankfully, I never dreamed of living in very big spacious house, I wanted simple, easy to maintain place. Of course a little bigger than 26.25 sqm lot would be ideal, but who am I to complain? We've now got a space to actually build one so I'm just super excited. 

8) But the issues are not over yet. Since it will sit in a small property, we wanted to build up. As in five floors up. Haha...

1st level: a place to stock our products (I wouldn't dare call it a showroom, but maybe I can since it's literally just a room?! haha)

2nd level: living, dining, kitchen

3rd level: bedroom, full bathroom

4th level: My office (future kids room?!?!), walk-in closet

5th level: powder room, bf's workshop

PLUS rooftop!

One night when I still don't have actual measurements of the space, I came up with this moodboard for the 2nd level (living dining kitchen space). Also why I posted about living/dining combos.

But after measuring, we realized we can actually fit a separate living and dining space. But instead of doing the usual moodboard, I played around and did this very rough rendering. Please excuse this, haha, definitely not the exact look we wanted, but the basic layout and finishes are here. I just can't contain myself and I needed to see something in print and not just in my imagination.

So we had our architect friend do a proper plan which I've shared a glimpse of here. But when we asked some city hall insider regarding permits, they told us it won't be approved since it's too narrow for all the level we wanted. womp womp. 

9) OH KAY. I was actually quite fed up already with doing plans, moodboards and imagining day in and day out and then nothing ever happening. But as persistent as I am, we came up with a new plan. We're originally planning to knock down the existing two storey structure (which is somewhat connected to their main house through doorways and such -- his mom's room below, bf's room upstairs) 

So I asked the bf about letting go of our "wants" -- our own offices, his workshop, my walk-in closet, rooftop -- and just renovate the existing structure, add a floor with a loft, and just have what we actually need. He thought about it, I thought about it, and we both decided to just simplify everything.

10) Since I've not learned my lesson yet, I, Elle Uy, of course, made another plan, AGAIN. 

First and second floor will be the original structure, and third floor and loft will be the addition. You might wonder why the master bedroom is on the 2nd level, and have the main living space on the 3rd. Well, the 3rd level will be more spacious since there'll be a very high ceiling in there so we can achieve the industrial loft look, even in a much smaller scale. We'll be spending most of our time there anyway, so might as well utilized the nicer space.

And while I didn't make a new moodboard yet, I've been doing some sketches of what the 3rd level would be like. 

11) I had this new plan quoted by a few contractors and I'm just waiting for their feedback (fingers crossed!)

12) I'm not yet done. Oh my gawd I'm already tired, but I need to finish my story so here we go. (I'm seriously hoping that at least a few people are reading this so this late night writing will be worth it Haha..) Since we're getting that part of their house, we need to relocate bf's mom to another room (she's currently using a portion of the first level). They have extra rooms, yes, but they have a lot of stuff. Things that were from decades past that they just don't have the time to sort and let go. So the past few weeks, the bf and I sorted and disposed of what I believe is a room full of stuff. We're far from done, but today (technically that's yesterday), we have started renovating his mom's new room. Hooray!! Progress!! It's a small start, but I have this dizizit feeling. 

13) Once his mom moved to her brand new room (which will be so much nicer than what she has now), we can then again sort, organized, move stuff out of the current tiny house structure and start on renovation. That will of course depend on the quotes I'll be getting next week! But I'm assuming it will be MUCH MUCH cheaper than our previous quotes for a 4 storey ground up build on an 80sqm lot. We now have a renovation plus addition in a 26.75 sqm. That is quite a downsize so I'm hoping the cost will be sooo downsized as well. Haha...

Whooo. So all that happened in I guess 9 months time span? Maybe longer. I really don't know and I don't wanna remember. I'm just so happy where we are now. We are slowly getting there. That's what matters most. Will it be our forever home? I hope not since it's really quite a tight fit. Maybe we'll become extremely rich and buy a lot and build our bigger dream home, I don't know. But now, this is our dream coming true. I believe that whatever happens next is the actual plan for us, so all the mishaps from the past were just His way of saying, it's not for us. Maybe we don't want to live in a house without windows, tiles, working toilet? Haha.. With this new renovation plan, we can at least have some more left in our savings and do other things like maybe travel? :) I know a house is not all that is to life, I'm not that weird, so maybe with this tiny footprint, we can simplify our lives, enjoy our small house, and enjoy everyday without worrying too much about rain coming in our windowless house. Haha...

That's all folks. It has been 3 hours, who knew. I'll update you with what's next and share his mom's new room as well. Wish us luck! :)

This post is very faaaaarrrr from my usual aesthetic and you might think, what the heck is this doing in here? Well folks, I'm a changed woman. I'm now a minimalist.

HAHAHAHAHAHA... so not true. I don't think I'll ever be one, I'm just so into my wall galleries, shelves styling, layering, colors, and such. So minimalism is not really my cup of tea, BUT what I love about this home is the simple yet very clever architecture.

And who am I to talk about architecture you might say? Well I'm no one, just someone doing some research for Project Dream Home when I came across a post from design boom about this house by Tato Architects in Japan, that I found very interesting so here I am sharing.

It's very straightforward, simple, and the exterior very industrial with all the metal sheet wall cladding, which I also posted about here.

See it's like a box. But once you get inside, there's a lot of genius in its simplicity. There's an elevation below so you can see where each of this space goes, but I'll try to tour you anyway. 

Entry door on the left and cabinet like structure which actually is a staircase to the upper level. Behind the stairs are the main bathroom. On the other side of the ground level is where the bedroom is. 

I'm not really a fan of a see-through bathroom, especially if it's the first thing you'll see upon entering the house, but aside from that, I love the simplicity of an all white bath with some wood accents. Very calming.

The next level is the main living, dining, and kitchen area. Super high ceiling, very airy and light, the overall feel is really soothing. Of course if it were mine, there'll be lots of art on the wall, probably a statement chandelier, a fun colorful rug, and what not. But all the basic pieces in here are just gorgeous.

Ohhh see that closet on the right side? Well not really a closet, it's a powder room!! It protrude a little on the exterior so it perfectly fits a sink and toilet. Clever I tell you.

And there's a pretty wallpaper in there too.

Another detail I love in this house are the stairs. Aside from the closet-like stairs you saw earlier, love the stairs on this level as well. The first few steps are utilized to be double purpose -- furniture / stairs. And all the other steps are super light and doesn't closed off the space at all. 

They extended the dining table top over the stair rail up to the kitchen area giving them more working space, I love vintage furniture but a custom-built in one like this can also give the space so much character. And I can't get over the soaring high ceiling, my dream. 

Up the stairs to there multi-purpose area and deck.

See.. what a clean bright space! Perfect backdrop for accessorizing. 

Here's the elevation to better understand the space. When i first saw the post about this house, I ogled on each photos and studied the layout to see if I can learn something to apply for our house. It is the same width as our space, but a lot longer. 

So what did I learn from this awesome house that we could maybe apply to our space?

1) Stairs! I wanted a simple airy and clever stairs. For a small space, we don't have the luxury to have big ones, and the openness of this stairs would make the space feel a lot bigger.

2) How I love natural light wood. Would love to have those as floors, we'll probably have vinyl flooring but this is the look I'm going for.

3) I'm sold on building using light materials in lieu of the traditional concrete. It will go so much faster, and I like the look. 

4) White walls. We'll definitely have those in the main living space. Best backdrop for all our random collection.

5) I can't live without a tv. Haha.. Pathetic I know. It is my downtime. I can just lounge and flip through random channels to find anything to see. And I love having some "company" even when I'm not actually watching. Just like now, I'm typing away here while Baggage Battle is on and I have no idea what's going on. 

So what do you think of this house? Is it your style? You see, even if something isn't particularly your taste, you can always learn something from it or take inspiration and give it your own spin. Our taste evolves over time, I know mine did. So for your place, make all the basic pieces classic and neutral then go crazy decorating it. In a few years when you grew tired of it, it will be so much easier to transition your decor instead of tearing out that very trendy tiles you grew tired of. 

To see more photos of this house, click here.

If I'd be giving advice to myself, I'd say live your life NOW. If you want to prettify your room, do it. You don't need to spend a lot, just give yourself a nice place to rest. Organize for heaven's sake! You don't need a new house to do it. You'll benefit from it now. Do all those things and make it work for your current situation, and when you get the new house, you can have all that and a lot more. Don't waste years of your life stuck and waiting. I'm not saying don't go for your goal, do it still. Just enjoy the present while reaching for the stars. 

That would be my advise to my stubborn self, which we all know is easier said than done.

So instead of following my very rational advice, I obsessed about getting the house, and finally giving myself a deadline. This year I say. Whatever it takes. But of course that's not a small task, it's a freaking house so we'll see if this time next year, I'll be writing an update on a functional office, in our not so imaginary house. 

I wanna keep being positive about this, I know we're getting it. But there's so much bump along the way, some small, some so shockingly unexpected, that I can't help but still feel stuck. But I know it's in the cards for us as I am not stopping before I get it! I'm spoiled like that. Haha.. Spoiled in a good kind that is, I always go for what I want  WITHIN MY MEANS. I know we won't be getting a mansion (which I don't like anyway), we'll have a very small house, but it will be ours. So maybe this year, I get to do all those on the list above. Which is looking so much like a New Year's Resolution, maybe I can call it a New House Resolution?

So if you're feeling stuck like myself, not necessarily waiting on a house, anything really that keeps you from moving forward, stop. Be free and live life NOW. If I can't follow my own advice, maybe you can? :)

P.S. Isn't these photos awesome??? So pretty and colorful and comfy and all things nice. If I get that house, I'll be making healthy meals in there, work in an inspiring home office WITH an assistant, keep it super organized, and probably travel the world?

We are progressing very slowly with project dream home, but still... progress! We've got the draft floor plan recently and it's looking very official. It's still a long long way from here, but just the thought of stepping a bit forward is exciting news. I've been dreaming of our very own home for years, and a few more waiting time is fine with me, hopefully we're talking about months this time.

As I've mentioned in the living/dining combo post, some changes in plans led us to build a bit tinier house. Narrow actually. But not your usual long and narrow layout which would be nice, I'm talking about short and narrow. But instead of wallowing on that thought, I'm taking it as a challenge to build a fully functional cozy home. 

The lot area is small, 3.5 x 8.5 meters small! But just 6.5 meters long on the first floor to give way for a doorway to an adjoining house. So it's just basically a room.

It will probably look this tight (the middle house), sans all the nice architectural detail of the neighborhood. The adjoining house is only two-story tall, and since our allotted lot is small, we're planning to build up ---which will probably look silly but we don't care. Haha

dwell

With that in mind, we'll definitely have one floor with kitchen / dining / living in one small space. But after measuring, I don't think we'll need to have the dining/living combo set-up, we could actually separate the two, albeit small, but at least separate? 

Not exactly like that lay-out but it's nice to know you can have all three functions in a space that small that still remains charming and pretty. But we gotta have a tv so that won't work. haha...

So I searched for some narrow living spaces and there's actually plenty. If you have a tight space, don't fret, there's a lot you can do to prettify it.

Love how cozy this seems yet still bright and airy. I'm hoping this is a little narrower than ours though!

casasugar

I love this since we'll also have a small balcony in the living/dining/kitchen floor.. Gorgeous black glass doors, and I love the natural wood elements here and there. Would definitely do that.

desire to inspire

We won't have those elaborate crown moldings, window casings, and most definitely no fire place. But wow this place is amazing. We're hoping to have a chesterfield sofa look-a-like with cognac brown leather, and I love the rug in here. But we'll use a cowhide since we already have that on hand.

frenchy fancy

This place is so calm and serene, definitely a lazy sunday / cold weather kind of space. And look they even have a 6-seater dining table in here. Super comfy and functional space.

rtl

I'd really much rather have a comfy sofa but what I love about this space is the airiness, natural wood floors, and lots and lots of shelves without looking cluttered at all.

bloomingville

This is more the look were going for. Comfy, eclectic, vintage, with actual stuff in it. Nothing showhouse-y. Just well lived-in and comfortable. Our window/balcony door will be the same layout as all the photos above, on the shorter wall. But I love the shelves in here, leather sofa, and hide rug. 

no naked window

This is a peek of the draft of our living/dining/kitchen space (2nd floor), very far from being final, but it looks very official and very real. Oooh look at all those measurements! haha

There's an adjoining house on the left, and we need to have a balcony (and not extend the living area), since there should have a window on one of the room on the adjoining house, if that makes sense. Well it will make sense someday soon, I'll just show you a tour of the final house.. wow, tour?!?! Haha.. We should probably start with demolishing, putting up new foundation before we talk about tours noh? Haha

That would probably what I do when I get to my day dreaming scenario, but definitely with shoes on.

and I did attempted to revamp it to give us all a nice place to call home. You may read all the updates I've done to this house here. It was all old posts (3+ years ago!) which actually started this blog. Ondoy did hit us that's why we decided to fix it up a bit. That's when we thought that the flood is just a one time thing. But then Habagat came, and I just gave up. For those with flood-stricken home as well, don't be dishearten, you can prettify your space and just make it a bit flood-proof. But as for me, about a million of us live here and they are mostly boys, so it's quite hard to keep it pretty. Flood + boys = not so nice house. haha... Some people might assume that since I decorate for a living that I have a great-looking house, well... you can't be more wrong. I don't. Even my room is a mess. Shameful really.

This was the time when my room was a bit presentable.. long long time ago

But I just told myself that I'll save up all my ideas, energy, and money as to when I've got my own place to decorate. Some may think that it's a very shallow reason to have a house-- "to have a space to decorate." Well, it actually is. Aside from all the practical reasons out there that you all probably know already, I'm just itching to have a place to fix that I can also enjoy. I feel that it is a privilege and a joy to create a space for yourself that will inspire you or just make you smile on a daily basis.  

And you have no idea how many things we (the bf and I)  have hoarded that we are planning to put in our future house. It is everywhere. Let me enumerate some of them.

1. Sofa-- I inherited a sofa from my cousin that we'll probably have reupholstered in a cognac leather ala chesterfield. (currently being used here as secondary sofa)

2. Headboard --We have an old ornate headboard with upholstery. Super nice details and has a lot of potential.

3. Dining table legs -- another cousin was discarding furniture and I took the legs. The top was no use for me, two wide and not so nice, but I can already see the dining table those legs can make so i went for it.

4. Chairs -- lots of them actually. We have 2 big swivel chairs, vintage wood chair, and about a million more.

5. Artworks -- I have a few artwork that we used to decorate the room at the showroom before. And I'm always on the look out for cheap vintage artworks from thrift shops and I've got quite a few. Maybe I'll share them here when we finally tackled the mountain of boxes of the stuff we have.

6. Cowhide rug -- yes we bought one. For a steal. You know how expensive they are at retail stores right? Well we found a very nice pre-owned one and bought it without even having a place for it. We just thought, for the dream house. (Animal lovers, don't hate. These are hides from cows/beef we eat so unless you're a vegetarian/vegan..... )

7. Accessories -- ohh I'm excited about this. The bf and I loves vintage stuff and we got some stashed away. A nice ice bucket, an amazingly weird metal knight shot glass holder, Rizal bust, Saraos, and lots more that we probably already forgot.

8. Vintage trunks -- we've got two. 

I could go on and on but I won't since this is already a very long post and I'm not even sure I'm making a point. But we can probably furnish our not-yet existing home with all the trash/treasure we have collected. 

            

see some of my DIYs here

And I miss doing DIYs. I miss updating old pieces and making it work for a space. We have a lot of stuff to work with, but it doesn't make sense to do them now when we have no idea where it would go and what's the look of the space it's going to. Well that's not exactly true since I KNOW what the look were going for, but still.

Oh and I can't wait to share them all here. Probably a more shallow reason, but I think when the time comes we got our dream house, this blog will not be as neglected as it is now. Imagine all the planning, DIYs, decorating, redecorating, and all dream house related I could share? That would be awesome. I follow quite a number of blogs, and the most I enjoy are blogs that share their personal home. 

But the most important thing I'm excited about is sharing it with the bf. Naks! But really, we spent almost every single day of the past 10 years together and thankfully, we're still not sick of each other. Haha... We actually quite enjoy each other's company so it will be one exciting ride. Oh I'm sure there'll be a lot of "discussion" when it comes to design choices since he has quite a vision as well, but it's something I'm looking forward to, creating a space the both of us would love and enjoy. We're both the creative type, and we both can't stand still not creating something, so it will be one chaotic happy house. Haha...

So there, some of the reasons Project Dream Home should commence soon. Like yesterday. I've been obsessed with the house thing since I was a kid, so I guess it's about time right? Right. That's what I thought too. I know it wouldn't be handed to us, so we're currently working hard for it. The dream is this year, we'll have it. Hear that universe? Bring it to me.

Rant. Over.