This Chapter of My Life

I know it wouldn’t be long before I have to pack everything in boxes and put in storage (since we haven’t found a new home yet). Heavy hearted. I took many pictures of this home as once it is sold, I would never see it again, at least not in the same shape I had in the last few years.

Not too many people would understand how I feel now. I feel sad. I have put lots of heart in this place I once called Home. Now, this chapter of my life is about to close. As I go from one room to another, this is what I see.

I have chosen everything in this house, from the floor plan to the tile. Yes, it is a tract home, but I made it mine. I picked the two different tiles on both floors. I picked the granite countertop in the kitchen. I picked the dark olive green carpet throughout the house. No one else would put those combinations together. I chose the French door instead of the standard sliding glass door to access the back yard garden. The red curtains covering the windows are from the LA downtown textile market, hand picked by my girlfriends and I specifically for this home. I cut, sew, and hung them myself. They will stay with this house and I no longer can find them anymore. The bamboo shades were incorporated to add more texture to the walls. The walls are painted in colors and shades I love.

Living Room
The aboriginal mask on the wall came from Australia where I spent a year working on projects for Shell while falling in love with the native culture of the down under. The weave baskets on the wall came from Zimbabwe when Jenn and I took our safari tour in Africa. It doesn’t worth anything, $1 a piece at most, but it is an exceptional experience of two best friends wandering through an economic distressing country. These people may make only $5 a month on wages. They made us appreciate the lives we have here in the US. The reproduction rock Buddha head came from Cambodia when I took mom to visit Angkor Wat, a long lost civilization that had been on her wish list for a long time. I purchased this sofa set 5+ years ago when I moved to this place. It was the clean line of the sofa that attracted me. The size and the lack of armrests did not bother me. Now, it no longer fits our needs. It is too small for my hubby. Depending on the new home, it may or may not be part of us in the future. The retro style ceiling fan I love was installed by my brother-in-law.

Office
I wanted a room painted in red; it is one of my favorite colors! Out of all the rooms in the house, this is probably the most appropriate and I spent lots of time in it. This is where I spent many days working on projects. I used to work from home. Sales and managers have their green rooms (golf courses). And I have my window in front of my home office desk. On many days, I would have morning visitors. A frequent one is this bluish green hummingbird, it would dabble here and there for a long while. The window looks out to my neighbor's wall with some bushes and a tree between us. Basically, it is a gap between the two houses, not a walkway, so there isn't any traffic at all. The birdies feel very safe and totally undisturbed. In the late afternoon, there are couple other ones coming to the same spot! Maybe this is the happy hour hang out place for them!!!

Since I began going into a work place for the current job, it has served as my craft room instead. The book cases are old but functional. My scrapbooking supplies lined the bookcases. The four frames on the wall used to have pictures of my niece and nephews before Duncan was born. I depersonalized it with scrapbook pattern papers for the sales.

Instead of going with the original floor plan, I put in the doom shape glass door, which allows this room to be converted to a 3rd bedroom, especially after I added a shower in the downstairs bathroom. The original floor plan would have made this a fully cover wall and the openness of the entire first floor plan would be greatly reduced.

Downstairs Bath
I had the painter removed the standard wall mirror when he was doing the bath. I added a custom mirror, nothing expensive, but certainly brought in extra touch of style. The two framed pictures are cross stitched projects I hand stitched back in 1997. I still love them today. I have never once used this shower stall but was a great convenience when my girlfriends visited.

Dining Room
The small black and white pictures are of mom and me at Angkor Wat. The two big pictures of framed hand stitched textile are from Africa I carried back. I had them custom framed in the US, but it took me a while to invest in them as it was expensive to do such a big piece. The dual didgeridoo is unique, and one of a kind made by local Australian natives. I cannot play the instrument but it reminds me of the time I traveled with Brenda’s family and mom in the middle of Australian outback, Uluru, when Makayla was only 6 months old.



The Loft
After so many moves this lifetime, I don’t normally keep books that I can borrow from the library. Most of these are ancient stuffs. The Chinese literatures are by one very famous author. I still can read Chinese; his style is complex, full of history and poetry. His books are the only one I can reread again and again, without boredom. They have been with me for the last 20 years. I have university school books from the university, yes, Statistic, Calculus, Organic Chemistry, etc. I never opened them again after I graduated. Yet, they represented the amount of time I dedicated to academy, my struggle through exams, and the numerous weekends spending in a computer lab at the university trying to finish the homework and/or projects.

There are tons of photo albums. Someday, they will be converted to electronic format, for now, they are still in hard copies. Then there are instructional books/magazines of my crafty hobbies at one point or another. One of them is crochet. I have crocheted since I was a teenager. There are various home style magazines I collected around the world. All the white binders contained my cross stitch collections; yes, it would take 2 lifetimes to actually use them. But it enables me to think I would have the leisure time in the future. The model ships on top of the bookcases, the cowhide lamp shades, the kidney shade coach, the Bahamian ceiling fan, the pictures of the various sunsets I personally experienced, all are part of my past, my personality, and my passion.

The Master Bedroom
I kept waiting for the perfect bed but haven’t found one yet. But the mattress is top of the line after a bit of soul searching as I do love to sleep!!! The pictures are my snapshots of architecture points in Brussels. The pillow covers were acquired in Thailand, they are made using local silks. I did the flower arrangement on top of the dresser. I mounted the candle holders on the wall next to the bed. I kept waiting to find the perfect ceiling lamp cover or ceiling fan but never got a chance to finish it. Now, it would never be for me.

The Guest Bedroom & Bath
The bed linen and Duvet are from Australia. The wood branches are from Ikea. The fall color pictures on top of the bed are shots I took while visiting Shenandoah National Park during autumn one year. My brother spent the last few years here in this room while working every other week between Minneapolis and Newport Beach. Ian would remember this home as he lived here for a year with my brother and sister-in-law while I was living in Singapore. I recall after he moved back to their home in Minnesota, during one of his visit, he told me, “Gugu, your house is small!” Very much matter of fact of him. Very cute and innocent. I still have some of his playbooks in the loft bookcases which will need to be donated. He had certainly outgrown them by now. One of the best investments in this guest bath is the skylight. It certainly brings in lots of natural light, especially in SoCal. I don’t normally have to turn on the light during the day.



I hope my hubby read this and perhaps understand a bit more of my thoughts. This was not just a house for me. This was a home, a project I have designed for myself, at a stage in my life that totally belong to me. Someday, I hope soon, I can start another design project with him when we acquire our new home. It would not be the same even though lots of the same things would reside there. This was a project I have done in a different stage of my life, one that would never be returned again. It is the passage of time, my time, my life that perhaps the reason of my unwillingness to let go easily.