Tag: apartment hopping

3 Things I Learned About Moving and Changing Addresses

Rhiza5 Comments

moving-out

Those smiles.. they keep us moving. ;)

So I did the math, and it turns out I’ve never stayed in one house longer than 18 months, and have lived in 10 different addresses in the past 8 years. Eleven, if you count this next move. Apparently, getting married and having kids didn’t really make me “settle down”, and that “last stop” was not really the last.

You’d think I have mastered the art of moving houses at this point, but somehow, each move is still every bit as hard and as stressful as the first one. I mean, come on, I used to just pack my own stuff, and now.. I have to pack for 4 people. And while I’m starting to get a bit tired about packing and unpacking and changing addresses, I find that moving has taught me valuable lessons I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Here are just some of them:

1. You learn to not hold on to material things too much.

Renting out apartments is like backpacking, only with bigger bags and boxes. Knowing that apartments are temporary, we’ve learned to periodically purge stuff we don’t need, to live simply, and to not hoard too many things that we can’t eventually bring with us when it’s time to move again.

2. You learn to trust and follow God’s lead.

The truth is, each move that I’ve made throughout the past years of apartment-hopping has been accompanied by answered prayers, and provisions, and perfect timing. It’s easy to complain about moving and to be too comfortable once settled in one place, but we’ve learned enough to be ready to pack up and go when God says it’s time to go.

3. You learn the difference between “house” and “home”.

“Houses” are confined to a place, but “home” is that which you bring with you wherever you go, whether it’s in the next street or the next city or the next continent. I’ve struggled about moving my whole life, I still do. Moving is scary, packing is stressful, and adjusting to a new place can be overwhelming. But I’ve learned to find comfort in the thought that as long as I have my little family with me, home is wherever we go.

This is it you guys. See you when the chaos is over.

21/52: Home is Wherever I’m With You

Rhiza3 Comments

Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 21.

21/52: Dawn & Rain

21/52: Dawn & Rain

Once upon a time, my husband and I lived in a roof top apartment. It was our first home, with just enough living space for two and a huge outdoor area that held some of our most memorable experiences as a newly married couple. We had a lot of memories in that rooftop, until we got pregnant and had to move to a bigger space on a lower floor.

Visiting the roof top apartment now, this time with our two little girls, makes me feel a little nostalgic. It wasn’t long ago when it was just the two of us, and now, we’re four, and wow there’s really no stopping time from moving forward.

21/52: Dawn & Rain

21/52: Dawn & Rain

21/52: Dawn & Rain

21/52: Dawn & Rain

As someone who’s moved from one place to another far too many times in the past decade, I’ve come to terms with the fact that houses are temporary, and “home” is that which you bring with you wherever in the world you go. Home can be a place, and it can also be a person, or a group of people, or a collection of memories. But home is not confined to a place, I guess that’s why a new house or a new city or a new country doesn’t instantly make you feel “at home”.

That’s kind of what’s going through my mind every time we go back to the roof top. It doesn’t feel like home anymore. The vines have grown unkempt, some of the plants have dried up, the walls are dirty, the windows are dusty. And yet, in the midst of the strangeness of what used to be a familiar place, I hear Dawn & Rain scream and laugh and run around while their Daddy chase them, and suddenly, there it is. My home, right there with me.

21/52: Dawn & Rain

21/52: Dawn & Rain

Today as I post this, Ivy is on her one-way flight to New York to join her husband there for good. And maybe I’ll rant a handful about that in a separate post, but in a nutshell, her departure is making me think about how temporary most things are in this life. Babies grow, children get older, people leave and move and start a new life elsewhere.

I once wrote about saying goodbye, and the realization remains true:

Change involves pain, and pain forces us to grow. It causes us to see situations with eternal eyes, and teaches us the art of letting God do His thing. It helps us loosen our grip off tangible things—people, places, routines; and causes us to embrace the more important things, the ones that last forever—friendships, memories, lessons learned, love that transcends space and time.

I’ve struggled about moving my whole life, mostly because I’ve become a little too attached to places, to people, or to the memories associated with them. I hate saying good bye. I don’t like packing. Moving scares me and I wondered many times why I kept doing it.

But something about my best friend leaving, and now having David, Dawn and Rain in my life, that gives me this new-found courage, this quiet assurance. The assurance that wherever in the world the Lord takes us, whether we stay or move, whether friends leave or we leave.. we’ll be okay. As long as we’re together, home is wherever we go.

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

Week 21: Getting the House Ready for Our Soon-to-be Family of Four

Rhiza4 Comments

I thought getting married would be the end of my apartment-hopping. Guess not. Less than a year after my husband and I moved into our first home, we’re packing our bags again. At least we’re not changing our address; we’re just moving to a bigger unit in the same building, one with more space to raise twins.

That also means we’re saying goodbye to the roof top we’ve grown to love. But how can we complain, right? I’d take having more space for the twins over having a pretty roof top view anytime. And it was just the perfect timing. We’ve been praying for a bigger space, and suddenly a tenant was vacating one of the units, which makes it, yay, available for us. God answers prayers just in time.

And so the new apartment is like a clean canvass for me to play with. We’re definitely adding more furniture and shelving, and colors! Times like this, it’s always a good first step to start with an inspiration board. Here’s mine:

I know I’ve always complained about not having Ikea in the Philippines, but just this week, I found that there are a few shops selling Ikea items here in Manila. Say hello to Ikea Source Philippines, Invicta, and (this one’s been around for a while) 5 Corners! We scheduled to visit their showrooms this week. For now, I scouted their websites for some major items I consider getting, added some pegs I found here and there, and put this inspiration board together.

I think yellow is a really pretty, gender-neutral accent color, yes? We don’t know yet what our babies’ gender are, but even if they’re girls, I still don’t think I’d pick barbie-pink colors for our home. Whether the twins are boys, or girls, or a boy and a girl, I think my turquoise and apple green color scheme fits just right.

On the other hand, as I was finishing off my inspiration board, I found these really nice *pegs from Pinterest..

..and thought heeyyyy, orange and pink looks good too! I didn’t want to consider these colours at first, but they could work!

So maybe I’m getting some coral pinks and orange too. Like fake flowers, vases, and pillows maybe?

Ahh, the Martha in me is crazy. excited.

Next up: pegs for the babies’ nursery!

* * *

Some notes on the board: (1) Ikea Rast Drawers, to be painted yellow maybe? (2) Ikea Expedit Shelving/Divider, or some alternative; (3) Ikea Bursjon storage/stool; (4) Ikea Rexbo Shelf, a phased out Ikea item which I happened to already have – mine used to be red but now it’s black; (5) Fab Manila Storage Boxes; (6) Black photo frames, fake plants, new curtains.

*Feel free to view my pinterest board to see the sources of these photos.

Day 30: Home is wherever I’m with you

Rhiza15 Comments

30/30: Anything goes! After almost two months, this 30-day project has finally come to an end. And although it took me double the time to finish this one, the fulfillment is still the same as (if not greater than) the first time I did it.

And so our fairy tale wedding was over. It’s going to be the quickest day of your life, one of our Ninongs said. And he was right. We said goodbye to single life, boxed up my gown and his coat, went off to a quiet honeymoon just within the city (we reserved the out-of-town getaway for later), and the spotlight started moving slowly away from us, leaving us in our own little world.

Coming back from our honeymoon, we spent the rest of the week moving into our humble apartment, which soon became our very first home. Home. I just love the sound of that. 

Moving in is actually not a new thing for me. I’ve been apartment-hopping for years and I’ve had this love-hate relationship with packing and unpacking for as long as I can remember. But this time.. this time, it’s different. This time, I have someone carrying and unpacking boxes with me. This time, I’m not alone anymore.

Blue. Lots of blue. But of course we had to take our wedding motif home. (:

I absolutely enjoyed this time of our life together—cleaning up, unpacking our stuff, shopping at home depots, moving furniture around, making our own house rules, and seeing everything come together and fall into place. It’s a tedious task, but seeing the result of our hardwork was truly worth it all.

Now, coming home and spending time at home are my favorite times of day. Although our apartment was trespassed a few weeks ago and our most priced material possessions were stolen, nothing could take away the warmth and the love that our home is made of. The fact remains true, that God did not only bless us with a beautiful wedding, He also blessed us with a beautiful home. (:

So.. before I give in to the temptation of ending this with “and they lived happily ever after” (No? Too late?), allow me to sign this project off by sending some link love to our awesome wedding suppliers:

30-day Challenge, Round 2, over and out! (:

One last stop

Rhiza4 Comments

I know I said my next blog would be when I’ve already settled in, but you know how it’s like when it’s the last day of something, you can’t help but take a lot of photos and/or try to translate what’s going on inside your head to words and sentences because somehow, you want to remember this one last moment?

Sometimes I wonder why I subjected myself to this self-inflicted stress of moving from one place to another in the past 5 years. 7 apartments in 5 years, 8 if I’m going to count this homecoming.

LOL. And I’ve documented 5 out of 8 of them too!

So yep, it’s the 8th time I’m putting my stuff inside moving boxes, and every time I do, this little voice inside my head would go, “One last stop, Riz, just one last.”

I’m done packing, and I’m savoring this last night.