House Warming Party

A few weeks ago, we went to Le bf parents' friend house warming party. The house is located at Nassim Hill and it's hugeeeee! Pictures just do no justice to the place (I used my iPhone to take the pictures) cos not only is the architecture beautiful, the owners are also avid art collectors so the place feels like a live-in museum. It's modern yet old school because there are Feng Shui elements that were incorporated in and most of the art pieces are Chinese.

The location is really good cos it's walking distance to Orchard Delfi/Hilton Hotel. You can also see St Regis Hotel from their balcony.

This is the view from the sheltered car porch. Their driveway is big enough to fit 12 cars comfortably. The owner has 3 cars, including a Nissan GTR (which Le bf was swooning over), a Maserati and a BMW. Both also very atas models, but I am not into cars so I can't remember what they are.. but I remembered the Nissan GTR because Le bf said it's the most expensive out of the 3 cars. Somewhat like a Supercar (Ferrari, Porsche) disguised as a non-Supercar.

We had this silly fantasy conversation.. like how a husband might try to convince his wife that he wants a supercar, especially if she is not really into cars. If he buys a Ferrari at aged 50, she might disagree and think it's too flashy. But if he buys a Nissan GTR, she might think "It's Nissan! And it looks like a normal sedan.. Ok lor..". but little does she knows that the Nissan costs a few hundred thousand dollars.. LOL!

Stone path next to the main walkway

The entire pool is a curvy shape and I asked the owners if it's to do with Fengshui and they said it is. The thing is though the whole house is built with very close reference to Fengshui, it doesn't look too "cheena". You know, like those bronze turtle, coins, fountains placed at every corner. Very subtle, very well done and very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Main door. I love the white panels on the side!

Living room

This is what you see when you first open the main door.. A very high ceiling room with large plush sofas. The coffee table is also a display shelf where you can see beautiful Chinese antique bowls, vase, etc.

Another view of the living room from the side. The ceilings are almost 2.5 storeys and the top part are all windows so it will let in natural sunlight during the day. I was sitting there just wondering how they are going to clean the huge chandelier and windows. Clean freak in me always wonder about such weird stuff. Le bf said "They hire people to clean lah!!". Oh ya. If not their poor maid has to climb up like crazy to dust it.

Fun fact: In the old days, most castles with huge chandeliers have a mechanism which allows people to push a lever for it to be lowered down to ground level so the servants can clean them. Ingenious idea right? Instead of climbing up each time to dust it, it can be lowered down! Why modern days no such thing anymore?

Dining hall

This is the dining area. You can see that the house is entirely glass/window. I kept wondering about fingerprint smudges, water stains.. you know, that sort of thing. Le bf was just thinking it might get quite hot during the day (but I think they have a way to solve that.. maybe positioning of the sun of something), and it's scary that people outside can see you walking around the house (kinda like SIMS where the view mode is without the walls) and know when you will be home. Then again, they only have 2 neighbours beside them, both neighbours also have freaking big houses and most importantly their security alarm is state of the art... So I don't think they have to worry.

On the left side of the dining area is like a bar counter but it's huge. FREAKING HUGE. I wonder why I did not take any photos because that's where the buffet was (home cooked food but taste better than most hotels!! The durian penyat is to die for. I don't like durian but I ate 3 bowls. THREE!!!) It is made of a single cut from a tree trunk and though I did not ask them about the price, I know it's expensive. Freaking expensive if it's a rare type of wood. The kitchen is just behind it and it looks like a restaurant's kitchen. State of the art equipment, huge and my sister will go mad cos they have a big oven that can bake lots of stuff! The owners hire a temporary professional dishwasher just to wash the dishes cos instead of plastic/paper plates and utensils, we used proper glassware and silver cutlery.

Still wondering why I did not take pictures of the food cos there's so much food and desserts! Maybe I was too distracted. Haha!

Further down you can see the lift that takes you all the way to the rooftop. They have 3 storeys + 1 rooftop. Roof terrace has an open area with a sitting area. Feels like some nice alfresco dining cafe.

The cool part of the roof terrace is "The Den". It is a soundproof games room with all the gaming consoles, games, good sound system and a HUGE high-def plasma TV. That was Le bf's favourite room out of the entire house. Hahaha! He's really particular about techie equipment so I guess the stuff in the room were really good if it impressed him. For me, it looks really cool cos the ceiling is kinda sloping down and it has it's own balcony and attached toilet.. but my favourite thing about the room is the chair (left of pic)!

It's a very nice designer chair which I saw in a magazine before but I can't remember who made this. It looks like ratten but it's actually leather over.. metal? I'm not sure.. It's very sturdy and fun to rock in. Haha!

View from the roof down to the swimming pool

The swimming pool is accessible from the dining hall and also their gym! The gym has 2 threadmills (super good ones!), a flat screen TV and some other exercise equipment. It is also near the Master's office.

Le bf in the boss's chair

Both owners have their own offices. The husband's office is downstairs at level 1 with a pool view and the wife's office is at level 2, adjacent to the master bedroom.

Fishies!

What I love about the Master's office is the goldfish pond beside it. The goldfishes breed are really gorgeous (not all goldfish are born the same) and of course, expensive. And their water filtration system is just sooooo good. The water is really really clear and there's no ripples on the surface. Not sure what brand of water filter they are using, but it's just damn good. Best I've even seen!

We actually went up and down the house several times. Sometimes by stairs, most of the time by lift. LOL.

I like the lamp fixtures at the stairway. Beneath the lamps is a huge birdnest fern. Bet it's some Fengshui thing about having dirt "tu" in the house or something.. but it's so huge!! And nice! At the stairs were also displays of Chinese antiques and small figurine dolls.

Master bedroom

I'm not kidding when I say the Master bedroom is the size of an average 4 room flat, maybe bigger. There's a separate bridge (yes, an walkway suspended in the air!) to the Master's "Man Cave". His son told us that the room is out of bounds to everyone and no one has been in before... So cool to have a Man Cave! Haha! Sounds like Batman and his Bat cave! The Mistress's office is just on the left hand side before the bed area. If you noticed in the middle of the picture, there's 3 Hermes scarves hanging on the wall. Spotted them the moment I walked in and the rest didn't believe there were scarves cos it looks like artwork (well, Hermes scarves are artworks..haha!), until I brought them closer and pointed out the wording on the corner of the scarves.

View of the Mistress's office from their daughter's room

The walk-in wadrobe and toilet is the size of my living room! The toilet has 2 seperate corners for the sink/vanity area, a huge bathtub, a shower cubical and a urinal! The chest of drawers where I'm standing at has a see through glass top where you can see all of the Mistress's accessories.

View of the Master bedroom's bed from their large balcony. 

The Man Cave is just behind the wall.

There are many other parts of the house which I did not take pictures of, including the elder daughter's room, the son's room, the backyard, the gym, the son's tuition corner (which can be hidden behind the walls) and their antiques and artworks. But you can only imagine how beautiful the house is based on the few pictures I took.

Picture of us, the "Xiao Peng You". Haha!

Their children are really friendly and down-to-earth, in case you are wondering if they are spoilt brats since they live in such a huge and expensive home. Their son brought us around to tour the house and stayed with us the entire time chit-chatting and having fun. I think this is very commendable cos he is only 16 years old and most 16 years old teenagers are sulky, anti-social and like to hide in their rooms while there are guests over for visits. Moreover he didn't know anyone of us but wasn't shy from introducing himself and bringing us around. He was so funny also, saying he didn't know there's a housewarming today until his mum told him to clean his room to be more presentable.

Hope this entry inspired you and will encourage you to achieve more in your life too! Their parents worked very hard to be able to build such a beautiful home.. so can you! :) God bless!