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Team Dali

Reflections

It was not easy to leave this corner of India that had us so eagerly engrossed. Returning from Cinque Island we fought against our visa deadline and tried hastily to squeeze a few more anchorages before returning to Phuket. We wanted to run on more beaches, see locals in sarees dancing on the sand and taste new native flavours. Chidiya-tapu and Port Blair bid us a colorful and warm farewell.

There are a lot of finer moments and small details of our trip to the Andaman Islands that have escaped our writing thus far. We have spoken of the incredibly beautiful, deserted beaches, the locals friendly and exotic and the fish plentiful and multi-colored… Yet as we began to conclude our tour of the islands I couldn’t help but feel that some of the more subtle yet significant discoveries had happened between our couple and within our selves.

As Phil set the sails and adjusted the wind-vane, the sun fell and we prepared for our night shifts. Unlike the first crossing, this time we had the moon to guide us during the early parts of the night. While Phil slept and the engine hummed loudly, I had the crescent moon as my companion and more than once danced on the deck looking at its bright yellow light. I danced, and stretched to stay awake during the hours of my vigil in the vast darkness. I admired the stars until my eyes lost focus and I began to see them move and blend and vibrate in the sky. Perhaps they are not called bewitching hours for nothing for it was during these moments that I found myself most exposed, more susceptible to the fantasies that sprung from the atramental night.

Took advantage of the lack of wind for a quick dip

During our crossing Phil and I would at times hardly see each other as the days passed. It was important that whenever someone was awake, the other was resting and regaining the energy necessary to take the next shift. I had more time to give in to my thoughts, no one to edit them for me and was left to indulge myself in my emotions, which fell and rose with the waves. At times I was exhilarated, in a trance with the music I blared from my headphones to help keep me awake. Other moments I was convinced we were on the verge of being in danger, that a strong gust of wind could at any moment catapult us into a disastrous squall… My heart beating loudly and my senses at once heightened from the nerves but dulled from the lack of sleep. I would stare at the soft orange light of our compass for hours on end, my eyes fixed on a range of three degrees until all else disappeared around me. Then dawn would come and with it an immense feeling of relief, followed by the overwhelming bliss of visits from dolphins and pilot whales.

Dolphins

PilotWhales2

Pilot Whales

PilotWhales3

Pilot Whale

Enjoying the few hours a day that I saw Phil, both of us awake and excited, me in awe of his growing, brilliant abilities as Captain. And sometimes sheer frustration, lack of wind and lack of movement for hours on end… Being pushed in the wrong direction by a current we can’t fight in heat we can’t escape. Night again: my eyes fixed on the sails and the compass when something bright flashes and in fear of it being lightning I look up immediately and instead see a meteor blazing across the stars.

Midnight as we see the first bright lights of fishermen appear on the horizon and we know we are closer to Thailand. Twilight as we approach Phuket and the silhouettes of the wooden boats with sleepy fishermen greet us and lure us closer to shore. Dawn breaks over Promthep Cape and lights up the Big Buddha who gives us the official welcome. Yindī t̂xnrạb

Iva

Inside The Dali Home

In starting this new year, we wanted to take the opportunity for one last walk through our beloved Dali home. Participating in and winning The Apartment: Style Edition was an incredible experience and we grew very attached to our unit, as week by week it was filled lovingly with fruits of our joint labour. Although the house is not the prize (we won an apartment in the upcoming Véo!), we will always have very fond memories of our competition ground.

East Residence is a modern courtyard linked villa within a gated community. It is located inside the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club (KLGCC) in Bukit Kiara, overlooking the 12th fairway. Each team was given identical four level units to design, each of approximately  490 square meters (5,300 square feet).

Here is a better look at where it all took place:

Aerial View of East Residences

Location of East Residences

Location of East Residences on a map of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Floor Plan of our Unit

Floor Plan of an East Residence Unit

East Residences

Here are our finished spaces, from the third floor down to the basement level.

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom Floor Plan

Main Bathroom

Main Bathroom Floor Plan

Kids Room

Kids Room Floor Plan

Guest Room

Guest Room Floor Plan

Study

Study Floor Plan

Garden & Wet Kitchen

Garden & Wet Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room Floor Plan

Dining Room & Kitchen

Dining Room & Kitchen Floor Plan

Leisure Room

Leisure Room Floor Plan

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Imagine GroupSime Darby PropertyJamie DurieLaurence Llewelyn-Bowen and all the guests who attended the Finale and voted for us! Thanks to all of you, we won an apartment!

The Apartment : Style Edition Winners

Phil & Iva

If you missed the story behind our win, click here!

Episode Ten : The Finale

In writing this blog post, it is harder than ever for me to put words to the extraordinary experience that was The Apartment : Style Edition. It is difficult to bring everything down to earth, to relate it to the rest of our lives before and after the show. In my mind, our participation in the competition was always an abstraction, completely incongruent with our former routine and far from our foreseen futures. Now that we are at the end of it all, and more importantly now that we’ve won, I find myself having to join two very separate worlds… I have the incredible chance of incorporating a surreal fairytale into my life. A glimpse of the behind-the-scenes craziness, as follows:

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

Photo Courtesy of Mera N.

Photo Courtesy of Mera N.

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

Photo courtesy of Vika A.

The Apartment Production Crew, big thank you to all of you!

The Apartment Production Crew, big thank you to all of you!

It’s strange to admit that going into the final was somewhat relaxing. It was a relief to know that we had at least made it to the end, that we would not be walking away empty-handed and that our hard work had at least not gone unnoticed. Phil and I loved our house. We were excited at the thought of going back through all the rooms, reminiscing about old challenges, reviewing our progression as wannabe designers and improving our existing work.

All Rooms

As always, we had an endless list of projects. Although we did not feel the need for any major overhaul in any of the rooms, we did have a lot of small additions and changes we wanted to complete. We divided our list of about thirty items into rooms and priority level, and began to work.

For the first time during this entire competition, Phil and I enjoyed the challenge and the pressure was turned into excitement and anticipation. Putting finishing touches on the house felt much like setting the table before a family gathering, or decorating a Christmas tree. We had already put so much effort into the rooms that now it was more a question of a few loving touches here and there, knowing that soon doors would finally open… For a brief soirée we would be able to play hosts and invite people to enjoy our home as a whole, and forget all the segregated challenges that composed it.

Our countdown for this challenge was 24 hours.

The sun rose while we were pasting our giant sticker-print of clouds onto some closet doors in the hallway. At seven a.m., after working all night, Phil and I shared a beer in our back garden, walked through all the rooms hand in hand, and went to sleep in our Master Bedroom, for two hours before waking up to Finale-Day craziness. It’s one of my favourite memories of that day.

Everything from that moment on is a blur. Shouts awoke us as photographers, cameramen and cleaners flooded our house. Meanwhile we had to film interviews, meet Lisa S., get makeovers and prep the caterers. Before we knew it, evening had arrived and so had our guests.

Seeing our friends walk through our front door was incredible. Having been so isolated for weeks, it felt wonderful to be able to include them finally in our secret experience. As our rooms filled up and the former contestants joined us, the atmosphere in our house was amazing. Phil and I walked through the rooms with giddy pride, happy at last to see the house teeming with people.

 At this point, the competitive aspect of the night was far from our minds. Phil and I were very calm, proud and content. We knew we had absolutely done everything in our power to present a finished product we were proud of, and it was a relief knowing that from here on out, it was out of our hands.

Thank you Matthijs, Joy & baby Tyson for attending!

Thank you Matthijs, Joy & baby Tyson for attending!

Thanks for your vote Ash!

Thanks for your vote Ash!

With this in mind, we joined our fellow finalists in the waiting area as guests and judges convened in the Design Court to determine the final verdict.

Phil and I noticed very early how lucky we were to compete alongside such genuinely affable people. Although after editing some may not believe it, the truth is that we never felt any fierce rivalry. As the challenges passed, we grew together as designers, shared in common struggles and always made time for an after-work glass of wine. It is not a small feat to have made such great friends in an environment clearly destined for competition.

Thus, as we were “standing-by” (something we had become very good at by this point!) it was with great respect and mutual admiration that we were able to enjoy a few last drinks with Alex and Chelsea.

Suddenly we were all on stage, and I heard Laurence’s voice as if in the distance as I stared at the room full of people, happily finding some familiar faces to steady my thoughts.

I heard the result at the same time as the confetti canon, and it all seemed more fantastic than ever.

In the perfect culmination to our achievements, Phil and I decided to stay Team Dali for life.

It’s a story worthy of the Disney movies I would watch. One which I look forward to telling my grandchildren, who will probably dismiss it as an old lady’s wild exaggerations until I show them the video!

2012 has been an astounding year for the two of us. We are very aware of how incredibly lucky we have been, and the best part is that with this lucidity we know not to take a moment of it for granted.

My fiancé and I (!!!) would like to thank, personally some day if possible, everyone who supported us throughout the competition. A big thank you to The Apartment production team and everyone involved with making the show happen! Our families, who all over the world came together to encourage us and whose collective belief in us definitely had some part in the result. To our friends, friends of friends, ex-colleagues, ex-teachers, and everyone who took time out of their day to wish us luck. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of support and kind words we have received.

Iva

Make sure to check out our coverage of our beloved Dali home by clicking here

Casting Call

This year has been all about trying new things.

On a visit to Kuala Lumpur a few months ago, we met up with Andy, a good friend to us both, my best friend’s boyfriend and coincidentally also the person responsible for introducing Phil and I to each other. All in all, a very important friend. In the midst of the usual exchange of news, he let slip that he had heard about an audition for a reality TV show. Though Philippe and I would have never considered ourselves Big Brother material, the more Andy told me about the show, the more interested I became. As soon as he finished saying the words “shopping, interior design, challenges” I had decided we would at least try out.

Convincing Phil was the next step.

It was the last round of KL auditions and we woke up on a Sunday, hungover and feeling less than camera ready. Despite the big night out, I managed to drag Phil out of bed and into the shower where he reluctantly agreed to get dressed to go. Our agreement that day was that he would go to the casting with me but never participate if called back. I shrugged off his averseness, and as we had little else to do that Sunday afternoon, my curiosity drove us to Subang.

Our Audition Photo

Auditions came and went and as months passed we accepted that as we had imagined, we were not reality TV material and went on with our routine. As Phil mentioned in the last post, it was after a month of non-stop work that the phone rang.

“Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in The Apartment, Style Edition! Can you fly in tomorrow?”

After five weeks of arduous work under the unexpected monsoon-like weather, the boat was just finally beginning to look habitable again when we were offered the chance to drop everything and participate in something far outside our normal realm of activities.

We didn’t have much time for decision-making. It was hard to think of leaving the boat in the marina after such hard work, but also a little disappointing to imagine passing up such a unique experience. Not to mention the possibility, however slight, that we may even win the Grand Prize: a brand new luxury apartment in KL!

After much deliberation over beers and peanuts, we decided that we had nothing to lose…

The Apartment: Style Edition will air October 18th on Star World at 8:55pm (UTC/GMT +8 hours).

Introducing All Teams

We will post more about this surreal experience soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the show here, or follow their Facebook page.

Wish us luck!

Team Dali