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Thanks snowy89! Yes finally started on my t-blog after saying for so long. That is also becoz my reno got delayed due to HDB's approval.

Well well, all is good so far...and it's so true, I'm enjoying every single bit of the reno journey though super busy! Documenting it down for memories & to share with others any useful info. You t-blog is one of the few which I benefited from!

Oh ya btw! I remember you overlay ur toliet floor & wall tiles. Did ur ID or contractor caution you on anything like popping tiles over time?

I am deeply humbled. I only overlay my wall tiles for one of the toilet. My ID did not caution, but I think cos she probably assumed that I already know. Actually new tiles have lesser possibility of popping so just don't worry about it. I think as long as you believe it wouldn't happen, it wouldn't. :P

We don't have much of a choice anyway since hacking will void us of the HDB warranty. It is either risk of popping tiles (if the tiler's workmanship is not good) or risk of paying for water damages (if waterproofing is not done properly) to your lower level unit when you hack. Not to mention the cost of hacking and overlaying is quite a bit of difference. :no:

 

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ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

End of Week 1 ~ We are very satisfied! :jammin:

Our country floor tiles rockz!

The last time I updated was on our beautiful floor tiles which was Works In Progress (WIP). Now, we have completed the tiling works for the living hall, walkway, 3 rooms, kitchen and service yard! Really no regrets overlaying tiles over the last 2 as my entire kitchen & yard look so much brighter now! :sport-smiley-004:

My kitchen overlaid with wooden tiles *view taken from the service yard when WIP*

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When tiling @ service yard was WIP

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:D Proudly presenting our bright and cosy service yard! *Pardon the dusty floor & grout lines...so satisfied with our decision* :lol:

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Coming up next is the 'special entrance' which I mentioned previously...*Da-DAH!* The mini porch area in front of the main door!

Managed to capture a shot of Mr Worker B laying the pebbled-tiles skillfully :good:

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Love our front door 'porch'? :yamseng:

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Further updates of week one renovation:

- Electrical wiring and piping works are all completed. Except for the service yard, which we have last minute decided to place our washer & dryer on the right side of the yard and Mr contractor J will have to re-run his electrical points for us. Oops! Hehe!

- Chose our laminate colours for our 3m in length wardrobe, kitchen cabinets and shoes cabinet

Psst: As our kitchen is now much brighter due to the new tiles, we have decided to go with my dream baby-blue coloured kitchen cabinets for a more cottage-y country feel :rofl:

- Settled our self-designed layout of the above 3 cabinets as well

- We are doing cornices for the whole house! (Yes they are traditionally-old-school, but what is a country-style home without the cornices!?)

Albeit the smooth renovation thus far, one thing which we are pretty upset about is the main door. As the floor tiles are tiled higher than the kerb from the front gate, we are unable to close our main door now :( (the workers removed the door during tiling and after fixing it back discovered that the door can't be closed :jawdrop: ) Not sure if there is any miscomm, Mr J has not helped us fix the door back and end up, we have to contact the BSC to trim our door shorter before fixing it back to close properly. Hope they get it done quick because we are worried for our flat without a door now 8|

Edited by CountryGlow
 

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It's time to update on my Taobao (TB) loots!

Disclaimer (first): I must really give myself a big pat on my shoulders, I'ld say. *pat pat* As I'm a potato shopping on Taobao! (Ok, maybe after you got hooked on to shopping on TB, it will really turned you into a couch potato. Haha)

This is my first time shopping on Taobao and the challenge of course was the language, still is actually! Besides making Google Translate my good friend, I have invested lotsa time ploughing through many others' t-blogs who had shared generously on how to shop on TB. Since I couldn't really communicate well with the sellers directly, plus all the alipay and ali-card etc, I decided to take the easier way out and engage Peeka as my agent and forwarder to help me purchase and ship my orders over. Happy to share that I have ordered about $1,200 worth of items from TB - LOL! No idea how did I accumulate all those purchases (maybe it's really soooo addictive!) but I must really say, all the efforts to learn shopping on a foreign site really paid off! Great savings especially on lighting and accessories which cost a bomb for the designs of my theme! :sport-smiley-018: I can't help it but beam (with pride) when I share all my buys with my hubby because Missy Po-ta-to has succeeded! :)

Anyway, below are my loots which are currently still pending at Peeka China receiving centre, waiting for my last item to reach, packed and then shipped out. :(

Shipment would likely take 2 - 3 weeks and now, we are quite worried if the delay of the items will cause any delay in the fixture of things during the renovation. :help: Should have ordered earlier before the long CNY break in China....well, we will have to be positive! Below are some loots ordered by Missy Po-ta-to:

A) First up! Lightings...

Top left: 2 wall lights in the living hall beside our fabric sofa

Top centre: Pretty sweet hanging light for the kitchen

Top right: Wall light above my side table next to our bed

Middle left: Cosy cottage hanging lamps for bedroom 3 (purchased from Singapore at a steal!) We intend to spray the metal parts white (one of our min DIY project)

Middle right: Hanging lights above our dining table (totally LOVE this lamp)

Bottom left: 2 wall lights along our walkway into the rooms

Bottom centre: Downlight for the area right outside our MBR toliet

Bottom right: Simple lamps for both toliets. Another one which we plan to spray the metal portion white! :)

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B) Decorative accessories - what can we do without them :wub:

Love these flowers which will be popping everywhere in our house. Half of them will be go to the 2 bathrooms as we are not going to change HDB's original bathroom design, hence we hope by throwing pops of colourful flowers around the bathroom would do the simple trick of customising them like our own :)

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Design switch frames for the living hall and rooms

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Paintings for the kitchen

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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My Taobao (TB) loots! Cont'

C) For the bathrooms - :dancingqueen:

For the MBR bathroom: 1m long mirror with storage

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For the common bathroom: Another mirror with storage

(I guess we won't be using this toliet often so this will be for storage purpose and for the guests to see themselves in the mirror when they visit! :notti: )

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Our shampoo & soap wall dispensers

Brilliant space-saving idea given by Mr J! We wanted to build a hollow block/ledge within the shower area to place our soapy things but as the shower area is cramped enough, we decided to scrap the hollow block/ledge and drilled in glass shelves for these stainless steel soap dispensers! I got a pair of dispensers for hubby and 3 in a row one for myself :bleah:

Then, I remembered that I have body scrubs, scalp hair shampoo & treatment, body foaming lotion and the list goes on....Now, I'm stuck without a holding area for them *headache* :huh:

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Rain-shower set at the MBR bathroom to pamper ourselves!

Okay okay, this is the best item we bought for the bathroom so far. We decided to go for it because it's too hard to say no. Can't wait to jump into the shower under this rain-shower! :bath:

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D) For the Service Yard

Search high and low for such a laundry sink and when we finally found one, the price is steep....You see, I hand-wash all my delicate clothing and at my current place, I'm able to soak and wash my precious clothing in the toliet and hang them to dry just few steps away into the kitchen - the old HDB 'toliet in the kitchen' layout. Now that the common bathroom is one whole u-turn into the kitchen then to the drying area at the service yard, I thought of a very clever idea to install such a laundry sink at our service yard! So I can soak, wash and hang my (hand-washed) clothing conveniently all at one place! :thumbs up: So glad we found one from TB. There is storage under the sink to keep away your bottles of detergent etc! Woo!

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E) A Must-Share for the Wardrobe!

If you are looking for a pull-out trousers rack for your wardrobe, ^5! We found it too! According to the description, the material seems solid and looks not as flimsy as the Ikea one. Hopefully it matches to our expectations!

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These are the highlights for our FIRST order on TB. I'm currently searching for more stuff to place for our 2nd shipment. For now, we are eagerly waiting for the stuff to arrive.....keeping our fingers (very) crossed that they reach us SOON and they are in order :P

 

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lovely loots! you are super "in theme" haha! i'm looking forward to see your baby blue kitchen! great choice of colour HEHE! i'm a fan of colours! our kitchen is going to be a mix of both blue and pink! ;)

-clownprince's wife :)

 

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Your concept for the porch is really tasteful, especially to use outdoor alike tiles to define boundaries. The only regret is the chosen tiles let you down a little.

 

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Eventide - Thanks for the compliments on the tiles...they turned out to be so much better than we expected! Make our hall look longer and brighter too! :) With a touch of the wooden floor, makes our home cosy and warmth :thumbs up:

Penicillin - Thanks for your inputs too but we are good with our choice! The overall feel for the tiles look great actually. Pebble design compliments the wooden-like tiles perfectly!

 

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hi hi countryglow,

mind if i ask how much the cement screed is quoted by your id/contractor? or is it part of the labour for your wooden like floor tiles (which btw is it laminates or other kinds of tiles? love it!) ?

do pm me if its not convenient here, appreciate it!!

Cheers

 

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ReNoVaTiOn UpDaTeS

Week 2 & 3 ~ We are slowing down...For now.

As the above reads, there is not much progress to show the last 2 weeks. Mainly the minor works which I won't go into details. Heard from contractor J that our carpentry (i.e. wainscoting, kitchen, wardrobe & shoes cabinets) will up in these couple of weeks, so stay tune for that :yeah:

In this post, I shall share on the french-style furniture which we bought! As I last mentioned, we decided not to have built-in cabinets and have bought all our French furniture from a friend's recommendation. (Although I realised that I could have shipped from Taobao which could save us a bit) No regrets as the furniture workmanship and quality is worth the price we paid for!

For the living & dining hall

A comfy & plush sofa which we can throw ourselves onto after a day out! I have always adored Laura Ashley decor and furniture, and their all-famous duck egg fabric sofa is one of my favourite! But... *reality hits* for a more prudent budget and easier maintenance sake, we bought this beauty and selected a light/neutral brown fabric colour instead. The plushy cushions are to die for! Which they will be in the darker shade of brown. The floral designed fabric will be for the smallest cushions amongst the big ones. Imagine snuggling up on this sofa....we can't wait! *do boogie dance* Hopefully maintenance will be hassle-free as the lady boss told us we just need to do upholstery cleaning 1 - 2 times each year (depending on usage) to keep it clean to our liking.

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Here are our TV sideboard & coffee table. Pardon the blur picture of the TV sideboard and half-covered coffee table (only show the legs). :notti:

The TV sideboard will be specially ordered as I don't want too fanciful carvings on the entire board which was on display. That was why the photo was captured off from her catelogue. Actually most of her furniture are steered more towards Victorian style which we had chosen the slightly simple and straight-cut designs & trims to fit our theme...

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We decided to go for a round dining table for its unique-ness & chairs with fabric design in lightly golden and pinkish-beign stripes.

(note that the borders and trimmings of the chairs will be sprayed white :) )

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The essentials but not the necessaries ~ Fireplace mantel, Mirror & French buffet cabinet

*Sneak preview of the fireplace* - Which we will place along the wall next to the kitchen entrance

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White Mirror above the fireplace to check on our hair and makeup before leaving the house :sport-smiley-018:

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And...the (almost "redundant") buffet cabinet to be placed beside the living hall windows. Why I phrase it as "redundant" as country houses always have buffet cabinets which I love to display nice teapot sets, ornaments etc. But buffet cabinets in BTO houses are space consuming! Oh wellz...we managed to find space for my beauty anyhow! :)

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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French-style furniture (cont')

For the Master bedroom (going towards simple Victorian :) )

3 requirements for our bed, which are hard to find but we found one nonetheless!

(i) Preferably king size (as per hubby's request)

(ii) Definitely gotta be a storage bed as we need all the storage we can find

(ii) Certainly a frame design to suit the simple Victorian theme

*TA-DA!* :dancingqueen: Bed frame will be off-white colour though :P

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:wub: Pretty Serpentine which we will place next to our bed and can be seen right from the hall and walk-way. :wub:

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And lastly...

My French Dresser :wub: :wub: :wub:

This beauty will be placed in our walk-in wardrobe (supposedly bedroom 2) as I will throw on my 1000001 types of facial products and makeup, select my outfit and get dressed all within this personal space. It will be MY space! WAHAHAHA!! :bleah::dancingqueen::)

I love the trimming design of my dresser... :wub: (Okay the picture is not doing justice to it, I know) You can feel pretty simply looking at it, which serves the very purpose of a dressing table *more :wub: :wub:*

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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Hi,

our house looks lovely. I see that you are using Mr. J too. I must say that he is indeed very efficient!!

Looking forward seeing your completed home.

All the best!

 

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Hi Zees!

Thanks for the well wishes! But I think the "Mr J" you are refering to is a different "Mr J" from mine :P Our "Mr J" is a contractor, not ID.

Why not show us some pictures of your lovely home? :)

 

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