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You mean the baby blue one? If so its Nippon - raindrop. But my other bedroom is painted in a light shade of cyan, Nippon - Charming. Anyway this is the feeling I am trying to pull for my MBR, and I managed to find a similar oak color bed frame from ikea.

I had consolidated all my purchase and shipped via Amcon. Individual cost not available.

I think the "danger" is overrated especially for new home makers. In the first place, there no such issue such as buying things which may not be needed. In the first place, new home owners have nothing to begin with, so buying anything is not unnecessary will not exactly happen. There are so many things you may want and need in the early reno stage. Kitchen Sink, basins x 2, toilet accessories, foyer table, coffee table, side table, dining chairs & table. Smaller things like clocks, cart trolley, posters, hangers, clothes peg, deco stuffs etc All you need is a proper planning. Make sure things come in time for plumbing, electrical etc. Eg. when flooring is ready, one empty room is available to store everything. This was what I did. PLANNING. Things arrive in time for reno to be fix and install. I did mine shopping one time, all major items included. Now I am still Taobaoing but more for wants than needs. To your question of fulfilling Amcon 1cbm requirement. There is no need to meet this min requirement but Amcon will charge as 1 cbm. A lot of time, it depends on the item you are buying, you may feel it is big but actually the volume is pretty small. Eg a dining table of 1.8m length. The package may be only 2m x 1m x 0.3m = 0.6m3 and you are still short of 0.4m3 Then again, perhaps this table is selling at SGD2200 local but TB offers similar or equivalent at RMB4500. So doing the math using Amcon = RMB4500 + SGD110 (Freight) + SGD35 (Documentation) + RMB315 (GST). At a rate of SGD1 = RMB4.7 means total is SGD1169.46. So you have a saving of SGD1030 now. I guess meeting the 1 cbm does not really matter here. Post reno or casual I am unable to comment as I have yet to use any other forwarder such as Daigou or Peeka. I would rather wait or share the freight to meet 1 cbm with other like minded folks. All you need is one pax buying a sink and you have a good head start.

I have just completed renovation for my 2 bedroom condo. Did not engage an ID as I feel that they tend to overcharge. Besides, my hubby and I had a rough idea of what we wanted. We were very satisfied with the service and workmanship provided by our contractor Andy. He is a very friendly and easy-going guy and really enthusiastic. We had heard horror stories of sloppy work, MIA contractors but ours is completely trustworthy. He constantly vets the work done by his workers and makes sure everything is done to perfection for us. He deals with everything from balcony decking, curtains/blinds, carpentry and settled the plumbing/electrical work/lighting etc. House renovation was a breeze with him around. His quotation is probably not the cheapest in the market but it is definitely of good value. Besides, he is really knowledgeable and has a wealth of experience which was very useful when it comes to fine-tuning what we had in mind and giving us new practical ideas. He claims he doesn't have much experience with Scandinavian theme, but he came up with nice tiled walls and a very Scandi-looking study room for us. Message me if you want his contact. He's very genuine in his work, so we will appreciate if you only contact him when truly interested.

More pictures of our kitchen. It's the only place with most of the work done. The other side... The washing kerb... There are still a lot of things pending... - Aircon piping - Electric works - Water heater - Brick wall - Carpentry - Lights/fans installation It's really an exciting, tiring, learning journey! Little did I know there are so much knowledge and things to do behind building a home together with your loved one. Logistics, money, time, management, etc. Happiness, unhappiness (when reno things don't really go according to your plan). Alright I am a perfectionist. But hey if I am paying so much, I should at least get what I wanted right?! ROAR. Sorry just grumbling from some reno hiccups. On another note, all my lights from TaoBao are arriving soon soon soon! Just paid the second payment and we should be seeing those babies in less than a month's time. Let's hope and pray this has no hiccups! I'm using OOPS.sg btw. Quite nice and very fast replies and follow-ups. And cheap too! Shipping by the volume and via sea, even cheaper. I would highly recommend for the service I've experienced up till now. Will update once I received the goods!

Last weekend we engaged BTO Home Networking to convert the telephone lines in our 3 bed rooms to LAN points. Fast, cheap and good! 3 points for $100 We didn't need that many phone points in the house and fast, reliable internet is very important to us. So it really makes sense to to convert them to LAN points. DB Box before conversion After conversion, properly labelled. Kok Hua, the owner of BTO home networking, was a little late but it was because he was doing conversion for serveral other units as well prior to our scheduled evening appointment. He explained many technical concepts to us which we are grateful about. We just need to apply for fibre internet and put the modem in this db box. The whole process took about an hour. So now the points labelled MBR, BR2 and BR3 are LAN points that Kok Hua converted. The bottom right LAN port is the original point provided by HDB linked to the LAN port in the living room near the TV console area. Since we are building a study in the living room and we will might need additional LAN point for the constructed study. We are thinking of getting our contractor to add the LAN port in the study. Kok Hua advised that within the DB box, we can just use a Gigabit switch to share one of the LAN points into 2 points. Or maybe WIFI is good then all these worry is unnecessary. Overall good, but we haven't applied for internet yet so we couldn't test it. Anyway, there is a one year warranty provided so we will look for him if there are any issues.

Brands and Pricing for Vinyl So far I had only compared 2 brands, namely Evorich and Krono. With laminates out of the pictures, so does Supreme, Pergo, Tarkett etc too. Evorich as many will know is aggressive with marketing and promotion. Sponsoring TV shows and attending excitations and mind you, these cost money. My gut feel is that what the psf price offered during exhibition can be offered during walk in as well. Main factor deciding what price you get is the floor area you are doing. If you are doing a complete 5 room compared to doing 3 bedrooms for a 5 room, chances are you are able to bargain a better psf price. So note this when considering, it should the same for any brand of flooring – area dictates. Evorich import their flooring from the States but the hearsay is that the States dealer gets their stock from China. So if this is true, at the end of the day, we are paying for made in China product. No that I have a problem with this but simply for knowledge purposes. Anyway, the walk in psf is approx. $7 but roadshow/exhibition prices vary which as mentioned, depends on area. From friends and fellow reno bloggers,I have heard can be anywhere from $6 to $6.25. The feel and texture are pretty alluring and comes in many shades of wood and grains, a worthy consideration if one like what they see and feel. Evorich market their vinyl as HERF ie. High End Resilient Flooring. And yes, it sound sophisticated. Next, there is Krono. A brand known more for their laminates. This was introduced to me by my ID. They had brought in vinyl flooring as well but not aggressive in marketing. Matter of fact, you cant even find this product on their website. I had visited their showroom; there are 17 colours to choose from, with 7 more to come in April. Seriously, texture and feel wise, it is hard to tell them apart from Evorich. Perhaps one a little more matt while the other is slightly glossier. The range is pretty comprehensive and enticing. I would say one or two colours will meet one's preference Krono’s vinyl is from Korea, well that’s what I heard and their pricing is approx. almost $1 cheaper than Evorich – ranges like $5plus Samples from both brands I had, look similar to me. When lie side by side, I cant tell them apart. I stand corrected, both products are actually OEMs, meaning factory manufacture for them, but branding and marketing done by their own companies. After looking thru both companies and knowing I have no beef with my pocket, I went with Krono.

Here are some of my random thoughts, in no particular logical sequence....... I don't know whether you guys have this problem, but every time you engage a painter and pay for ICI Dulux or Nippon paint, you wonder if they actually used the type of paint you paid for, or that they simply used a cheaper equivalent, Super Maxilite or Matex paint, which they buy in big containers. You see these containers and you ask them, they will tell you oh, they had to mix your ICI or Nippon paint, and they need to use these big containers. True or not, we do not know. Unless you go and buy the paint yourself and have them delivered to site. Anyway, I am so fed up with all these painters that for this new place, I decided not to use my ID's painter. Instead, I decided to engage directly my team of auntie painters. I found it quite hard to believe at first, but they are true. According to the auntie boss painter, she only employ auntie painters because they are more conscientious. I hope so. There were still places where I think they could have done a better job but overall, I think they were ok.