nirvana

Hey Macbart, my kitchen glass backing needs time to construct and put up so i wun bet my money that it will be up in time given Henry's uncertain reply on the timeline. This subcontractor has the tendencies to fly kite on the deadline given. Therefore, dun think the kitchen can 见人 by xmas cos my old tiles are still all over the kitchen wall. Sigh... ABS is quoted in but only for kitchen and toilet cabinet doors. Everything else does not come with that. Which means my door frame, storage cabinet and TV console all have sharp black edges. Will take photo to show you guys what I mean. It is really an eyesore and I complained to Henry about it today. He explained that ABS is only applicable for cabinet doors cos they are thin and can go through the ABS machine to "wrap" laminate around the entire door. However, for all other bulkier items the lamination is done on the spot. Therefore the edges are more raw. I think some of work is quite 粗 cos the lines are really obvious and the edges sharp. Henry says it is not completely done up yet and they will sand down the rough edges. However the lines will stay cos it is how laminates work. But promises to see what he can do for me. My carpentry are all white white so the black edges give them a unfinished look. Super sianz... Again my htb 'consoled' me by saying that once we moved in, we will stop 'seeing' the edges anymore cos will be used to it liao.. he super zen..(=_=)"

Just confirm my ikea curtains but to my dismay, they are completely out of stock for both my first choice and back up choice fabric!! Booo.... Paid $1040 for black out curtains for my two bedrooms and balcony door, full length (from ceiling to floor) and for balcony, wall to wall.. including installation, tie backs, tracks, hooks. I think it is pretty good deal.

Yo sorry for the absence. Been struggling with the disappointment of not able to hold xmas party in my new house afterall. Kind of forced Henry to commit the handover date and it is next Friday. But he cautioned me that the glass backing needs 10 days to construct and we are only meeting him to select the color of the solid table top and glass backing today!! Given the tight timeline and the need to unpack and furnish the place, it is quite impossible to have any proper party. I think the time management part can be more well done. I still remember Henry laughingly said that he wants to come to my house for Xmas bbq and that of cos, the house will be ready by then. I thought the handover will be done by early mid dec so all unpacking and basic furnishing can be done by xmas, and my 2 weeks holidays is all about relaxing and enjoying the house. But now.. my 2 weeks holiday is all about checking defects, rectifying, unpacking, cleaning the house, buying appliances and making sure the house is functional. Htb in all his good natured self, told me there is always the next Xmas. But.. sigh.. oh well, just have to accept loh.. Quite upset the furniture did not came with ABS (i.e. the edge of all furnitures are exposed and not covered, resulting in obvious black lines along all my white door frames and storage cabinets). I am not sure if it is the norm but I look around the cheap ikea furnitures around my current home and none of them has edges exposed.. all nicely covered up.. I am not used to the exposed edges not to mentioned irritated by its sharpness.. Will be asking Henry about it today.. amrasenelya, are you referring to the soft closing devices that cost $9 a pair? That can be install on the hinges later on but need to make sure the hinge that your carpenter buys can 'slot' in the soft closers nicely. Go have a look at ikea hinges and take photo for your carpenter to see. Yes, all drawers and soft closing devices were purchased and given to my carpenter. he did a good job to incorporate them in. Ossify, Hmm.. top hung cabinet door? Did not get any ikea stuff for my top cabinets leh.. though htb is now thinking of changing the hinge at my corner cabinet doors cos Ah Li did not provide good hinge and the cabinet doors keep hitting against the hood and oven handles which in due time will create scratches and holes

what a lovely house! And thanks for putting pu the latest updates pix.. very charming decors.. I love the makeover you did for the bed frame.. did you tear out the old black bed board and install the fabric boards? Show us how you did it lehhhh.... **** swee loh....

Thanks for the kind comments. Thought of doing that as well.. but htb says we can just change the things to put inside which is much easier than to change the structure of the cabinets to fit what we want to put inside.. plus I am afraid that doing such changes will result to even worse results.. so the thinking of what is not broken dun change.. hehe..

Sigh.. Simon.. iphoto and flickr app did not work very well for me.. so had to delete everything i loaded previously and reload everything again. Therefore there is some downtime for the photos. I fix all the links liaos.. so it should be okay. finally...

Should be okay now simon. let me know if the earlier photos still can't see.

We did a cabinet to cover up the ugly electrical box which is at the pillar beside the fridge.. Quite ex leh.. Henry quoted me $600 for that.. Can put magic clean mop beneath it.. hehe...

Corner cabinet.. nicely done ... This is where my mobile gas will go into.. plus some extra space for bulky pots and pans..

More drawers pix The sauces and condiments drawers right beside the stove.. hmm.. cannot put soy sauce bottles unless i buy kid sized.. My mum says can transfer to smaller bottles.. actually better cos when cooking, it is cumbersome to move around regular size bottles.. dunno if she is comforting me or speaking the truth.. Drawers around the sink area

Aiya.. having trouble with the permission of the photos. Just set to "view by everybody" so you should be able to see now..

All my drawers are from Ikea. We planned and decided on the location and designs of the drawers we want from Ikea. E.g. for this set of drawers we want the regular 3 drawers style for putting cooking utensils, dry food e.g. flour, noodles, instant noodles, canned food, blah blah.. My agony on these drawers is that I wanted the bottom 2 sets of drawers to be deeper in height so as to put taller tupperware or containers for my dry food. But... 1) The full height of the cabinets stands at 35". We did hanging cabinets so we need to allow 8" of space from floor to bottom of the hanging cabinets. So we are left with 27" of cabinet space to play with. 2) We gave 2" allowance for the table top and whatever sitting above the drawers and cabinet doors 3) Multiple trips to Ikea confirmed our drawers height measurements. 5" for top set of drawers. 12" for the bottom set of drawers. And whatever left for the middle set of drawers. Sounds like good plan right? no... 1) Ah li measured 8" precise from floor to hanging cabinet. Check. 2) 2" allowance turns out much more than 2". The table top is about there.. but we did not realised that by selecting a no handle drawers and cabinet, Ah li built the bone of the cabinet which eats into our drawer height space. So much height was sacrificed for the table top which left us with less "cabinet height" for the drawers and shelves. 3) The drawer height measurements we gave to Ah li got lost in the wind. So to our, sorry, my horror, the middle and bottom set of drawers front are all less than 10", measured from the outside. And together with point 2, my actual drawer space to put stuff is greatly compromised. hmm... so much for putting jars and tall tupperwares in the drawers. Here is the breakdown of the measurement for my top drawer which we measure at 5". The only drawer height Ah Li got right. The blunder kind of affect the rest of the cabinets and drawers too so all our plans to put our pots and pans in the drawers kind of vanished into thin air. We still can put the plates and bowls (not the big kind) so not all are lost. Having said that the ikea fittings was seamlessly incorporated to our woodwork so it looks pretty neat if you look past the above measurement blunder. That is why i mentioned, if you want to incorporate ikea fittings in, you have to be very very detailed in communicating with your carpenter.Pplease make sure your carpenter is informed of your inner drawer height requirement ON TOP OF your drawer front measurement.

Switching over to flickr for Simon.. hee.. actually thanks to simon I realised Flickr works better with iPhoto. More photos! Just took some more photos of the kitchen yesterday. Fresh from the oven (no pun intended!) Almost completed white white kitchen. Left solid table top and glass backing to cover up the ugly wall tiles. We went for hanging cabinets. Closer look on the sink and dish dryer. I find the dryer a tat too small. But not big issue la.. My fujioh hob, Hobz hood and Bosch Oven. All from Goh Ah Bee.

Hey mickey u should see how the ppl "abuse" ikea furniture when there.. hahha.. it is no wonder they will be in such sorry state.. I have some ikea furnitures e.g. wall cabinet, bookshelves, staked open cabinets, bed... so far everything is working very well. For home owner, we do not really "abuse" our furniture on a daily basis.. so I am one of those few open ikea fans.. hehe.. just woke up and look forward to a day of uploading photos and renotalk posts.. yeah!

Really Simon? Good to know that. If so my toilet will have a lot of space. Can dance inside liao. Yup Ikea has the Blum logo at the bottom of the drawer system. Verified liao. I think for those who likes ikea system but wanna get their own carpenter to do it do watch out for my next entry cos we are ultimately not specialist in this line so need to watch out details which has to be communicated to carpenter well. Cos now I have to think of using the drawers for other stuff now that it si too small to put bigger bottles or Tupperware which I initially intended

Mickey you are right loh.. plus hor.. except for my kitchen and toilet.. all other carpentry dun have ABS.. so I scared in due time.. it will start to look really ugly.. Just went to my place and after closer inspection realised that some of the work is not done according to what we want. I guess we are some sort mentally prepared. Hmm.. let me rephrased.. I am some sort mentally prepared.. cos htb is super chinchai kind.. but still disappointed when the blunders happen.. Will talk more about it when my photos are uploaded. One major one is the master toilet vanity ... the vanity is about 1-2 inch smaller in depth than what was planned. We have bought the basin with the measurement given and it looks like it will not fit in.. and my basin is not the can protrude out kind.. we measure swee swee 16".. sigh.. if Ah Li can't come up with a good explanation on his decision to make it smaller in depth.. then I am afraid.. I might not be able to move in before xmas!! *this is paranoid me speaking so take everything with a pinch of salt; i just need a place to voice my panic!!* Judging their timeline given to do the previous carpentry.. they need about 2-3 weeks to prepare.. so this one.. maybe give 1-2 weeks.. then need to install and rectify.. wah lau.. it will be xmas then already.. panic panic panic... When both of us, one exhausted from a full day work.. and one from half day work and 3 hours flight, were in the lift, I ask aloud if i am nitpicking.. some of the blunder cannot be reverse and it is a decision we have to make.. make the better of the situation, be creative and move on happier.. or kick a big fuss about it... which probably wun amt to much since half the work is completed liao.. we both know we will not take the 2nd choice.. but at the back of my half asleep mind, there is a nagging thought "but we paid them to do the job.. how come we have to be the ones to compromise". But such is life. It is never clockwork. So after much ranting, the decision is clear. We will accept the changes that are done.. and well.. think of creative way to deal with them. Then, life will be good again. Btw, these blunders, in htb's word, "are not serious blunder la". And thank god htb is who he is. Always able to give me a different perspective to things. Given my character, I will mull over them and mope for a few days.. but with his golden words, I came to term much faster. Okay, only left 1% battery.. mind shutting down liao.. will update soon...

Yo Mickey sorry for not dropping by your thread after coming to mine.. haha.. it is liked going for home visit you know.. you come mine and I come yours.. Anyway the dining table draft looks GORGEOUS! I can actually imagine how it will look like! It will be perfect for your family. Will be watching your thread regularly from now on.. so exciting to see the development...

We got our Alumix wardrobe from Besglas in Toa Payoh.. They are one of the distributor. We saw closet design but their pole system is marginally more expensive than Alumix. And partly due to shopping exhaustion, we settled for alumix on the day of our first visit. Plus David (i think is his name) is nice and accommodating, not salesy at all. Sort of taken aback by the bad review of Alumix in renotalk but their workers worked fast (within an hour or so for installation). Constant follow up by their admin to schedule the installation time. So we are happy la.. I like it cos the door slides on the floor (dunno how to explain but hope you catch the drift) and it looks neat. The partition they build is great cos now I can keep all the barangs barangs on the top shelf and away from dust accumulation

I really hope not!! I think it is a matter of the lighting. The photo before that shows a more accurate color hue.

Thanks all for your kind comments. I can't wait to go back home tomorrow to view the results in person! The wall color is Nippon paint 63B-4DFiord Blue. All carpentry you see, except for the alumix wardrobe in the masterbedroom, are done up by Henry. Design is by my htb. And to Mickey M, the round "treatment' is inspired from Loyd. In my previous post, I mentioned that we met up with him before but he was too ex for us. I like his designs alot and kudos to you for choosing this young but so talented guy. My reno quote is not finalised yet cos we took out wardrobe costing (outsourced to alumix) and added more things (e.g. casing for electrical board). We received the draft quote and it is about $29k. But I think will burst $30k cos I still want to do built in dressing table. If you consider Ikea as blum, then yes I use Blum. (btw, blum designed and manufactured the kitchen system for ikea so the logo is on their drawers) Hee.. We adore the ikea kitchen concept so much we are practically there every weekend opening and closing the drawers.. So we planned and informed Ah Li on the ikea drawers and shelves we want installed. Bought everything and passed to him before he built the kitchen cabinets. Hope it turns out well!!

Yupz all from henry.... Carpenter Ah Li had to come down twice on site to go thru all the details with htb. two big groups of men.. two from carpenter side, two from contractor side.. and then my htb.. I just sit there and play my iphone.. hhaha.. only go and give opinion when needed.. cos too cramped in the kitchen and toilet to fit me in.. But I really appreciate Henry who is there for all the meetings.. and both he and ah li patiently took in all our design whims..

Half finished Master toilet vanity Half finished common toilet vanity Half finished Kitchen

Aahhh.. more photos from htb... so excited now.. Pix from the carpentry.. our storage cabinet is up!!! HTB designed the round part to put shoe box. Same round theme for the TV console

Hi hi.. are you referring to creation air at end part of balestier? I got them to do my aircon. Went in by chance when shopping around for downlights and spoke to Taxi. Ya, very weird name right? But he is quite nice. My quote through contractor (after site inspection; but we were not at site with him) was close to $6k. Need to change compressor (can't remember the exact no and strength), change piping and that is for the most high end model (mitsubishi starmex invertor). We fell off our chair and scrambled to find alternative. Taxi did a site inspection and we choose Mitsubishi non-investor and he advised us not to change piping cos he said from his experience it is still in good condition. He also recommend one compressor after consulting our lifestyle (like to use ceiling fan more and prob wun open air con thruout the house all at one time) We were not sure if the piping will hold (cos my mum's place in the same estate piping quite chialat so had to do the painful process of installing new piping thru the house) so we choose to do pressure test and water test. Turn out Taxi was right. Our piping is in good condition. The testing comes with additional charge but I rather be sure. *edited* I found my pricing from Taxi. Mitsubishi non-invertor system 4 inclusive of hacking & changing of new piping $3899. Mitsubishi investor system 4 inclusive of hacking & changing of new piping $5100. Pressure test $200 (testing 4 aircon) My final price is lower since I did not do any hacking and changing of new piping in the end. So we went with our gut feel and Taxi seemed like a honest man. And turned out everything was done swee swee. The single compressor also solved our cramped up yard area problem. Aircon work fine so far (haven move in yet though) and they still stick the Creation air sticker at the bottom of our aircon so got trouble can call them. I am really happy with their service and price so far. eh...Not sure the warranty part since haven gone to that stage yet. But........... I don't really trust forummers who just has 2-3 posts to their name coming in with sole purpose to complain against companies.

Check out how small my masterbedroom is!! We calculate and calculate the distance between the bed and wardrobe to make sure we do not need to end up leaping over the bed to get to the curtains..