littleones

Thanks, charemme So far we have not moved in yet, hence hard to review on the lightings. The chandelier is ok, except that they gave us the round bulbs instead of those that look like candle flame. Good thing we bought the lamp shades so can hide it. The $12 toilet lights are abit too dim so they are really just worth $12 but I guess we don't hang around for very long in the toilet so it is ok Oh, and btw, we didn't buy the sofa in the pic. Just the coffee table

hi Pinklady, your chandelier has more crystals and mine has no LED lights sad.gif we didn't see any chandelier with LED lights through our search. i love LED lights, think it enhance the sparkle of the crystals. how much did you pay for your chandelier and what type of crystals do they use?

Thanks, pinkpetter and Pinklady Pinklady: i checked out your t-blog le. your chandelier has more crystals and mine has no LED lights we didn't see any chandelier with LED lights through our search. i love LED lights, think it enhance the sparkle of the crystals. the chandelier is up in the living room

ALMOST DONE! After more than 2 months, our renovation is finally drawing to a close. Some minor jobs to be done - changing of main door's lockset, installing the tap for the kitchen sink, the door bell, and turning on the gas. I'm more concerned about the washing up and the final touch ups before the handover, for example, the paint that kena the windows and toilet wall tiles, and the chipped paint on the wall. I wonder if they will clean it off or leave it to us hmmm...anyway, some pics to update... Our wrought iron gate. We chose the design partly because the code is 777 Cannot stand the ugly red water pipe right outside our house but there's simply nothing we can do... Our huge (for us lah) 5ft full-height shoe rack and 9.5ft settee. Chandelier and window grills also up. The paper bag there contain our classic double-sided clock from Cottage Craft, waiting to be fixed up Kitchen cabinets up. A pity the original granite sink we wanted was out of stock. This colour is not as matching to the solid top. A simple design which I came up with. As I do not want to face the problem of difficulty accessing the cabinet corner, I asked our contractor to do it this way so that we can fully utilize and access the corner from the dining area. I though it would be good, for example, when we are reading newspapers by the dining table, we can put it away conveniently when meals are ready If not, the area can also be used to store recipe books or other accessories. Our dining lights are up but we are rather unhappy with the height. It is too high and the angle is not nice. We are asking our contractor to move them lower and reduce the graduation but not sure if it can be done as the wire has been cut It is just the beginning as we still have a lot to do. Next up, curtains, electronics, furnishings and accessorising

hi silhouette, yes, i believe we are talking about the same person. we visited the ID Terry at Interior Library @ The Plaza and checked out his works. very nice classic designs. he draws everything by hand. but in the end, we decided not to fork out $4k as design fee since we are on a rather tight budget. would definitely consider him again maybe for our next house

I found your blog...haha.. your floor plan is really a mirror image of mine! Your proposed layout is interesting. I guess we have the same problem of a small MBR... hope to see more updates soon.

hi skymars, thank you for the encouragement. is your renovation done? any blog to take a look? the window was really an issue and there were many suggestions as to how we could deal with it. in fact, our contractor wanted to do away with the door as he sees no purpose if there is somebody in the room and we are going to close the door anyway. he suggested to do a lourve above when the door is supposed to be but we really prefer a door there. i thought of a more radical idea which was to knock out a window on the wall between the room and the living room and decorate the window (from the hall) with an awning and a street cafe mural. of course execution was a bigger problem

Hi, your kitchen looks like mine..long long type? Your tiles are so unique and pretty, wish I had seen them before we did our tiling.

Furniture Shopping We still have not gotten our curtains yet but Spotlight seems promising. They have a promotion of $5 per drop/width for making pinch pleat curtains till this 28 Jun. It sounds kinda cheap but technical to me. According to the friendly sales guy David, a normal window requires about 3 panels, so the workmanship for the curtains would be $15 + the fabrics we selected Sounds reasonable, I estimated simple curtains, tracks and curtain accessories for the whole house may cost probably $500+ but we need to take measurements first for a quotation and make our decision by this Sun Meanwhile, our weekends were spent on furniture shopping. People usually go from the most expensive to the least but we just happened to take the reverse route. We first sought out Sungei Kadut (IFC and a few other showrooms there), sorry to say, but the selections were very limited. Next, we went to The Furniture Mall @ Beach Road. Slightly better but still not what we were looking for. Then, we went to Park Mall. The furniture looks even better but so are the prices. I only managed to see one white classic leather 3-seater which costs $10k Our theme for the house is what you might term Modern Classic, Shabby Chic, Cottage, Chateau, etc Hence, we want to get some French Classic pieces to achieve the feel. However, it is pretty hard to find such furniture in Singapore, especially with a digestible price tag These are the few places that carry them them (listed from cheapest to the most expensive in general). 1) WholesaleClassicFurniture.com (online & showroom) Cheapest of the lot but quality look so so only. Doesn't really carry a lot of French Classic furniture in their showrooms as compared to what is advertised online. There were a lot more brown, woody, Zen, Balinese range. No interest to answer our simple email queries 2) Online furniture retailer Love their extensive collection. Reasonable prices. Prompt replies to our email queries. Only gripe that it is web-based, and there is no showroom so it is a risk 3) The Cottage Craft There is a shopfront but mostly accessories and a few pieces on show only. Can only see the rest of the collection from their catalog so can't tell much of the quality either. The French classic furniture look nice but prices are also higher. 4) Eco Links Very much expensive and their range is more of English Classic, not what we are looking for. I am quite tired of shopping around, so have decided to take the risk and order online in faith. Have ordered a TV console, armchair, coffee table and bedside table from them. Looking forward to receiving them in end-Jul. If the quality is ok, we may consider getting more pieces from them.

Thanks, ivy It's because of renotalk and other forummers that we are able to find out about this great lighting shop!

Shang Nao Jing Ahhh... Went to take a look at the reno progress today and encountered our first headaches Dunno who so extra went to stick back the previous owner's unit number plate on our door. They had taken it down earlier and we told our contractor to discard it since we wanted to install a wrought iron plate More headaches after we entered the house. The toilet bowls, wash basins and taps have been installed in both bathrooms but the taps were installed wrongly!!! We wanted square tap to square basin and round tap to round basin and they did it the other way round While the common bathroom one is not obvious, the MBR bathroom one is a reflection of the poor installation. How can the black rubber be sticking out underneath the tap so unsightly? I think the worker must be simply bochap On a happier note, we finally bought our lights today at lightings.com at 515 Balestier, after visiting many shops in Balestier, Geylang, and Jln besar. This has got to be the cheapest we've came across and service was ok Total costs for 6 lights = $420. Their lights are also fixed price, which I prefer since I'm not into bargaining. Don't have to bargain also since the fixed prices are already so cheap! They said they are able to offer such low prices because they are the distributor of lights and they cut out delivery and middleman costs. However, we really dunno how to carry the chandelier back to our car parked pretty far away (parking is a killer there!) hence we opt to pay a nominal $18 for delivery. The 6-spoke chandelier we bought @ $159...their bestseller. Yes, for this price we weren't expecting Swarovski or Asfour crystals. The salesperson Rock was honest enough to tell us that the crystals are from China and he revealed that actually most shops sell their chandeliers as Egyptian-crystal pieces and Egyptian-crystal prices but swap the crystals for China crystals later on since one can't tell the diff. True enough, we can't tell the diff even when it was placed next to an Asfour one. The shine is the same. We also bought 6 lampshades at $8 each, bringing the total price of the chandelier to $207, still less than half of what an Asfour one would cost The same chandelier looking differently from another angle... Our dining lights @ $85. Think it should go well with our earth-toned kitchen and brown kitchen cabinets. Rectangle lights for kitchen @ $52 and simple hamburger lights for bathrooms @ $12 only (I absolutely refuse to pay $30 for a milo tin ). We bought 2 of each. Next up, curtains...DIY, half-DIY or customised?!? Our budget is bursting already

worldangel: Believe you are replacing your laminate but we are fabricating a new kitchen cabinet so the price is different, and we are dealing with our contractor only, not Evershine directly.

This is funny, part green, part pink... The pink part is actually our converted WIW area. When the wardrobe is up, this won't be seen. We then adjourned to Ubi to check out some wholesale French classic furniture but was kinda disappointed. They have more teak, oriental furniture than the white classic pieces we were looking for. The showrooms were also super stuffy! After the disappointment and lack of ventilation, we moved to Joo Chiat to check out wall coverings at Golden City Decor Enterprise (as recommended by forummers here). The elderly auntie who attended to us was kinda hip as I was quite sure I heard her humming along the English songs played on the radio They seem to have a wide collection of wallpapers (of course cannot compare to Goodrich but Goodrich ) so auntie only showed us some. I quite like these 2 pieces though whether we will do wallpaper or not is not certain yet due to budget issues. Creamy background with white embossed glittering flowers for the subtle yet interesting touch when lights reflect on it. For the living room wall, since we are not going to do any feature wall. We were quoted $384 for one wall. I think this is gorgeous..a lovely and romantic pink with classic flowery motifs. Of course my other half thinks otherwise. This is the sample of how it would look like as a whole. This design is more expensive, thus it would cost us $555 for one wall. Our search for the lightings continued. Went Geylang and Jalan Besar. The prices there are really high as compared to Balestier. It's crazy! Those rectangle PLL lights we saw at Balestier were around $60-$100+ but at these 2 places, the prices started at $88 minimum...same design somemore! Chandeliers were worse...similar Egyptian crystal pieces were $650 (Geylang & Jln Besar) vs $300. Think we'll likely go back to Balestier to get the lights next week. Still can't find a nice piece of Tiffany-styled stained glass light (like those in Swensen's) for our dining area. The best we saw was at Balestier @ $500+ but sold already So the search has to go on.....

LET THERE BE LIGHT....AND PAINT Our PLC lights have been partially installed. Together with the lighting point, installation and PLC lights, we were quoted $30 each, so I guess it's cheap ba. Daniel gave us Osram energy saving 13w bulb (in Cool White) citing it as the best in the industry but I read in this forum that some of the Osram bulbs are now made in China? The PLC lighting case and the carton of Osram bulbs. Our toilet bowls, wash basins, taps and water heaters have also arrived for installation. The MK switches we are using. Daniel said it's good one. We've no studies of switches though Painting for the house has been completed today except for the doors. We are using Nippon paint Vinilex 5000. Living room = Lily White 5005 I actually forgot to take a pic of the living room so this one can see abit of the wall in Lily White together with some of the installed PLC lights. MBR = Royal Pink 5081 2 other rooms = White Ice 5073 (actually is more like pale green)

Pinklady: not yet. contractor said no hurry to install so, oh well, we just wait. imagine we still rushed to buy them SOLID SURFACE Today was a busy day. Met up with Daniel again to discuss on the solid surface top. We were given Sing Solid Surface (3S) but we read in forums that 50% of their workmanship got problem and <$65/ft was a more reasonable price. We were rather worried about the workmanship and also felt kinda overcharged at $80/ft. We were more surprised to learn that the 3S solid surface was actually polyester and not acrylic He showed us the LG HI-MACS acrylic samples (super shiny when placed next to the polyester top) but we had to top up to $110/ft which meant $480 more for a solid top so eventually we decided to take another brand 'Marstone' cos we don't have to top up and it is under LG...but their polyester range, just like 3S. Still felt shortchanged as saw other people's reno quote for this Marstone was $63/ft but what to do? We gain some and lose some ba moreover so far he hasn't given us any headache yet. I also had a change of mind over the kitchen cabinet laminate. Decided that a darker shade would go better with the glossy white wall tiles and yellow & brownish floor tiles. So the kitchen cabinet laminate and solid surface top would look like this. Was contemplating the one at the top (Aurora) but decided that Brown Sand is better since easier to match my granite sink and as Daniel mentioned, got ants also cannot see

hi born_again, i've PMed you

hi born_again, we got the house for $285k actually (val 275k + 10k COV). $298 was the selling price but $13k was paid for by our angel

HOB & HOOD It was time to get our hob & hood as tiling has been completed yesterday. As everybody has differing opinions, we couldn't decide on which to get. Thus, just like choosing fruits, if you don't know which tastes better, you just choose the nicest looking one With this rationale and since I'll most likely be the one cooking, I've picked the Aerogaz black sparkling glass hob as THE choice. Naturally, we got the hood together since the package price is more attractive. Hob is retailing at $389 & hood at $229, package is at a very affordable $499 (so we save $119) with a free slow cooker Along the way, we went to Goodrich and checked out their mind-boggling choices of wallpaper...no conclusion which to get or whether to get...may check out other wallpaper providers like DNA and Design Intervention first TOILET ACCESSORIES Also along the way, we went to Sim Siang Choon at Changi to purchase our toilet accessories. There are so much more choices there as compared to those in IMM or Balestier. We decided not to get all the 7-pc set accessories but just those we need. Inclusive of the 2 mirrors below, we spent about $240, which is much cheaper than getting 2 full set of accessories The oval one is for MBR toilet and the round one is for the common toilet. Tomorrow will be tedious as we check out Balestier for the right lights

Thanks, Focus preciousjam: we went imm (hoe kee and sim siang choon) to take a look but didn't notice this Critzo brand. i didn't even check out what is the brand of my sink wor...issit Critzo i googled and found this shop in geylang selling alot of bathroom accessories, including the Critzo brand and other kitchen stuff so may go there take a look. oh yah, how do you know? we are also having a headache over which hob & hood to get... and lightings too

Focus: our sink is not exactly facing the hall..there's a wall. it's clearer if you see the floor plan. any issues if it faces the hall? Thanks, preciousjam! we may consider the accessories we need then. just that they keep saying that it's much cheaper to buy the set may i know where can i find Asia excel or Critzo brand?

We didn't manage to find any nice toilet accessories there. These are 2 of the more presentable 7-piece sets they offer. The first set is $160 and the second set is $195. If we still cannot find elsewhere, think we may settle for the first set. They are also selling their normal rectangle mirrors at $68 each which we think is crazy.. Anybody can recommend where to find nice toilet accessories and mirrors? More HEADACHES... We couldn't decide on how we want the tv console to be. I really don't like the idea of making a feature wall and a suspended console like most contemporary designs today, especially when the laminates are limited, we can't find any suitable one for the feature wall. Choosing laminates for the carpentry works is really a headache..in the end, we decided to stick with the white theme and chose just these 2 laminates for all the carpentry works. The laminates are from Evershine. Not sure about the quality but read from the forum that it is one of the oldest laminate pioneers in Singapore? The one on the left is matte and the other is glossy. We will use the glossy one for kitchen cabinets since our kitchen floor tiles are matte. The matte one will be used to construct the rest (shoe rack, settee, study table, WIW) since our flooring is glossy.

SHOPPING We went shopping with our contractor yesterday to select toilet fittings and accessories from a shop in Balestier. Here are the stuff we've chosen. This is abit bulky for our small toilets but we didn't have any choice as we are restricted by our toilet offset of 6". Anyway, it's a good choice with dual flush and slow close feature. The wash basin and tap we have chosen for the MBR toilet. This is the set for the common toilet. Again, we were restricted by size, so had to choose this one even though I prefer the earlier one. The tap looks similar but is different. It has a square stem to match the square sink. Kitchen sink tap. The handle is of the same style as the taps for the wash basins.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (Part 4) The false ceiling for the living room and the L-boxes for the 3 bedrooms have been completed. I may sound suaku but I really wonder how they are going to find or create the lighting and electrical points since everything is hidden inside the false ceiling Kitchen cabinet base is up and so is the water outlet for the kitchen sink. Contractor was funny. He said that he had buried the water drainage pipe in the ground (beneath the kitchen cabinet) and in the direction as shown by the yellow line; if he doesn't like us, he would lay the pipe in a L-shape (shown by the red line) and above the kitchen cabinet base since it would be more convenient to do so than cutting the floor to hide the pipe The L-shape may also cause chokes in future due to the bend. The rubbish chute is also up. He didn't ask us and just installed it. Thank God it's a cute pink colour Tiling for wall and floor of both toilets and kitchen is also completed. No pics taken as it was too dark when we went to see.

Thanks, booy and flyingballoons mrspiglet: our contractor just included those fittings in the quote so we have a better idea of how much we will be paying so he didn't exactly throw it in We get to choose everything. He provisioned an average cost for the items, eg. wash basins. So if the one we choose is more expensive, we will have to top up; if cheaper, he will deduct. Yes, we rendered that 46k is acceptable since most stuff are included, such as the 30+ PLC lights, which we understand that people usually have to buy them separately and the contractor only does the installation. takomi: congrats on getting your house soon! we've measured the floor plan and it seems like the distance between our sofa and the tv would be about 3m which is quite ok so you may want to consider

Hi takomi, thank you yah, i agree..this is one of the problems. the shoe rack is a must so i think we can only try to get a smaller tv due to the distance.. Do you have a blog of your house here for us to take a look?