curryqueen

Yah.. boxed using wood, no backing.

Thanks, emerald long necked herbivore! I like it too!

Harros, welcome to RT! When I first started out, my budget was about $20K. My renovation cost is now about $30K, excluding furniture and lights. Like all the others said, do only the essentials first. Whole house do laminate, cheaper than tiles coz less manpower and no need to hack. Kitchen floor tiles, spray paint (like gimz) or cement screed (like me). Kitchen cabinet, see if can just change the doors to give it an updated look. Rewiring if it's still the original HDB wires (like mine), better for you to rewire for safety purposes. Carpentery will kill you,so I would advise against building the MBR wardrobe if you are tight on cash. Tell your empress can only have 1: Kitchen cabinet or built in wardrobe.. Show us your pics

Nah.. the top will be boxed up.. and yes! Still S/S counterop! The kitchen is the only portion that I have not modified since the beginning. Everything else has been changing!

Fanco aroma ceiling fan placed in the MBR. It's really low. I only need a small stool to reach the lighting kit, so it's easy to change the bulbs. I can't touch the fan blades standing on the floor, so quite ok.. The Ikea Karemare spotlights with Ikea CFL lights....it looks kinda obscene with the lightbulbs jutting out like that, so will probably change it.. They were hanging the bird cage lamps when I left.. I really did a lousy paint job on them and it looked quite bad. I will try and do so touch ups to it this weekend and hopefully, it will turn out better.

The sliding shelf for my steamer Common toilet with the laundry sink, multipoint heater and showerhead Am happy with my laundry sink.. Don't have to handwash clothes in pail anymore and kill my back!

These were my horrible water pipes at the MBR toilet before These are how they look like now: I do feel that it's so much better since the horizontal pipes are up near the ceiling. I am thinking of sticking some decals there of falling leaves or something. The holes that were made earlier weren't obvious at all, so I told the tiler not to bother changing the affected tiles. In fact, I was hard put to find where the affected tiles were.. Kitchen cabinet was up too!

But that's in halogen, so it will be super duper hot. Halogen bulbs also burn out fast, so you may want to think a bit more about it.

Thanks for the links! Very useful. Went to Ikea yesterday and was horrified to find that the Ikea Kuramare spotlight was sold out in both Alexandra and Tampines and is discontinued!! Die die had to get a light for the common bedrm as the electricians were coming today and decided to compromise on Calpsyo Light.. Let's hope it turns out alright.

Congrats on the move-in!! So exciting!

I do NOT like pipes! The way the water pipes in the MBR toilet was run was just hideous. Got no heart to put up the photo ( and also because I can't find the usb cable to the hp.. .) Because I have a 15cm concrete ledge abt 70cm above the ground, the plumber ran the pipes just above the ledge, curving around the corner of the ledge before going up to the mixer. The pipes were totally "in-your-face." My friends suggested i place a shower curtain to hide the pipes and also give the impression that the toilet has more space than there really is and to create more interest in a bland toilet, but I'm really not too keen. I've asked the contractor to re-run the pipes up at the ceiling level where it is less obvious.. am also not sure if I should paint the stainless steel water pipes to blend it with the walls. Has any one painted their s/s water pipes? Anyway, things are progressing rather quickly, the running of the electrical wires were completed, painting will begin this coming Tues. Quite exciting as the paint colour will either make it or break it for me... I need to settle all my lights by Tues and I still can't find a light that I like for the CBR. I think I will probably use Ikea's Kramare tracklight and just get it settled. I will be using 2 of Ikea's Kramare Triple Ceiling spotlights in the LVR with a ceiling fan in btw. The thing I have been wondering whether I should spray paint the lights white or just leave it as aluminium..

Why is it when i trawl sites for secondhand furniture, I see old secondhand Ikea furniture or antique rosewood, while you get such gorgeous stuff? Quick! 'Fess up! Which sites did you go (besides gumtree)?

Yup, he did.

Went to the factory to see the grilles and gates. The gate was acceptable, but the grilles weren't. If you look through the clingwrap, you would see that the grilles are like tic-tac-toe, with the horizontal bars cutting across the grilles equally. However, what I wanted was a longer centre portion, with the 2 ends perhaps a foot long at each end only. He offered me a $100 discount if I took these grilles. But I don't think I can live with it. I think he'd have to redo the grilles and throw the old ones away. On a separate note, the tiling in my loo has completed. I'm a little regretful that the feature wall turned out so"blah". Should have stuck with the shiny grey-black ones as feature. Laundry sink stand in the common toilet completed. This was how they embedded the aircon pipes that were going to the loo The MBR wall loo tiles turned out pinker than I expected. So I would say my wall tiling choices weren't that ideal. I do like both the toilet floor tiles though..I think I should have stuck with matte tiles for the walls. But I wanted light to be reflected since it was so **** small! Ah well, after a couple of months, we won't notice it anyway...

For Ikea lovers, here's a look at the new 2011 US Ikea Catalogue

50% deposit

I am NOT happy with my window grilles & gate contractor. They emailed me last week asking me to send a soft copy of the gate design I wanted (again). I emailed them back and asked them to send me the design BEFORE production so that I can approve it and ensure nothing goes wrong. No news from them. Today, someone called and said that they will be installing the gates & grilles on Sat and asked me when I was free to receive it. I was like, huh??! But you didn't even send me the design to approve! I didn't even call you to tell you when to install! You were supposed to wait for me to tell you when to install and start production! So they sent me the design of the grille drawn on a piece of paper, and sure enough,it's incorrect (proportions were wrong). I drew out the proper thing I wanted and emailed it to them. In half an hour, the sales person called me to say that the grilles and gate have already been made and can't change the design. I was hopping mad! Who authorised them to make it using my $$?! I asked him to take a picture of what was made and I will decide whether I want to accept it or not. He will email me the pictures tomorrow. Really not happy at all...

I may chicken out and paste frosted film on it. Like the fact that I can see the trees though.

I'm thinking of getting a handheld vacuumfrom Amazon but not sure if it will work in Singapore? Anyone knows?

Actually, if you think about it, it makes more sense for the laminate side to face in because it will be easier to clean with all the shoe scuff marks. Outside not laminate ok, go for the "raw" look to match your pallet.. So not a mistake!

There is also Charis Life at the Plaza.Charis Life But the price is not cheap. I like the Yen range because it has curved edges.

My contractor said that I can't use stainless steel floor traps because of some HDB regulation. But I don't see it in the HDB website. Anyone knows if this is true?

Dun have.. got more mattress, sofas and dining tables this time round

For those looking for a gd deal for Ikea sofas, head down to the As-is section ASAP (before wkend!) The stockholm 1.5 seater armchair was going for $480!! Usual price is $1.4K. It's a display piece and a little dirty, but worth it! They also have some leather ones that are really nice!! All display pieces going cheap! If I had space for the armchair, I would grab it!!