marshmallow

hey berry~ saw your photos... your broken marble floor is very nice! colour is nice and looks classy~ haha actually the dark patches gave me lots of headache which my floor is like yours kekeke

Hey there! my bathroom tiles has one or two that feels slightly uneven, since it's just slightly uneven, it didn't bother me. My tiles' surface was uneven to start with, so... haha i guess for your old home, the tiles are ceramic tiles? i noticed that ceramic tiles have round edges while those tiles we used now have sharper finishes at the edges. This was something that someone in this forum highlighted b4 (forgot who liao ) Kitchen ones, i didn't feel uneven-ness at least for the area i walk on my tiles have some patches too after acid wash, just ask them to clean during the final cleaning. some i wash on my own. as for grout, after acid wash some came off, they will patch up after that de... no worries if in doubt, dun be shy, just discuss with Henry on what's the best solutions

My Study Room: Finally have a photo with my white book shelves at the correct place . Purposely choose white shelves to place against the marina blue wall... reminds me of blue sky with cotton white clouds The other side of the study room... our working desks. Still messy.... Clock for study room - bought from Japan. Still on our document tray cos we still can't decide where to hang

The Dining Table Story Must vent my frustration here before my memory starts to fade You all can see the dining set from the photos - pretty decent looking, big enough (1.6m), tempered glass top (i insisted on glass top), comes with 6 chairs and fit into our theme... rite? Price was reasonable too, that's why I bought from this place where i never thought I'd buy anything from: COURTS. But what happened after... was really frustrating They visited our home 4 times to get everything right!! 1st Visit: On the delivery date (24 Jul), 2 guys in Courts uniform came - Ok, they came on time (at that point I thought it was good), and then started installation. After installing half way, one of the guys gave this really surprised look on his face and suddenly all work stopped. He then informed that some screws/fitting (pineapple nuts or something, i heard) were missing and they can't continue installation. They re-packed the wooden parts and left the tempered glass behind, promised that they will be back on 28 Jul 11:30am to resume the work. Since we happened to be on leave that day, we said ok. At the same time, we checked the chairs. 4 out of 6 chairs had different forms of defect (scratches, corner chipped off, cracked etc). We rejected the chairs and asked them to exchange to good ones. They took these chairs and left. 2nd Visit: On 28 Jul, we rushed home from appointment @ ROM in the morning. We reached home ~11am. 11:30am came, no news, no sound. Had lunch, packed boxes, did cleaning... until 1+pm, still no news. Called them up, replied: oh, the delivery slot is 11am to 4pm, they will come at any point within this range... We went: wah your guy promised to come at 11:30am, now you tell me he can possibly come at 4pm?? The person kept re-iterating that the range is 11am to 4pm... nevermind, we wait. Had tea, packed more boxes, did more cleaning... until 4+pm, still no news. Called up and asked... short while later, 2 guys came (different team from last time). Okie, at least the guy was apologetic and kept saying sorry... but he leaked out that actually they were not informed of this delivery today (!!) they have to rush here last min to do this job (!!) okie la he apologised for his colleagues' mistakes... well.... Tables installed. The 4 chairs that supposed to be exchanged arrived too. and we checked the chairs... guess what, they were the SAME 4 CHAIRS that we REJECTED a few days back!!!! my hubby's patience has run out. He was really mad and asked the person: how could you bring back the same chairs that i rejected??? it's not so bad if you exchanged to another 4 chairs with defects, you BROUGHT BACK WHAT WE REJECTED?? hope that we dun remember what we rejected?? Then in the first place i reject for what?? The guy again apologized... he said he has no control over this.. it's the QC dept that checks, he only delivers and installs... okie fine, we know he should not take the blame (also, must give credit to this guy for his politeness and calmness when facing angry pple like us ). Hubby called the customer service immediately and gave them a good scolding 4 chairs were taken back again. 3rd Visit: Next day, 4 chairs delivered, but 2 got defects and were rejected AGAIN. 4th Visit: Delivered last 2 chairs. Finally it's all over. After this episode, i doubt if we'll buy from Courts again...

Living and Dining Room, viewed from Study Room:

sigh i forgot all about it until you guys mentioned aiyah if you all discussed here before buying then i'd have been "reminded" earlier hee i said in the beginning it's for AV products only mah... never read properly

yup yup! fully understand how you feel~ at first i found it ugly too! Glad that it turns out fine for you as well~ The patches of brown among the pinkish marble gave us a lot of headache - we were automatically narrowed down to a colour scheme of browns and neutrals and there goes my dream of sleek lines and white furnitures ... but now look back, i m happy with my marble floor~ and luckily the colour combi of all the furniture looks ok... we kinda anyhow whacked one hahaha

Hi All! Had a mini gathering at my home during last week's long weekend... so FINALLY we dragged ourselves to get our home tidied up! still a bit messy, but at least now can take some photos for public viewing hee hee... erm okie... think i was still on living room and study room in my last update... haha anyway, here are the photos.. with furniture~ Living room + dining room: Living room + dining room, viewed from the main door: love my Calypso! Initially we were so worried that the colour won't match the whole house, luckily it turned out just right~ And you all can see... The shoe cabinet near the door (the one i was asking about where to place earlier on). Went to many, many places to look at shoe cabinets... somehow all those designs that i like are white, which doesn't fit into the whole theme end up bought this simple shoe cabinet from Shing Hup in Jurong West. The look matches the whole theme and price is reasonable... Those staying in Jurong West, no harm go and take a look - they do catalogue sale too

While i agree that it's difficult/unfair for Singaporean singles, on the point: This is too much a generalisation... i know many PRs that do not rent out rooms, and many Singaporeans that rent out rooms. If one really need extra income, Singaporean can rent out room too, just that most people don't want to / don't like to. It's their own preference that makes them "missed" the opportunity to "rent out the rooms for income".

yay... finally a t-blog with photos that i can see in office... welcome and enjoy your reno journey~

LOL anyone interested please let me know... quick quick...

Thanks for all the effort in researching... these are things that layman (like me ) won't think about. Sorry need to ask a stupid question for my clarification... My compressor is connected via those 15A round pin kind of plug. When the switch for this plug is off, is it equivalent to switching off the mains? Or I must go to the DB to switch the power off then it's considered as "switching off the mains"? Thanks...

can ma?? last time i wanted to change to full leather but the lady told me for Calypso's design, cannot use full leather

that's what i was trying to say... since we can't change HDB, we try to make adjustments on our ends but that's provided if the sellers can shift out earlier la. besides, also depends on seller's character.. if they are those like to "chu pattern" kind, then it's probably safer to stick with HDB's date than any other form of written agreement...

LOL was thinking about the same... when BTO is costing ~300k for 4 room, quite hard to redeem in 6 yrs with < 8k combined income

Yo~ interesting t-blog that you have. your write up on the paint removal was very useful! (i asked similar question on RT a few months back ) all the best for your reno journey~

Just F.Y.I., even if you and seller write in to appeal for an earlier 2nd appointment date, the earliest HDB can give is still around 6 weeks after 1st appointment. Earliest one i heard of is 5+ weeks. In my case, HDB die die say earliest is 6 weeks due to high volume of transaction and CPF side need time for paper work etc etc... Maybe can talk to your seller and see when can they move out... At least there might be a chance to start reno earlier even though 2nd appointment date can't be brought forward~

That's the problem many 1st timers face... my frens have been placing ballots in all BTO/Sales for Balance Flat since almost 4 yrs ago. now they are already married for 2.5 yrs and still balloting. the reason to go for new flats is becos they are not cash rich to pay the COVs. now, the cumulative rent they have paid is already more than the average COV. that's why 1st timer chiong resale also...

if you've found a place you like and gonna stay long in it, then, don't think too much about earning/losing... just proceed and enjoy the new home so long as you have done a proper financial plan for buying this place, you should be fine...

the article has a lot of contradiction... on one hand they said it's buyer's market, on the other hand they ask pple not to sell their HDB now the demand for resale flat is real at least for now... even when many BTOs are coming out, there are still :- pple who can't waitpple who wants better locationsPRssandwich class that cannot get new flats (like those combined income 8.5k pple) .......... etc.

actually 10% drop is not so difficult depending on how you calculate if the baseline is low, 10% is easy to achieve. say a 4-rm flat is at $350k and seller now are asking 70k COV. If later seller ask for 30k COV, already a drop in more than 10% but the same drop in COV for EM is only 5-8% drop in price? after taking national average across all flat types, they probably can get some decent numbers

are you refering to the glass backsplash or glass sliding doors in kitchen? cos pple always say glass backsplash is installed for easy cleaning...

Bro, just thinking that the statement "10% downpayment CPF" is confusing to some, cos the rule never says that this 10% must come from CPF. Even if CPF has $0, you can still pay the downpayment in cash (provided one has the cash la). Just that if your CPF OA has money, they will wipe out the CPF first as according to their rules.

you mean whether the 10% downpayment is paid on top of the 50% cash proceed? from what i understand from HDB website, answer is No... the cash proceed can be used to make up the downpayment. but HDB also smart one, they will adjust the loan quantum accordingly to make sure that the 50% cash proceed will be fully utilised. i think this calculator is better... you can get the answer you need after keying in all the numbers. http://services2.hdb.gov.sg/webapp/BB29FIN/BB29FINP.jsp

thanks bro england how's your new place so far?