scarlett

sounds good! and yeah i love the fan too! we still haven't bought ceiling fans. but due to tight budget i guess we'll have to settle for a less fancy model

awesome. wish i could just skip work and go there now! lol.

update! so we finally got our keys yesterday did inspection, the house is in generally good condition cos the prev owners really maintained it well despite having lived there for 13 years. the only thing is that the parquet flooring has sustained a number of huge scratches. probably got it when they were moving. now hubby and i are thinking of just doing the grinding and varnishing of the parquet flooring (originally left it out because we were trying to reduce the total cost). our contractor quoted us $800 for 3 bedrooms. is this reasonable? will be taking photos of the 'before' of the kitchen and 2 toilets tonight. stay tuned!

love the aircon! it looks really cool (excuse the pun)! hehe. do try it out and give feedback!

nice!! do you know if the promo is still on?!

eh i'm also looking out for toilet bowls. checked out Hoe Kee n Sim Siang Choon, neither had anything that captured my fancy. also on a budget so can't afford to go for the more expensive ones. $220 sounds good! i just checked out Wasser's homepage. never heard of them till now. any feedback from anyone?! *eagerly waiting*

all the best! keep us posted

notice of renovation put up today! excited excited hubby and i will be going over on Sunday to collect the keys (after 6 loooong months), and will be inspecting the house. can't wait!

hi dien, keep the reno updates coming! and your prev house looked really nicely done up too. hopefully this one will be even nicer

what an amazing makeover! love your house! super inspiration because i'm starting my partial reno next week!

hi there, seeing as this was posted almost 3 mths ago, not sure if my reply will still be useful! u should try Hoe Kee. they have a decent range of basin cabinets, of course not as fancy as the one u showed, but they serve the purpose and are not bad looking. i am getting a basin cabinet from them for my common toilet as well. go to their Genting Rd showroom, it's the main one and biggest range.

ok no worries! we've more or less decided to get the older model of StarMex cos the new one's cooling capacity is lower. yes gain city is amazing... i went there for the first time last weekend

hi! hahaha yes it's important to have a nice bathroom area. after all, we get our best ideas in there!

hi! just dropped by your blog to take a look. the tiles look really nice! looking forward to seeing the rest of the house

here's a sneak peek of the tiles we chose for our two toilets! i'm a huge fan of the baroque pattern, and thankfully the husband agreed that they look great. we picked them from Soon Bee Huat. take a look! brown one is for the common toilet, grey for the master

hi! thank you soo much! is your starmex the new model with 5 ticks? or is it the older one?

ok i shall do further research on this. my contractor just called abt an hour ago and apparently we can start the hacking work on 16th dec which is next week omg!

i read a post on it last night on my phone... now i can't find it. if i find it i'll show u. let me know how ur new aircon is, ok? also the service from gain city as well. thank u so much!

awww no idea about this. will it serve the purpose though? my dad used to have one. but it was the kind where you have to fill it up with cold water.. is this the same?

this is exacccctly what the gain city guy told us yesterday! about how the new starmex has a 5 tick model but the older model is better etc. so confusing leh. so u bought ur LG aircon from gain city?

hi! nice updates! can't wait to see the final product too, i think it's gonna look great :D

thanks guys. Lazyfatcat007, may i have your blog address please? sapphire89, i must admit i was attracted by LG's looks. it looks really sleek and stylish. but i read in one of the forums here that apparently it may have issues if installed lower, i.e. below a false ceiling? i'm not sure also. so confusing

thanks dien! my flat is only 13 years old so not that bad la i think. haha. anyway, question for anyone who reads this: which air conditioner would u recommend?! we are looking for a system 4 and are confused between Mitsubishi Starmex, LG and Hitachi!

thanks everyone! we've decided to go with hacking. finally updated my t-blog because renovation is finally gonna start! http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/72372-a-hodgepodge-of-ideas-5i-resale-flat/

helloooooo everyone. apologies for the long hiatus! i didn't want to update the blog until i finally had something concrete, and at long last i have something to report. after meeting countless IDs and contractors, we have finally settled and signed with one: Mr B (I decided not to put in his name here for now!). We don't have a theme - that's why it's hodgepodge haha. mixed up themes everywhere. our experience meeting several IDs and contractors was a tiring one. one of the IDs offered a really competitive quote. he promised to throw in a lot of free items, and said he could give us these prices cos his tilers and glassmen were 'doing him a favor'. in the end we decided not to go with him because he was really putting the pressure on us and we felt like we were being bullied (not in a mean way) into signing. and i did some research and realised that their firm's review is not that great anyway. so...! Mr B has been a contractor for about 20 years now. he's an incredibly humble man. he's sort of a one-man show, and so he doesn't take on a million projects at once. he does a lot of landed properties, and the first time i got in touch with him, he really wanted us to go see his ongoing project. that was quite impressive cos no other ID/contractor offered that. in fact, when we asked some IDs to show us, they made excuses. one even took us to his own house and said that their firm renovated his house! so weird. anyway, these are what we'll be doing: 1) full overhaul of 2 toilets - hacking all tiles, replacing all fittings, MBR toilet installing new vanity top with kompacplus, tempered glass shower screen in both toilets, etc 2) dismantling kitchen cabinet and reinstalling new one - no hacking of kitchen tiles. kitchen countertop will be kompacplus 3) full house painting - 5 colors. Mr B agreed to throw in painting of our bedroom doors 4) installing 2 bifold doors for toilets 5) varnishing wooden skirting 5) chemical wash of whole house of course, the above isn't in much detail. there are additional things like labour charge for installation of all the fittings etc. so the total comes up to about $19,750. we left out the following that we originally wanted to do: changing of bedroom doors, installing a door at kitchen entrance, varnishing of parquet flooring for all 3 bedrooms. our budget simply doesn't allow it. and these things can be done later after we move in as well. so! what have we bought so far? quite a lot of things actually! 1) sofa set from Big Box - this is probably the best purchase ever. we're both SUPER happy with it. 3+2 fabric sofa for only $699! best. 2) dining set from Courts - another purchase we are happy with, but more expensive. so we bought on 0% instalment plan. it's a 7 seater - 4 chairs and a bench 3) cooker hob and hood - another great purchase. it's the Fujioh 3773 white color one, 3 rings. one is an internal ring, which is very unique and good for cooking! only $699+$40 (cos we took the white one). From Hoe Kee in Tanjong Katong 4) 2 shower sets. One is a Rubine instant heater with a shower head for the common toilet - $119. and the other is a Rubine instant heater with the rain shower - $360, and a new model! Both look nice and sleek and reasonably priced. also from Hoe Kee. 5) a lot of random things like a happycall frying pan that i got for $50 from Giant in Parkway Parade. hahaha. 6) we chose the bathroom tiles as well from Soon Bee Huat. super nice baroque design. **** happy! right now we are doing a lot of online research on aircons. we wanna get a system 4, and yesterday we went to Gain City to get an idea. they were pushing the LG Artcool mirror model, saying that it's fully made in Korea etc. we almost bought it but my husband decided that we shd do a bit more research first. i agree. also looking at ceiling fans. Fanco i heard is good, but so expensive if we wanna get the light and remote. haiz. as for televisions, Gain City and Mega Discount both seem to have competitive prices. need to make the trip down to Mega Discount store to take a look. photos of the items will follow later. lazy to upload now. watch this space! finally will be updating more often