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twinklecloud

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Posts posted by twinklecloud

  1. Posted · Edited by twinklecloud

    Just completed discussing with ID the final decisions of all the doors in the house and the designs plus the carpentry work for the whole house.

    the date is getting closer ... everything seems to get so real now..

    wooohoo.. so excited.. but but.. atlas... my legs and hands are super slow that i need to start making purchase..

    pending items :

    1. hob and hood

    2. dishwasher, decided on this bosch one. cant wait to try it out.. hehe

    MCSA00812967_E9342_SMS63L02EA_453148_def

    3. washing machine and dryer

    4. built in oven- decided on this model after looking thru. like this as it is quite safe for children the glass is made of three layers hence even when it's hot it will not be too hot to touch.price wise, it's reasonable for bosch brand

    bosch%20oven_zpswwhrycx8.png

    5. all toilet accesories

    6. hanging lights for kitchen and dining area

    So far, i have shortlisted a few items and will be purchasing them soon. will post more pics to share, do hope you guys will be more patient with me and do give some opinions as well. =)

  9. Posted

    hi ricepapergirl..

    u indeed live up to your nick! :good:

    No worries by time you get your keys u will be EVEN more excited.. hehe..

    haha.. thank you thank you. i find my blog super "luan" like so disorganised! :ph34r:

    will try to update soon!!

    now is shopping time!! but i am a lousy shopper.. =(

  12. Posted

    hi hi..

    your 3D looks awesome!

    kitchen drawers? can consider song cho?

    u decided on vinyl flooring?

    recently my friend renovated her house and she overlayed with vinyl!totally no gap at all!! very nice and easy to maintain.. u can consider.. it's cheaper alternative..

    have u decided on ID/contrator?

    staying tune to see your WIW and study come alive! looks really awesome!

  14. Posted

    Twinklecloud Gong Xi Fa Cai! Here is the link for you!

    Just take note that the mint green in the photo is wrong because I ordered that and it came in dark green instead. I decided not to pursue the issue since it is very troublesome just to do an exchange

    https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?ft=t&id=18649608056&toSite=main

    thank you!!!happy new year to u too!! how was the housewarming cum valentine? hehe

    love the view from your kitchen!

  15. Posted

    taobaoloots_zpsf4gwyila.jpg

    Because @matchalatte requested....... :)

    Introducing my very first ever batch of purchased items from Taobao!

    The prices are in SGD, and per item. From left-right, top-bottom:

    1. Hanging caged lights for bathroom, above the sink. $15
    2. Hanging mesh lights for bedroom, above both bedsides. $20
    3. Hanging caged lights for kitchen, above the row of bottom cabinets. $10
    4. Hanging bird cage lights for living room, above both corners of the living room window. $14
    5. Track lights (20w), Track and track connector for all rooms. $4, $1 and $0.40 respectively
    6. Hanging wall lights for still unknown (lol). $40
    7. Hanging pendant lamp for study room, above study tables. $21
    8. Craftstone bricks for living room and bedroom. $6 per box (1 box has 66 tiles and covers 1 sqm)
    9. Rustic wall clock for living room. $14

    With the time we took searching for the perfect pieces (1 month!!!), you'd think we would order dozens and dozens of items, lol but....no.

    We spent the longest time EVER searching for these items. Because we were new to Taobao, the entire process was completely alien and stressful to us, and it took us almost a month to finally complete the entire process. Though the savings kinda make all the pain worth it. Besides, you really only need to go through it once, and you'll get the hang of it.

    The agent that I used is Oops. I was pretty lucky because a friend of mine had used their services to purchase items for her house, and so she was able to give me valuable coaching.

    Off the top of my head, here are a few things to take note of:

    1. Sea Freight Vs. Air Freight

    • Sea Freight

      - Calculated by volume: SGD$11.11/0.1 cubic meter

      - Minimum requirement: 1 Cubic Meter (or pay for the same amount ie. $111.10)

      - Use for big and/or heavy items like furniture, craftstone bricks, etc. Also use if there you have plenty of items

      - Pros: Can be used to ship a large amount of items over, including heavy and bulky items

      - Cons: Slower than air freight. Will arrive in 2-3 weeks time

    • Air Freight

      - Calculated by weight: SGD$2.22/500grams

      - Minimum requirement: 500grams (or pay for the same amoun ie. $4.44)

      - Use for light items like cloth, small containers, little items etc. and if you need them urgently

      - Pros: Faster than sea freight, will arrive in 1 weeks time. Don't need to buy in a large volume quantity.

      - Cons: Too expensive to be used for heavy or large items

    2. Place Order (Assisted Purchase Service) Vs. DIY Place Order (DIY Reship Service)

    Use "Place Order" if you are very unfamiliar with the Chinese Language, or are not confident in making a purchase even after translating the page. Oops (or your agent) will make the purchase for you instead. Conversely, use "DIY Place Order" if you are able to make the purchase on your own.

    3. Communicating in Mandarin on Taobao

    Be prepared to communicate with the Taobao sellers in Mandarin. Use the little chat icon on the item page, or download the taobao chat tool. You will probably need to ask them about the volume or weight of the item so you can calculate the shipping fees (from China to SG). You will also sometimes need to inform them to add in the local shipping charges (from the seller's location to Oops's China warehouse). Not all, but some sellers will charge for this. If you're not sure, always check with the seller.

    4. Taobao Item Refund

    Taobao has this nifty function that allows for a full refund (hurray!), as long as your item has not yet been shipped (I'm not sure if the same applies after shipping has begun). All you need to do is contact your seller and inform them of your decision, navigate to the refund page in Taobao, and request for a refund. The seller will then proceed to refund your money, no questions asked (at least in my experience).

    I'll make a separate, more detailed post (probably on my personal blog) when I have the time :)

    the items are awesome! definitely fit into your house theme perfectly.

    I am still in the mist of hunting.. tedious process..

    thanks for the taobao introduction.

    staying tune to see the progress!

  18. Posted

    KITCHEN:

    I have purchased the Kraus Coriander which fits perfectly. I find it handy to use as a small dish dryer, to defrost frozen food, etc. In the photo, also the Simple Human sponge holder. good suction and looks stylish too. Yeah... a sponge holder can actually look sexy too!

    Both items purchased from Amazon.

    2ue5vs9.jpg

    Teka Hob. This is the one item I have chosen the smaller one and I am glad as the kitchen is smaller than what I see in my mind. I bought this design because of the ceramic glass instead of the usual tempered glass and not only it is a stronger material, it also sits very thinly close to the counter-top giving it a sleek look

    2d0kx80.jpg

    Panasonic Fridge with the freezer at the bottom. My other half insist on this as he claim that freezer is lesser used and should be at the bottom and since I have no opinion on this. It is fine for me.

    Fujioh oven

    9pu90p.jpg

    Magnetic clock from TB

    vskrr6.jpg

    Blum Pull Out Drawers filled with at least 1 years' worth of pasta

    2wmfiww.jpg

    Never ending cleaning as my crockery emerged from their storage boxes

    1hf78l.jpg

    wow!! i love love the amazon purchases- Kraus Coriander and the simple human sponge holder.. (i am tempted to order from amazon too!!)

    love your blum drawers too!! I will look into it.. hehe.. thanks for the update! very nice!

  19. Posted · Edited by twinklecloud

    Time really flies.. into Day 48 and end of Jan 2016

    Been busy lately with the upcoming CNY preparation and din go down to check on the house..

    Went down and saw some progress kind of happy that after so long.. things are like turning into reality.. cant wait for it to transform!!

    Area under the staircase

    before%20and%20after%20staircase_zpshdjo

    Before it was empty, now a store is being created

  20. Posted

    Went over the flat yesterday and was pleasantly surprised that no workers there and everything has been cleaned up. Fo the first time, I stepped in without shoes.. hmmm so nice!

    The tiny living room knocked out from bedroom 2. 30% of the room went to the WIW. My monstrous 2 meter teak wood table from Origin Asia.

    x44zzs.jpg

    The brickwall finally is up. I contemplated for a long time over this because I wanted to keep cost low but yet wanted to hide the wires so final decision is here along with LG OLED

    v8e92t.jpg

    One of my TB loot.I bought a few lights and this is one of the 2 which is usable

    2ewe1oi.jpg

    the TV is gorgeous!!

    May I know when did u have your TV delivered? Installed by your ID or the delivery guy? care to share pls?

  21. Posted

    Hey Twinkelcloud, here is the view of the WC from the kitchen where we will be doing dishes..The WC can be seen but shower is not because we changed the angle of the shower entrance.

    So you see if we dont add the frosted glass doors, it will be quite an open view :) In this photo, you can also see that the frosted glass door is opening into the ktichen.

    156p8r6.jpg

    j0w5r9.jpg

    :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: it's so nice!!!:good::good: it does look very very huge.. totally in love but i do not have the courage to have "open concept" hehe

  22. Posted

    congrats!! hehe.. yeah it was quite fun when it comes to selecting tiles and Andrew did give very practical advise and how to maintain the house which is very very helpful.

    i love the wall tiles of your toilet!!! Din know there is a blue version to the hexagon tiles!!! i am sure it will look very very nice!! initially I wanted it for my kitchen floor tiles.. but cant have it.. Now i can see it on your wall!! super excited and love it! heehee.

    Love your kitchen floor tiles too! the wood like tiles is a good choice! staying tune to see the transformation! :good:

    Met with Andrew today to walk through Hafary together!

    We actually went down to the Hafary at TradeHub21 by ourselves before, and then to Liang Seng Hin at Balestier (and picked up some samples) and then to the Eunos Hafary, all before choosing an ID! So we had a rough idea of what kind of tiles we wanted already.

    Even so, it was quite useful having an ID around, and he really did help value-add to the experience!

    Firstly, our tiles selected!

    DSC_0020.jpg

    We chose a light grey concrete-like 60x60 tile for the living + dining room, and a rougher dark grey slate 30 x 60 for the balcony.

    The kitchen floor will be made out of wood-like tiles with long 3D white subway tiles for the backsplash. Rest of the walls in the kitchen will be plastered and painted.

    DSC_0021.jpg

    The toilet wall tiles gave us the most headache! We initially wanted a much darker grey/black slate floor for the toilets, when our ID mentioned that soap scum will easily show up on tiles that are too dark, especially since we chose a tile with a rough texture for the non-slip-ness. When soapy water flows past our floor tiles, the rough texture will trap some of the water and the soap scum will show up when the water is dried. I've heard of this being mentioned on the forums but I told him I really didn't want light coloured floors because they would be **** to maintain (I used to be in charge of washing all the toilet floors in my parents' house and used to curse the white floor tiles for how easily it got dirty and how much work I had to put in to clean the grout lines), but fortunately he said that the soap scum issue wouldn't be that obvious so long as we didn't choose black tiles, so we got a grey coloured tile instead, which worked for both the situations! Yay!

    But as a result, some of the light grey toilet wall tiles we were contemplating didn't seem to contrast enough with our slightly-more-light-grey floor tiles, so we spent most of our time there just trying to find toilet wall tiles that would work. A few of our possible options were out of stock, but eventually we decided on the white hexagonal tiles, with some blue and black ones interspersed in the walls. I am quite excited!

    What we thought was really useful about having our ID around is really the real-world-use advice he could give us, like the soap scum one. He also helped us check the texture of the matt floor tiles we chose, to see whether the roughness would trap dirt etc over time and make the tiles duller. For tiles we picked for non-slip effect, he even ran and got some water to pour on the tile and rubbed it to check whether it really would be non-slip when wet. Sometimes when we were contemplating one tile vs the other, he would pull up photos of other projects he's done before to show us the effect of a similar tile, which helped us envision how it would work on a larger scale basis (we decided not to go for white tiles with a slightly more marble look because of that). When I mentioned I wanted white subway tiles as my kitchen backsplash, he showed us a recent example and mentioned that his client had used black grout with the white subway tiles, an idea I actually already decided on but wasn't too sure whether it would work in real life, so it was nice to know that it turned out well for someone else.

    All in all, tile selection was actually pretty fun for us, since it meant we were one more step closer to seeing our new home! :)

  24. Posted

    Your kitchen flooring is really funky retro , very cool!

    For the power points , did you consider using Eubiq ? I think it is very convenient to add the sockets as and when when needed and since your place is quote big it could be worthwhile to check it out

    Hi Lexexplorer, thanks for popping by! thank u for the compliment.. hehe..

    powerpoints i did considered Eubiq but hub not very keen.. =( =( So gave the idea...

  25. Posted

    On 1/28/2016 at 8:10 PM, ricepapergirl said:

    Been really quiet for the last few weeks but today was officially our 2nd HDB appointment/completion date! Our lawyer went down for us though because the owner asked for 2 months extension so we also cannot collect key etc. But at least on paper we now own an EM! :thumbsup:

    I guess I can talk a bit about the IDs we have approached, and about the ID we are about to confirm this weekend. We started planning our house really early since we had a long period of time after signing the OTP till completion date (From early Oct 2015 till now, almost 4 months!). I didn't really have time to sort through all the different calls and SMSes that might come if we used Renotalk's Get a Quote or similar services from etc, so we decided only to ping people who have been recommended either by friends or by renotalkers.

    ID#1: Emily from A** S**** D*****

    We got the contact from one of the renotalkers but didn't end up with the same person from the company. Emily was quite patient with us and was one of the first IDs we physically spoke to. We sent her our floorplan and an entire detailed list of what works were needed, and she also quite patiently explained many things to us, like advising us on the different prices of different types of doors and windows. I think she could tell that we didn't really need an ID for the space planning or the design/look and feel of the house so she also never made suggestions on those lines. In the end we never really clicked with her, but her quote helped us to modify our expected budget higher. I can't actually pinpoint anything we were unhappy about with her, just, no connection? So dropped.

    ID#2: Byron from H******* H********

    My colleague's ID, who was also her mother's ID, so came with very high recommendations. One of the first to send us back a detailed quotation based on our detailed list of works, but went on long holiday after that so we only met up with him a month later. He has a good eye for design, but also quite strong on what should or should not be done. We took on some of his suggestions but I was a bit deterred by how much he would insist on his way. For example I mentioned that the existing cornices were quite pretty (and retro) and also that the existing window grilles are quite nice and if we could keep it I wouldn't mind, but he was very shocked and commented that it would definitely not fit, even after I said I really like the window grilles. His quote was lower than Emily's and he seemed quite competent, and was shortlisted. In the end we felt more comfortable with our chosen ID, so we dropped him.

    Carpenter#1: Dylan from Classic Furniture

    Carpenter with good handiwork recommended by my old JC mate who just had his kitchen and wardrobes done by them. He also said his parents' kitchen and wardrobes done by Classic is still going strong. Although I wanted an Ikea kitchen we gave them a try. Dylan was responsive and did a few sketches for us, but in the end the quote was too :jawdrop: so we gave it up.

    ID#3: Patrick from I****D*****

    Recommended by my colleague. He seemed rather refreshing when we met up with him, very open about how if we wanted to save money we could just get our kitchen from Ikea, our lights and fans installed by Chan Huat, our aircon installed by Gain City, our vinyl flooring installed by the supplier, and the painting done by Nippon, and he will help coordinate everything. This, he mentioned, would help in the pricing. I was quite willing to do so though my husband felt like that might be more work than expected. Finally though, his quote was super non-detailed, and missing so many details that I got too tired dealing with him. Dropped.

    ID#4: Andrew from D*****G***

    Recommended by fellow renotalker and reno-twin twinklecloud. Called him up and the first thing he said was whether we could speak in Mandarin, so if you have issues with Mandarin it might be difficult working with him. Fortunately my spoken mandarin is passable. Met up with him and immediately felt very comforted that he understood our EM unit very well, since he's done renovation for many EMs of the same generation some years back. Even when we described the indented spaces in the walls above the staircase landing, and how we wanted to "fill in the holes", something which we've had to resort to showing photos and drawing pictures when we describe it to other IDs, he immediately got it and asked whether we wanted to fill it in. He also was very knowledgeable about other things with the EM and also understood some of the demands we wanted and seemed to be on the same wavelength. His quote was also surprisingly low (so much so my husband got worried that it was too good to be true!) but still quite detailed. After some weeks of thinking it over, we finally settled on hiring him, so we're going to meet up this weekend to sign and also go look at tiles together. :good:

    So that's it! I left out some of the details on how we prepared the original detailed list of works etc, and actually there were two IDs who we contacted and who contacted us for meetings but we kept not being free on those dates (or the location was very out of the way for us) so in the end we gave them up without ever meeting them...Oops. Haha.

    Congrats!! :good: look forward to see more updates!! =)

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