zihui

hahahahahha only in your expert DIY eyes, greg wait till i take photos to show you how much of a rusty wreck it really is

Hi desatans, thanks for the kind words! Are you going to invite the RT folks over for a steamboat party? *grin*

hahahhahhha i saw it last night. it looks very old and worn out *roll eyes* Totally ruin the look of the house But tonight they're going to dismantle and deliver again before putting it all back together again so hopefully nothing goes wrong this time

Thanks Vi! Taking it one step at a time. Besides, the reno process is never really complete, is it?

Hi Pokz, a number of RTers use http://www.thehelpinghand.org.sg/ If I'm not wrong, they've gotten pretty good reviews from some of the RTers. I unfortunately didn't get to try them out myself as we enlisted the help of our relatives (and several Bangla workers) but I know that the hubby was considering them previously! Hope this helps

Hi Harriette, what a lovely view! Absolutely droolworthy! Welcome to the EM club and enjoy the reno process!!

Good luck with your reno! We also went with a black and white theme with our house (with splashes of brown here and there) and we're loving it so I'm sure you'll enjoy the process too!

Move-in day continued: After the blinds were installed, several other teams came in to carry out their jobs. In the MBR, the Toshiba TV guys came down to carry out the wall-mounting of our TV. While that was going on, the LG TV was delivered and set up in our living room. After all that, the plant guys from the nursery came with the delivery of our selected plants! This is the first time that either of us is trying to grow plants so hopefully it doesn't turn into a disaster.... We bought ourselves a money plant for the staircase, 2 water plants for the water feature that's to be placed in the living room (FSM's instructions), and 3 small potted plants for the balcony (a mexican chilli plant, a lime plant and a limau purut plant (we chose this because the leaves smelled so delicious when we were touring the nursery)). Here's a photo of our 3 potted plants sitting at the balcony, on top of the grass patch that we bought back from Bangkok months ago - Please pardon the bare looking living room. The coffee table will be shifted in this Sunday and we're still awaiting the arrival of our rugs and other decorative items. On a sidenote, I just realised that my framing is terrible. Shouldn't I have taken a close up of the plants instead of a far-off photograph? *facepalm* On the other side of the living room, here's how the water feature currently looks with the 2 pots of water plants sitting pretty inside as well as the money plant over at the staircase - I ran out of grey and white pebbles to surround the water feature so note to self - I need to call up the nursery to order many more pebbles. After spending numerous hours unpacking our boxes from round 1 of the move (how is it possible that we're STILL not done yet???), vacuuming the entire house and then mopping the place (my aching back.....), we scooted out of the house to drive down to test out our arcade machine which was supposed to be delivered last night. Unfortunately, disaster struck - everything seemed perfect when we were doing the test run, so we okay-ed the delivery. However when the delivery guy brought the arcade machine to our doorstep, we realized to our utter dismay that the arcade machine is too large to fit through the doorway. The shop owner and the delivery guy were puzzled because they've successfully delivered to many residential apartments before - but our case is different because our doorframe is severely tilted for fengshui reasons. We tried hard but the machine just got stuck in the doorframe. Therefore we had no choice but to ask the delivery guy to bring the machine back to the shop and to re-deliver it again tonight. After discussions with the shop owner, we've decided that the shop will dismantle the control panel over at the shop before delivering the dismantled machine to our place where the delivery guy will proceed to slide the machine through our doorframe sideways, carry it up the stairs into the Recreation Room and then the shop staff will re-assemble the arcade machine back together again only after the machine is in place where it rightfully belongs. After all of that, we settled down for our first dinner in the new house! He has been asking for steamboat so before we left the house to test out the arcade machine, I prepared the steamboat soup and then left it in my new thermal cooker to continue stewing away - So that by the time we came back (and dealt with the fiasco of the botched arcade machine delivery), all we needed to do was to get ready for the steamboat dinner. It's a very very simple steamboat dinner (stuff bought from the supermarket. Only things that required any sort of prep were the steamboat soup which I made out of pork bones and an assortment of vegetables as well as the handmade wantons), but being the first dinner in our new house, it tasted wonderful to me *beam* (yeah, we laid out newspapers and ate on the living room floor because the hubby wanted to watch HBO on his new TV and we don't have a coffee table as yet. Talk about a waste of our dining table *roll eyes*) Time to tuck in!

Move-in Day (6th Nov '13) Following our FSM's instructions, we moved into our house yesterday at 9.18 AM sharp. The house isn't really complete as yet (our 2nd round of moving will take place this Sunday) but the infrastructure is largely in place so we just need to ensure that we have the essentials ready (not to mention enough clean underwear and clothes) to survive 4 days in the house prior to the final round of moving this Sunday. After carrying out the FSM's instructions (charcoal, opening of all the doors & windows, the filling up of the 'water feature' etc), we rolled up our sleeves because it was an extremely busy day. The first delivery guys to arrive brought with them our tiny wine chiller and our mini fridge (for the 2nd storey. We're still undecided where to put it. I want to place it in the Recreation Room while the hubby wants to place it in the MBR, saying that the Recreation Room is looking increasingly packed). After the arrival of the wine chiller and the mini fridge, the curtains/blinds team arrived to carry out the installation of our blinds! (Curtains not ready yet - they'll only be installed sometime next week). Absolutely loving our black and white blinds! Here's a picture of the blinds as seen from outside our house (i.e the view that our neighbours get) - We installed blinds at our dining area and in the Recreation Room (the other rooms and the living room will have curtains instead). Here's how the blinds look like over at the Dining Area - and here's a quick photo of how the blinds look like over in the recreation room - Sorry for the poorly taken photographs hahahahhaa

Thanks for the kind words, sherting! That's actually a good question - I was provided with an entire book of samples to choose from and we picked the glossy white laminate. Can't remember what the actual name is. if you'd like, I can double check with JT once again to see if he has a better answer than I do

hahaah hi bunbun! It's actually not that bad. I'm quite petite myself and I havn't faced any problems using it as yet

Are you referring to the black and white quirky animal floor lamp that I've placed in my recreation room? if so, I'm happy with the condition =) Of course I can share the link - sharing is caring so here you go: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=22116356904

Really hope so The decal guy is coming down this Sat to measure the wall properly because it's a tricky surface Will get him to measure the arcade machine at the same time because the both of us wanna do a decal for the arcade machine if possible....

Waiting for more pictures on your blog too, Vi! *wink*

Thanks for the kind words Vi.... Now I need to try to do it up nicely with my chosen furniture and the decorative pieces that I've bought

Congrats on the move!

Adhering to our FSM's instructions, we had to erect a huge partition at the staircase to prevent my hubby's wealth from leaking out the front door. When the timber partition finally went up (we used white laminates so that it ties in with the entire look of the place), I was initially quite upset. Over the past few weeks, I had grown used to the unblocked view and the airy-ness of the entire living room. Suddenly with the installation of the partition, the living room has been cut into half. I initially found it quite an eyesore - but thankfully after having seen it for several days now, I've finally gotten used to it. Here's how the partition looked like immediately after erecting it in place - And here's how the partition looked like last Friday (it now looks slightly different again because I've placed the candlesticks that I bought from Bangkok on top of our 'partition desk' while unpacking last night and I think it looks better now) - The stainless steel backsplash has also gone up in the kitchen - The vanity top (and our basin + tap from Taobao) for the common toilet on the 2nd floor have all been installed as well - And we have also set up the fun floor lamp that we got from Taobao for the recreation room. Working perfectly and quirky enough to keep us amused - Even though we'll be officially moving into the house tomorrow, there's still so much to be done. Tomorrow, the living room TV and the MBR TV will be delivered and installed, so we can finally have our SCV to watch over dinner tomorrow night. In addition, the wine chiller and the bar fridge (for the recreation room) will also be delivered tomorrow afternoon. But the hubby's favorite - the arcade machine - will be delivered tomorrow evening and I guess that's the one he's looking forward to the most of all. Will try to take more photos to share!

Sorry, I've been away for some time handling the other big event. It's already the 5th of November and we'll be officially moving into the house tomorrow morning. We've started the unpacking of the boxes from Round 1 of the move - my father has already utilized his contacts to get a lorry and 2 Bangladeshi workers on standby this Sunday so we'll move the rest of our possessions into the house by this Sunday. In the meantime, we'll be moving the essentials into the house first so that we can live in the house and still function normally. Yesterday, we went into JB to shop for groceries and other home essentials - we filled up 2 entire shopping trolleys and spent over 800 Ringgit at Jusco alone. I can't bear to think how much we would have spent if we had shopped for the essentials here in Singapore instead. So many things have been going on since I was last in here that I don't know how to update *facepalm* Basically, the major appliances have been installed and delivered last Thursday. After that, we've been doing what feels like non-stop unpacking and cleaning. Here's some random shots of the guys from Audio House doing their deliveries of the Microwave oven, washing machine and fridge last Thursday - Setting up the washing machine - Thankfully we didn't buy a larger fridge - if not, we wouldn't be able to fit the fridge into our miniscule kitchen and through the tiny kitchen opening - And the fridge is finally installed. I must say, it was a huge thrill to have cold drinks in the house once again hahahah

Very exciting but very tiring... your friend is officially exhausted. We slept the entire Sunday away hahahhhahahaha

Thanks for the super kind words yixiepixie. Like I've said before, I've been extremely blessed and fortunate to have the help and support of my in-laws and my hubby's relatives. Their contacts were unbelievable, allowing me to obtain HUGE discounts on everything from materials to the workmanship.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Vanessa! If only I were as confident LOL

JT's Daily Update (30th Oct '13) Not much is going on as they're finally wrapping up the reno process. There's the chemical washing left but other than that, the entire house is pretty much ready so it's time for the deliveries to start coming in. Our purchases from Audio house will be delivered starting from tomorrow and we can finally start with the first round of unpacking and the decorating of the house, getting it ready for our migration there on the 6th. In the meantime, after our 'Let there be light!' moment, the gas has been delivered and we can now proclaim, "Let there be fire!" oops, sorry for the blurry photo. Here's a clearer shot of the flames in action - Everything will be wrapped up within these couple of weeks so here's hoping the entire look ties in nicely! *fingers crossed*

Thanks mark.... Not really accomplished because we still burst our budget by 20% But it's a huge relief because frankly speaking, without the huge discounts obtained, it could have been and should have been much much more expensive

Thanks for the kind words but we're also worrying that our chosen furniture won't fit the structural space that we've created. but the good thing is that we can slowly add on little pieces here and there as we go along. can't believe things are moving this quickly - the curtain guy came down and gave us the quotation yesterday. Handover of the completed unit will be sometime tomorrow.... The end of my journey and time here is quickly approaching!

More photos Vi!!