Catt

Agree! The hairdryer works great as well for sticky labels! And turpentine, and thinner and acetone work well too. BTW I noticed the Caeserstone tech used pure acetone to remove paint/ plaster/ glue off the counter. Luckily I have a huge container of that for nail polish clean-up. Not sure if we can use thinner or turp on the counter. When I showed him the bottle of turp he didn't look like he knew what it was.

Lovely! I like the bedside lamps- very modern-bachelor-sophisticated-white-collar-professional- type feeling. Suits the shade of the wall. Haha! BTW my door peephole also at the border of the door- 7 CM away and not even centralized between the edge of the door and the protruding door design, so I can't fit in a 12cm width vertical camera.

I love Goo Gone! So far I've used it to remove the warning advisory sticker on the fridge, scuff marks on the new tiles, even-out frosted glass, wiped my shoes... ok ok..it's like the American version of the Singapore Tiger Balm/ Ax Oil. Probably can drink Goo Gone to cure illnesses too..joking!!

All thanks to you @trcd that I've mended my broken heart.

Hi @kingandbin, I tried scrolling through your blog to figure out the type of kitchen/ bathroom vanity countertop you will be using. Here's an idea for you- I saw that someone in the forum actually asked the ID/ contractor to use the leftover sink cut-out of their kitchen counter-top to create shampoo shelves. I thought it was a great idea since you are using leftover materials from something you've already paid for. I tried to get my contractor to use the leftover Caeserstone to create shampoo ledges, but as usual he told me a whole bunch of stuff about how expensive it was to get them to cut the caeserstone into the size blah blah blah yada yada.

It's okay in terms of quality- not flimsy. Price is fine in comparison to Blum but the config is different (Blum has two sleek shelves for tall bottles and I like mine complicated with different height compartments) but 2 things to note. Height of the internal cavity of the cabinet must not be too high (mine was way higher than the excel rack), otherwise the pullout door will not feel stable. If not must ask carpenter to reinforce the pull-out door. Depth- make sure you can fully extend the pullout. My carpenter miscalculated by 0.05cm, now I cannot remove the plastic tray at the bottom of the rack to clean as it is a slide-out. I can't tell if it's gonna rust yet. Also my dong dong carpenter installed the rack the 'wrong' way round. I told him to install with the knife-holders positioned next to the hob (left-side) and he installed it facing the right-side.

Pm sent.

Maintenance is a pain...thank goodness there's the internet where you can find people with all the tips and tricks. I'm like a housewife now, with an armoury of cleaning 'weapons'. Just the other day I was so happy when one of my colleagues found and bought me the possibly-last-Scotch-Brite window wiper in Singapore.

Frosted glass maintenance I wanted to share this since I had a couple of people ask me about how I maintained my frosted/ sandblasted bathroom door. Previously I had mentioned that the contractor had warned me that the 'sand' will move if it comes in contact with oils and water and I didn't understand what he meant. So apparently when you get water or even touch sandblasted glass (the rough side) with your bare hands, a watermark or print gets left behind. Even if you wash the entire piece of glass and wipe it with a microfiber towel, chances are, once it is fully dried, there are going to be some streaks left, so the glass does not look evenly frosted. Glass cleaner doesn't work and neither does plain soap and water. I did my research using Google and found that some people use a product called Goo Gone. I bought my bottle in Howards (in Millenia Walk) but I'm sure you can find it in Self-fix or even on Qoo10. So initially I applied it on the streaky parts of the sandblasted glass, then in order to achieve an even finish, I rubbed the entire door with a very tiny amount of it (not in circular motions as I read it will cause circular streaks). Finally, I dampened a cloth and wiped the entire door, while at the same time I used a dry cloth to go over the damp parts. My door is now back to its Day 1 condition! The bottle somehow doesn't look like the bottle advertised in Selffix's site, but I guess as long as it is similar in properties it will work. http://www.selffix.com/store/products_details/1012/Goo-Gone-Bottle-8oz

Page 4 of this blog. 3/4 down the page in response to Mannequin. My final quote was 3 or 4k more at the end as i paid for granite shelving in the toilet, shifted a pipe, paid electricals and was charged for minor plastering.

I am not painting my door lilac... OMG . Yup I have my numbers lasercut on the gate. Very lazy to go find a unit number sign. I've PM-ed you by the way. My colleague recommends MyDigitalLock...maybe you can ask them for quotes to compare?

Ok I did something really gross. I left the buckets of lemons and water in the house for 6 days as I didn't have the opportunity to go down and clear it. It was really gross...some of the lemons turned dark brown (toxins?!!) and of course they went a little moldy. But the house no longer reeks!! Actually I think just plain water in the buckets would've done the trick

Sorry didn't see this comment @stray. No idea if Hettich is less expensive than Blum but in my mind I keep thinking it is as Blum is over-publicized. I believe Ikea soft-closing is made by Blum. I'm not too fussed about soft-closing but I think anything built fòr heavy-loading better get better and well-known brands. Afterall you're pulling in and out drawers that could possibly contain 30kg worth if crockery. You get uniformity with MDF as it's man-made. Just make sure they give you a long-term warranty cuz if the MDF is not of a high-grade it may swell when it kena water. Pros n Cons...wood also expands and warps too. As long as not compressed particle board (aka Billy bookcases and other IKEA cheaper furniture) I think it's fine....should last

24 Sep'16 Update: So the gate finally got changed and I'm as happy as a bird. The gate reminds me of those mesh-screened doors they use in apartments in Australia. So when I miss those days in Uni I just need to look over and pretend I'm there surrounded by stinkin' flies and spiders and spitfires. Had to mosaic out my unit number for P&C reasons. The numbers are lasercut into the gate so I don't have to fuss over getting signage. Here's another example I was sent by the Steeldios rep (Thank you very very much @trcd for the contact!!) Now I need to muster up energy to putty and paint the wooden frame!!

Errr is it really cheaper this way? Thought they also quote you as a whole. E.g. cabinet with soft-closing. Anyway it's really up to you what you want... you are the one paying so if you want to have 24k gold handles too, no one is going to feel insulted.

Hi mopiko, I lived with it. Hahaha. Maybe different tilers will have different ways to deal with it. Some put in this PVC (??) strip to round the corners. In my case they just put in extra thick grouting. Grouting will have fine cracks when it dries, so if you cannot stand that type of thing then I would say use 3D tiles only on flat walls. The sum of the entire thing looks fine to me as long as I don't just focus on the grout. It's kinda like how a slanted aircon trunking bugs people until they start living in the house, then it's just part of the walls and one hardly thinks or looks at it. I realise I never took a specific picture of the grouting after it was completed. Below I just zoomed in and cropped a picture that contained it. Hope this helps.

Ohhhhh so you are going to end up with Ikea cabinets or something you can switch the doors to? @stray show you this...i wanted to but was lazy. Alternative to Blum www.hettich.com/sg_EN/products/drawer-systems.html

Remember to let him know you are doing so and show a pic with specifications...if not they may tell you after you buy that they can't fix it in. True story, this happened to my colleague who bought 6 pullout baskets from Taobao.

You can definitely ask your contractor to get the small pullout larder for you and fix it in (specify the brand and model type). Or if you like more control (i.e. you want to hunt around, find some obscure brand or model that generally they are not familiar with and are worried about getting wrong) then you can order yourself. For my contractor, when I mentioned it to him, he asked me to get it first and then have it delivered before the carpenter came to discuss the carpentry with me. I think for various reasons of his own (one was he did mention that the Caeserstone almost caused him to make a loss...so maybe he was afraid I was going to say Blum... or he was afraid I wouldn't approve of the design he ordered...) he preferred me organizing it myself. It didn't really cross my mind either to ask him since I just click click the buy button on the excel site..haha!

Wow very pretty! Will you get one? Love the star-shaped white gate!

Crossed fingers AND toes!

Haha Thanks Stray...finally got your quotes?

I love the size...bought more bottles for cold water!

17 Sep'16 Update: The balance of stuff I bought arrived on Saturday (except the dining table..that would still probably be in December). I didn't take a picture of the entire house because I was cleaning and turning everything topsy-turvy so it looks really messy. Fridge: I learnt that even though this particular model of Hitachi fridge could technically fit through the narrow HDB doorframe, due to the gates, it could not. They had to dismantle my gate and unpack the fridge in the corridor before it could be squeezed past the front door with maybe 2 cm space to spare. This is also not the same fridge I spotted months ago as that model was discontinued (so no mirrored doors and the 'strips' between the drawers are rose gold and not black). I'm an adult now. I own my own fridge! Coffee-table from Crate & Barrel: It looked really small to me in comparison to the couch, but I think we will stick with one coffee table to preserve the space in the living room. BTW I'm a little upset my walls look so lilac. It's girly-er than I like it to be!! Bookshelf from Crate & Barrel: This had some rust spots at the metal legs near the bottom. Kinda cheesed off about it, but I'm going to paint over the rust and seal it with some matt sealants to stop the spread of rust. It's a very tiny spot, but it irks me big time! PS: The makeshift altar on top is done by my dad. I'm just 'borrowing' his buddies until I move in. He knows I'm not into religious stuff but I'd like to keep Guanyin cos' she really takes very good care of me and Darkling Half! Panasonic Washer: I'm 'double-confirmed' an adult now as I also own a washer. This is a pretty basic model but I don't believe in expensive washers as washers have a higher tendency of breaking down. Placed buckets of water with lemons in them all over the house. This is an effort to clear out the VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) aka toxic fumes from the varnish, paints etc. I Google-d this online, so if this doesn't work I will move on to baking soda and charcoal. The fumes are quite bad if I don't open the windows and I don't want to kill my guinea pig when I'm out for work. You get to see my manky bunioned hardworking feet here. So many bruises and scars from wearing heels! Next big event- changing the gates next Saturday!

Too long! I'm impatient but usually I get the quotes back within a week... some even in a few days. Unless they are doing up 3D for you? Go chase them! Taking too much time to quote speaks volumes about the ID/ contractor's sense of urgency. If you do an iteration does that mean another 3 weeks?