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Edwinlow7

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Posts posted by Edwinlow7

  5. Posted

    Hey Edwin. Possible to have a pic of your master toilet? Really short of ideas for that bathroom. I'm already changing the door to a Bi-fold one.

    Hi, sorry for the lat reply.

    Here are some pictures, the bathroom is pathetically small so I had some trouble taking photos...

    17081307016_5b6df700f7.jpg

    Shower screen

    17106614541_532375be24.jpg

    With our shower head

    17105749242_a8f8f6f566.jpg

    Vanity table + mirror (pardon the mess)

    Hi,

    Can PM me ur I'D contacts and quotation?

    Thanks!!

    sure will PM you.

  6. Posted

    Looking good on your taobao purchases.. I'm also addicted with taobao. Lol. Would like to check with you. Have you installed the kitchen sink? Do you use their sink drainage trap? because I notice that most of the local drainage trap are mostly hard casing, but taobao are all soft type. When you buy the sink, your plumper will expect you to provide the drainage trap or they will provide?

    Yes we have installed the sink and we used their sink drainage trap. I am not too familiar with the casing actually we just passed everything to our contractor to install. The sink is working well, no issues.

    This looks AWESOME!

    Thanks!!

  9. Posted

    Quick review of 2 more Taobao stuff bought

    16643330798_050fd34638.jpg

    Toilet Roll holder. (Link)

    Pros - Looks good, and the wooden 'shelf' was pretty useful for putting stuff like your handphone lol

    Cons- The wooden shelf was obviously larger than what was shown in the stock picture, also can be quite flimsy and needs to be tightened.

    16852429902_8cb0568e9f.jpg

    Cushion Cover (First two with the prints) (Link)

    So this was another DIY. I bought plain cushion covers and got my sister who sells screenprinted t-shirts(DODT) to screen print on them. Turned out pretty cute!

    Pros- Good quality. Get the 45cm x 45cm ones and you can buy the Ikea $4.90 cushions for them.

    Cons- Sister commented that material a tad thick to screen print well

  10. Posted

    So we are partially moved in! Finally! There are still some more bits and pieces to be installed (mostly because they are on the way from Taobao) and lots of stuff to be unpacked so pardon the mess.

    Some pictures here and there

    16829822161_27b0c7af71.jpg

    Loving our shoe cabinet laminate (pardon the loose wires, electrician was installing led strip lights )

    16805030686_ee4a3053a7.jpg

    Grey doors against our grey tiles against grey toilet tiles. I love grey so most of my home is grey ( despite protest from my ID for some color haha)

    16643327608_ef8bac47cb.jpg

    Walk in wardrobe with vanity table. ID designed such that the top of the table can be flipped to reveal a mirror.

    16644777859_7703f2b1f8.jpg

    "Railway track" shelving in my cabinets so that the heights can be easily adjusted. Loving this. Quite pleased with the workmanship of the carpentry too

    16208550984_57d9f00b6a.jpg

    TV wall of the MBR. Another design by the ID to hide all unsightly wires. Holes were created in the wall (that lead out to the wardrobe on the other side) for all the wires. The cubby holes also allowed us to put stuff like tv box, dvd player etc

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    Hi, do you mind sharing your ID contact? And quote or the total cost? Thank you.

    On a side note, your DIY MBR feature wall is really impressive!

    Thanks! Have DM-ed you!

    Hi Edwin, Can i know how are you designing your master toilet?

    The design of master toilet seems weird to me due to floor trap and shower and different ends.

    The entire left side of our toilet is the shower and separated by a shower screen but the master toilet is really very tiny, hardly any space regardless of what you do zzz..anyway will try to take a pic soon

  13. Posted

    DIY "Feature" Wall

    If you noticed on the 3D drawings, our ID had initially proposed for us to have 2 feature walls - one in the master bedroom and one in the living room. However we werent a fan of stucco walls so we decided on craftstone brick wall for the living room (no money for both rooms lol). Still the masterbedroom looked a bit bare and we wanted to do something, did some googling and came across the easiest and cheapest way to jazz up our wall. Not an arts-n-craft person at all so key word was easy haha.

    16799365522_41be50da42.jpg

    Before: sticking masking tape on the wall

    16178132954_244ff1875b.jpg

    Before part 2: masking tape pattern done. Took us about 30 mins

    16798858275_fcd900ed5c.jpg

    After: 2 coats of paint later.

    I thought it turned out really well and I really like it alot. Best of all, if you make a mistake/dont like it after awhile can just simply paint over.

  14. Posted

    Lovely sofa! May i know where is it from? Thanks!

    Thanks! Its from Castlery :)

    Looking good on your 3D and the progress. I see that you had bought many stuff from taobao. So am I! Now still waiting got the shipment. Do post more updates Ya!!

    Thanks! Yes taobao is addictive. We just made our 4th round of purchase and still adding more stuff to cart. Would love to see your loot too!

  15. Posted

    A couple more updates, suddenly everything is speeding up. We decided to pop by at 9ish pm last night and was surprised to find workers still working!

    16169619163_94327be8ba.jpg

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    Painted bomb shelter door and door frames. The bomb shelter door is chalkboard paint while the rest of the frames are in matte black. The ID gave us a choice between glossy (not as nice but last longer) and matte (looks nicer but need to touch up often). First time home owners of course we chose aesthetics over practicality hah

    16789555355_716242d05f.jpg

    Another layer of chalk board paint on the kitchen wall too

    16601976798_c9903b20ff.jpg

    Brick wall in the process of being re-done. Also the new bricks filled into the empty spaces in the shoe cabinet + below the console

  16. Posted · Edited by Edwinlow7

    Progress has been a bit slow due to CNY break also lazy to update but I shall attempt to revive this t-blog.

    Some pictures from the past 2 weeks

    16587498829_7680b6796f_c.jpg

    The fans are up! We got the crestar fans from Phylux. I like them cos they are so cute and small. Btw, the customer service by Phylux was pretty horrid.

    16586077988_8e900febfd_c.jpg

    Installation of the wardrobes and the vanity table (the "hole" in the middle of the table will be a mirror that can be flipped up). Cant wait to have my Carrie Bradshaw moment here

    16566373087_655b2822a8_c.jpg

    Sealing up of the air-con pipes

    16153716093_ac8dd9394b_c.jpg

    Shoe cabinet + additional storage by the door. The empty spaces in the cabinet and the space below the bench/tv console area will be filled up by remaining craftbricks. We were not too pleased with the workmanship of our brick wall, luckily our ID was pretty cool about it and asked his contractor to re-do the problematic areas.

    This week will be finishing up the remainder of the carpentry and then furniture + electronics will be in! Coming to the end of our renovation journey soon and we cant wait!

    Oh yes, we also did 2 more rounds of TB shopping (seriously addictive!) Will post more pictures when the contractors install the TB items.

  19. Posted · Edited by Edwinlow7

    Hi there! Your track lights looks great, I am going to tong pang your link and get the track lights from the same shop on taobao :)

    But wish to ask for your advice first:

    i. how many watts did you select for your track lights?

    ii. what light colour - 暖白光 or 中性光？

    Did you also buy the tracks from the same shop? They only have 1 or 1.5m tracks though, the last I checked with my ID at the lighting shop was that i need around 4m tracks each side (i have a large living room and have 3 sides) and need to buy a joint as well, but I don't see the option to buy from the shop site.

    Thanks in advance!

    Thanks in advance!

    Hi there,

    I bought the warm white one, 暖白光. On the wattage, I consulted with my ID and we decided on the 7w one.

    The picture u see on my blog, that's a 4m track as well. You can get the connecter and the link below. If I'm not wrong, there's a L-shaped connecter as well if you need it. It's under the same link as the track, but there's an option to purchase 轨道条-直接头. How this helps! :)

    Overall, I thought the quality of the track lights were decent. Not the best, but for the savings you can get, no complains! :)

    http://h5.m.taobao.com/awp/core/detail.htm?id=43021117166&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

  20. Posted

    Updates - review of taobao purchase (part 1)

    So things are moving along, albeit at a slightly slower pace (also partly our fault cos we were overseas and didnt have time to tie down some details with our id). Thus far, majority of the lights are up, brick wall partially done, carpentry 25% installed...

    Here is a quick review of our taobao purchases, at least those that have been installed. So far, we have been quite lucky, everything that we bought seems to be working fine. As with all purchases, price and quality go hand-in-hand so as expected the cheaper stuff we bought from taobao quality wasnt great but overall still acceptable (at least to us)

    Schneider switches : we changed all our light switches to the ones from Schneider. I dont know much about switches but they look really good and work beautifully. (Sorry forgot to take pictures). Ok to buy

    Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=17075684050&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Bath room lights

    15881171073_9bbeab01ff_z.jpg

    We changed the light bulbs to LED ones. Quality wise not too bad but I thought the coverage was limited and hence not able to light up a large area. We are planning to install LED strip lights in our bathroom so we were fine with it. Just something to bear in mind.

    Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=42004705460&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Link (LED light bulbs): http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=41647285432&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Spare bed room light

    16315401267_7a1be48500_z.jpg

    Love this! Solid quality, came packaged nicely and looks really good. Good buy!

    Link:http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=39674480159&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Bomb Shelter Light

    bought this super cheap light (<$20) and quality wasnt great lah, casing was a flimsy plastic. But surprisingly very bright when installed in the bomb shelter. (Sorry no picture because its just a basic light). So ok to buy for bomb shelter since nobody will see it often and serves its purpose lol

    Link: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=13157196521&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Service Yard light

    Another super cheap buy. Quality slightly better but still flimsy. I thought it was a bit low when hung up, also bigger than it looks.

    Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=37355445979&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Dining light

    This was quite heavy and solid. Not too bad but need to change the bulbs to LED, we turned this on for awhile and could feel the heat emitting from the non-led bulbs

    15878760334_2947a1b303_z.jpg

    Link: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=41051660349&spm=2014.12193480.0.0

    Track Lights for rest of the house

    Great buy, the track lights look good! The husband felt that the lights could be of a more warm tone but I like it this way, brighter!

    16315044159_7f3f3897ec_z.jpg

    Link: http://www.65daigou.com/Product/Detail?url=http%3a%2f%2fitem.taobao.com%2fitem.htm%3fid%3d41596758299%26spm%3d2014.12193480.0.0

  23. Posted

    it used to cost 85Rm per carton, it rose it 110Rm?

    So the compound fine is 200rm per car? Also, how much u paid for sg 7% tax?

    Yeah... i was quite surprised as well.. but after some chatting with serene, apparently there has been alot of singapore customer getting from them causing the singapore office sales to suffer. Thus prices has gone up. The free delivery within JB also gone... :(:(

    It was 100RM/car, and it was after much negotiation. They initially wanted 500/car.. thanks to my malay-speaking malaysian PR friend, we got it reduce to 100RM/car! haha! hilarious actually!

    There were 3 of us.. so we had SGD450 tax free, so our tax was like 9 bucks.. :)

  24. Posted · Edited by Edwinlow7

    Getting Craftbrick from Craftstone Malaysia

    Hi All! I know I (this is Edwin btw, the wifey insisted i blog this myself -_-") mentioned in my previous post that I will be posting something on our experience getting craftbrick from Msia. Thus here it is!! Sorry for the long wait though..

    FIrstly, you must first know that there seem to be two different companies called Craftstone (You can try www(dot)craftstone(dot)com(dot)sg and (dot)my) Though both looks almost identical, the showroom and factory are in different locations. The company that most sg homeowners deal with is the .sg one, which has a office in Singapore as well as a factory/showroom in Malaysia (Jalan Air Hitam).

    We have seem different people do it differently, for us, we decided on the following option: Purchase craftbrick from Msia and ask our ID to provide tiler to do it. Initially our ID quoted us about 4K to do the brickwall (Full height 2.8m x 4.5m length) using craftbrick that can be purchased from Hafary. We almost fell of our chairs! We wanted to try stucco wall, coz it cost less than half (our ID quoted 1.8k). However, after some helpful info from renotalkers and some research, we decided with this option. The tiler would cost me 1.7K and the craftbrick from Msia would cost about S$600. Almost 2K worth of savings from the initial quote from brickwall and only about 500bucks more than stucco! Lets do it!!

    So.... first you need to contact the msia office and tell them which craftbrick you want. Serene from the msia office was very helpful and responsive. You can choose the colour you want from the .sg webite (CSI-***). You might also want to check with your ID/contractor how much would it cost for labour. Generally 1 box will cover 1m2, so you need to do your calculation and order accordingly. Remember to factor in about 10% for wastage. You might also consult your ID/contractor for how much is needed. At the point of my purchase, 2 months ago, it was 110RM/box. With the good exchange rate now, you'll probably save alot more!

    Upon confirmation of your purchase, you have 2 options. One is to ask for delivery from Msia to Singapore or delivery within JB (Of course you can drive all the way to their outlet to save even more). Delivering to singapore will cost you SGD250. However, delivery within JB (used to be free :() is 150RM (about SGD60!). We decided to save more money and asked for delivery within JB. We asked them to deliver to the Shell Petrol kiosk right outside the custom checkpoint and did the transaction there and then. You can tell them its the Shell along Jalan Yahya Aldatar. Here is video on how to get there after custom:

    Here comes the tricky part, getting past custom. I was going to purchase 14 boxes, thus i thought it would be better to get a friend with car along. 7 boxes each car. manageable, your suspension won't die on you and getting one more person in you get more tax relief (at singapore side, SGD150/pax relief). Even the tax singapore is pretty ok, 7% only what. What is tricky is msia... I manage to put 4 boxes in my car boot, and decided to put 3 boxes in my back seat. This prove to be a mistake. The msia custom saw the 3 boxes and stop me and my friend. They claim that it is taxable (although we insist that it was for personal usage), they started to fish for bribes and after a some negotiation, I gave up. Paid a "compounded fine" of 200RM and drove off (Still cheap la..).

    Sooo... my advice if you are getting it yourself, is to try getting all the boxes in your car boot. If you want to avoid all form of trouble, just pay the SGD250 for delivery to Singapore i guess. So that was the whole experience! Hope this helps!

    • Like 1
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