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ricepapergirl

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Everything posted by ricepapergirl

  1. ricepapergirl
    Hi psyche7! Actually, my plumber generally didn't say anything, although I mentioned in a previous post that the bath mixer needs wall mounting brackets unless you intend to erect a false wall in your bathroom. They look like these apparently. Although my plumber didn't say anything, I also got a hansgrohe kitchen mixer and for that one the Ikea kitchen installers installed it in the kitchen for us. We were around when they did it and they mentioned there was some sort of connecting component that converts from one pipe size to another pipe size, costs around $7 each or something? And we needed two since our tap comes with cold and hot water inlet pipes. I suspect the usual plumber just provided that part as part of the installation service but the Ikea kitchen installers were a lot more strict. It's not a major setback though, there are parts available easily on the market for it. The plumber literally just popped down to some neighbourhood shop for a bit and got it.
  2. ricepapergirl
    Lol I admit on that morning when we were moving and I realized they weren't going to take off their shoes I had a minor panic moment and also wondered whether we should be laying boxes everywhere. After a while I just... chilled. Haha. After you unpack the dust will be EVERYWHERE again anyway so you might as well just let them do their thing and remop after everything is done. It was slightly worse for us because we had parquet on the second floor (and on our staircase) and didn't want to mop it till sometime later (we still haven't!) but actually, shoes indoors esp sports shoes is still pretty clean. At most it tracks in dust but unlikely it would track in mud (you hope your moving day is bright and sunny and non-rainy though). We even put out a big floormat in the front door but they moved it away because it got in the way of them moving the big items in. So yeah, it was quite a learning experience.
  3. ricepapergirl
    Hahaha I'm 5 months pregnant so my husband pretty much has to do all the heavy chores otherwise I think both my parents and his parents will come down on him like a ton of bricks. Actually I'm the one that has to persuade him not to overtax himself... About the shoes thing, I admit it was the first time I actually watched movers, the ones from Helping Hands basically do not take off their shoes at all (even if you ask them), and after a while I could guess it's because they have to keep going back to their truck and coming into our house (they wore like lace-up sports shoes which would have been difficult to keep putting on and taking off). They didn't take off their shoes when they went to my parents' or my husband's parents' houses to take the boxes and furniture from there, much less my new (and dusty) house. Maybe if your movers wear slippers or something it's more likely?
  4. ricepapergirl
    Ikea fan here, so a bit biased, but I think Ikea lights are generally okay as well, I've had a few of them for many years and they are still holding up. Plus they have a 100 day change-your-mind return policy which might be better than TB. But then, I'm not a TB user, so I'll leave someone else to explain maybe whether TB better than Ikea for lights.
  5. ricepapergirl
    Maybe can get those drawers which are push-to-open maybe? Or like trcd says, just use kitchen towels when you need it? (I keep my kitchen towels out in the open, something else to think about!) Or just hang all your utensils outside!
  6. ricepapergirl
    Hahaha awww. Yeah I remember my husband said Andrew came over the other time and also took a photo of our kitchen. But yeah, we also had a long talk about kitchen cabinet doors after they were installed and he was talking to me about how it was really difficult for contractors/carpenters like those he uses (or anyone else) to fabricate doors to the standard that Ikea can in terms of grooves etc, and even how detailed the grooves are. I've seen some of the carpenter-created shaker style doors and they are usually quite simple wood planks on top of laminate, you can't get the moulding/groove style look that Ikea Bobyn doors give you, because those are fabricated in a factory somewhere at high volumes etc so they can afford all the work that goes in. Ultimately I was interested in Ikea more for the price than for the shaker style doors etc but it was a nice benefit to it. Aww! Thank you for your kind words! Still waiting for the weekend so that I can pull out a better camera and take pictures of my house in the day, on weekdays I only see it in the morning and after it turns dark lolweep.
  7. ricepapergirl
    Hi! Just a pointer on no-handles or indented handles in the kitchen, depending on what kind of handles you get, just bear in mind they should be easily opened even with slightly dirty hands! For example, hand dirty with massaging raw chicken need to get spoon from drawer for salt and you really don't want to be touching indented handles with those hands, so something you can open with maybe your wrist or elbow or even back of hand is useful! But yeah, really depends on what kind of cooking you do.
  8. ricepapergirl
    Hmm my handphone camera not that great. Oops. Preview pics of the kitchen? In the morning when still a bit dark so the lights are on. View from the kitchen doorway! Better picture of the cooking area, my Rinnai hob and Fujioh hood, and the Bosch oven (still completely untouched!) My condiment racks just appeared in the mail yesterday so I'm glad to finally get my oils and stuff off the counter! The view from my "service yard"/windows of the oven to the left and the sink area. Dunno why my photo super foggy -_-. Sink area + food prep area, various hanging towels and my new fridge-side rack with recipe books and paper towel holder!
  9. ricepapergirl
    Haha no worries I think maybe husband and I are just a bit finicky about cleanliness. He keeps mopping the floor...
  10. ricepapergirl
    Nice! Yeah I failed to mention that suction is quite scary sometimes. My husband has had a chouchou old small pillow from when he was a kid and we still put it on the bed, and the first time I used the V6 on it the old internal covering for the filling tore from the vacuum! That was the last time we used it on the pillow lol. Might sew on another layer of covering for the chouchou and try to vacuum from there...
  11. ricepapergirl
    Day 77: 99% finished? So far the only things left on our Andrew-to-rectify/do list are to change the utility room window (prob next week), tighten the laundry bracket screws and to fix the nursery door (a bit hard to close). Everything else has been crossed off! Our living room wall was painted yellow on Friday and the staircase railing was also painted. Also, we managed to unpack the last box yesterday, and pulled off the dust covers for our living room and dining room chairs. I think we're at 99% done (some more small deliveries for storage stuff in the kitchen, need to get two more dining chairs, storeroom racks, balcony furniture, need to buy pesky medium size bathroom 3M command strips and rubber bottoms for our wooden bathroom shelving etc etc) I probably should go around with a camera hahahaha. So glad to be completely moved in! Preview picture of our living room?
  12. ricepapergirl
    Thank you!
  13. ricepapergirl
    Hi Delylalex, I have moved in since last last Thur and only considered all the wiping, mopping and vacuuming done on the Saturday just past! For us there was just so much dust weep lol. We probably mopped the floor 4 times by now. But I have a lot of loose furniture and they keep getting delivered at separate times etc. For us, we took half a day before our actual move to coordinate deliveries of our wardrobes and big appliances (some deliverymen don't like to take off their shoes when they bring stuff in, actually our movers all didn't take off their shoes so that's something to think about) and also to clean the insides of any furniture, since when we move and unpack we would want to put stuff into drawers and cabinets and stuff that's actually clean. We also took that time to put up any hooks (we used 3M strips) on walls which need to sit for a while before getting used. We also cleaned, sweeped, swiffered and mopped as much as possible areas which big appliances were going to be installed, like our washing machine and our fridge, just before they arrived, because you don't get much of a second chance to clean that area once those appliances are installed. Same thing with big loose furniture as well like TV consoles etc. I also sweeped and washed down most of the toilet areas as well, since you'd probably want a clean toilet to seek refuge in when you're hot and sticky from unpacking. Only after the movers were finished with moving in, then we started vacuuming first. Did most of the unpacking, then swiffered, finally when most of the boxes are off the floor and tossed, we mopped. But that's just us! I still wash down the toilets occasionally and go at the tiles/walls with a magic eraser when I see bits that our ID missed in washing etc, and we still haven't gotten around to cleaning all the glass areas (windows, glass doors) which we really ought to this weekend, but the house is at least in a livable state!
  14. ricepapergirl
    Hi yellowteacups! We paid around $3.6k for plastering. Not sure whether it's considered cheap or not lol.
  15. ricepapergirl
    Hi Butterkups! Congrats on your EM and looking forward to your T-blog! PM-ed you!
  16. ricepapergirl
    Hi yellowteacups! Yes we did plaster the walls in the house, and the ceilings as well. I didn't mind even if it wasn't plastered but the original had cornices and rockstone textured ceilings so we thought we just plaster the whole place.
  17. ricepapergirl
    Thanks Changbp! Yeah actually I have a lot more confidence in the brackets than my husband and my MIL lol but oh well. One of the brackets is not super securely screwed in so we're getting the people coming in today to finish up the house to see whether they can do anything about it, if they can they we shall try with some heavier stuff hahaha.
  18. ricepapergirl
    We were indeed thinking of getting two roombas! But thought to buy one first and see how it works before we get another one. I must say they are very charming! Roy is a 680 model I think, though I'm sure the higher end ones are even cooler! I actually wanted to put Roy's dock along the corridor but my husband says it's a "Roomba" so the dock should be in a room lolweep.
  19. ricepapergirl
    Hahaha we would except our Roomba (called Roy) is very good at going underneath our bedframe and our Kallax bookshelves so the radio will fall off! Anyway he's quite loud lol. We will probably set him to go when we're not in the house (once we have had a try with him on both floors) or when we are predominantly on the other floor (mop level 1, put roy to work on level 2, vice versa).
  20. ricepapergirl
    Loving the track lights and fan! Not too sure about the toilet bowls, because yours is wall-hung! most of us just have floor standing ones (which I don't think you can change the height so easily).... probably just ask your ID/contractor? >_<
  21. ricepapergirl
    Hi gumbokins! Actually we never tried, maybe will kiap, mostly just worried that if our doors were dirty it would dirty the clothing (cos we're still in the middle of cleaning) or that the wet clothing would wet the doors. Anyway recently the wind has been good enough that we only open one side of our balcony doors anyway. Aluminum door frames yup, powder coated white (with black protective stickers still on until they finish painting the living room wall). I agree though, my aluminum doors are already so heavy, cannot imagine if I had wooden door frames, confirm too heavy to push liao. If you get the expensive chengal wood type then you won't have the rotting problem maybe? But for me, it was more the weight than anything lol... For the heavier items we have a dryer! We quite like our dryer but didn't want to expend the electricity for normal laundry. Hahaha housework is a must-do mah. Not say enjoy or don't enjoy. But it's good when things are easier, we just tried out our new Roomba yesterday and it was quite fun to see it go!
  22. ricepapergirl
    Awww. Maybe you can make it into some sort of corner shelf. Like put flowers or trailing plants or something lol. But yeah, if you're already boxing up, why not I guess. Hahaha let me finish the reno on the place before I actually take the pictures.
  23. ricepapergirl
    Thanks! Glad I could be of help! Heh heh thank you for the kind words as well! Actually my track lightings are out of necessity because we wanted a ceiling fan but not false ceiling! Glad they helped! Thanks trcd! Heh heh I really like my wall lights as well, also purposely chose them so that they would be easy to clean. Will take a better picture of them tonight, got them from Chan Huat as well. Do go to their biggest showroom, it's on the second storey and try and grab a salesperson to come along because you can pick up loads of interesting advice along the way (I usually grab an uncle, they are the best). I got my table from Commune. It's solid wood (requirement for us because the veneer ones may pop over time) and we really love the rounded edges (scared kids will bump into it). Think it's the BRINA table. It's probably more expensive than TB but we really loved the colour and shape and feel of it.
  24. ricepapergirl
    Hi! I'm probably not the best person to advise on this, since I didn't do box up for my entire renovation, but given that, I must say that whatever huge piping looks like an eyesore when still renovating, they tend to really fade into the background when it gets painted in the same colour as your wall. We were already prepared to live with electrical cable trunking and aircon trunking all over with no false ceiling, no box-ups etc, but to be honest, after the painters came in, we really couldn't tell anymore and it's really not an eyesore. The only trunking we ended up noticing more was the one in our bathroom cos we didn't ask them to tile it over, but all over our house most of the trunking fades into the background. Something to think about if boxing-up will cost a lot?
  25. ricepapergirl
    Hi @gumbokins ! A bit late but managed to remember to take a photo of how our laundry works with the awning today. (I took a photo of when the awning isn't up but somehow my phone didn't keep it??) That's 5 poles of laundry and the awning covering them. There's enough clearance for the awning to clear the laundry, no issues. The only thing is we can't open that side of our balcony doors when we have hung up the laundry (if they were closed in the beginning, likewise we could have opened them first but then after that we can't close till we take the laundry down). So far the brackets are holding up fine! We don't dare to try with blankets or bedsheets etc but clothes are okay!
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