kingandbin
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Everything posted by kingandbin
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Hello! It was custom made & handpainted by TheJoyTroopers! http://www.thejoytroopers.com/ -
Sorry for the late reply @whitebrowngrey! Haven't logged on in awhile. Would you still like to have his contacts? Hehe thank you @Jason Wong! Hey @blueygirls, sorry for the very late response! If you'd still like his contacts, let me know. The fans have been working well! Especially impressed since I bought them for $8 each on taobao haha. We paid under $500 for the installation & replacement of bathroom windows but picked acrylic for 1 window and frosted glass for the other The kitchen faucet worked well initially but has started to rust. WilI recommend everyone to get something else more hardy!
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Hi @patricsa, thank you! Would love to send their info to you but I somehow can't find my account message inbox anymore! Did renotalk remove this feature??? Let me know if there's other ways I can send it to you! (Ig or telegram maybe?)
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Omg, the peeling paint on your service yard wall looks pretty bad. The paint around that area looks like they're also lifted off the wall already! Did applying putty and repainting cause it to look like new again, or can you still tell that the patch has been touched up? There's a small patch of paint on my living room wall that came off because I used 3M tape to attach a key holder there. Beneath it the wall is grey (and looks like concrete? why?!) I've no idea what to do with it apart from sticking the holder back over the hole so no one else can tell what's going on. Lol.
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@Valerie Low Hi Valerie, we only got in touch with contractors and didn't engage any ID. PMed you their contacts!
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Hey folks! Before we know it, an entire year has passed by since we started staying here! We're still very much in love with our cozy home This is despite having to work together to resolve the nitty gritty stuff of living together for the first time, such as the wife nagging at the husband to switch off lights which aren't in use, the storage heater after showering, closing the door when air-con is on, etc etc It's all about cultivating shared living habits lah. Do you all face this with your partners too? Regardless, living together has been a lot of fun! We recently got a clip on wide angle lens for our phones, which means we could capture more extensive angles of the house! Shall share some pics with ya'll here: Recently shifted the dining table from beside the window, to beside the wall. Might only be temporary but it frees up quite a bit of space! In our year of staying here, the number of "animals" in our home also increased about 10x. Our friend who visited again after some time also commented on this whoops. In the living room alone, there are about 16 alpacas of all sorts, on pillows, framed illustrations, toys, and so on. (Maybe we should have guests do an animal themed treasure hunt when they come over. Play spot the alpacas! Lol). The 2 most prominent ones are here. They were custom-made for our wedding so why not just keep them around in the house too right? Let me show you the rest... We have an entire herd of them! The rest stay in the barn, I mean, storeroom now. Okay I should stop this topic here, we're starting to sound crazy. Anyway, overall it still looks like a normal home, don't worry! We've adopted some plants too! A fiddle leaf fig, pothos and mini pineapple plant. The mini pineapple is crazy spiky and always pokes me so we share a love-hate relationship. Also, spot the mini harry potter! Here's our kitchen, which hasn't changed much at all. We recently bought a microwave which has proven to be very useful. No more heating up of leftovers on the stove! We also put up some decoration for Christmas last year! The fairy lights are our favourite addition Here's our sideboard looking sparkly and pretty!
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Yeah it's true that most don't hang out here after reno is done! probably because their 'job' on this space is done hahah. I've stayed in my place for a year already, and finally gonna be hosting an official housewarming next month. This speaks of how slowly my husband and I do stuff, yes? We're done with the final aspects of our home like storeroom which was only done earlier this month. I can't believe we simply chucked stuff inside and pretended that the mess didn't exist for 11 whole months. As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind! So glad that it has been settled. And yes, the urge to buy cute furnishing and decor never ceases!! But once the house is slowly being filled up, I question myself alot more before actually making purchases because I'm afraid they'll become white elephants. I took some pictures of my home yesterday and will be posting them on my tblog soon! I adore homes with lots of greens (can see that you've quite a few yourself! V nice!) but Kings refuses to allow more than 1 living thing/pet in the house. I've already broken that rule by having 3 live plants, and will have more in future definitely. Just need to add them sneakily. Heh.
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Hello @matchalatte! Happy New Year! Logged on after a long time to find that your home is already complete. IT IS SO GORGEOUS!!! (must caps cause I rly wanna emphasize) Can't be more happy for you. Your place has such character and good taste! Even IDs won't be able to do as good a job me thinks. I showed your photos to my husband and couldn't stop going, "Can you believe this is a HDB! Looks like Pinterest pics leh". There's quite a bit of decor but everything looks in place. I've been struggling with picking out the right soft furnishings/extra chapalang stuff for my home cause it's starting to look a little cluttered imo. That's the issue with minimalist-type homes~
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PMed both of you! (:
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@kmx1an @ballistica @florence158 PMed you guys 。。。 WHERE'S ALL THE PHOTOS?! If you were wondering where all the pictures have gone to, photobucket very kindly blocked all photos hosted on forums and are forcing users to upgrade to another plan (aka pay $$$). Thus my photos have been replaced with some ugly default image Kings has been bugging me to re-upload all the photos because he sometimes directs our friends to this renoblog to look see. I've fixed the images on the first post and added some "before" photos as well so you can get an idea of how the space has changed! But say real one ah, I didn't take many photos of the house when it was in its bare state so some of the angles are slightly off. Please don't mind them. As for the remaining photos, I'll try my best to redo them properly for the benefit of those who are still reading this thread! It's a very tedious process (have to download the images, sort them out, host somewhere else then paste here ) so gimme some time k. Have a good day everyone!
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Hey, sent you all a PM @vampire95 @wangrong19891103 @BillAdrien Hmm.. somehow I feel that the internal white laminates are rather thin and imperfections of the wood such as scratches or bumps are quite obvious. Not sure if this is usually the case for carpentry stuff but my husband thinks that I'm nitpicking regarding this. Haha. Also that the edges are not nice and white like the laminates we used, but the dark joint lines can be seen. This seems to be a norm in the industry though. I'll try and see if I'm able to get any photos of these stuff for you. But with regards to alignment of cabinet doors/drawers though, they turned out perfect imo The handles were placed nice and aligned properly too. When comparing my kitchen carpentry with my friends' newly done up place, I realized that mine is actually pretty good. Haha.
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Hello! Yup it's a Monic K-740 sink. I think it can be either mounted on top or under the countertop. Love the sink for its size and for the large strainer. Very easy to clean! Watermarks yes but I think it's also got to do with maintenance. I don't use stainless steel cleaning products, only a magic sponge once in a while so it does get slight watermarks if we don't wipe it up after use. Can be easily cleaned up after. Imo the micro scratches on the sink are slightly obvious when the light is on, but it might be due to our very bright undercabinet light which does a fabulous job in illuminating everything (including flaws haha). When pouring hot liquids down the sink, I usually will run some water from the tap at the same time to ensure it isn't too warm. Never heard it make any popping sounds before though!
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hihi, PMed you (:
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KITCHEN (LIVED IN) Looking back at the post of when our kitchen was just done, the space does feel pretty different. We use our kitchen daily and here's how it looks like on a regular day. View from entrance: View from other side: View from service yard: No regrets on the laminates nor material choices so far, electronics all work well, electrical provisions are sufficient and we're still very much in love with the functionality of this area. BONUS PICS Peek of the living room When we had our wedding standees out the other day
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IT'S BEEN AWHILE Howdy folks! Sorry for disappearing these few months. We were busy with wedding prep which took place in April (yay!) and Bin was adjusting to a new job after that. We're still in touch with Contractor E. He's been so swamped by requests for quotations (must be all the positive word of mouth from renotalk lah) that he isn't taking on new projects for the time being. Unless it's a recommendation from a personal friend/relative of existing clients. So he might not be free to meet up for quotations for now :/ That's one thing we like about him also, he knows not too overwhelm himself with too many projects at one time. This means he'll be able to concentrate on the projects at hand instead of stretching himself thin. He also requested not to be described as being so "cheap". Okay lah, tbh his prices for masonry works and carpentry are on the lower side but some aspects such as electrical works, plumbing, etc are on par with market price or a slight bit more expensive than what some others may quote. Overall still very reasonable though. In terms of workmanship, we are pretty pleased with how everything has been holding up. Noticed some gaps in the grouting previously and he arranged for his guys to head down and patch them up, and he taught us how to patch it up ourselves too if need be. Carpentry finishing is not amazing (then again, his pfr prices are the lowest I've seen) but acceptable. If anyone is still interested to have his contact, lemme know and we'll be happy to send it to you! Previously we've sent components of his quote (without the prices) to those who have requested for it but please note that we won't be sharing it anymore. Will update this space when we get the final figure for my entire renovation. In the meantime, we will still pop by once in a while to answer any questions and post lived-in photos! (yay, don't we all love photos? :D)
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Hihi! Sure, PMed you (: Hello @dietgalvon! I vaguely remember exchanging some messages with you but forgotten what they were about already! Had to constantly clear the inbox otherwise it fills up really quickly! Awwww, don't mention it I met quite a few helpful folks here who gave really good advice too, and so I'm glad to pass on the favour as well! Also happy (and excited on your behalf) to see that your reno will finally be starting! Muji is a theme we really really love too & I know your home will turn out beautiful in the end Btw the vendor I bought the tracks from has them in 1m & 0.5m lengths only. The sides with sofa & dining table area 1m + 0.5m = 1.5m each. And the one above the tv console is just 1m. On hindsight, it feels like the one above our sofa can go up to 2m or more and the length will still fit comfortably. Hope this helps somehow!
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Pre-wedding photoshoot! Haha missed out on an important word Brought our own gowns & suit, did own make up/hair & took the photos ourselves.
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Hello @kayelle! Hehe thanks for the compliment Have PMed you their contacts! (And yes, J&E's really popular in this forum!)
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Kitchen and all the carpentry works are looking really good! The chosen laminates are really gorgeous. Clean and minimalistic Love the paint colours as well! Did you pick matt or glossy laminates for your kitchen? Little issues here and there are bound to happen.. hang in there! The end is near and I'm sure the final outcome will be worthwhile . The fun bit for you is coming already~ Furnishing! In my case, the toilet glass panel took 4 or 5 visits to fix up correctly and they even tried to charge extra for the changes made due to their error. Thank goodness it's all over!
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Yeap, was concerned that the different materials may look mismatched but thankfully they go together quite well Bringing the kompacplus sample along to shop really did help! The colour of the brand new butcher block countertop in my home is slightly lighter than the samples in IKEA though, probably because the ones on display are touched/handled so much more on a daily basis. We've yet to seal it (based on what we read online, it would be advisable to do so) but it's holding up well so far! After it is sealed the colour will deepen and match our kompacplus better I think. A contractor we met did an entire kitchen with the IKEA countertop before, even sink side. But he warned that it may spoil easily or have to be replaced sooner than other materials because it isn't as hardy and long-lasting. The contractor I engaged was happy to help do up the IKEA top~ He asked us to get it on our own because he had previously purchased the wrong colour/type of IKEA butcher block and the client only realized/brought up the mistake months after it was installed.. He had to redo the whole thing out of his own pocket so to prevent it from happening again he requested we get it ourselves instead
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Hehe @fifteenmay is right @matchalatte I used Ikea's butcher block on one side of my kitchen! The "dry side". The other side with sink and hob I used kompacplus. To spare you the agony of browsing through my long & lor sor t-blog, can go see these posts --> Kitchen Pics & Countertop Shopping @ IKEA hahah Another t-blog by a lovely renotalker featured butcher block style countertops from ikea too! But hers is the laminate kind. Can see her kitchen preview and look through her posts for more: https://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/73130-emma-our-em-in-the-west/?page=14#comment-931137
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Hello! Getting tiles from taobao shouldn't be an issue, but you will need the support from your ID/contractor. Some may not be as keen to work with materials if they are not sure of the source it's from. I've seen a renotalk t-blogger whose house was done up using tiles entirely from taobao. Turned out fine but a small amount cracked during shipment so it'll be a good idea to purchase some extra. As for kitchen backsplash I believe the herringbone patterns will turn out gorgeous So will the hexagon marble tiles - but those will have more grout lines which means slightly more trouble to clean! Mine are the regular glossy subway tiles/pattern which has been a breeze to maintain so far. Just got to wipe them down after doing any oily cooking. The main thing is to try not to have grouting which is too light. They stain alot more easily and aren't as easy to maintain imo. Grey grouting worked fine for me
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Super Lost
kingandbin replied to Veky's topic in Reno t-Blog Chat - HDB BTO Interior Design and Renovation
Hi Veky! Welcome to renotalk! I understand how you feel as it's really overwhelming as a new homeowner to have to decide on the "right" ID/person to do up your home. For all companies you approached, did they quote you on the same items or are they all different? If they quoted based on the exact same items it's alot easier to compare since it's apple to apple. If they all quoted different items, try and decide on the elements/items you would like to do up and let them know to revise the quotes based on your requirements so there is a basis for comparison. But ultimately, you should first decide on a budget you are comfortable with and let the ID know so they can work around it. Aside from the design aspect (which I can't advise much, as I engaged a contractor who didn't give input on design).. one way to compare the quotes between the firms contacted is to calculate the individual pricing for the items they quoted. For example, carpentry usually takes up a chunk of the budget and can be calculated based on pfr (per foot run). Simply divide the $ amount quote by the number of ft listed. For example, if kitchen cabinets cost $3,510 for 27ft it equates to $130pfr. From my knowledge, the market rate is about $110 to $130 pfr for kitchen carpentry works. Similarly for kitchen countertop, prices are calculated based on pfr (appx $75 to $120+++ depending on material) as well. IDs may charge differently for the exact same material so it's useful to know the pfr calculations. I was also quoted a range of prices from $7,000 up to $9,500 for tiling of living room + 3br floors for a 4-room flat. Certain companies charge a little more for certain types of works but may charge less for other things so it's up to you to gauge which price points you are ok with, and most importantly, which person you feel you have the most chemistry with. All the best!- 8 replies
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Hey guys, just updated the first post with photos of our completed home. When we say "completed", we actually mean done with the reno works but not done with decor haha. I believe no one is ever actually done doing up their home. There's always bits and pieces which is added on as we go along~ It's also lived in photos, meaning it's not showroom worthy but this is how the place looks after we've lived here for almost 3 months. None of our paintings/pictures have been hung up on walls yet, we've wall shelves that have yet to be put up, there's a half built sideboard lying around in the living room (it doesn't turn up in the pics we posted but trust me, it's thereee), the aircon ledge window in our mbr is covered with kraft paper (hahaha!) to keep out light, storeroom still has no racks so everything is lying on the floor, dressing room is missing a drawer cabinet unit, study room still needs a book shelf, etc etc. You get the gist - there's still quite a list of things to be done! But anyway, we just returned from a trip to NZ where we DIYed our own pre-wedding photoshoot. I've a lovely colleague who loaned us his GoPro for our trip so I took the chance to capture some images of our home in its current state The wide angle of the GoPro is perfect for taking home photos hehe. If ya'll have any questions about our home or would like a closer look at certain things feel free to let me know!
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Thanks for taking the time to read through our t-blog Sure, sent you their details! Hello! PMed (:
