dietgalvon

Hello! Been rather stressful the past couple of days with the thought of the impending wedding (but nothing is done!) and some issues that cropped out regarding our home. :'( But things have moved SO much! ISSUES 1. Vinyl flooring Mentioned in the post above that the vinyl at the entrance 'popped'. Well, Evorich came down to rectify it so it's all well now. Also, had a not so pleasant conversation with the flooring liaison regarding the change to metal trimming instead of the plastic capping that was used. In the end, he agreed to do it for us in about 2 weeks' time. Hope nothing goes wrong again! By the way, the metal trimming should look like that. *Image is not mine; credits to owner.* Huge difference, isn't it! 2. Elmark Ceiling Fan (for the living room) It had been a tough journey for this compared to our vento fino 2 fan. Long story short, after a lot of whatsapp and whatsapp calls, we have decided that we need to go in to JB for the THIRD TIME for this fan. JB store will help us to change the fan body to silver but we are to bear the transport cost (from KL to JB). This is the best alternative already because the other fan we are considering does not have stocks till Aug/Sep. AND we have to get a ceiling mount bracket set from Elmark Singapore for this fan. It's ain't so bad except that it's located at Ubi (I stay in the west). Grrrrr... I am beginning to hate myself for being so insistent that the fan must fit our theme. Wouldn't have so many problems if I just got a pure white fan. -__- 3. IKEA Molger Mirror We managed to get our hands on this after all, thanks to social media!! We were informed that IKEA Tampines has stocks for this, and the fiance went to get it at the first instant. One issue down! RENOVATION UPDATE - 1 JULY 2017 Almost everything is up - except for the lights at the passage way. Shower screen in MBR toilet also up, but did not take any photo of that. Pictures below! Part of the MBR wardrobe. Can't remember if I have mentioned that J had suggested 3 drawers here but I had wanted to change it to 2 only (one for me and one for fiance mah). But then I realised that it would be a waste of space because fiance clothes are not so long. We were prepared to just add a shelving if another drawer cannot be added. E did not reply us but he did it for us anyway. Side note: Anything that E does not reply us on - usually it will be done when we next visit our home. Lol. Kitchen kompacplus top is up. We chose 10.11 Kansas Maple and we love it! Glad E asked us one last time before he ordered because we initially picked 10.20 after seeing the 3D drawings. We had E fabricate a shelving which is of the same depth and length as our IKEA wall shelf which we will put below it. The laminate is the same as the one we used throughout the home, and it matches really well (very similar) to 10.11. Luckily we changed it to 10.11! No surprise here - MBR toilet vanity top is also kompacplus in 10.11. Matches my IKEA mirror! Yes as you can probably tell from the photo of the kitchen earlier, lights are uppppp! I love all my lights I think I'll do a separate post on that (lol). Thankfully all the agar-ration for the wattage are good and I spent less than $500 in total!! Service yard windows which we outsourced. The quote for windows were quote standard at $600 plus by contractors/IDs but I chanced upon a blog recommending a contractor that does windows and grilles for a 4room BTO at $850 only. I gathered that the cost for windows shouldn't be that high! I would think that it's not too troublesome to outsource windows - all it takes is 1 visit to take measurements (5mins) and 1 visit (30mins) to install. Somemore, it's all based on HDB regulations, so no need to choose anything also lol. Please get the windows done before second coat of painting. CHOOSING OF PD DOOR (MBR toilet door) All I knew was the mechanism of the PD door; I didn't know that it can be customised! But doesn't really matter to us because we choose a really simple door. This design, in white frame, frosted glass panels. TAOBAO PURCHASES (Last batch for the renovation works) Won't be requiring any more items for the renovation so I will be slowly consolidating my orders before I ship the rest of the items over. MBR Toilet - Face Towel Bar Got it from another seller after my previous one arrived rusty and unusable. I just had to get this design. Common Toilet - Corner Shelf The white layer is a protective layer; it's actually stainless steel colour. This arrived with a lot of scratches at the back! But quality feels alright. Common Toilet - Towel Bar This is one of the rare stainless steel items which arrived without a single scratch. Quality comparable to those you see in Singapore (brandless). This costs about $8, super good buy! Miscellaneous Shoe bench for the fiance to wear his shoes $3 bin! Okay size for rooms but too small for kitchen. Towel rack for the kitchen; not sure if I will use this but this costs less than $2. Hahaha. That's all! Will share on lights and possibly our electrical plan next.

@izong Yes! So far no complaints, majority are pretty good buys! @dorae178 PM-ed. @fifteenmay Here's the link to the bath mat https://ezbuy.sg/product/20000004448579.html

PURCHASES Living Room Ceiling Fan (Elmark 52") This is the only fan that we liked when we went to see check out fans in JB back in Feb, simply because it fits our theme. I read before that Elmark fans sold in Malaysia has a different ceiling hook etc and might end up costing us about $130 to get a Singapore installer + purchase Singapore ceiling hooks. But this is the ONLY fan that we liked. We had no choice, crossing fingers that E don't contact us telling us that this fan cannot be fixed up properly lol. T5 lights for MBR & Common Toilets Well, all my lights were purchased from taobao except the T5 lights, and I'm glad I didn't because what we envisioned was different from what E advised. We wanted to get Philips one but they were out of stock. So we went to Chan Huat (heard that their price is reasonable) and bought their house brand instead. Kitchen wall shelf (1.2m) This will be placed above the sink (will stretch to cover the counter area till stove area) and we will use this as a dish strainer I guess. Was initially a little worried about it covering the counter top area as well but the fiance say it will be useful. Hoping that it won't look bulky in time to come! *** We also asked J not to fabricate our MBR toilet mirror ledge because some months back we saw one from IKEA which costs only $49 (fabricating one costs like $300+). After months of shopping around that was seriously the ONLY one mirror which caught our attention and made us wonder if we should not do carpentry instead. I always have in mind what I really want so end up harder to buy things. My mum say I'm too fussy lol. This is the one I'm referring to - but we were told that it is DISCONTINUED!!! We were so sad then, we thought it was merely out of stock. I showed the fiance another mirror cabinet from IKEA but he outright said it's ugly lol. He was doubtful when I said 'try to find another one' and persuaded me to get J to fabricate instead. Oh wells... haven't thought of what to do yet. RENOVATION UPDATE - 25 JUNE 2017 We met with our electrician who seemed like a really nice guy. He told us that it is right to use higher wattage lights if we're getting from taobao and he also said that our tracks usable as when the track lights are secured in the tracks, it's not wobbly! ^^v Our entrance is now tiled too. We asked E before if we could have tiles, and we also asked if he can handle the uneven cement screeding at the entrance slope. He initially said yes but when we reminded him to tile the entrance he said we should lay vinyl instead. But after reminding him he promptly got tiler to do up the entrance. We conveniently used out bathroom wall tiles haha. BUT. Today we noticed a problem. Vinyl popped up. I think it's due to the cement screed lah. Going to send this to Evorich and see how. Previously I also sent them a picture of the metal trimming instead of the ugly plastic capping that they used. But was told that need extra charge if I want to change it. But in the first place they didn't even give me a choice! It was until I googled that I realised the metal trimming was much nicer (not protruding). HMPFFFF. Overall, I think I won't recommend Evorich. Kind of regretted not going for LURF (I saw their capping, it was not protruding and it looks almost similar to the flooring (has wood grains). And most importantly, Evorich only has 12 different types to choose from, and seriously, I only like ONE of the 12. I didn't even have to really carefully choose.

TAOBAO PURCHASES More taobao loots arrived! MBR Toilet - Clothes Hook Pretty good quality! MBR Toilet - Bidet Spray Quality is not bad; bonus is that this is small and cute! MBR Toilet - Toilet roll holder Quality is not bad, but this is stick-on using 3M tape because I can't find a holder (for drilling) which I like. MBR Toilet - Towel Rack This is supposed to be stainless steel but it's rather light. Quality is average only, comes with some scratches here and there. Perhaps about the same quality as those lower end towel racks in Singapore? Still going to use this as my mum say it's still alright. It had been a hit and miss with stainless steel stuff in taobao but at least buying through ezbuy prime gives me peace of mind as they allow refunds for defective items. MBR Toilet - Diatomite Bath Mat Read that this floor mat absorbs water like magic. I tested it out on the free gift - a coaster. AND IT REALLY WORKS! I'm so amazed with this! Going to put this in the MBR toilet right outside the shower screen. My mum was so amazed she asked me to buy 2 for her as well LOL. MBR Toilet - Corner Shelves Quality is awesomeee! Love that the 'rail' is in glass contrary to the usual metal ones. I bought 2 of this! Common toilet - Bidet spray (NOT) This is a cheaper version from the same seller as my MBR bidet spray but this feels too plastic-y to be used. The holder is really filmsy. I bought the exact same one I got for MBR to replace this. This is going into the bin hahaha. I don't even want to sell this because this is trash lor. Common Toilet - Vanity Set Sorry for the poor lighting but this is actually light wood in colour. I was surprised that the hinges for the lower cabinet is slow-closing (not the mirror cabinet and drawers). The quality seems pretty good but to be honest this ain't cheap by taobao standards. But I wanted to buy through Prime because I'm afraid the items will arrive broken so there weren't many choices to begin with. Fiance was saying this looks too good for common toilet and we should have gotten a set for our MBR instead of doing carpentry works lol (savings would have been $700 or so). Oh but I recalled the tap was quite light. Other than that, no complaints! MBR - Down light Bought 2 downlights of different wattage; will place 1 at the small area at MBR entrance (last minute change due to air-con trunking issues). When I saw the Philips brochure, I thought all the down lights are thick and chunky. So I went to taobao, and saw these silm ones. Yayyy! But I came to realised that Singapore has these also, just that it's about 8 times the price I paid. Living Room - Clock Love the woody clock hands!! Living Room - Clothes stand Pretty good quality and loving the colour that fits our theme so well! This is for us to hang our bags/jackets which we use daily. Misc - Stools I think this stool is quite commonly seen in this forum; it's actually quite expensive lei. But I bought it because I like how simple but nice it looks! These are for when we have guests! Misc - Boomjoy Spray Mop Read many many good reviews but have yet to try this. This is actually not cheap - hope it's worth its price. *** My TV console from my previous batch of taobao shipment has been assembled! Electrician came today and we updated him on the placement of the respective lights. We wanted to shift the TV point and electrical sockets to be hidden within the console so he did not do it earlier. Today he asked us about our console and actually we planned to get our contractor workers to help us... but he said we should assemble it there and then so that he know the placement of where the points should be. Luckily he was there because we would have taken so much time to assemble and it's impossible for us to drill the screws without the electrical drill. He did it singlehandedly! And now it's up!

Yes! We're using kompacplus. Will share pics when kitchen is up!

@Clarence Lye Hmm I'm not sure of the HDB regulations, but I have seen others doing this as well. But I have met with a few IDs who told me it can't be done too. @Mannequin I think they're overwhelmed with projects now! @starylite PM-ed @inchvbeam Some patience is needed, they're overwhelmed with projects.

@spooky Bingo! We only used one wood laminate throughout. My MBR basin was from taobao! @Kobelala Things were a faster than I expected! Thanks for your kind words @p31j1n Thanks for your kind words! Yes, we used one wood laminate throughout - Lamintak WY5244D.

RENOVATION UPDATE - 17 JUNE 2017 I would say that carpentry are fully up (save for one faulty wardrobe door). E had been reminding us when electric and plumbing works will be done; and what we have to do over the weekend. But I'm hoping that the renovation don't end so soon!! Shoe cabinet This is one of my favourite spots! We stole the conceal bomb shelter idea from one of the IDs but I think it's quite a common design lah. :x Omg can't imagine if I had chosen to just do the shoe cabinet without concealing the bomb shelter. J added a frame at the sides of the mirror because he say it is easier to maintain (else fingerprints on the mirror). We also chose to do depth of 30cm only so that it is flushed to the wall beside it; J reminded that with this depth we cannot store shoe boxes. MBR One of the doors does not fit, so the workers brought it back. As we maxed out the space of the room for this huge wardrobe space, the opening to our platform bed area is rather small. So for the dresser, we made a 'suspended' mirror such that it gives the illusion that it's not entirely enclosed. Traded in some storage space but this is something different from the norm! This is an idea from another ID. :x Lol. MBR toilet Our sink is a little small but given the size of the vanity, I had no choice because I still want plenty of counter space. This is the only sink I can envision in my MBR toilet. No other shapes works hahaha. Not I'm just worried about the huge taobao tap. That's about all the new updates. Kitchen top is not yet done. In the meantime... We were surprised by the quality of our taobao vanity set for the common toilet! The tap was rather filmsy but the wood seems pretty good. We did not check the mirror and the countertop yet. We were lamenting if it would be nicer than our MBR's vanity (lol).

Aircon trunking looking good! It is one area I really regretted not doing enough research on. Brilliant to hide the water pipe as well!

@tjk1208 we're not installing any hood. We will add 2 shelvings and that's it! Hahaha @spooky thanks for your kind words! Looking forward to more updates of your home too

RENOVATION UPDATE - 15 JUNE 2017 Everything moved really fast after the flooring was up - carpentry are ALL in. Feeling bittersweet after I left our new home that very day I saw all the carpentry... Compared to the time spent in doing research, the renovation process is so much shorter hahaha. Living Room Our shoe cabinet + mirror tic-tac door to conceal bomb shelter. Dining Our idea materalized! Our bar-top dining area and hanging shelves (in an attempt to hide the pipe in the kitchen). J advised to do a bigger ledge here in case we want to have steamboat/3dishes1 soup kind of meal. He said a bar-top without dinning in a home is too unpractical lol. DB box - since we're changing the doors I was reluctant to let it remain 4-door lol. Loving the sleek look of 2-door DB box. Laminate was something that is easier to maintain. Shelvings were added inside. Kitchen Gas pipe boxed-up; loving our drawers (yes our IKEA cutlery tray fits!) and the openness of the kitchen. Totally did not regret doing away with top cabinets (and left the opposite side of the kitchen empty). MBR Wardrobe; spent extra money for 2 ft worth of carpentry at the L-shaped so that even the dead space can be used. We maximized all the space we could for a 12.5 ft wardrobe and 2 ft dresser in total. Should have listened to J and make 3 drawers in the middle because fiance clothes are not that long lol. View from platform bed area. We decided to add this 'bedside table' at the last minute. Initially fiance thought it doesn't look minimalistic enough but he approved it because it's hidden because the wardrobe (won't see unless you walk over) and he can't be oblivious to the functionality of this table heh. Thanking my lucky stars we have a MBR bigger than the living room so we could play around like that; basically all I needed in a room! MBR toilet Our tiny vanity

@ice803 My contractor mentioned that they have too many projects on hand currently. @sqliu647 So far, my experience with them had been okay. Not totally without hiccups but I did not regret engaging them.

@Sehn82 Materials and labour to construct my platform (differs based on size/height of platform) is ~$800. If want to do platform with storage, instead of laying vinyl, they will use carpentry materials. I did not ask for quote for that, but my contractor told me that it will be in the thousands. A fellow neighbour did one for about $5k!

@izong to save costs we opted for platform without storage and the platform was constructed on the screed floor and vinyl laid over the platform instead. Perhaps you can consider too! @JennyTan Ours was $6.25psf. We signed the deal during their event so we had a bit of cash rebate.

INSTALLATION OF VINYL FLOORING - 13 JUNE 2017 We chose Evorich's Ice Maple for the whole house and absolutely did not regret it! Choosing only one type makes the house look wider and more uniform. Also like that there are no 'dividers' separating the rooms and living room. There is a 'divider' separating the common toilet and kitchen. We don't have it outside the MBR toilet because we have a proper entrance kerb. It is surely nicer than having this! Raised platform in our MBR, also fabricated and installed by Evorich (pic is darker than true colour). Capping at the sides of the platform Really love our flooring! COLOURS OF THE HOME First coat of paint was up before Evorich installed our flooring. We didn't get to have a good look until that day when the sky ain't too dark yet. Just 2 colours in the home: - Remembrance for recess walls - White for the rest We love how they turned out.

RENOVATION UPDATE - 29 MAY 2017 The day our aircon trunking was being retrunked, our contractor was already doing the box-up for the other areas. Living room Passageway The fiance was so glad that the aircon trunking were boxed-up. Initially thought it was a waste of money but due to the amount of trunking in our flat, it made a huge difference. RENOVATION UPDATE - 4 JUNE 2017 MBR entryway box-up Living area box-up MBR The box-up was very nicely done! Only issue was that part of the trunking can be seen at the MBR. E told us it's for ease of future servicing. Not too sure what that means but we asked him to rectify it anyway. It looks too awkward. MBR toilet; tiles that were affected by the initial aircon trunking removed. Due to the number of tiles affected, we had to pay a small fee to mend the tiles. Yay! But redone works really ain't as perfect... Some tiles were not even now. We have asked E to get tiler to redo 2 tiles. Kitchen cememt sink support is up! Contractor also assisted to arrange for the gas piping to be done. RENOVATION UPDATE - 8 JUNE 2017 Flooring was due to be up on 9 June 2017 but on 8 June 2017 we realised that there was still a huge mountain of debris in our home, cleaning was not done also. Not sure if E forgot to instruct his workers or workers did not do work. In any case, our flooring had to be delayed for a week. RENOVATION UPDATE - 9 JUNE 2017 So in the meantime, we informed E of the 2 interim defects i.e. the uneven toilet wall tiles and aircon box up in the MBR room. From this... To this... Rectified! There is a jut because the box up has to be flushed with the one at the main door. We did not place our aircon near the toilet (less trunking) because our bed area is partitioned off; aircon needs to be facing our bed. Will update about our flooring next!

@spooky Woah what a coincidence! I think the tracks should be okay lah I bought the normal one in 0.5m still because I'm lazy to find a local shop which sells 0.5m lol. I just reminded ezbuy to ask seller to wrap the item properly. Yes, so not looking forward to assemble the items! OMGGG.

It is so hard to keep up with updating the taobao purchases; by now I think I have made a few more orders from taobao. :X REVIEW OF TAOBAO ORDER 1 Please refer to this post for the items purchased; I've updated it according to the final items I received. As I have not officially used the items, I shall comment on the condition and quality on face value only. Also, as we spent 2 to 3 hours unboxing, we did not take pictures for everything. Please bear with me! Tracks and track lights The tracks and track lights arrived in good condition, except one 0.5m track which came dented. Our electrician advised us to get tracks from Singapore as taobao ones aren't as sturdy. But the tracks that I bought were the 'hardened and thickened' version, and are tough and cannot be bent. On the other hard, the 0.5m track does not come in the upgraded version. It relents when I tried to bent it lol. We will check with electrician if our tracks are good enough. All other lights Thanks to the awesome sellers in packing our lights, they arrived in good condition and I can't be more pleased with the quality of the lights. I LOVE ALL THE LIGHTS that we bought! They are also significantly cheaper than in Singapore but most importantly, shopping on taobao means that you will be spoilt for choice! To be completely honest, even the quality of my SGD10 basic ceiling lights didn't disappoint me. I was surprised by the size of the lights though - they are huge! It would be advisable to check with seller on the wattage recommended (actually I did but decided to size up anyway lol). Hoping that it would look ok when they're up on the ceiling. TV Console Most of the consoles on ezbuy prime are about $500. The fiance don't usually question my decisions but for this he told me that his tv console doesn't cost that much but it still holding up. With that, I went to look for something cheaper. We checked that all wood pieces are in good condition and we're loving the raw wood finish. Downside is water spilled on it might seep in easily. We would be putting a plastic sheet over it. But quality was really good for a $120 console, that is supposed to be solid wood. Hahaha. Side table The quality amazes me again!! ^^ Coffee Table This piece is a little darker than the rest of the furniture in our home but the uniqueness makes up for it. Needless to say, the quality is really good as well! Kitchen stainless steel sink and tap Sink- The quality was pretty good and it comes with a warranty card (that we cannot use of course). I was prepared to buy one from Singapore if this fails us but from what I see, the quality seems on par with what I saw in Singapore (the normal ones). Our contractor mentioned before that not all china sinks fits the Singapore water pipes but ours should be okay since our contractor did not highlight any issues. My only regret is that 55cm sink seems a little too small; it looks big on its own but certainly not when I saw the cement sink support mould. Tap- Sorry for repeating "good quality" so many times hahaha. But my mum was surprised at how cheap the tap costs! It is however, really HUGE. I am hoping it won't look weird with my 55cm sink. Lol. MBR ceramic basin and tap Basin- I guess there's nothing much to comment on the quality of a ceramic sink lol. It comes in good condition. It is a little too small for my liking but I guess I can only blame it only my toilet layout. Tap- The tap looks okay, but it doesn't come with a box. Hence it arrived with 2 small scratches which we received a partial refund from ezbuy and decided to live with it. The seller actually advised to paint it (seriously?). But I didn't manage to find another seller for this tap, so I guess no complaints. I like that it is a little different from the usual waterfall taps. The main issue is, it is again, really HUGEEEE. So again, I have to hope that it doesn't look weird with my tiny basin. Rainshower This ain't exactly cheap - about $170+ - the price could buy a lower-end rainshower in Singapore. But fellow renotalkers had raved about this and true enough - it feels really atas LOL. SELLING BLACK BATHROOM ACCESSORIES Here goes. Initially we ordered a monochrome vanity set so we got black accessories to match the look. But the seller did not dispatch the item (thereby delaying this shipment). We ended up cancelling that vanity set and got another in wood/white. My issue then is that the black bathroom accessories is a mismatch with the toilet vanity and I JUST CAN'T. I've gotten stainless steel accessories instead. Overall, the black accessories are pretty cool (and cheap on taobao) and the quality is pretty awesome (including the shampoo basket not featured here as it has been sold)! They are all stainless steel according to the sellers. Selling them at cost. Single Towel Bar, $13 [SOLD] L 55.5cm, W 7cmStainless steel Actual picture Robe Hook, $13 L 27cm, W 3.5cm Stainless steel Toilet paper holder, $13 L 16.5cm, W 8.5cmStainless steel Actual picture WOODY PASSAGEWAY LIGHT, $19 Like I mentioned, I like all my lights! But due to the false ceiling that was done to hide the aircon trunking in the MBR, we have to change to a downlight instead. Such a pity. By the way, this is no longer under Prime! Mine comes with a 5W E27 warm light bulb, but this can support up till 40W bulb. Actual pictures That's all for the moment. Reviews of my subsequent (smaller orders) coming really soon!

@lsit Hmm he seems pretty aloof from his texts but he's quite approachable face-to-face. Overall, I have no issues working with him. But yes, I think they have quite a few projects on hand. I remembered I went to their office before works commenced and saw that we are number 22 on their list. Lol.

PM sent! PM sent! By the way J&E are not IDs, they are contractors.

@inchvbeam I vaguely remember my flooring liaison mention this. But evorich HERF has obtained a cert of some sort that proves that it is child safe. Fiancé (who is a researcher) seems to be impressed by this so I just went along with it. Lol. @spooky sorry missed your question on the price of the tiles. If I recall correctly it's below $4.50

@kmx1an PM sent! @spooky These are from Hafary. Wildwood series - white and light grey (the white looks beige in real life) @inchvbeam PM sent! @Stream 1) Yup, there was a higher base at the non-shower area. 2) Supposed to have, but to avoid that unsightly pipe that may pose cleaning issues, I cut it off too without letting the water pipe run all the way to the floor trap. Heard it's to avoid leaking issues but well. 3) It's going to be up this Tuesday! I can't wait for it to be done also so that I can shift my taobao loots over lol.

@Yplailai I only have the photo in this post. If yours is also a new flat, can consider to run the trunking like mine in the MBR toilet (where's the aircon outlet is). For the rest of the rooms & living room, I can't advise much because I'll be boxing them up. I just follow what my contractor advised for those areas that require box-up, so may not be best route.

@Kobelala Thanks for the kind words @stefaniex PM-ed you the contacts! I'm using Evorich HERF (vinyl) for my flooring. I think it was $6.25psf (w/o skirting). Will review soon! @Yplailai Other side as in the ceiling? The 'bent' trunking does not have water pipe in it so it can be done.

UNBOXING OF TAOBAO ORDER 1 This shipment took 1 whole month to reach us because there the seller of the vanity set did not ship out the item! It took very long till ezbuy got back and I eventually cancelled the order. Part of the items already reached us earlier as they were shipped by air. These are the items from order 1 which just reached us! We have unboxed everything to check on the condition. Will do a review soon!