yuene

Don't say lor. His netbook is already pink in colour. Every time he whips it out in public, I cringe inwardly. The stainless steel look is just so clean and nice! Actually, it would go quite well with a white colour theme as well...nvm la, at least your dining table has the concrete screed look! Very nice lor!

Haha, you should try planting the idea of more industrial in your wifey's head.... Wahahahaha... For a moment there I thought the table is really made of concrete, though! Nice effect there.

No. 2. The first doesn't quite have the same underlying colour tone as the rest.

Your toilet looks super nice! But err... at risk of sounding like a suaku.... what's Geberit?

That's why!!! But dunno leh, I don't like the colour pink--in small amounts maybe still can, but a whole room in pink (which he suggested and I told him "dear, if you EVER paint our study pink, I will immediately file for divorce")... I think I cannot take it, I might spontaneously explode. I like the stainless steel, concrete, white, grey and black look. I always kid my hb that he is secretly a woman and I'm secretly a man... in the end, it all evens out I think! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Me too!!!!!

carisella: Well, true, but then again, my house doesn't have that many bugs, so it should be fine. I'll probably clean it every 2 weeks or so. When I'm done installing it and have been using it for a while I'll let you know reizzz: no wonder la. Good leh, your wife help you to save money! Day 22: A quick update Popped by my place during lunchtime today. Kitchen tiles and cabinet bases are all done up (but no pictures, as the tiles are being protected by cardboard boxes). Plastering has begun--they've finished the study/kids' room and the foyer area. Living room ceiling is slowly being plastered too.

Ahahahahahahaha! Nice one reizzz! I think he will not dare to come around after this liao. I mean, I can understand people peeking in, but really, people just nosing around and coming in uninvited is really the pits la.

Eh?! Why she don't want? Most HDB toilets are... dunno who is the champion who design all the HDB toilets until so small... dunno who he think is using the toilets lor... hobbits?!

Part Two: The longest shopping trip EVER On Sunday we agreed to go IMM after church to get the rest of the fixtures. However, due to the fact that I was very tired the night before (having been up from 6am and going non-stop until 11pm), we couldn't make the late morning service. So we went for lunch instead, and then headed to IMM. We needed to get: Bathroom WC, shower, mixer, storage heater, sink, tap, accessories Kitchen Hob, hood, undermount sink, tap We browsed around Sim Siang Choon for a while, but couldn't really find anything we wanted, so we headed on to Asia Excel a couple of doors down. There, we were served by a fellow called James. I suspect he's relatively new, because he had to keep checking back with his colleague, but he was nice and patient, and ready to give recommendations on items. In the end, we ended up buying a few items from Asia Excel, as they were able to give us a 15% discount on all of the items. Hob: I had allocated 8ft of counter space for my kitchen, which, when you think of it, isn't a lot of space. While I don't need all that much preparation space except when I'm entertaining guests, when you put in a 2ft hob with about a 2ft sink (give or take a few inches), factoring in buffer space from the walls, I might as well be chopping my food on the floor! I did know, however, that I liked the look of a domino hob; compact and pretty much as many burners as I would need most of the time. Since I also have a standalone induction cooker thanks to my darling mum who bought the thing, realised it didn't have what it wanted and insisted on offloading it to me, I figured that should handle, well, pretty much everything that a dinner party could possibly throw me. Unfortunately, few brands carry the domino hob design for gas stoves--I don't like using electric or induction as they don't quite give the same control over heat that flame can. We were introduced to the Teka hob, but it didn't appeal to me. So James suggested the Electrolux brand, and so we headed to their showroom on Level 2. The one that we saw was $498 *CHOKECOUGHCOUGH GASP*... so I asked if there were any other dominos from that brand. He suggested a slightly older model, the EHG30200X. I looked at it, and liked it at once. With the 15% discount, it came up to slightly more than $330. We decided also to forgo the hood, since we don't do any deep-frying, and I'm used to not using a hood anyway. Shower: They had a rainshower set on display that I rather liked; it also came with a handheld shower. Including the mixer, it wasn't all that expensive, though I still felt a bit of a pinch when we got it. We also got a 25L Ariston storage heater. I didn't take a photo of my WC, because I didn't think to do so at the time; but unfortunately due to space constraints in the toilet, we had to forgo my dream 1-piece bowl, as my toilet is only 1.2m across (dammit, HDB!), and both my hb and I are tall; in particular, I have long legs. As I intend to put my sink opposite the loo, the last thing I really want is to keep banging my knees into my sink each time I get up.

Hi advancer! Welcome to RT and congrats on starting your reno! The 3Ds look really nice!!! p/s the dining table in your 3D is from Star Furniture... I saw it yesterday when I was buying my dining table and I thought it was really pretty!

Study room lights. I made my hb choose his own light because he will be using the study room more than I will. So he chose this one. He asked if it came in pink! URGH. I'll never understand why he likes that colour. My walk-in wardrobe light! Since I couldn't go for the chandelier, I decided to go for the simple elegant light. My bedroom lights are just 3 round white tracklights on a 1m track. My toilet light. I've always known I wanted a milo tin light for my toilet light. After that I had to rush off to training, so that was it. But my hb and I agreed that we would buy the rest of the fixtures the next day. The lights didn't cost us too much, but still, a rather pretty penny: slightly over $700 for all of them. Part two tomorrow...

Jupiter: Thanks! I like them too... they weren't my first choice tiles, but for some reason when I talked about my kitchen, in my mind's eye this tile would be the one to pop up! In the end because the first choice tile must top up extra, so I went with this one instead. ^^ Day 20 (or so, I'm losing count): filling in the blanks On the day I passed my contractor the piece of paper that will put me into everlasting debt (*sob*), he informed me that on the 25th, I would have to be at my place for about 3-4 hours to discuss with the electrician and carpenter on the location, size and positioning of my fixtures. He suggested getting the rest of the fixtures delivered at one shot as well, since it was more convenient anyway. Part One: Let there be light So my hb and I dutifully trooped down yesterday afternoon after my friend's wedding to lightings.com.sg. I must have looked quite a sight, dressed in my friend's salwar kameez (we did a Bollywood dance item) and aviators (because the sunlight was so insanely bright, and bright sunlight hurts my eyes and triggers my migraines). It didn't take us too long to choose our lights, because I had a good idea of what I wanted. I have severe asthma, and since I'm not home early most days, I can't afford to have high maintenance lights. So, no artichoke lights, no chandeliers etc which is a pity! I did want a chandelier in my walk-in wardrobe because I thought it would be nice, and lend a touch of elegance to the otherwise clean lines of the house. But budget and design cohesion were also factors, so that was that. So... let's start at the very beginning... Simple ice-cube light for my entrance. Living room lights are 6 downlights, 2x13W. Dining room lights. These aren't the correct ones, but they look rather similar to these. Kitchen light. I got a big, bright one because it has a pretty big space to illuminate.

I had to change the windows, because I like the feeling of fresh air and light coming in (it's a throwback from when I used to live with my parents in Toh Tuck... our house faced the afternoon sun and had plenty of windows), and the windows were kind of blocking it all out. The window frame is white; the black tapes are just stuck there to protect it until the end of the reno, I think. And yes, I really like the woody look! I did wonder if the wood-grain tiles were a bit of an overkill, but beh.

Oops, a little belated, but CONGRATS titanax and lachesis on your reno starting! And your downstairs neighbours are really -___-. Hope everything will be resolved smoothly and quickly, and you can focus on your reno!

I just realised that my rubbish chute sticker is the same colour as the one in the 3D. Lol~

Ah, I see... Hmmm! Like that good la, you have your own in-house QC manager! I only have my sister to rely on, and she's always super busy... ? How old is Ah San? Mid-30s? And ya, he's very chatty, will talk about anything... including beh pio!!! We just had a chat about it yesterday when I dropped by, because my mum's place is near one outlet that recently sold a bunch of winning tickets...

Haha, well Clementi isn't all that big, so yeah. But I'm also a Clementi resident; have been one for the past 4 years.

Welcome to RT! It looks like Serangoon North... if so, are you at Ave 1?

Nope, after 6pm... After 10pm ah... want to do ANYTHING LOUD also cannot, liddat very difficult leh...

Yup, I got Ah San! Very nice, very funny fella--he was the one who did (and re-did) my wall, and was super chill about it. Yay for great tilers! Your dad is also in the construction business?

Thanks reizzz! Yes, plastering the whole house. More ex than normal because the previous owner did a rockwall effect for the entire living + dining... sian.

Hai, sama sama la, my idiot neighbour came over and complained about the noise. Even better, she dared to say "After 5pm cannot do noisy works!" WTF?! When her reno was going on I never scream or anything. And the paper clearly states that renovation works are allowed until 6pm. My contractor said that if she does that again, he will tell her to go ahead and report to the police. I think if she comes over to complain while I'm there, I'm going to tell her off, because she and her husband like to SCREAM and ARGUE and THROW THINGS at each other in the middle of the night... like 1-2am kind of timing...argue until whole block and opposite can hear lor. B****. My immediate neighbours also never complain lor (but then, I'm on good terms with them, so...)! Dunno why people can't seem to live and let live. Hope you have the issue resolved? Or are they still complaining?

Day 15-16: Of sharp eyes, ceramics and glass panes I was originally scheduled to meet my contractor on Saturday afternoon to pass him the cheque for the renovations and discuss some items, but I realised (somewhat belatedly) that 1) I'm supposed to be at my friend's wedding--as part of the bridal party!--from 7am-5pm, and 2) I have training from 8-11pm. In other words, it would be far too tiring. So I arranged for the meeting to be today, at 1pm so that I could just pop by during my lunch hour. On my way to work this morning, I decided to take a quick peek out of the bus window as it passed by my house; to my delight, the windows had been changed! Feeling excited, I went to work. Later on, during lunch hour, I took the bus back to my place. The main gate had already been removed, and the steps up had been tiled with the kitchen tiles. They also covered the steps in cardboard, so that the tiles wouldn't be damaged during the works. True enough, the windows facing the main road had been changed. The ones at the kitchen, bathrooms and the MBR had yet to be changed, although they'd been taken off already. I told my contractor that I kind of liked the idea of just not putting windows at all at the kitchen area. Y: Actually hor, no windows like that also quite nice right? C: Open concept right? Y: Ya. C: Ya, then when the rain come in also very nice lor. -___-|| thanks HOR. The wall has been shifted back, and they've done the screeding for the new wall. It was moved in about 1m, and it does make the room feel bigger already. I haven't quite finished debating what to put here; either the baby cot and drawers, or my husband's study table. I'm tempted to go with the latter. When I came in, they were busy mixing the cement for the kitchen tiles. The tiling works so far have been very good! My bathroom toilet is almost done completely, with just a bit left to tile (around the ceiling height) The picture doesn't do the tile justice, but it's a dark wood grain tile. Since my laminates are light, I thought I'd do a floor with a contrast. Plus, if I spill things on the floor (which I am wont to do), it won't leave such obvious stains. And... Rubbish chute's been installed. Green sticker! Doesn't go with my decor. Hahahaha. He told me to get my items ordered and delivered next Saturday (25 Sept), so sometime this week we'll have updates on the actual things that will go into my house! Plastering also starts next week.

Ya, you should have heard it! Really, can almost see his face coming through the receiver end of the phone and going HAAAAH! But yes, thank goodness still can shift it back. Else... I will spend the rest of my life grumbling I think! Hmmm. That's a good idea! Will go try that out...

Wah lau. That uncle is really quite bold lor! Your neighbours are really... -__-||| The notice is quite funny though!