Journey Home

[mishmish 7]

Entrance to common bathroom.. and where the kitchen island will be. Linking the two structural beams together.

Cement screeding in the master bedroom. Walls have had one coat of cement.

Cement screed on the ceiling, 2nd coat done. One more coat to go.

[mishmish 7]

We were thinking of exposing the pipes and painting them black so that we wouldn't need a false ceiling and we could retain the high ceiling and spacious feel. However, after hacking was done, we discovered some really ugly clusters of pipes.

This is where the storage area and fridge and concealed washing machine and dryer was gonna be. Fantastic right?

My ID said we should put a boxed ceiling that would cover the cluster up. My htb felt it would look odd if only one part of the ceiling was boxed up. I was all for leaving it exposed, ugly as it was, slap some black paint on it and let it all hang out. But in the end we came to a conclusion; compromise. Extend out the storage/cupboard area to cover it up. Some space would be wasted since the storage would now be ridiculously deep but like I said, it was a compromise. I'll try to take a picture of it when it's up.

[mishmish 7]

We went to a lot of places to find bathroom stuff. My htb was pretty obsessed with finding good deals with this kinda "technical" stuff which I had little interest in. Our ID said he would do concealed shower system and gave us a list of things to buy. First time he showed it to me, I had no idea what half the things on the list meant. Shower rose , bath mixer with divertor, wall union, I was like !!

Luckily my htb took me to a few shops in balestier where we received an education on it. If htb had not been so into this, I would have left it all to my ID. We quickly decided that since out bath system would be concealed we had to get a reputable one to minimise the chances of it breaking down. So we went shopping for hansgrohe and grohe. We made first stop at the hansgrohe boutique at Mohammad sultan area.

Followed by the rest of the world, grohe boutique at marina square, universal union at geylang, wasser which was also at geylang (neighbours to universal union), water *** (I think at joo balestier, can't rem), lucky khoonz at joo chiat, internal affairs bathroom gallery (great first place to start if you want to see how everything fits together and they have some decent packages), Carera at tai seng area, same as internal affairs. All the above in no particular order.

And our favourite of all would be wan tai where we got the bulk of our stuff. Pictures coming up!

[mishmish 7]

Some of our loot that my ID carried off in his car boot on a weekday because he really needed the concealed stuff. Wan Tai is near Changi Builders Shop which was not so convenient for us to go to. By the time we confirmed orders my ID was in a huge hurry. I think we thought we had lots of time so we took our own sweet time (took 1mth plus for tiles and 3 weeks for bathroom stuff)

We got the cheapest range for hansgrohe

Duravit WCs for common bathroom and master bath with Gerbrit system. Again my htb was the one who researched and found that these two brands were good. I was only in chatge of aesthetic decisions. We got wall hung WCs for both. For master bath because it was large and we think it'll look nicer wall hung from a distance. Cleaner and sleeker. For the common bathroom, my dog is gonna use it when the patio isn't available and he has a habit of marking the WCs in my current place with pee. Sigh. So hopefully with the WC wall hung, he can't rest his leg against the bottom of the bowl and spray like he does now.

[mishmish 7]

Aesthetically I prefer the WC without the hole at the back. Easier to clean too. But it cost 30% more than the one with the hole. My htb said the hole isn't worth that much, let's just get the cheaper one for both bathrooms. But I really preferred the hole-less one so we compromised on having one each. =)

[mishmish 7]

So we got all our master bedroom stuff from Wan Tai, plus a WC for common bath. Except for two taps (basin mixers they are called apparently) and two sinks for my master bath. For common bathroom shower system we got a simple package from Wasser in geylang. I think it was Grohe and it was a pretty good deal but can't rem the specifics now.

Basin from a shop in balestier but can't rem the name now.

[mishmish 7]

We used the basin above for my common bathroom. It's tiny since my common bath is tiny. =(

[mishmish 7]

For my master bathroom, we can't decide between an integrated built in sink using silestone (Eeyore's recommendation) or counter top sinks. We need two taps since we both need to use the sinks in the morning.

Eeyore's suggestion looks something like this.

Actually he brought us to a bathroom he did for a friend which used silestone for an integrated sink but with matt black leathery texture silestone instead. It was gorgeous and htb liked it quite a lot. However it is waaaaaay more exp than a countertop sink. It will cost us 1 to 1.3k more.

This is a countertop sink we liked

We saw a few similar sinks around like this and it's nowhere as exp as the integrated silestone sink would cost us. What do you guys think?

[El LoCo 3]

If budget permit, I would prefer the silestone sink.

[mishmish 7]

If budget permit, I would prefer the silestone sink.

Haha I also leaning towards silestone but htb is very adamant that we get value for money. We are gonna check out ceaserstone later. See if that can work instead. Heard its cheaper.

Edited May 1, 2013 by mishmish

[adidaem 6]

No.. no 3D pictures. He didnt volunteer to draw any, and I didn't ask for any. Actually, I've been wanting to ask, what is 3D pics used for? To better imagine how stuff will look?

Yes... Does sorta help in colors n stuff.

[mishmish 7]

Yes... Does sorta help in colors n stuff.

Hmm maybe that's why we have so much problems choosing what we want. Or maybe we are just too fussy and indecisive. Sometimes I think Eeyore regrets taking up our project.

[mishmish 7]

Happy Labour Day to all. I feel more exhausted than normal working day because I had to run all over with htb to look for hobs, hoods, kitchen sinks, taps, etc. So tired now.

Went to Hoe Kee, mustafa, poh joo (was closed) and quite a few smaller shops at balestier.

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We want a 2 cooker hob with black glass. Our initial plan was to get a induction cooker but we were discouraged by the pricing and that not all utensils can be used on it. So we looked at gas hobs. But my place doesn't have piped gas so we have bottled gas. Aiya many choices equals more headache. Rinnai and turbo are the two brands we are looking at. Any kind advise will be appreciated. Or if anyone has used induction or Electric/ceramic cookers before please please advise me as well because if we take those we probably will forgo the hood.

[mishmish 7]

Am not getting a built in oven because I'm really not anywhere close to being Nigella or some other cooking queen. So am thinking of a microwave oven with grilling, baking abilities as well.

Saw this one at Mustafa

Htb says too exp. he saw a smaller one.

The strange thing is they are both same brand, same specs mostly but smaller one is 32 litres and bigger one is 45 litres and the difference in price is so huge! Again if anyone has used Samsung microwave/ convection microwave oven before, tell me if you like it?

[mishmish 7]

Sink shopping at Carera

I actually love the showroom even though I didn't buy anything from them in the end.