Meanwhile, some works were done in other parts of the house:

- staircase railing is up

- parquet floor in 3 bedrooms was polished. We retained the parquet floor built by the previous owners.

- shower screen is up in the upstairs common toilet

stairs railing 1 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

stairs railing 2 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

stairs railing 3 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

polished parquet by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

shower screen by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Hi Harriette, can pm me the cost of the staircase railing? Is it wrought iron?

Super liked your full false ceiling, Harriette. Can you share with me how much Mr Teak charging per sq foot ? Can't wait to see your tv console as well.

Imagine to do this without website info, internet shopping, whatsapp, etc...

I second that! Smartphones, whatsapp, the internet have made it so much easier to get around things and getting them done!

@ Harriette, me too, I'm going to get a dishwasher...bye bye the days where I am the "dishwasher"! hahahahah

I find dishwashers not suitable for Asian kitchens where there is heavy cooking.

1. You still need to soap and scrub off stubborn stains before putting the plates & utensils into the dishwasher.

2. Friends with dishwashers have a habit of accumulating the dirty plates before turning on the dishwasher.

I find it easier just to wash the plates the moment I finish using them.

Hi anemone and kstoh,

I have bought a dishwasher for my current 5-room flat in 2008. People told us not to get a dishwasher, coz the dishes will not be clean and I will have to scrub off the stubborn stains first. At first, we found that this was true. One day, we placed a disposable plastic food container into the dishwasher. It was very dirty with lots of stains, but we did not bother to scrub it. To our surprise, it emerged completely clean. We therefore realised that the material of the dishes also play a part on how clean the dishwasher could wash it. After some exploration, we found that Corelle bowls/plates washed well in the dishwasher. At that time, we were newly weds with tight budget. Most of our dishes were bought at an Ikea sale, for 90cents a piece. So, we just live with we had.

Following the birth of my daughter, we were very sleep deprived. My husband broke a plate in the living room and glass pieces flew all over the house. As Corelle is supposed to be break resistant. I bought 2 boxes of it when there was a sale.

Pots and pans need to be hand-washed. The dishwasher can't washed it clean. Teflon coated pans cannot be washed in the dishwasher.

Still, the dishwasher is useful when I have gatherings at my place.

Edited March 9, 201412 yr by Harriette

Hi Harriette,

What a great place and great taste you have! Look forward to see more pictures of your place when all furniture and decoration are in.

Please PM me Mr. Yeak and William contact numbers and your ID design fee.

Warm regards,

DTbabies

I have PM-ed you.

Hi Harriette, can pm me the cost of the staircase railing? Is it wrought iron?

Hi,

it is wrought iron. I have PM-ed you the costs.

Jay (my ID) commented that the welding workmanship of the staircase railing is good. It is amongst the better ones which he has seen.

Super liked your full false ceiling, Harriette. Can you share with me how much Mr Teak charging per sq foot ? Can't wait to see your tv console as well.

I have PM-ed you.

Ikea Kitchen

The ikea cabinets are all up. It is glossy white. We can't remove the protective blue sticker yet, as reno works are still on-going.

ikea kitchen 1 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Some photos of the interior:

ikea kitchen 3 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

ikea kitchen 4 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

ikea kitchen 5 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Customised shelves

These are the customised shelves which the ikea contractors built:

ikea kitchen 6 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

ikea kitchen 7 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Upcoming carpentry works

Mr Yeak will be doing some carpentry works for the kitchen. The TV console will be "connected" with the adjacent kitchen cabinet.

ikea kitchen 2 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Mr Yeak will build a white wooden plank on each side of the kitchen island to frame it. The back of the island is covered with a brown cover panel from Ikea. It matches our floor tiles well.

ikea island by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

This is a mood image for the island. We hope to achieve such an effect.

mood image for island by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

After Mr Yeak has done the above-mentioned carpentry works, we will be able to get the ikea's solid surface contractor to come measure and install the solid surface.

No kitchen hood

Our stove will be placed on the island. We did not build a kitchen hood, as we find our previous hood to be ineffective. I usually boil soups and steam, to minimise cleaning. In the new EM, I plan to buy a Tefal ActiFry to do some frying. I hope this machine will be able to contain the oil and fumes. If it doesn't, I will use it in the yard.

Edited March 9, 201412 yr by Harriette

Toilet shelves

Mr Yeak has built 2 rectangular shelves with rounded corners, in my toilet. These shelves are made of marble. We prefer granite, but there is no granite colour that matches my toilet tiles.

toilet shelves 1 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

toilet shelves 2 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

The inspiration of doing such shelves came from various T-blogs, such as this:

inspiration 1 by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

The inspiration of doing rectangular shelves came from the Panorama showflat. This is a new condo in Ang Mo Kio. I visited the showflat and noticed that they did the shelves using solid surface.

inspiration (2) by Harriette_Tan, on Flickr

Edited March 9, 201412 yr by Harriette

Hi Harriette,

Your renovation seems to be progressing really well. Can you pm me Mr Yeak's contact? Thanks!

Hi Klimoo,

I have PM-ed you.

Hi anemone and kstoh,

I have bought a dishwasher for my current 5-room flat in 2008. People told us not to get a dishwasher, coz the dishes will not be clean and I will have to scrub off the stubborn stains first. At first, we found that this was true. One day, we placed a disposable plastic food container into the dishwasher. It was very dirty with lots of stains, but we did not bother to scrub it. To our surprise, it emerged completely clean. We therefore realised that the material of the dishes also play a part on how clean the dishwasher could wash it. After some exploration, we found that Corelle bowls/plates washed well in the dishwasher. At that time, we were newly weds with tight budget. Most of our dishes were bought at an Ikea sale, for 90cents a piece. So, we just live with we had.

Following the birth of my daughter, we were very sleep deprived. My husband broke a plate in the living room and glass pieces flew all over the house. As Corelle is supposed to be break resistant. I bought 2 boxes of it when there was a sale.

Pots and pans need to be hand-washed. The dishwasher can't washed it clean. Teflon coated pans cannot be washed in the dishwasher.

Still, the dishwasher is useful when I have gatherings at my place.

Yipe; fully aware of that :-). I have friends who uses dishwashers and I'm glad in our new place, we'll have one! And definitely agree with you on the post-gatherings washing, it can take up a lot of time & effort.

harriette,

What are your FCUs models ?

I am guessing

MSY-GE10VA * 5

MSY-GE18VA * 1