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Our Maison De Style Champêtre ~ Featuring our Home-Fix Adventure in our BATHROOMS!


In the next few posts, I shall talk about our ADVENTURE being our own contractor aka "Home-Fixers"! Which. We have managed to source, purchase and fix / install several new things in our Maison ourselves! :sport-smiley-018: :D

The first region to conquer - Our bathrooms! I bet most of us dislike the HDB panels which are installed at the top of our bathrooms meant to cover the huge water pipes. I always refer to them as 'checkered panels' because of the checks and gaps in the whole piece. Other than aesthetics, I can't imagine having insects (e.g. spiders) or mold growing underneath those checkered panels due to good shelter to the former, and condensation for the latter. It is therefore one of my must-do things for our house and it is to replace them......

Seeing what some forumers had done to transform their HDB bathrooms, one of the key things removed in the transformation are these panels. And because I have two very valid reasons, the Hubby was convinced to go through much trouble to replace these checkered panels. We have asked around on the costings involved (including from my own Contractor J) and have eventually decided to Do-It-Yourself/Ourselves (DIY) to save costs! Thanks to the very kind people around, we managed to go directly to a company located at UBI Road to order and cut our own white acrylic panels to replace the checkered ones. Here is the process of how our First ADVENTURE as "Home-Fixers" went.....


Original checkered panels in our bathrooms :o :wacko:
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They gotta go ~
Initially, we had some difficulties removing these panels. Thanks to the neighbours in our estate's closed group in FB, who provided us solutions after we did a shout-out on How To Remove These Panels.
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No more check-check-check-checkers! :good:
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Presenting the NEW & white acrylic panels in our bathrooms now! :dancingqueen:
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Warm T5 lights which make all the difference to our bathrooms :D
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Our First ADVENTURE as "Home-Fixers" was exciting :jammin: although it took us a whole lot of trouble to get the panels replaced. One pointer to note, For You who are keen to order and fix up such acrylic panels yourself - Do remember to bring along HDB original checkered panels for the store to do accurate measurements and cut accordingly. We had initially done our own measurements and provided them to the store to cut our acrylic panels. Ended up, the panels could not fit as it requires slightly smaller measurements than the original ones. We had to make 2 trips to get the acrylics settled and paid 2 times of cutting costs (they charged by per session). Not to mention that the acrylic panels are long and we had a hard time fitting them into our car. Boo~ Oh well, the acrylic panels have finally settled down and we have definitely gained some knowledge along the way! Minor hiccups will not discourage the "Home-Fixers"! Hehehe....More adventures to come!


The "Home-Fixers" would also like to share with you a useful tip related to the bathroom! Especially to the ladies, the packet of Drain Hair Catching Sheet below may be very useful for its self-explanatory purpose! I realised that the drainage trap provided by HDB seems to have smaller holes and it only takes 2 showers for my hair to clog up all the trap holes and water cannot flow through (not that I'm dropping a lot of hair). It can get rather frustrating having to clear those strands of hair so frequently :(
I was shopping one day when I found these hair catching sheets! You only have to paste the sheet over the drainage trap (one side is adhesive) and hair and/or dirt will collect on the sheet itself. Next thing you do, remove the sheet and throw everything away with great ease! I simply love such 'technology' to save me much effort and each packet of the catching sheet costs only $1.50 :good: *Parfait ~ *

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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Our Maison De Style Champêtre ~ Featuring our Home-Fix Adventure for our FURNITURE!

The "Home-Fixers" are enjoying our ADVENTURE and next up! GLASS TOPS for our TV sideboard and coffee table!

Again, we found another wholesaler along UBI Road which supplies a whole range of glass for commercial and residential use! UBI is like a hidden gem filled with treasures! :good: We had approached the boss to cut 2 pieces of tempered glass for our TV sideboard and coffee table as these furniture are spray-painted and very prone to water marks, scratches, discoloration and dirt. It is critically essential for our coffee table as we often place food and drinks on it and hence a glass covering will do some good to protect it.

As always, being your own "Home-Fixer" is never easy. As the top of our TV sideboard and coffee table are not of standard shapes (irregular corners), we had to use mahjong paper and 2B pencil (as specified by the Hubby) to trace the outline of the surface before providing the glass company the mahjong papers as 'moulds' for cutting. It was not as cumbersome as our bathrooms' acrylic panels but still, we had to make 2 trips down to confirm the glass measurements and delivery details.

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The 3rd ADVENTURE for us the "Home-Fixers" are to fix up the furniture which we purchased from Taobao! Yeah, we had brought in some small pieces of furniture to further complement our Maison :D

A. Don't Belittle That Stool!

The Hubby had fixed up our pastel-coloured stools with his new toy from *Bosch*

I thought the "100-piece Bosch set" was redundant until the electrical screw-driver impressed me with its speed of fixing up all our stools!

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We LOVE how much these colourful stools added Summer to our home :wub:

The "Home-Fixers" had done a great job! :jammin:

Edited by CountryGlow
 

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Our Maison De Style Champêtre ~ Featuring our Home-Fix Adventure for our FURNITURE! (Cont')

B. It's A Curtain-Screen!

Others may have a shower screen but we got a curtain-screen! LOL. My version of our newly hung curtain at the entrance of my walk-in wardrobe aka my personal space. :lol: As good as any tailored curtains, I ordered this quality piece from Qoo10, which is meant to provide some privacy in the room, as well as to keep out the air con from our master bedroom. The curtain rod was purchased from IKEA and it took the "Home-Fixers" some time to hang up our curtain-screen! We did it nevertheless! :dancingqueen: The next thing I will be doing is to alter the curtain length as it is now sweeping the floor whenever we draw the curtain. Nice matching colour for the room aye? :)

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C. Mirror Mirror Rotating Mirror!

And there is more ADVENTURE fixing up another piece of furniture for this room! This piece is another essential item as it provides a full reflection of what and how we look when dressing up! Most interestingly, there are 5 short poles at the back of the mirror, located at the sides, for us to hang our things (e.g. our PJs, bags, scarves, belts etc)! And to allow easy access to those items hung behind, the mirror has a rotating base which can be rotated 360 degrees! This piece is an absolutely good purchase! :yeah:

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The "Home-Fixers" were drained by the time we finished fixing this end of the room. We are no professionals and had taken a longer time to complete. But. We are very much motivated because there is so much fun to try out and learn! We are enjoying every bit of our Home-Fix ADVENTURE! :lol: Try it out yourself if you may! :P

Edited by CountryGlow
 

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Hi CountryGlow. We loved your kitchen cabinets and wanted to have similar European style but our ID said these type are spray painted and is charging us a bomb compared to laminated type. May I check if your ID charged a premium for yours?

 

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Hi.

CountryGlow. I like your kitchen & bedroom cabinets and wanted To spray painted too but most carpenter I approach only do laminated type. They insist that spray paint have too many loose end to follow up and therefor rejected my enquires. Can you forward me your contractor and carpentry phone number. Thank you and have a nice weekend.

 

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morning dear! Lovely kitchen accessories to suit the theme, so you la~ & those plates are soooo nice!

Btw can share your acrylic panels info (costs, where etc) and tips of removing it as well? TIA!! ;)

 

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Hi countryglow,

Beautiful hse u have there. Can share with me the contacts and cost for ur acrylic panels and where u got ur kitchen clock?

 

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Hey folks! Have PM-ed you all the info!

All the best in your house reno! Cheers :)

Love the wooden tiles.

Can share where to buy?

Hi,
Nice sharing!
Can you pm me your contractor name & contact too.. Thks

nice white acrylic panels. May i know where did you get them and the address and cost? Many Thanks

morning dear! Lovely kitchen accessories to suit the theme, so you la~ & those plates are soooo nice!

Btw can share your acrylic panels info (costs, where etc) and tips of removing it as well? TIA!! ;)

Hi countryglow,

Beautiful hse u have there. Can share with me the contacts and cost for ur acrylic panels and where u got ur kitchen clock?

 

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Hi happening & looprevil!

It's amusing how both your IDs/contractors had advised differently on the spray-paint vs laminate on the cabinets.

For a clearer picture - my kitchen cabinets & wardrobe are solid plywood + laminated + added-on MDF boards and wood trims respectively.

For our kitchen cabinets, the doors with borders are hand-painted MDF boards nailed onto the laminated wood. This goes the same for our wardrobe where the base is laminated and the wooden trims are hand-painted white and drilled in.

happening - It's true that spray painted cabinets are very costly as the type of wood used is better (eg. ashwood) and spray paint can last ages!

looprevil - My contractor runs his own carpentry company. He can do solid wood/spray paint cabinets as well. Have PM-ed you his contact details :)

Hi CountryGlow. We loved your kitchen cabinets and wanted to have similar European style but our ID said these type are spray painted and is charging us a bomb compared to laminated type. May I check if your ID charged a premium for yours?

Hi.
CountryGlow. I like your kitchen & bedroom cabinets and wanted To spray painted too but most carpenter I approach only do laminated type. They insist that spray paint have too many loose end to follow up and therefor rejected my enquires. Can you forward me your contractor and carpentry phone number. Thank you and have a nice weekend.

 

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Our Maison De Style Champêtre ~ Featuring our Home-Fix Adventure with MORE DIYs!

D. We Got A Twin!

More updates on our Home-Fix ADVENTURE and now to the OTHer end of our walk-in wardrobe :lol:

The "Home-Fixers" are getting bolder and have ventured into fixing up my writing desk! (I'm exaggerating here...installation is actually very simple! LOL :bleah:)

3-Step Installation Guide

Step One: Unbox the parcel

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Step Two: Install the legs to the table :sport-smiley-004:

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Step Three: Clean up the table and Prettify it! :wub:

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*Presenting the Twins in our room!*

Don't they look perfect together? :lol:

Dresser & Stool - Local store (JS Manhattan Interiors)

Writing Desk - Taobao

Accessories - Seoul, (SG) Made With Love, (SG) Daiso & Taobao :notti:

:wub: :wub::wub:

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My personal space is finally completed! :dancingqueen: I'm so so SOoooo satisfied with what we have put together! Our WIW that is full of beauty, charm and (personal) flavour! :)

E. Coincidentally Twin.

Next to the entrance of our WIW and Master bedroom, we have installed a matching double-faced clock which we can check out the time from both rooms! One clock that serves 2 purposes! No, it's three because you can view the time right from the tunnel passageway and living room :thumbs up:

Be captivated in time....

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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hi hi,

ur deco is so nice :)

may I know where you get the white acrylic panels for the bathroom and how much does it cost?

i am interested to DIY for my bathrooms also..

 

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Our Maison De Style Champêtre ~ Featuring our Home-Fix Adventure at our FRONT PORCH!

Throw back to post #18 - Where we decided to use a different set of pebble-like tiles at the main door entrance to create a distinction between the doorway area and the rest of the living hall. Our idea of creating a front porch (our style of a mudroom) turned successful after we threw in some simple furnishings to complete the small area. Here's a glimpse of our front porch which we hope to create a pleasant sight to all who first stepped into our cosy country nest :rolleyes:

(Picture taken under warm lighting)

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On the right of our front porch sits our shoes cabinet with my favourite pumpkin door knobs! We have gotten the almost alike duck-egg colour to match our wall colour, mixed with an alternate shade of pastel pink. Both coloured knobs are a different batch from those in our kitchen as we ordered the wrong "green" colour the last time and had to install these knobs ourselves when they arrived few weeks ago. I simply adore these pumpkin knobs! :rolleyes:

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Bought a similar colour little stool for us to sit while wearing our shoes. The size and shape fits just nicely at the corner next to the shoes cabinet. It's so comfy too! :thumbs up:

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And there we have a little key box holder and letter carrier on the other side of our porch. They will host our keys and mails/letters so we don't throw them around the house :P

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Lastly, this is another one of our favourite buys - Digital Peephole Viewer & Camera (improved model with motion sensor function)! :jammin: Since we have forgotten to ask our contractor to install a door bell and we are thinking of installing a CCTV camera outside our house (for security reason since we stay at the low floors), we thought this 2-in-1 device fits the bill perfectly! It serves as a door bell, which also video records or captures the photo of any person within its detection angle. To our surprise, the view projected on the screen is so clear and the wide angle detection captures up to 170 degrees wide. One down side however, is that it drains battery fairly quickly. A fully charged battery can last up to a week 2-3 weeks, depending on how often the motion sensor and recording are triggered. Good thing that it runs on rechargeable battery, which we bought extra one as spare. Another one of our good buys! Yeah!

(Digital peephole viewer/screen at the back of the main door)

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How it looks when installed at the front of our main door. The blue light will turn on once any motion is being sensed and the video will start recording. A good alternative to a CCTV camera which is very easy to install :good:

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Edited by CountryGlow
 

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