Emma - Our Em In The West

[psyche7 0]

hello! 

I see that you have brought your hansgrohe stuff from xtwostore and I am thinking of buying from the website too. Can I check if your plumber had problems installing them? 

I read elsewhere that some people had problems with the pipe connection.. something about the difference between G 1/2 and G 3/4 pipe fittings? 

[ricepapergirl 21]

On ‎19‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 3:55 AM, psyche7 said:

hello! 

I see that you have brought your hansgrohe stuff from xtwostore and I am thinking of buying from the website too. Can I check if your plumber had problems installing them? 

I read elsewhere that some people had problems with the pipe connection.. something about the difference between G 1/2 and G 3/4 pipe fittings? 

Hi psyche7!

Actually, my plumber generally didn't say anything, although I mentioned in a previous post that the bath mixer needs wall mounting brackets unless you intend to erect a false wall in your bathroom.

They look like these apparently.

Although my plumber didn't say anything, I also got a hansgrohe kitchen mixer and for that one the Ikea kitchen installers installed it in the kitchen for us. We were around when they did it and they mentioned there was some sort of connecting component that converts from one pipe size to another pipe size, costs around $7 each or something? And we needed two since our tap comes with cold and hot water inlet pipes. I suspect the usual plumber just provided that part as part of the installation service but the Ikea kitchen installers were a lot more strict. It's not a major setback though, there are parts available easily on the market for it. The plumber literally just popped down to some neighbourhood shop for a bit and got it.

Edited June 20, 2016 by ricepapergirl

[ricepapergirl 21]

Emma Housetour: Level 2

It's been 2.5 weeks since we officially moved in, though we are still cleaning! Husband rolled up his sleeves and spent most of the weekend cleaning the main door gate grille and kitchen window grilles and cleaning our balcony and mopping the floor, and I also spent some time cleaning the corridor-facing window grille and window, and half of the glass panes of our balcony door! The grilles are the most difficult because we kept the original from the ex-owners so it has many years of dirt and grime built up over time! But it's worth it because we really love the design.

I keep meaning to take some pictures of the house in the day, but the weekend was filled with chores and cooking so I just gave up and took some pictures at night instead. Let's start with level 2 first (because I didn't manage to upload all of level 1 yet hahaha).

This is pretty much how our home looks like on an everyday basis, nothing "styled" or extra-cleaned up about it. Effectively, lived-in photos!

Master Bedroom

Our simple Scanteak bedframe and Ikea Pax sliding door wardrobe. If you squint you can see the triangular side tables I got from Rakuten! They are super cute and small.

View from the bed area: our little "island" made from two sets of Ikea Kallax shelves with legs, just the right height for putting stuff to prepare in the morning (I don't really get the idea of a dressing table...) and in the future, a handy area to change baby's diapers. The Ikea Poang chair in the corner is for future night-time feeds.

Temporarily "empty" wall for now, eventually the crib will reside here. Non-permanent movable racks to hang clothes and towels on this wall for now. The other Kallax shelf facing this direction is mostly empty and will hold baby stuff.

MBR toilet from the doorway. We got a frosted glass swing door (and have yet to lock it really haha).

Closer look at how we currently utilize the shelf that runs across the wall: one side for shower stuff, one side for basin stuff.

Basin next to the wall with the top-hung window and the towel holder there. Husband and I generally keep our towels outside of the bathroom so the towel rack only gets used when we need to shower.

Toilet bowl facing the shower area. We opted for no shower screen so it gets a little bit wet but not much and I love the fact that I have less glass to clean. Slight mistake of mounting the toilet roll holder too near to the shower area though, it gets a little bit wet after showering but dries out quickly.

Our Ikea Molger shelf next to the pipes and toilet bowl! It's made from wood and it covers the other drainage hole right now, which means water that's not in the actual step-down shower area drains towards under the shelving unit, not great to have the wood legs constantly in contact with water. Solution? $1.75 for a set of 4 silicone leg "cups" meant for easy moving of furniture, which protect the wooden legs perfectly from water. Ikea meets neighbourhood shop = solution.

Corridor and Staircase

Go out the MBR door into the corridor, look down towards the living room (on the right) and dining room (on the left). Love my easy-to-clean and simple staircase landing wall now. Wall light has very minimal surface area for dust to collect on as well! We re-polished the original parquet for the staircase (and just repainted the original railings and banister) and the ex-owners (who popped by over the weekend to collect their letters and to look-see look-see) could not believe this was their original staircase flooring!

Nursery

Nicknamed the green room. Mostly empty for now, we have two Ikea Stuva wardrobes inside and our indestructible Ikea Expedit shelves, eventually it will have at least a single bed for the confinement nanny. Currently is my husband's ironing room and where Roy the Roomba's second floor dock will sit. Also, most of my craft and sewing stuff is here, until I figure out where I shall put my sewing corner... -_- #toomuchstuff

Study

The very crowded study room. Lol. The pile of cardboard box and bags in the middle will eventually end up in the utility room once we get the utility room shelves sorted. There's a Muji beanbag that's supposed to be in this room eventually as well.... hahaha.

Our collection of books in this set of Ikea Billy shelves. We hate having to clean dust off our books so we wanted bookshelves with doors. Amazing how little selection you can get for bookshelves with doors. Why??? Anyway, we have so many books that having them alphabetically (and split between Japanese, fiction and non-fiction) means that there was no way our bookshelves would look pretty hahaha. But it's functional and meets our needs. My study table in the corner.

And husband's study table in the other corner. Next to it we have some Ikea Besta shelves (with doors again) for our files and folders (and some of my photography stuff) and on top we have our cordless phone, kettle and water container so we don't have to keep running downstairs for water.

I originally wanted to put the two study tables side by side but that means that we would block off access to the windows, so this was our compromise.

Finally, my kimono tansu chest on the other wall. Complete with KDK fan! OMG no more space in the study liao. ;_;

Common bathroom on level 2

The step down shower area of the common bathroom and triangular shelving. We try to actually use all of our toilets regularly to shower etc every day so that they get constant use, so we've begun to buy extra shampoo and body foam and using the other bathrooms as "storage" space for them, which makes life easier when we shower there instead!

View from the shower area: the sink, shelf, towel holder, toilet bowl and the frosted glass swing door.

Edited June 20, 2016 by ricepapergirl

[ricepapergirl 21]

Emma Housetour: Level 1

Starting with our favourite room (or at least, the most photogenic?): Living Room

We love our soft and armchairs from Castlery, and the double poufs effectively mean both my husband and I can prop up our feet whilst watching TV (U-shaped sofa, anyone?) or they can double up as extra seating when we're entertaining. We love how the Kueh Tutu cushion fits in so perfectly (it was a Secret Santa gift from Christmas!) and how the cushion covers I bought years ago and never used matches our yellow wall and the green/teal balcony wall perfectly (though I need to go and sew them smaller since I didn't realize my old cushions were so small...). Coffee table is small and foldable, from Kii-mono/Rakuten, and that retro-looking radio is really a retro-looking radio (wedding gift, two years old and we never used it till we moved in), we switch it on in the mornings whilst having breakfast and when I'm cooking in the evening for some entertainment.

You can't really see it but our overhead ceiling fan is switched on in this picture, moving too fast to be captured. Best investment ever, ceiling fans.

The view from the yellow wall: our Second Charm solid wood TV console and the somehow-matchy-matchy Ikea CD shelves, Sony TV, TV antenna and router behind the tissue box. There's still space on the left of the TV console for some sort of display shelving, we want to display my husband's old Lego toys there eventually. For now, it's empty.

Balcony

Our balcony, with half of the balcony doors opened, and clothes hanging out to dry, retractable awning retracted. View from the TV console area.

The other end of the balcony, from the sofa area: Opened balcony doors, our bamboo poles neatly in a row when not used, via 3M Command Broom Grippers (they occasionally fall off when there's a massive rain, I should have used the bathroom series, am slowly changing them out, but otherwise they work very well), and husband's brainwave at using cheapo Daiso "plant pots" to hold our clothes pegs.

Eventually we should have some balcony furniture for relaxing, and maybe some plants. Also work-in-progress!

Dining Room

The view from the sofa area to the dining area: the middle is nice and empty for now! Under-staircase area -  maybe future nook for kids to play in?

The dining area. Kind of still incomplete, we wanted 6 chairs (mismatched, we still need to source another two chairs.... somewhere) and there are a couple of tenugui we bought from Japan that we wanted to frame up and hang at the wall on the right (Clifton Karhu! We aim to one day go back to Kanazawa and buy an actual piece of work, but for now, his tenugui will have to do), and that roll of exercise mats in the corner ought to belong in the utility room... but our dining room is quite cosy for now. Dining table from Commune (solid wood!), chairs from Castlery and from HipVan, shelf for our ONT and telephone in the corner as well as the wooden sideboard under the window also from Castlery.

No point showing the utility room for now, we haven't got around to getting utility room shelves so everything is just in boxes on the floor!  

Kitchen

Kitchen, in much better lighting! Byrakaanne, the floormat you loved was being washed and dried, we're still going to use it, but it's not in this photo lol. I've been using it to cook more consistently now so it's definitely getting a more lived-in feel to it. Loving my Hitachi fridge on the right!

You can kind of see the glass sliding door on the right, and the flip side of some leafy stickers we got from Ikea to decorate it with. This is the main prep area, dish drainer above the sink (I removed the draining tray so that the water will drip directly into the sink, plus we use the underside of the rack to hang stuff using S-hooks, like pots and pans when they are drying. The top-cabinets are hung at the perfect height, so much so that I can actually stand up nicely in the little space to the left of the picture underneath the top-cabinets without hitting my head lol!

Close-up view of the cooking area, with my rice cooker, kettle, hot water flask and normal water flasks on the right, and all my condiments on the left. Fujioh hood, Rinnai hob. So far everything has worked quite well!

The view from where my rice cooker area is, towards the kitchen windows, and the little nook that's effectively my service yard after we expanded the kitchen toilet into an L-shape. You can just see the washing machine peeking out from underneath the kitchen windows. Opposite the washing machine would be the rubbish chute. Also, handy step-stool from Ikea for me to reach into the taller cabinets, or for husband to sit when he's in the kitchen haha.

Oddly colourful service yard/laundry area! We have a Panasonic washer/dryer machine, covered by the most adorable punny tea towel (I stare at it sometimes whilst doing laundry and always find a new joke. There's one of a picture of steaks floating in clouds and it says "The Steaks Are High" underneath it) which doubles up as sort of a dust cover/soaks up stray water. The washing machine rack is from Rakuten, and just barely fits into the area lol. I keep my soapnuts and baking soda in those tall spaghetti containers and the yellow box holds all those spare plastic bags folded up. Above is this multi-function huge plastic washing-up tub from Ikea, we use it to put mildly wet clothes after washing to the balcony to hang, and it is also used to handwash huge things like our floormats.

Kitchen toilet

View from the doorway, we managed to squeeze in a frosted glass swing door for this toilet as well! I wanted to avoid sliding/bifold/PD doors for any of the toilets as much as possible, bad experiences with all three.

Being the first floor toilet, it's the least "pretty" haha since we use it often for mopping etc so all the buckets and basins come here. That broom gripper is usually reserved for our mop, husband had been cleaning the balcony with that stiff-brush (it usually belongs on the side of my tall kitchen unit where the oven is) instead that day so the mop got relegated elsewhere, but it's a good way of keeping it dry between uses. We also use this toilet all the time to wash our feet when we first get home.

The view from the shower area, the tiny sink and how it works with the swing door, which unfortunately would bang onto the towel rack (no other place for it) if not for a silicone squidgy thing we put on the door, and also by the fact that we keep the mop-bucket there and it prevents the door from opening all the way. But it works well generally!

 That's all! Our house isn't very photogenic, but we love it very much. It's easy to clean and maintain (very important for first-time home-owners and a big EM) and is very nice and cosy for us! Hope my T-blog could be of use to people and may everyone's renovation go smoothly! Next up, a review of Andrew!

[gumbokins 5]

RPG, thanks for taking the time to share with us your journey! appreciate the thoughts and insights, and love seeing the house come together! congrats on the new digs and all the best with the baby

[ricepapergirl 21]

On ‎21‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 8:00 PM, gumbokins said:

RPG, thanks for taking the time to share with us your journey! appreciate the thoughts and insights, and love seeing the house come together! congrats on the new digs and all the best with the baby

Awww Thank you!  

[althevin 4]

Thanks for taking all the effort to show us around your house

I really like how your kitchen turned out, the colours go together really well. Love the second charm console too!

Did you get that towel ladder in your MBR locally? It looks really nice! I've been looking for something similiar

 

[ricepapergirl 21]

1 hour ago, althevin said:

Thanks for taking all the effort to show us around your house

I really like how your kitchen turned out, the colours go together really well. Love the second charm console too!

Did you get that towel ladder in your MBR locally? It looks really nice! I've been looking for something similiar

 

Hi althevin!

Haha thanks for the compliment. It's not 100% finished but we're taking it slow to really do that last bit (decorating, for one, pictures and plants etc).

I also really like my kitchen too, probably my favourite part of the house together with the living room.

We got the towel ladder from Japan, you can get it off either Rakuten Global or there's a Qoo10 shop that also sells it. http://list.qoo10.sg/item/FREE-SHIPPING-TOWER-LADDER-HANGER-WHITE-02812-YAMAZAKI-BUSINESSMAN/442812923?selectedOptions

There's a black colour version as well, we have both, the white one in our MBR and the black one near our study where we use it to hold bags using S-hooks. Think we actually bought the black colour one from Rakuten JP and asked for it to be shipped via SAL (instead of the much faster but much more expensive EMS) together with other stuff like our washing machine rack and the towel rack next to the towel ladder.

Hope that helps!

[pankponk 2]

Ricepapergirl, love the living room with the bright yellow color really match with your furniture and your hitachi fridge  ... Fall in love with this kind of fridge but too bad is out of my budget so maybe for next home LOL 

[althevin 4]

On 6/30/2016 at 1:57 PM, ricepapergirl said:

Hi althevin!

Haha thanks for the compliment. It's not 100% finished but we're taking it slow to really do that last bit (decorating, for one, pictures and plants etc).

I also really like my kitchen too, probably my favourite part of the house together with the living room.

We got the towel ladder from Japan, you can get it off either Rakuten Global or there's a Qoo10 shop that also sells it. http://list.qoo10.sg/item/FREE-SHIPPING-TOWER-LADDER-HANGER-WHITE-02812-YAMAZAKI-BUSINESSMAN/442812923?selectedOptions

There's a black colour version as well, we have both, the white one in our MBR and the black one near our study where we use it to hold bags using S-hooks. Think we actually bought the black colour one from Rakuten JP and asked for it to be shipped via SAL (instead of the much faster but much more expensive EMS) together with other stuff like our washing machine rack and the towel rack next to the towel ladder.

Hope that helps!

It does! Thanks for the info! It's a much more economical alternative to the menu ladder which we've been eyeing. At least now we have some other options  

[ricepapergirl 21]

So about two weeks ago I lifted the lid to my MBR toilet toilet bowl tank, in order to drop one of those blue thingies (to make the toilet water turn blue and disinfect at the same time, Chlorox?) into the tank, when my hand slipped and the entire lid (which is pretty heavy) dropped onto the actual toilet seat cover (which is plastic). The end result of that is a long crack along the seat of the toilet bowl itself and underneath the tank which started leaking water. The toilet bowl tank lid was also damaged.

Sigh.

At first, my reaction was to turn off the water to the toilet bowl (this is why I am so glad there are multiple water pipe switches in our toilets, one for the toilet bowl, one for the sink, though strangely enough none for the shower...), and then thought that perhaps after the water drained out, that we could apply some form of silicon sealant to "seal" the crack and hold on for a couple of years. After doing some research online, turns out it might be dangerous because of the location of the crack, constant pressure (by sitting on it) over time would widen the crack and then maybe one day the whole structure would collapse which might be even worse, if someone was sitting on it at that time (cuts on butts etc).

So (after some procrastination, we were using the other two toilet bowls) we finally bit the bullet and called up Le Bath and our ID, and got them to send us a replacement toilet bowl and the plumber to fix it. Hopefully can settle it sometime this month or so. ;_; Feel so bad that I caused us to have to spend more money after only one month in the house!

Now my husband insists we lift the toilet bowl tank lid together as a team lolweep.

Thought I would share this experience with the forum in case it ever becomes useful to anyone else.

Also, now that I'm in my sixth month of pregnancy, and we've nicely settled into the house for more than a month, we're picking up speed to finish furnishing the house! Still have quite a bit of stuff to get!

- Utility room racks

- last two dining chairs (done! popped down to Comfort Design over the weekend to order them)

- Balcony furniture (low priority, still looking around)

- living room lego display case (dithering between something from Jottergoods or more expensive customized piece from Second Charm)

- Single bed frame and mattress for nursery

- Baby changing mat, changing table for first floor, baby bathtub

Not to mention the toilet bowl to fix!

[gumbokins 5]

the toilet bowl thing reminds me of my own incident....when we first moved in to this place, i put them blue things in my toilet too. turns out the WC was not installed properly and there was a tiny leak at the base. so over a few days it leaked blue water and irreversibly stained my (black) floor tiles. We called our ID to rectify when we realised what had happened and he took some cif and scrubbed away (still remember the smug look on his face) but after drying the stain was still there. after that, no more blue thingies for me!

anyways, take care! shouldn't take that long to fix a WC. Lucky got other loos to use

one of the most challenging parts of babyproofing a maisonette was getting a safety gate for the stairs! we ended up with a most ugly contraption but it did its job. but that's a long way still for you

[stray 12]

Hi @ricepapergirl

Thank you thank you thank you for your extensive write-up on ordering and installing an IKEA kitchen in sg! You've really shed light on what was previously an internet blackhole and being a massive fan myself, I think imma gonna get myself one too! Something that's been bothering me — did you get your butcher block countertop further sealed (not just factory-sealed) after purchasing and before installation? As you know wood and water are the best of enemies, and I for one am not keen on watching and cleaning up after every single water spill like a hawk. Can I have your review of the countertop please? And also if you're especially careful with water spills and such? Signed, paranoid android. 

[ricepapergirl 21]

9 hours ago, stray said:

Hi @ricepapergirl

Thank you thank you thank you for your extensive write-up on ordering and installing an IKEA kitchen in sg! You've really shed light on what was previously an internet blackhole and being a massive fan myself, I think imma gonna get myself one too! Something that's been bothering me — did you get your butcher block countertop further sealed (not just factory-sealed) after purchasing and before installation? As you know wood and water are the best of enemies, and I for one am not keen on watching and cleaning up after every single water spill like a hawk. Can I have your review of the countertop please? And also if you're especially careful with water spills and such? Signed, paranoid android. 

Hi @stray !

Actually, my countertop is not butcherblock wood!  It's wood-like countertop, laminate I think. I can't find it on the ikea website right now, but if I remember correctly it's either the Ekbacken or the Saljan (I suspect it's the Saljan because I remember the ikea guy telling me it's the thicker laminate but the Ikea website doesn't show the wood-like Saljan countertops).

I'm also slightly wary of actual butcherblock wood for countertops because I didn't think I would be super neat and always keep my countertops dry and stuff, and I read on some websites that if you don't constantly oil it or maintain it the wood does get mouldy, depending on your luck, so I thought I'll go for wood-like laminate instead! We do wipe down the countertops often (more because I do food prep on it and it should be clean anyway) and when I put hot pans on the countertop I usually stick a trivet underneath it, so we haven't really tested it per se, but the countertop still looks like new 2.5 months on. It gets some oil splatter when I deep fry but a quick whiff with some dishwashing liquid on kitchen towels and a damp cloth wipe solves that quite easily. The only thing is that don't try and use the magic eraser on it, it seems to rub off some of the surface shine for some odd reason.

Sorry I didn't help much for the wooden countertop problem! >_<

[stray 12]

14 hours ago, ricepapergirl said:

Hi @stray !

Actually, my countertop is not butcherblock wood!  It's wood-like countertop, laminate I think. I can't find it on the ikea website right now, but if I remember correctly it's either the Ekbacken or the Saljan (I suspect it's the Saljan because I remember the ikea guy telling me it's the thicker laminate but the Ikea website doesn't show the wood-like Saljan countertops).

I'm also slightly wary of actual butcherblock wood for countertops because I didn't think I would be super neat and always keep my countertops dry and stuff, and I read on some websites that if you don't constantly oil it or maintain it the wood does get mouldy, depending on your luck, so I thought I'll go for wood-like laminate instead! We do wipe down the countertops often (more because I do food prep on it and it should be clean anyway) and when I put hot pans on the countertop I usually stick a trivet underneath it, so we haven't really tested it per se, but the countertop still looks like new 2.5 months on. It gets some oil splatter when I deep fry but a quick whiff with some dishwashing liquid on kitchen towels and a damp cloth wipe solves that quite easily. The only thing is that don't try and use the magic eraser on it, it seems to rub off some of the surface shine for some odd reason.

Sorry I didn't help much for the wooden countertop problem! >_<

No no no, you've been a massive help! Thanks for taking time to respond thoughtfully. Glad to know I'm not the only one with reservations about using butcher's block, but do love the warmth of using wood for countertops. As for the magic eraser, it definitely works as advertised, so not surprised that it's removing the sealant off your laminate top in addition to the grit. Thanks for the heads up though, small things like that really slip the mind when going into a cleaning frenzy and too late when you've made a boo-boo, ha!