Shopping Lists

Furniture
http://farrer-park.blogspot.com/2007/06/shopping-list-furniture.html

White Goods
http://farrer-park.blogspot.com/2007/06/feel-free-to-help-out-wherever-possible.html

Miscellaneous
http://farrer-park.blogspot.com/2007/10/shopping-list-miscellaneous.html

Golden Leaf Curtain

We got our curtaiins at this store at Whampoa Central. The boss and staff are friendly and nice. Prices were affordable too, our whole house was under one thousand for 2 roller blinds, 2 roman blinds and 1 full length curtain. Perhaps our windows were tiny so they helped to lower costs.

We wanted a lovely grey suede curtain but they were short of the material required for our full-length curtains in the living room! Horrors! The boss did a check with all her material suppliers but they had either ran out of sufficient stock, did not have the appropriate colours or discontinued all suede materials. We reckon suede wasn't a popular choice but 10minutes of searching brought us back to square one...we really loved the grey suede. Lady boss decided she could use whatever material she had and then finish up with thick black material. The outcome was quite splendid. Thank God for that!




The installation guys were fairly late though. The appointment was 1pm but they came at 230pm because they were held up at another job site. I don't forgive lateness of this extreme nature. They were wasting my time and I initially wanted to leave house at 3pm but had to delay till 4pm. >:( - ally

Pretty clock

Yes, we shouldn't be buying exorbitantly priced clocks but hey, check this out...we think it's perfect for the living room to match our dining lamp. If only they still sold it here...

The Buying has got to stop for now...

Because we have officially ran out of joint savings money. We still have some personal savings but the money we've put aside for the house is nearly used up, and without us paying for renovation extras, electrical works and plumbing! Not to mention, we have no study chairs or coffee table hah!

There are many household items we still need so we guess we'd have to scrimp, save or dig them out from the deepest crevices of our pocket for the time being.

The house is completely worth it though. It's comfortable and beautiful, but we're still getting used to it. Currently, it feels a bit like we're in transition, sort of like living out of a hotel room.

Stylish toilet accessories

Check out our stylish steel and black toilet accessories...Thanks A&A for your lovely contribution to our home! =)

House Tour

Welcome on a tour of our house!

The kitchen:



Common Toilet:


Living Room:


Dining Room:


Master Bedroom


Wardrobe


Master Toilet:



Our study room & curtains will be up this week, will post more pics then =)

Finally our BIG day...

...where we moved to our new place! Yay, this day has been long awaited with bated breath. We're excited but mostly overwhelmed by tiredness and sleepiness. We wanted to go to Mustafa (open 24hrs 5 min walk away) but we figured we would probably be clear-headed for tomorrow if we went to bed early. Although early is nearly 2am.

We'd update with more pics soon!

How to make a feature wall look good...

Step one: do up a board with a console



Step Two: wallpaper it all over



Step Three: install TV brackets, voila~

Master bedroom is looking good...

Our wallpaper is up and looking way gorgeous! We're so happy with the outcome...except that there are bubbles at the glossy parts at the moment. It apparently takes a while to settle in. Well it better otherwise we'd have to go at it with needles and glue!



Our wardrobe is almost done as well, the laminates are textured and streaky, such a lovely combination!




Our toilet is also fantastic now, look at the lighting! ahhh, cant wait to use it!!!

new stuff

More new stuff for show... please excuse the hint of narcissm, we can't contain our excitement!

Kitchen glass wall and door:


Our lovely sink and tap that we can't wait to brush our teeth at:


The common toilet that many are dying to pee in:



Kitchen sink and tap: It's unfortunate that the waste drainage thingy wasn't the kind we thought it would be, but oh well, hope it lasts...

Nearing Completion...

We're so very very excited and cant wait to move in...here's a peek at the other stuffs that were done recently.

Kitchen solid surface is up...


Toilet mirror looks cool...despite the massive masking tape



Our bedroom doors no longer have flying fish!



Fancy toilet glass doors



Mirror in the dining room! (can do aerobics)

Hallelujah!

Thank GOD and thank our contractor, the sink position was changed! Yay! No matter what anyone says, having the sink not overlapping into the toilet bowl area is so much better. The solid surface thankfully had not yet had the holes cut out, and all the vanity top need was just another two holes on the right side. This also means there are now 4 holes when you look in through the cupboard. The light was left in the middle and we think that's fine!

The mirror also went up the next day and suddenly, the toilet wasn't so claustrophobic anymore. The only flaw in this gorgeous toilet is the green frame. arghh...

Curtains and Blinds

We think Farrer Park estate is a guinea pig for some kind of architectural experiment. Design mistakes are made throughout the building and one of them is the (ugly green) window frame that touch ceiling beams.

In all the bedrooms, the window frame is touching some strange ceiling beam and in the master bedroom, it's being OVERLAPPED by the beam. It would be impossible to say the architect wanted it this way.

So when it comes to curtains and blinds, there will be the problem of installing the track in such a way that allows the blinds or curtains to cover the window and its frame properly.

In any case, we'd need window coverings all the same, and we decided on a gorgeous grey suede curtain for the living room and roller blinds for ease of use in the bedrooms. We thought they'd traditionally cost more but the prices were affordable it seems. =)

Aircon installation

For most HDB dwellers, especially the newer HDB blocks, it would seem convenient and even clever, that HDB had created an air-con ledge for us to put our compressors on. There's even a little window for us to put the compressor through. However, HDB forgot to measure compressors of different sizes before making a decision as to the size of this window. Today we had our air-con installed and not only was the window's size not right, the top part of the window had been divided to have a small section at the top. Gain city's installers were calm, after all, they had encountered this millions of times. "Thank Goodness you have the kitchen opposite" they said. By that, they meant that they were going to hoist the HUGE (and we mean Heavy as well) compressor via the kitchen window (which was a lot bigger) to the air-con ledge outside the Master bedroom. It's truly a feat what they did, we find it amazing and have some pictures to show!

Step One: Hoist the compressor through the kitchen window onto a makeshift bridge.


Two: Push the compressor until the guy at the other side grabs it


Step Three: Grab hold of the compressor and carry it onto the aircon ledge. You need two workmen for this. They look skinny and small but they are REALLY strong!

Form vs Function

I've always been a believer of functionality over form, or form complementing functionality. Not one to exalt aesthetic over everyday ease of use, I got into a major disagreement with my contractor and quite regrettably, causing him stress and some heartache. I feel really bad to do it but as I weigh the pros and cons against each other, the beauty of a toilet and my everyday cleansing regime, I felt it was difficult to compromise functionality over form.

Having a really tiny HDB flat toilet does create a lot of difficulty in designing it to best suit one's needs. And one factor to consider is the position of the sink. My contractor decided to position the sink in the middle of the vanity cabinet which means we have to stand at the toilet bowl area to wash our face. Whilst we could probably get used to navigating around the toilet bowl, I felt it would be so much easier if the sink were nearer to the door where there was more standing room. Alas, with the holes cut out on the cabinet top and solid surface already, and the light installed on the top, I'm not so sure how possible it would be to rectify this design oversight. In any case, I believe paying a surcharge for a bout of miscommunication could be worth at least 5 to 10 years of convenience. Or would the beauty of it all overtake our common sense and render us speechless?

~Ally~

of locks and bolts

Today we found out some interesting info about padlocks and door handlesets.

Nelon (ours) is considered the lousiest handleset according to this uncle who runs a lock shop at Veerasamy Road. He said it spoils the quickest from what his customers tell him. We presume we got this because the locksmith would make highest profit on this product. Don't blame him, it's the smart thing to do right?

Price of this product at uncle's shop: $45


Yale, the world's most popular brand, fairs only a little better. It's not fantastic, uncle says, since all these locks are made in China now and there's no difference if it's a Taiwan brand or American brand. But he didn't say this spoils easy.

Price of this product at uncle's shop: $66, price at mustafa is $79


Lucky. Ok, this sounds like some ching-chong Taiwan brand as well, but uncle says it's the best available lock for HDB flats. It's smooth, durable, convenient to use and solid as well. Our friend's house uses this brand, but hey, even he thought his key was just a duplicate since the name was errm, rather dodgy!

Price of this product at uncle's shop: $70


As for padlocks, we had to get the Duro brand one since Yale and some other brands only sold padlocks of smaller sizes. By padlock we mean the big blocky type that you see on gates. Duro has a size that fits and it's a "one-hand operated" lock unlike those which require a 2nd hand to pull out the padlock.

Price of this product at uncle's shop: $115, price at home fix is $148 with a free smaller padlock which is of no use to us.

we can't wait to move!

Pardon this seemingly excessive amount of egoism but our house is really gorgeous now after the varnishing of the parquet and installation of lights. Our whole house reflects a lovely warm glow and we cant wait to move in to enjoy it! The master toilet cabinets are uber chic and the kitchen is so enticing to cook in. Our common toilet beckons as well, we're sure you'd love to wash your hands and take a piss! heehee....

Our kitchen is here!

Our kitchen and toilet cabinets were installed today. The very nice carpenter worked until 10pm at night, and was still there hammering when we visited! We raved over the gorgeous kitchen cabinets, hopefully that would give him a great sense of satisfaction hee hee... Can't wait till the rest of the kitchen is done up.

On a separate note, we were a little dismayed by our Nelon Handleset. It's some taiwan brand. We told our contractor twice about the cheap Yale Handlesets at Mustafa, and mentioned it another few times when he called to ask if we wanted to use his locksmith. We guess he didn't really understand what Yale locks were about and thus didn't highlight it to his locksmith. Such a pity we had this misunderstanding. The lock looks good enough though, but the feel and quality probably isn't as good and wouldn't last through the years. :-(




Work on the toilet cupboards started too...