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...

Wallpaper

Our Wallpaper will be delivered tomorrow...before the real thing goes up, here's a peek at what it's gonna look like...


Here's another one we considered but decided it wasn't as striking...this one has amazing texture though...


This here is the laminate we considered for our feature wall, a lovely gloss and matt with floral motifs. However, after seeing it used excessively in some house, we (including contractor) decided it was way too much and wouldn't be able to move with the times. He decided to do a wallpapered feature wall for us with a dark shimmery black fabric-looking wallpaper with stitching details.

we can't cook...

....until the end of december at the very least...maybe right at the tail-end. Mayer has had a sudden delay in the shipment of the hob that we're buying. What a dismay! And our contractor didn't want to cut the hole on the kitchen cupboard and solid surface as he was afraid the sizes might not be accurate. The guy from Mayer told us however, that we should get the whole house done up and then just wait for the delivery of the hob, and free installation by Mayer.

What a pity...we hope we are able to move in by CHristmas! There are so many things that need to be done, so many deliveries to be made and so many companies to liase with. Sometimes it gets really stressful! Especially now that we're both terribly busy with year end work! Phew!

The toilet is flooded!

The Master bedroom toilet was flooded on Sunday night! We wonder why...perhaps the painters poured paint down the pipe!!! *&@#*&@#!!!

Paint me up

Painting begun last Saturday! how exciting! Most of the walls were done, with the exception of maybe the kitchen. We guess it must be quite an easy job to do painting and plastering (and it costs a whopping $1300!). We were there in the morning and the painters had just begun plastering the wall. By nightfall, the walls were all covered in paint already, although we weren't sure if there was one or two coats and whether they would be continuing with more layers. The living room wasn't fully touched up though as you can see.

Our living room is grey...


the master bedroom is cappucino...


the study is an interesting greyish brown..


and the other bedroom "Cool Slate" which somehow or other came out bluish...hmmm...

A couple of miracles

Nothing much was done ever since our parquet was installed. There were only a few recent developments including a miracle performed by our electrician, wiring our master bedroom heater switch to the storage heater in the common toilet! Hallelujah! We wouldn't have to stumble through the house groggily to turn on the switch to bathe! (although we were all prepared for it though).

We also decided on paint colours, although most got changed the next morning on recommendations by Marcus our contractor. We guess he's looking at it in a different way. In any case, it should not be too ugly, if it is, we'd just scream and repaint it all muhahaha...

Our contractor also miraculously sweet-talked his carpenter into rushing the kitchen cabinets for us, to be installed early next week! (gasp, so fast!) He said he "cut queue a bit", hopefully not stepping on too many toes :-P Yay, so happy! Once the cabinets are up, the solid surface can be measured and installed, and then the appliances and sink installed and the electrical work finished up for this area of the house. Whoopee!!

Target date to move is after the 20th. =) =)

The case of the missing stop cocks Part II and some sexy switches

So the stop cocks are with the plumber. Don't really know why he brought them home, but since he can't install them (needs extra plumbing work) we'd bring them back to SSC to exchange them for some other products.

Our master bedroom false ceiling went up today, pardon the pun.


The storage water heater is really huge, but thank God it's so high up nobody really notices how big it is.


Check out our sexy switches, oh my gosh, we fawned over them for awhile! heehee...

The case of the missing stop cocks

Our contractor's plumber is highly efficient.

We had decided that the master bedroom toilet could not use a black jetspray head as the colour contrasted too much with the walls. Our contractor had agreed and he did not take out one of the jetsprays for the master bedroom toilet and left it in the bedroom instead. His plumber, however, took the initiative to search out the jetspray and installed it!


After that, we realised that he did not use our fancy chrome stop cocks and instead, used one of the regular plastic handle types with stainless steel. The strangest thing was, the 2 chrome stop cocks were nowhere in sight. We searched high and low and eventually told our contractor he'd have to ask the plumber about them. At $15 each, we weren't about to let them go! But ultimately the question would be, to install them or exchange them for something else?

Zone Wishlist

Zone sells lovely toilet accessories. The reason why I think this is because Sim Siang Choon and other local stores sell the same products but of lousier quality and at the same prices, whilst Ikea's quality and price is down there, and the rest of the stores are likely to be selling the branded ones with prices UP there.

So here are some items I really like but can't buy at the moment cos we're racking up bills in other areas as well...

Ally =)

New and Shiny again

We decided to go in to polish the two downlights reachable by ladder. Check out the before and after images...

Renovation in progress

Parquet was done today. It looks really pretty although the wood is in its raw state now, without the varnish. It has nice shades of brown and different textures. Our shower mixers are up too and the toilet bowl is half done. We're supposed to go in to polish the ceiling downlights tomorrow but will now have to postpone as 3 of the lights are where the new parquet is and we cant put a ladder on it as yet.

Nearly 2 wks on...

Most of the work has been done where possible...and unfortunately we have to wait for carpentry to be done before we can finish up with electrical and plumbing works, and some other stuff. Parquet and toilet bowls will be done tomorrow, and then we can decide on paint colours for the house too. =)


Electrical work done on the ceiling for master bedroom downlights. Yes, 4 halogen lights are WAY TOO BRIGHT, but we're installing a dimmer system and using the lowest wattage possible for the bulbs. We figured 2 lights were too little and 3 was such an odd layout.


A fountain of electrical work in the kitchen.


Nice common toilet tiles are all up.


View of the corridor from the Kitchen.

Lighting Effect

We went shopping for lights last Tue. The easiest was our pendant lamp for the dining area. A lovely 1metre long red fabric rectangular box like lamp with frosted glass below and incandescent bulbs. The lamp was priced at $287 but we managed to get it at $240. We didn't even bargain very hard and the guy at Eurostar lighting was quite accommodating. It made us wonder if we could have bargained it to $200 instead! haha!

Here's a pic of the lamp we got.


Later we went to Prima/Premier Lighting. Yes, almost every interior designer/contractor gets their lights here, i think they give them commission or something. Or they guarantee good deals and discounts. We then made the decision to use back the current lights in the living room since the holes on the false ceiling were so big that we were unable to replace the fluorescent lamps with halogen ones. We decided just to change the bright white bulbs to warm white one...saves us $200 cos each lamp is about $40 and we needed 5. We have the arduous task of climbing up to the ceiling with a ladder and trying to polish the lamps with our necks cranked at a funny angle though...

Spent quite a tidy sum in all. These things here are quite expensive, but you need one for every downlight I think..

Shopping List - Miscellaneous

Kettle - Electric
Brand: Tefal
Model: Justine
FREE!

Kettle - Stove type
Brand: Any
Model: Regular family size, don't want so small

Blender
Brand: Philips
FREE!

Espresso Machine
Brand:
Model:
Store:

Wok
Brand: AMC
A GIFT!

Crockery
Brand: Patra
$25
Bought

Knives
Brand: JA Henckels
$226
Bought

Fondue Set
Store: Robinsons
$12.90
(i think i bought this because it was cheap...i hardly eat chocolate nowadays)

Frying Pan
Brand: Tefal
$20-$30

Cutlery
Store: Robinsons
FREE! from Mom + FREE from Mayer

Utensils
Brand: Corningware/Corelle
FREE from Mom

Cups
Brand: Christopher Vine
Model: Dragonflies in a tiffany blue, oh so nice!
$67.90
Bought

Glasses
Brand: Ocean
$12
Bought

Iron
Brand: Powerpac (!)
FREE when purchasing fan, will just use it for now

Toilet Accessories
Store: Sim Siang Choon
$240
Bought


Toilet Bowl
Store: Sim Siang Choon
$172 x 2
Bought

Toilet Sinks
Store: Sim Siang Choon
$98 (MB), $130 (Common)
Bought


Toilet Taps/Shower Mixers
Store: Hansgrohe (chrome), Sim Siang Choon
$1200
Bought

Hairdryer
Brand: Braun
$19 (U.P $69!!!)
Bought

Shopping List - Furniture

Store: Sanctuary Dian
Model: Customised designer sofa & ottoman
(based on B&B italia's Dadone)
$2100
(Purchased)




Store: Objet in Amoy St
Model: Low
$1800



Sofa (option 2)
Store: Home2Be at Liang Court
Model: Grey 4-seater + Ottoman
$1299


Coffee Table
Model:
Store:
$



Dining Table
Store: Mondi Living
Model: Novvy
$780
(Purchased)



Dining Chairs
Model: Sixten
Store: Ikea
$49 each (x 4)
Purchased


Lighting for whole house
Store: Eurostar/Premier Lighting Centre
$700
Purchased



Plant for Living area
Model: Yucca Plant
Store:
$


Study Room Chairs
Model:
Store: Ikea/Vhive
$150


Study Room Bookshelf
Model: Expedit
Store: Ikea
$199
Purchased
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Shopping List - White Goods

Feel free to help out wherever possible...and not just financial lah :P We need advice too...


Refrigerator
Brand: Mitsubishi Electric
Model: MR-V45-ST
Store: Goh Ah Bee
$850
Purchased





Hob/Hood/Oven
Brand: Ariston/Delizia/Indesit
Model: PH730 RT IX/Aqua 90 Chimney/FI 51.B IX
Store: Mayer Marketing
$1367
Purchased


Washer
Brand: Bosch 5kg
Model: WAE12060SG
Store: Goh Ah Bee
$730
Purchased



Microwave
Brand: Sharp
Model: R-398F
Store: Goh Ah Bee
$190
Purchased


Air-con
Brand: Toshiba
Model: Invertor
Store: Gain City
$3700+
Purchased - Thanks Ma!


Heater
Brand: Joven
Model: 25Litre
Store: Poh Joo
$220
Purchased


Fan
Brand: Powerpac
Model: Oscillating type
Store: Shop & Save
$47.50
Bought


Vacuum Cleaner
Brand: Phillips
Model: Jewel FC-XXXX
Store: Best Denki
$199 (U.P. $299!)
Bought

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