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Hello everyone! My fiance and I are going to get the keys to our 4-room in 2Q 2016. So excited and we can't wait to start our new home after 4 years of long wait! We have been reading the forum to do our research diligently. Thank you everyone for sharing your experience with us! Now is our turn to journal down our renovation journey in this t-blog. Here goes our floor plan: This is our first time owning a house. We are very excited about our renovation for the new home. However, we can’t help but feel the pinch, especially we going to spend a hefty sum when our renovation and wedding falls in the same year. We just started working for 2-3 years and I don’t want to spend all our savings to splurge on the renovation. Hence, I will try my best to stick within our budget and spend wisely. We also set our budget below: Budget for Renovation: 30-35K Budget for Furnishing and Electrical appliances: 20k Renovation Requirement We will keep our carpentry work minimal and simple. Save money on carpentry by going for off shelf furnishings and online shopping of home decorations to achieve the look we want. Also, we chose Scandinavian style as this theme is easily executed and it will never fall our of style. As some of the requirement are optional, we will finalize our decision only after considering the cost and visiting the actual site. I also try to think of other alternatives to save the cost. Living Room 1.To supply materials & labour to lay Vinyl @ Living. Dining Room/ Bedroom 3/Bedroom 2/Master bedroom 2.Painting for the whole house 3.Chemical wash for whole house after renovation 4.Sliding window at the yard (optional) 5.To supply and install 3 bedroom doors / 2 bathroom doors LIVING ROOM 1.To construct false ceiling work @ Living/Dining Hall (optional) 2.To construct 16ft Craftstone wall / Brickwall stucco wall, whichever is more affordable (optional) 3.To box up 8ft gypsum partition wall 4.To construct half ht and 5ft shoe cabinet KITCHEN 1.To hack half partition wall between dining and kitchen 2.To install coated aluminum frame fixed window at partial wall and swing door 3.To construct 9ft Top cabinet 4.To construct 15ft Bottom cabinet 5.To construct 2ft Tall cabinet 6.To overlay Subway tiles on exposed wall on kitchen wall 7.To install 16ft Kompac plus/ iQuartz for kitchen cabinet surface top BATHROOM 1.To construct shower kerbs at Common /Master Bathroom 2.To supply and install 10mm Clear tempered glass shower screen @ Common Bathroom 3.To supply and install 10mm Clear tempered glass (1 fixed and 1 swing) shower screen @Master bathroom 4.To construct 3ft Vanity bottom finished @Master bathroom 5.Overlaying floor tiles for Common /Master Bathroom (optional) BEDROOMS 1.Full ht and 7ft casement wardrobe @Masterbedroom 2.Full ht and 5.5ft casement wardrobe @Bedroom 2 Table of Contents 1. Moodboard

Hi to all renotalk readers, I have started my make over weeks ago and finally I created an account here to share the process. So far, it's an enjoyable process. From amending the 3Ds design to choosing of tiles and laminates. I'm a cool person the tiles and laminates are all Matt finishing. Nothing is glossy. My ID brought me to Hafary to select the tiles. This is floor tiles option 1. This is floor tiles option 2. Decided for option 1 as the other looks kind of boring. This will be for living and kitchen flooring. ID suggest to lay 300x600 for kitchen as the exposed floor area is not much. Look nicer in this way. I'm ok lo.. Trust him. Mention that I'm not into gloosy finishing. My bathroom tiles will be in Matt too. This will be bathroom flooring. This will be bathroom wall. I always love the idea of having subway tiles for kitchen. So I shortlisted these few, will decide after 3D is out. It's a tiring day choosing the tiles. Can't imagine when it come to choosing laminates. To be continued.....

nice!

So exciting.. All works almost completed. Can't wait to move in. Kitchen and vanity top installation also done today.

Some updates.. I love it so much.

My fiance has went to Japan (for work), leaving me 6 days without his company before I go over to join him. As such, I spent the weekend settling things for our home! I organised our excel sheet to keep tracking of spendings and checklist for the home! Ezbuy's Free Agent Fee for the whole of April is great - I'll likely sign up for prime to get stuff for our home and wedding. Hehehe. So, my mum handed me a brochure from Audio House. Seeing the prices there make me... feel like I have to make a trip down. (Don't know for what since we have already purchased most from Gain City. ) The fiance would usually just let things be but he went along with me to Audio House to check out the items. The listed price of the items are not as low as Gain City (for most items) but the sale they had was really attractive - they come in the form of vouchers. Adding in the value of usable vouchers, we would have saved a couple of hundreds if we had gotten the stuff from there. Turns out, Gain City's after sales service is really good (though I couldn't say the same for the person servicing me -.-). They told me they can't match the price but they allowed me a refund. With that, the fiance took time out to accompany me to Audio House, and we "re-purchased" the items (updated in the previous post as well). We changed the models for some of the items we initially got as well. PURCHASES - PART II (1) SAMSUNG FRIDGE (362L) Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $839 Initial Hitachi fridge (395L) was selling at $819, while this Samsung fridge (365L) was $839. We decided to get this fridge because it looks sleeker and mainly because it has 3 ticks. For an appliance that has to be switched on 24/7 we decided that the extra $20 is worth spending. (2) PHILIPS 50" FHD LED TV Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $799 (free wall mount installation & 3 years warranty) Comes with TV box This is our living room TV, to replace the Sharp 50" non-smart TV. Price at Audio House was $749 (no free wall mount installation), so we reckon that with the $50 price difference, it cost exactly the same as the Sharp's. What's better is that Philips TV comes with 3 year full warranty and this comes with a TV box! So we got a non-smart TV, but can use andriod apps all the same. ^^ (3) PHILIPS 50" FHD ANDRIOD LED TV Place of purchase: Audio House Cost: $849 Looks exactly the same as the one above (haha). This was a pretty good deal because I wanted to get this from Gain City (and save the hassle of changing all my items) but they told me that they could not match even the price (without voucher value yet). The difference between this and the living room TV is that the andriod box is 'built-in', so there is no need for an external TV box. *Other than using $320 in vouchers for the items we got from Audio House, we kept additional $40 vouchers for the Ariston storage heater that we intend to get (the fiance say it's nicer because it looks like an aircon, lol).* (4) SIMMONS BEAUTYREST PLATINUM - QUEEN SIZED Place of purchase: Expo (furniture fair) Cost: $2,700 Comes with bed protector and 2 pillows We went to the furniture fair and was surprised at how empty it was. We only tried 2 brands - Sealy and Simmons. For the beds we tried at Sealy, price is about $2,500 (with 5% rebate with OCBC cards). We asked for firm beds, but the beds we tried are still not that firm. We went over to Simmons, and really liked this bed we tried - firm, but plush! It costs $3,012 (as we bought in advance), but we decided to walk away to consider in case it resulted in another impulse buy. After ~45 mins of discussion and research, we found out that Sealy makes softer beds. Still the difference in pricing made us try both Sealy and Simmons beds again - and our final choice is Simmons. We negotiated a bit, and agreed to this price. I hope it's a good deal! (5) PHILIPS POWERPRO BAGLESS VACUUM CLEANER Place of purchase: Philips SG eShop Cost: $199.50 (inclusive of $20 delivery) I did not have intention to buy the smaller items first (also that's why I did not keep the remaining Audio House vouchers that we got), but the mum came to me today and told me she got a 50% discount code for Philips items in their estore. She told me that she's going to get a spare iron if I don't need the discount code. So I went into the estore, and decided to get either a vacuum cleaner or a airfryer (make use of discount code, else an iron would only save my mum about $60?). We went to Gain City, and learnt that actually the 'newer' airfryer works the same as the older version in my current home. As such, I decided that I will just use the Mayer airfryer that my mum has (it's a free gift from somewhere lol) and intend to gift to me. I wanted to get the handheld vacuum cleaners but my mum warned me that they might not be "powerful" enough. Indeed, the salesperson told us that that is true, and 5 hours of charging power equates only 20 minutes of use. Gain City does not carry the usual bulkier Philips vacuum cleaners, so we went to Courts instead. After listening to what the different versions of Philips bagless vacuum cleaners have to offer, my mum suggested that I get this, because it comes with a turbo cleaner (for beds). I wanted to get a cheaper version but after 50% the difference is only $40 and my mum said, just go for this model. This costs $379 at Courts! (6) VENTO FINO 2 (OAK) Place of purchase: HT Lightings (JB) Cost: ~$304 (after GST) Thanks to recommendations by fellow renotalkers, we went to HT lightings some time back during one of our trip and just decided to get this! This is for our MBR. I got the chrome version though the matte black one was newly released then, because of our theme. The staff showed us how the fan works and we are loving the swivel and the wind! We lugged this all the way back (poor fiance), as we didn't have a car and thought that considering that we need to get 3 fans, we need to make at least 2 trips anyway. We are considering to get a ceiling fan for the living room and a wall mount KDK fan for the kitchen. My mum might be able to drive us in for the next trip, I hope she really does!! If not, we will just lug the fans back in, but perhaps take a cab back to Singapore instead. That's all for now! I really need to pack my luggage soon~

In the past i tried the baking soda/vinegar solution, it made the problem worse, it made white patches on my homogeneous floor Luckily my contractor (one i had previously used), was nice enough to come and change the tiles for me (4/5 tiles) When i asked him how come baking soda had caused these white patches on my tiles, he said the baking soda has a mild bleaching agent inside that would eat into tile's enamel (if you check the contents yes baking soda has a mild bleaching agent as its content) So baking soda/vinegar 100% did not work for me, infact made the situation worse and seems to be more like an old wife's tale from my experience

It's really a old unit. The walls are so uneven. It will become very obvious am when the new coat of paint goes up. I'm in a dilemma whether to plaster all the walls. Out of budget already. Anyway I did the plastering lo. i was very impressed. The walls are so smooth now..

The tiles was delivered on site right after hacking. It was a shock when I saw the living floor tiles. It's so dark (due to the variation in shades). Immediately called my ID and request to make a trip down to Hafary to choose again. He drove me all the way down. Spend another 1-2 hours choosing. Couldn't made up my mind, let my ID decide.

Hacking was done few days after permit was approved. Didn't take pictures of hacking works thought. I gonna box up all the big pipes in my bathroom and my wc will be suspended. The plumbers came in the next day to run the piping. ID advise to use stainless steel piping. Because pipes will be join by the crimping method, the leakage is almost 0.01%. To be continued.....

I just wanted to leave a message to say: I LOVE THAT PEGBOARD!!!! It's functional, flexible and so organised! Love it!

So we have seen a total of 5 IDs. 4 of which I chose based on photo scanning and set up an appointment. I don't really like to critique other ID firms because what does not suit me, might suit someone else. However, I should comment that in general, I find this line of business rather poorly regulated and that few ID are true designers who take pride in what they do. Due to this bias I have, I was quite fast in making my decision in eliminating ID firms. 1. How to tell if the ID you are talking to is a sales rep/actual designer... Ask them to draw out what they propose on the spot. Most true designers would not have a problem drawing a decent looking kitchen or built-in cabinet in 3D on the spot. If what they drew out looks amateurish or something you can draw, most likely that person is just a sales rep or extremely inexperienced. 2. How to tell if the ID has adequate experience/just a kah-kia to someone more experienced. Most ID work for big firms who have very nice websites and portfolio. It might be useful to ask them to tell you which of the projects in the website did they do. To save effort and time, when approaching the ID firm, you might want to directly find the ID who was in charge of the projects you like. Sometimes, the person you meet might be an understudy or a pao-tui. Nothing wrong with giving someone young a chance, but if that is not what you are looking for, sometimes it is best to ask directly if they are the pao-tui. Some signs of evidence are comments like "let me get back to you" or "let me check before I confirm". 3. Most importantly, the ID to me should be contactable/respond when messaged. As a pretty busy individual myself, I make an effort to respond to emails at work. Even when I am unable to comment on something, I will always acknowledge receipt of a mail. As a result, I do not understand why some ID simply do not respond. one day is fine, 3 days maybe and anything more I think is ridiculous. This is something that I cannot tolerate. IT will be adequate for them to just say "give me some time to respond, but I have received your message." instead of just not replying. 4. ID firms that have many condo projects. This might be important for us BTO folks. A lot of condos come with concealed piping/false ceiling and even air con. So if you are drawn to the portfolio of certain ID, just make sure they have the expertise in handling HDB BTO. Some ID I talk to, did not even know what is allowed by HDB and what is not. If you are on top of such things, then I guess it is fine. IF not, you might be due for some unpleasant surprise when reno starts. 5. ID firms who keep trying to Xian me with their discounts. I don't ever believe any discount in the service line is a real discount. If they give you a waive of design fee, they must be earning from you somewhere else, or during the reno process, adding things to the quote. There is always fine line written somewhere. I hope the above advice helps. Again this is based on my own requirement. If I am going to spend 40-50 k on reno, I want a **** good reno process. I will write more on why I chose BPS in a later post.

Had the same mold and dirt/hard water stains problem same as TS, so i purchased the HCL89 thing from http://hcl89.byethost10.com as recommended I used it a couple of months back and so far the mold and dirt/hard water stains problem seems to be gone Looks like it worked out well for me, thanks

RENOVATION WORK- Part 7 Carpentry More pictures of the carpentry work. This is for common toilet. We chose the same color of laminate as the kitchen. They have install the Quartz too. This is for master bedroom toilet. We made a cabinet under the original HDB basin. They installed the quartz countertop. Lucky it goes well with the backsplash. We also install sink and hob. Now, we are thinking if should install handles on the cabinets or we should keep it simple without any knob or handles? I worry that it will not turn well Going to buy some potted plants and nice bowls to decorate the shelves.

RENOVATION WORK- Part 6 Carpentry Finally, the most looking forward part of renovation!!! My wardrobe for master bedroom. Pardon we haven remove the ugly sticker for painting. Doors are done too! Installation of kitchen cabinets.

RENOVATION WORK- Part 4 Choosing laminates. Our initial choice was Wintry Grey for the kitchen with white Quartz counter top. However, the contractor advised the colours may be too light. We changed to a darker colour grey for Kitchen and white for wardrobe. Shower screen is up for common toilet and master bedroom toilet. Although we wanted to have the shower screen with black frame, the contractor advised that the paint is not lasting. The toilet doors and window for service yard is ready too!

RENOVATION WORK- Part 3 Painting We have decided to paint the house ourselves! I think we should be able to handle the painting since it is a new flat and we can also get to choose the better quality of paint. We have decided the colour during the weekdays and spent of one of weekend for painting. We have earlier invited a fengshui master to our house and advise us on the colours and layout of the house. We will paint one of walls in living room and dining room grey. Cream colour for both study and my mum's room. Maybe dark blue for one of the walls for master bedroom. There are so many shades of white to choose from. We bought the painting tools and paint from one of the painting shop at AMK. We are Nippon painters! Let's start painting. Yeah, we are done with painting and this is final product. It is not bad but it is different what I thought it will be. Initially, I wanted light shades of grey but we went to choose a more greyish blue. The greyish blue is so much darker and I was so worry that it will not turn out well. My phone can't really capture the real From the picture it looks so grey but it actually more bluish in real life. We haven peel off the masking tape on the ceiling it looks not so straight in the picture. I like the white colour we choose. It looks so white! I love white Everything looks very smooth but in facts there are some hiccups during the process for painting. The walls for the study room and master bedroom actually became watery and there are small bubbles appeared on the wall. We had no choice but to scrap off the whole patch. Maybe we need to seek some help from the experts in rectifying this!!! Another issue is the cream colour of the walls for the common bedroom and studyroom appears too yellowish for my liking! It is very contrasting with the white walls in the living room. I was so tempted to repaint the whole thing but my husband say it will look fine with furnishing. I really hope so. Overall, we had great sense of achievement for painting the house and contributing to building our desire home! If you have time to spare, you may want to do your part by painting the house.

RENOVATION WORK- Part 2 Wet works started! Overlaying the cement base for Kitchen Cabinet. Sorry to say that we really don't like the orange/brown tiles as the kitchen's backsplash. We are so glad that we replaced it with the white HDB tiles. The preparation work before overlaying the marble backsplash. We fell in love with the Caesarstone marble backsplash but the price is so expensive. We decided to choose a marble like tiles as a cheaper alternatives. We are quite satisfied with the outcome. Hopefully, it will go well with our kitchen cabinet too. The preparation work before overlaying one of the wall of the common toilet. This is how it looks like after overlaying the tiles. We feel like it is not as nice as what we thought as it is too plain. We kind of regretted our decision of choosing this design of tiles. After much thoughts, we checked with our contractor to see if we can change the 2 tiles on the top right corner to other tiles with more "marble pattern". The effect is so much better after they helped us to change the tiles. The very "white toilet "with a bit of marble effect. We changed our initial plan of overlaying brickwall for the long wall at the living room to the feature wall for the TV due to: 1. Save cost! Brick wall is really not cheap and I think it is not worth to spend so much on brickwall. 2. Easier to maintain if the wall is smaller. It will look cleaner. 3. We can't think of any other idea to do a nice feature wall for our TV. After overlaying the craftstone, I was thinking if we should paint white for all the brickwall. I worry that the natural colour of the craftstone will not go well with our theme. It makes the house looks warm and cozy which is more suitable for a muji theme. Still deciding.... Cement Screeding is done! Finally no more rough floor surfaces! The colour of the floor finishes is actually quite nice. We don't mind just polish the cement floor finishes if our theme is incaesarstone

RENOVATION WORK- Part 1 We submitted the feedback list to HDB about 1 week after key collection. There were nothing much for them to rectify as we opted out all the doors and floor finishes. We did not engaged our contractor's electrician. My uncle will be doing the electrical work for us. We started some simple electrical work for the Living Room and Kitchen. Hacking of Wall Things are subject to change along the way for renovation. Hacking the full wall between the kitchen and dining area is done. Previously, our idea is to hack half wall and partitioned from the dining room with black think frame of Aluminium fixed window and swing door. We also thought of another alternative is to create an open kitchen concept of using the half wall to build a table top with tall chairs. It's something like a "breakfast countertop". We dropped both ideas as the wall between the kitchen is too small to explore the options. My mum is not very receptive of the idea of open kitchen, especially we are buying fabric sofa. We also have concerns about if the air-conditioner will be cooling enough for the Living/Dining Room and Kitchen. We have checked with contractor that we still can add on the Aluminium door after the kitchen cabinet is up. h The "injured" wall after hacking. Oh yes, my bomb shelter is in the kitchen. So I don't think we will overlay the kitchen floor tiles. Choosing of tiles We wanted to overlay the kitchen tiles with subway tiles but the idea is too common. We changed to marble like tile instead because I want to achieve this kind of effect. It should be easier to maintain. Choosing tiles is quite stressful. We went down to Hafary. We are spoilt for choices and we went round and round to look for something that we like. We found a big and longish piece of marble tile from China but the height is not suitable for using as the kitchen backsplash. In the end, we settled for one more squarish tiles. Hopefully, it will still turn out well. We are still debating whether should we overlay the whole wall tiles for both toilets. I can't imagine so many people overlaying their toilets. It will cost me a bomb. After much consideration, I think we should not splurge a few thousand dollar on renovating the toilet. The original mosaic looking tiles is not that bad looking as compared to some other BTO projects. The white tiles is ok to me. Making a decision of to lay or not to lay tiles is so hard. Maybe we should workout something with the existing tiles, such as overlaying only one wall for the common toilet! We chose to overlay for common toilet as it is bigger than our master bedroom toilet so the effect will be nicer. We hope to achieve something like this. A relatively white with a bit of marble like toilet in the most economical way.

KEY COLLECTION Sorry for late of updates. Finally, we managed to collect the keys in July. Roll pineapple! First impression, the new flat is so small...... Layout of living room Bedroom Corridor Common Toilet Master Bedroom Toilet Kitchen

SOURCING KITCHEN HOB & HOOD Buying the right gas hob is important as we will cook often. The gas hob should comes with a good size for our kitchen. It must have an easy-to-clean design – a flat surface, free of dirt traps. I have seen people from renotalk buying EF, Fujioh, Tecno, Electrolux. I have seen people from renotalk buying EF, Fujioh, Tecno, Electrolux and I will do research to find out more. However, my fiance set up his mind after hearing my research on the Bosch. He is that kind person that you have to standardize all the brands for electrical appliances. Tempered Glass Hobs v.s. Stainless Steel Hobs We find tempered glass looks really good. The only concern that we have is the shattered glass. I have shortlisted the hobs below. 1. Serie | 4 PBD7331SG: 78.5 cm Black Tempered Glass Gas Hob This model uses Schott Glass- a thermally toughened (tempered) float glass. So the shattered glass may not be an issue. The salesperson also shared with us the concealed holes which can prevent the food drips into the gas pipe. It is also easy to maintain and clean. The tempered-glass gas hob: offers you a sophisticated design that is easy to clean. Flame wheel wok burner and 4.5 kW: for excellent cooking, especially for Asian style food. The large 230° knob rotate angle: enhanced flame control. The practical high-end pan support system provides the optimal support for various pans/woks. Enhanced safety gas valve: safety valve system will cut off the gas automatically when the flame unexpected goes out. Dimensions of the product (mm): 150 x 785 x 450 mm Appliance material: Tempered glass & Pure brass 3 Gas burners Center burner: 1.7 KWLeft & right burner power: 4.5 KW New high efficient burners All direction air intake mode Control knob with electric ignition Precise flame power adjustment & Preset of town gas (10mbar) Flame failure safety device Hobs and hoods are usually offered as a pair in packages. So I found one hood which suits our needs. Slimline Hood vs Chimney Hood The chimney from the hood to guide filtered fumes out to higher location to prevent them from directly blowing when you are cooking. Slimline hoods are designed to be slim to maximize the space in the kitchen. Although they are as powerful as chimney hoods, they do a pretty decent job. 2. Serie | 4 DHI923GSG 90 cm Stainless Steel Slimline hood The telescopic cooker hood: Hides into your cabinet for a sleek kitchen front Extraction rate: 420 m3/h to ensure optimal kitchen air quality Halogen lighting: For optimal, energy-efficient illumination of your hob Max. extraction rate according to DIN/EN 61591:420 m³/h 3 speeds 2 x 28 W halogen - energy saving lamps 3. Serie | 2 HBN331E2J Stainless steel 60cm Built-in single oven V.S Serie | 2 HBN331E1K Stainless steel 60cm Built-in single oven This is the first time we are buying an oven. I am very excited and can't wait to start learning baking and grilling food. With so many brands available, it is so complicated to choose one that suits us. We were introduced to 2 ovens but we can't tell which one is better. I've seen more reviews on HBN331E2J. There is no much difference as both has the hot air, flap door and energy efficiency. The only difference I spotted for HBN331E1K is that it comes with eemovable oven door for easy-cleaning and the oven cavity with removable rack supports There is this website, Intraix showing the 5 factors you should look out for when you choose an oven: Space Oven Timer Ease of cleaning Oven Modes Special Features

SOURCING KITCHEN SINK Finally we can move on to shopping after finalizing our contractor! It is important that to start early to shop for the items below as we need to provide the dimension to contractor before they can start renovation work. If you start early, you will have more time to look around without pressure! Shopping List: 1. Kitchen Sink 2. Kitchen tap 3. Hob 4. Hood 5. Oven 6. Fridge First stop: Hoe Kee Hardware Pte Ltd   8 Genting Rd, 349472 We visited Hoe Kee at Genting Rd during Saturday. The aunties served us are good and not pushy. They also allow us to see around freely. The good thing is they offered kitchen bundle promotion! Our kitchen wall is about 3500mm. We need to cater the space for fridge, kitchen hood and sink. My mum suggested to buy a big single bowl of sink instead of double bowl sink. The smaller bowl is a bit reluctant as we will end up to use it as a rubbish bin. Silgranit Sink v.s. Stainless Steel Sink After researching online, I think that I'd like to look into a silgranit sink instead of a stainless steel sink. Silgranit sink is very low maintenance and looks good! It resists scratching and cleans up like a dream! Top Mount Sink v.s. Under Mount Sink I think we will opt for top mount as it will prevent water leakage to the kitchen cabinet due to poor workmanship. Rock Grey v.s. Alu Metallic These are the 2 shades of grey that we love. However, our friend who has a black sink will experience the cloudy spots around the sink. The darker colour of sink may have more maintenance issue. Single Bowl Sink v.s. Double Bowl Sink My mum suggested a large single bowl instead of double bowl as the smaller bowl will always end up putting wet garbage. Single Bowl Sink Double Bowl Sink Pros A single, deep basin means you can easily soak or wash a big pan or prep large quantities of food. Pros Two basins allow you to perform separate tasks, such as cleaning dishes and preparing food, with ease. The idea is that you can clean up in the large basin and prep in the smaller one. Dual basins also come in handy when you are washing items you don’t want to put in the dishwasher (soap in one basin, rinse water in the other). Cons Rinsing vegetables while soaking a large casserole dish requires a bit of juggling — as does hand washing and rinsing china or stemware. Cons A smaller basin makes it harder to wash and soak large pans. We have shortlisted these 3 designs and will seek advice from our contractor before we decide to go for single/ double bowl. Any one has any suggestion to share? BLANCO PLEON 8 $465 (as of Mar 2016) BLANCO NAYA 6 $359 (as of Mar 2016) BLANCO NAYA 8 $399 (as of Mar 2016)