littleones

First of all, don't misunderstand me. I just Want To Find the right ID Went to the big furniture fair last weekend to recce some ID companies there. After meeting some of them, I felt like it's going to be a long and arduous road to find the right match. I thought it would be a case of shortlisting the portfolios we like, talk to the IDs, see got chemistry or not, tell them our likes and wants, get a quote, confirm if the price fit, and let their creativity flows...but alas, it's not the case at all. The first company we met doesn't get the style we want (which is along the line of scandinavian but no industrial elements, which we thought it's pretty common these days?) The second is only interested in showing us their Blum-fitted kitchens right away instead of finding out what we are looking for The third only wants to sell packages, although very attractive but very suspicious as no works of the ID can be found online and the last, looked at our floor plan and said we don't need to do anything, just need to build a shoerack and paint the house . So, I would like to ask fellow forummers if it is possible to post here what we are looking for and let the right ID come to us instead of the other way round, or will we get a lot of unsolicited sales calls and end up like the above situations again?

Hi All Bubbles are coming out of the grouts in my dining area floor tiles. It does not seem to be water because after a while it will be solidified. Please see the pictures below. Anyone has encounter this problem before? Is there any ways to prevent the bubbles from coming out, besides hacking away the tiles and re-do them? Thank you in advance for the response!

Thanks for the suggestion but it is kinda hard and tedious as there are too many holes in the furniture already. Are your furniture infected by powder post beetles too? We've tried insecticide before but it didn't work, the beetles just make even more holes.. when I've time, I'll post up some pics..

well, we've bought some solution from HomeFix and sprayed our infested furniture with it. not able to totally eradicate the problem. don't even know why we have to go through this in the first place. now probably too late to complain or get my money back. i'm not sure we want to hire pest busting companies either as they'd probably be expensive and hubby rather discard the furniture and buy new ones.. sadz

hi peeps, i know i've disappeared for some time and many of you have PMed me asking for Mr Chew's contact. if you had bother to read my blog, you would have seen me posting his contact in post #94. just an update on the furniture i bought previously from you know where. i must really say it is one of the worst mistakes in my life to deal with that person and made those purchases. now 3 of the 4 pieces of furniture i bought are infected with wood pests and everyday i would be slapping those insects flying around and feel very sad to see more and more little holes appearing on the furniture. i'm also worried those pests are going to infect my other wood furnitures from Ikea. really dunno what to do. hubby said we should just throw them away but the furniture are not even a year yet... if i could undo time, i would definitely not have bought from her. so much trouble, so much distress......... i think some of you might have bought from her earlier. are you experiencing this and how do you deal with the problem?

We used roman blinds for the whole hse - living room, MBR and 2 other rooms - as all are half-height windows. Apparently, I've also heard that roman blinds are expensive so I was surprised that ours costs $750. However, I would think that they are only more expensive than normal curtains; day-and-night curtains of the same window length would probably cost more.

We spent $750 on the roman blinds.

hey newnyew, thank goodness you did not get anything from her. yah, i just want to put this unhappy episode behind me and not let it mar my new life in my new house. feel comforted after reading the other thread, knowing she's the problem and not me haha..you want to visit and see the quality of her stuff issit?

Some of you have been asking me about my side table replacement. Well, here's the update. I've self-collected the side table. I was super pissed off and cannot understand why I had to self-collect something which was delivered wrongly to me in the first place and I wasn't given any choice at all - either I self-collect or I keep the wrong one. Absolutely ridiculous! After an endless flurry of email, I only agreed to self-collect upon the seller's word that I do not have to bring back the wrong side table to her or return the $100 which she transferred back to me earlier (which I was supposed to transfer back after I got the right item). Thus, I take the $100 discount as compensation for my time, effort, and fuel spent on travelling from the west to east and back although I still would have chosen not to do collect it myself if I had any choice. This is the replacement I've got. In fact, the dimensions are still the same as the previous one just that it was rotated such that the length became the breadth and vice versa. The height is still too short for my bed and the proportion of the legs is not like the original piece either. That's the front of the side table. Looks much better than the previous piece but compare with the original yourself. The table top which looks abit weird. Jagged lines on 3 edges save for one side; and a close up of the lines. Well, I really dunno what to say anymore...Guess what we pay is what we get?

Sorry peeps, I've been super busy these days and pretty much settled down in my new place, thus no time and nothing much to post. Have moved in for about 2 months already. There are still much decor and touch ups to do but once you've gotten used to the environment, it's really tough to envision what can be done better Anyways, sorry for the late reply but Pinklady, I'm not sure if the carpet sale is still on; the place is in Ubi, really kinda ulu unless you stay in the east You can check out google map. My dear mudpie sis, I don't think my house is in a visit-worthy state yet but if you gals wanna visit, just let me know and I'll see what I can do I know what you mean...it's only 2 months and my house is moving towards becoming a pigsty already..oh dear.. but well well, do go ahead and makeover your house.. then Charl, Suz and moi can go visit!! Oh, I've gotten a cheapo ironing board from my neighbourhood hardware store for $14.90 but it's pretty ok so far. I like the green leafy one from Brabantia but the price is really crazy..too atas for me i guess. but in any case, if there's a Leifheit sale again do let me know

haha..like that also can?!? like meeting for blind date quite worth going i felt as it was one of our more fruitful trips

Hi yuene, thank you i'm in west coast leh, not clementi, can join also? newnyew: yes, yes, that's the one!!! here are some stuff which i got there. The dark green shaggy carpet at $56. Door mat for $2. Comes in several colours. Shaggy bathroom rug (about 60 cm in length) at $4. Comes in several colours too. Bamboo mat at $5. Comes in several designs. More for deco purpose I think. My foot there is just to give an estimate of the size...

i'm so sorry, dyleen, i racked my brains but still can't recall the place i went to in ubi...if i see the advert in newspaper again, i'll PM u Pinklady: thank u the other rooms pretty empty and toilets super small...so nothing to show still trying to deco the whole house. will try to post some final pics when my i'm done.

hi dyleen, oh dear..we've got our carpet last week actually but i didn't blog about it. it is a shaggy carpet in dark green shade which looks like a patch of grass and costs $56. it was from a warehouse sale in Ubi which we got to know about through their advertisement in the papers. the carpets and rugs were really quite cheap. i'm not sure if the sale is still on

Supersimon27 and dyleen: thank you for the compliments! newnyew: oh dear...i just read your posting on PHC...hmm...i think her biz is too good that she can opt to choose customers. i suggest you don't transact with her to avoid getting high blood pressure.. bunbun: not convenient to reveal the name here as my biz transaction with them is not over yet and neither do i wish to further advertise for them. hope you understand To the rest who are requesting for Mr Chew's no. Here it is...96534689

hi skymars, congrats on starting your reno! that's alot of hacking you have there. envy you can enlarge your bathroom. i'm so stuck in my miserable bathroom. are you going to have a bathtub there? i've uploaded a pic which you requested from my kitchen angle. you may want to take a look. good luck with your reno

CURTAINS (PART 2) After about 2 weeks plus our roman blinds are finally ready! Mr & Mrs Chew came to install the curtains this afternoon. It took less than an hour and we are pleased with the results. Here are some pics though abit unclear cos of my handphone..paiseh.. Skymars: hope this pic is a good guide for you. We haven't gotten our sofa yet but I think the distance from the tv should be fine. Also check out the complimentary matching big pillow which Mr & Mrs Chew gave us. The pillow is lovely and so are they. A close up of the sweet cottage style fabric. I love it! Our living room and adjacent room are decked in this. The little flowers on our blinds matches that of our clock (from Cottage Craft) You can also see how the blinds look partially drawn up. ...and this is a clearer pic of our cute teapot telephone at the corner of the settee. Ordered it from the U.S. Haven't tried if it works yet. We've chosen this for our MBR and WIW area instead. It is actually the same floral design but in pink in order to match our pink walls. The white string curtain is also nicely done and discreetly separates our WIW area. I love how they made the hems curvy and tasseled which add a touch of class to an otherwise boring straight hem. So, with the curtains settled, we should be moving in within these few days..although there is no ironing board, fan, sofa, and dining set yet. We'll settle those in due course.

Hi rondy, thanks. The reno process is really tiring. Not only the reno but the aftermath of buying the furniture, electronics, and shifting in, etc...it's really a HUGE project..

Actually, we've no idea when the curtains will be ready and we don't want to rush them cos they are rushing some orders for their customers before the Lunar 7th Month. I supposed it should be ready in a week or two maybe Will definitely put up pics later

CURTAINS Finally, we have ordered our curtains from Mr Chew. Thank you all who recommended him in this forum. He and his wife are really nice people to work with. He came down to our new house last week with a trolley of fabric samples. He suggested us to go for Roman blinds since our windows are all half-height and according to his view, half-height curtains can never be as nice as full-length ones. I wanted London blinds since it would go nicely with our theme but obviously, London blinds are going to cost us a bomb as they use much more fabric to create the effect. I was pretty disappointed as Roman blind was the last thing on my mind. In the end, I have to psycho myself to accept the fact that Roman blind is indeed a better choice given our windows design and layout (settee in my living room) As we couldn't see any fabric which we like, he suggested that we visit his house to take a look at one new book of fabrics which he just ordered so we went to his house today. My goodness, I must say his house has a splendid unobstructed view of the city Mr Chew and his wife were very hospitable and much to our delight, that very book of fabric which he mentioned was the kind of pattern we were looking for! The sweet floral cottage style kind of design. The range is called "Secret Garden" and the fabrics are made in England, so understandably they cost more but he kept to the price which he quoted us when he came to our house and he even throw in a string curtain foc for our WIW area :good: We didn't even ask for it, he just suggested that we could do a string curtain there while he was taking measurements in our room so kudos to his good customer service He also showed us a Roman blind which a customer sent back for repair as it was 3-4 years old already and something at the back snapped I think but I was really impressed as the blind is beautiful and it totally changed my perception that Roman blinds are boring and orbit of course kudos to Mr & Mrs Chew again for offering after-sales service I can't wait to see my blinds soon! Once they are done, we can finally shift in.

skymars: that was our concern too but it's really not worth getting 37" tv now as it costs more than the 40" one of the same series and specs as 37" is an interim size according to Hong Liang and most manufacturers are going to phase it out soon. will try to get some pics from the kitchen angle for you the next time we go to our house. we haven't got our sofa yet so you may not get a good gauge of the distance. frankly speaking, it is indeed abit tight so if possible, you may want to consider mounting the tv on the wall. aoiaoi: thanks very much for your advice the furniture seller auto refunded me $100 until the new piece come, so it was not too bad. wah, your ID really has a mind of his/her own. if he/she does not consult you before proceeding with the changes, then i would think you are not liable for the full charges. hope they rectify the problems soon. Pinklady: thank you. i sure am hoping the new piece will come in a better condition. at least the armchair 錯得還不錯

THE BEE Well well, we've bought a cute Karcher vacuum cleaner from Courts recently to clean up our house. It's called The Bee. Seriously, we've no idea what to look for in a vacuum cleaner as there are so many models and price range is so big. Sales staff are of not much use either as they just recommend the most expensive ones aka Dyson to us. Personally, I find that Dyson does sounds attractive with its bagless and filterless operation but the price tag is really too hefty! In the end, we decided to go for a mid-range one and The Bee is so cute, we couldn't resist it However, the problem comes after we started using it, not sure whether it's because we are not vacuuming correctly, the head just seems to scratch our homogeneous flooring with those screeching sounds Think maybe I should try to vacuum without the head like I always do at my own house. Another problem is that there is no mechanism to retract the power cord so we have to twist and turn it manually. Now why didn't I check for that earlier? I probably assume that all vacuum cleaners come with that feature. It is supposed to be able to function without the bags so I sure hope it better last us for years. FURNITURE Our TV, washing machine, fridge, and classic furniture have also arrived. No reviews on the electronics as we have not used them yet though we find the Samsung LCD TV unclear. Not sure if it's the Mediacorp TV programs or whether it's the TV. We'll test it out again with a DVD player later. The classic sideboard and coffee table are replicated well after the original designs. One problem is that the sideboard looks too distressed while the coffee table looks too new. It is not evident in the picture but rather obvious in reality, even our contractor commented that they don't really match. That's one of the risks of ordering online. It's hard to visualize the real thing and matching them together. Even a tone difference can make a lot of difference. Well, no choice, that's the risk I had chosen to take. [Yeah, we were very thirsty after spring cleaning, that explains the can of Coke on the table ] The armchair wasn't exactly what I wanted with all the metal studs and it turned out cream instead of white. The only choice the seller gave us was to sell it back to her at a discount which isn't really a choice at all as that would mean that we are paying $ for nothing! Since it's rather well made and still fits into our living room, we'll make do with it then. This was the ULTIMATE! Can you spot the differences? I really cannot accept this because I find that it deviates too much from what I wanted. I mean, look at the proportion and the legs! Instead of getting a graceful giraffe, I'm getting a fat hippopotamus! Look at the knobs and the carvings (or appliqués), and the drawer units are so badly made that we broke out a sweat trying to open and close it. After the lower drawer is closed, one end of it was still jutting out as it wasn't made evenly. Look at the obvious scratching that probably occurred during packaging and transportation. The seller has promised me an exchange for the side table but not without giving me a long "education" on online shopping first. I am not new to online shopping and I know what to expect but this is way too much! You guys be the judge, should I accept it? The new piece will not arrive until Oct/Nov 2009 so I shall reserve my other comments till then.

ELECTRONICS Haven't blog for some time le cos site always timeout We are in the midst of cleaning up the place and spotting for problems for contractor to fix. It may be a challenge for the 2 of us as we were very blessed by our mums and have not much experience in housework One problem I've realised with our layout is the shoe rack. By constructing the shoe rack at the door, we've overlooked that major pieces of furniture might have trouble getting in Oh well...we'll just have to be mindful when buying our furniture. 8 Aug is going to be a busy day for us as our furniture and electronics arrive We have bought our washing machine, fridge and LCD TV yesterday, all under Samsung. Not that we are big Samsung fans, it just happened that they look good, price is good, and size is good Of course it wasn't a rash decision, we have previously gone to Best Denki and Harvey Norman, Mega Discount Store, etc to browse and shortlist the models we wanted then we called up Goh Ah Bee and Hong Liang for quotes. Apparently, the quotes were relatively similar for the WM and fridge but as what we've found out, and which Hong Liang admitted too, prices for LCV TVs are much more volatile. Delivery is foc but our only gripe is that they only accept cash & cheque, understandably to cut out the credit card & NETS charges to offer a lower price. Eventually, we got the WM and fridge from Hong Liang and the LCD TV from Best so we could use the vouchers which my ex-colleagues gave me and pay the balance in installment. Paying everything upfront in cash is really too taxing considering there are other major purchases like curtains not bought yet I shall not revealed the prices here since the dealers are kinda particular about it. We wanted to get the Samsung 37" model of the same series actually due to the length of our living room but "upgraded" to the 40" as it is actually cheaper than the 37" lor This is a popular model and is out-of-stock in whole Sg (according to HL) at the moment. It's a Full HD TV and equipped with iDTV (integrated DVB-T tuner), meaning we don't need a separate set top box to receive those HD programs from Mediacorp. I like the WM because it has the Diamond Drum (reduce damage to the clothes) and Silver Nano (generates silver ions that remove bacteria and fungus) features. As for the fridge, actually I prefer those Made In Japan models with at least 3 doors, but they cost way too much, so we'd have to settle for this. Again, I like their Silver Nano feature which "removes unpleasant odours perfectly, retaining the original flavour of the food". Our classic console, coffee table and side table are also scheduled to arrive in Sg next week. So excited, can't wait to see them soon...but first, spring cleaning...arrrrgghhh...

wow, $200+ for the chandelier is really worth it. yah, i suppose for that price shd be China crystals but layman can't really tell the difference. good deal

This probably came abit late but I think it shows the layout and design more clearly. Thanks to the forummers here, this Floorplanner program is really quite fun and easy to use