BusyBee

New add-ons, done •Bath refill bottles bought from Howard’s Storage for MBR, common bathroom and kitchen - want to achieve the "hotel look" •Chest drawers bought from IKEA, for MIL in BR2 •Shoe rack bought from IKEA, placed beside main door, at common corridor •Money plants bought from IKEA, placed on top of shoe rack

New purchases from Gmarket laundry baskets spice racks and paper towel holder with strong suction power for kitchen backsplash

Sorry, forgive me if I sound like a crazy woman here Need to vent a bit on the part time maid company that I engaged recently. Due to space constraint, I can't get a live-in FT maid. So I tried using this company, Mrs S services for 3 Saturdays and I have all these accumulative complaints: •I was just informed by email that the PT maid will be going back to China this Friday and they can't find me a replacement. But I'm sure this PT maid has informed the company earlier of her departure, so why this late notice? •the mess in all their schedule planning and coordination: - first week, a PT maid was arranged for me on Sat 8am. Then later, the coordinator informed me that 8am slot has been taken because since I was enquiring about Sat 9am slot, so she has released my 8am slot (with no confirmation from the company that 9am slot has been secured for me)? - Then the coordinator arranged for Sun 9am slot instead. Then very suddenly on Sat morning, she informed me that the PT maid can't make it on Sun and she arranged for another PT maid to come on Sat afternoon instead (the same Sat afternoon that she called me) - Then she promise to find me a PT maid for Sat morning, but for me to compromise and use this same PT maid to work on Sat 1pm for the time being - Then on one Sat, the coordinator called me very last min at 12.15pm, saying the PT maid is already at my front door, although my slot start at 1pm. When I told her that, she asked me "so should I ask the PT maid to wait?" theeeeeeeee - Then last Sat, when I called during weekday to confirm whether the PT maid is coming on Sat at 12pm or 1pm, the coordinator promised me 12pm, but the PT maid came at 1pm instead It's such a waste since the PT maid is very good and thorough in her cleaning and I'm very satisfied with her. Thus, I have endured all these nonsense from the company for the last 3 weeks. Then now this..... Super angry with their "yoyo" mess and unprofessionalism

Has "disappeared" from this blog for so long. Has been busy with work and minor add-ons to new house. Can't seem to be fully satisfied, keep adding on and improving Fell in love with online shopping on Gmarket! Tried my luck with taobao.com but most of the sellers don't ship to SIN, so gave up after refunds on a few purchases New purchases from Gmarket laundry baskets spice racks and paper towel holder with strong suction power for kitchen backsplash instax mini photos for my new toy - Diana F+ camera New add-ons, done Bath refill bottles bought from Howard’s Storage for MBR and common bathroom - want to achieve the "hotel look" Chest drawers bought from IKEA, for MIL in BR2 Shoe rack bought from IKEA, placed beside main door, at common corridor Money plants bought from IKEA, placed on top of shoe rack New add-ons, coming up 3D wallpaper for dining corner, bought from The Wall Story - ordered from Korea and to be installed in Sep 2012 Shower cubicle and vanity counter for common bathroom - still in the process of convincing my dear hubby Will upload some photos soon.

Hi, sorry for late reply on this. Manage to find some photos of MIL's BR2 with furnishings but it's in poor quality (iphone is really not good for photo taking). Will try to take some photos with wide angle lens and upload when I get the chance, to give you a clearer picture

Hi, my hubby didn't want to add in glass shower cubicle or bath tub in common bathroom due to (1) space constraint (he didn't want his elbows to bump into the glass panel when he's doing "big business" and (2)for the convenience of my MIL who is very old and prone to falls and accidents. Bacause of that, I have to do away with vanity counter too. Anyway, here are the photos. Look like still work in progress, right? But perks are now the bathroom looks very bright and spacious and my hubby has lots of elbow space My wish list for near future - a classy bath tub

Thanks. Say that to my son who thinks I'm acting cute I ilke to collect all these cuties, and when I come across them during overseas trips or in local quirky shops, I go crazy shopping If anyone has come across any local shops that sell cuties like these (at affordable prices, of course ), please let me know. Thanks.

Thanks. Costs of kitchen glass backsplash will depend on your measurements. Mine costs $675. There are diff colours to choose from. As requested, has pm you my main contractor and project manager's contact details and reno costs.

Little “Treasures” continued… Couldn’t decide what this is called, but who cares if it’s so cute..Maybe can call it my voodoo doll? Giraffes? Dinosaurs? Dogs? Take your pick. My hubby and I couldn’t decide what animals these are, but they are so cute. I can already hear my son saying "Mummy, stop trying to act cute"

During weekend stay at one of the hotels, we found these “treasures” in City Square Mall at very affordable rates. Decided to display them in MBR. Solemn looking bear in leather My little bear family, sitting in their thrones My little bear 3D puzzles - spent hours working on these 3D puzzles, but worth it My “poisonous” red apple 3D puzzle. Tempted to eat? My “luminous” green apple 3D puzzle “guarding” our wedding rings

That's really bad workmanship. When I saw your bookcase, I thot it look fantastic. Then when u showed CU photos, it's really spoil the overall look. Feels bad for u. I hope these bad finishings are the upper and lower shelves with doors so at least it can hide these from plain sight?

Costs of the bi-fold door will depend on your measurements. You can also choose transparent glass instead of frosted glass. Mine costs about $1860. Hacking of walls between kitchen and service yard and make good affected area costs about $380 which is ok. But the costly part is engaging a PE to endorse these walls for hacking (not all walls need PE endorsement but those that have structure beams will have to do so to get HDB permit ) which costs about $600. So total

No problem but I can't give u the reno breakdown items and costs through this blog. So if u need, just let me know, I can pm u. Our total reno costs about $45K. And furnishings is about $15K which includes some furniture, kitchen appliances, bathroom fittings and accessories, downlights and all other lightings, system 4 inverter aircon, curtains and blinds, wall paintings and decorations etc.

Thanks. I bought this ladder shelving from Oddjects located at Parco Millenia Walk. It has 2 diff height. But the shelves are light brown wooden planks. So what I did was buy acrylic paint in matte white (just get acrylic paint meant for art work will do) from art shop, then DIY paint over the shelves. So this is the end product. I was initially worried that the paint over will spoil the look of the shelves, but it turned out better than I expected. So I like it a lot

My little Japanese and Paris corner continued… My tall mannequin with its costume jewellery “skirt” Little Japanese Finger Doll Little Japanese Clappers People on Paris Street

My little Japanese and Paris corner continued… Little Japanese Clogs My little flower shop

My little Japanese and Paris corner continued… Little Japanese pegs holding up tissue paper covers and cloth bags

Has always feel that this corner at my MBR bathroom entrance is very empty. Recently, just done some simple décor to fill up this space. I call it my little Japanese and Paris corner. Little Japanese Hanging Dolls

5. Carpentry & Solid Surface Continued… Kitchen Counter Top For kitchen and breakfast counter top, we also use white solid surface as we seldom cook, so it's easy maintenance for us.

5. Carpentry & Solid Surface Continued… MBR Bay Window MBR Bay Window & MBR Bathroom Vanity BR2 Bay Window BR3 Bay Window On the left is BR3 bay window in white solid surface. On the right is BR2 bay window in white laminates. We use white solid surface for MBR and BR3 bay windows after choosing between granite (no white colour, only natural granite stone colour), quartz (too expensive), laminates (will start to peel after long exposure to direct sunlight), cushioned settee (will damage after long exposure to direct sunlight and rain) etc. BR2 is used by my MIL, so we choose to use white laminates for BR2 bay window, as it's cheaper and easily replaceable once damaged. And it's not so easily scratched compared to solid surface.

5. Carpentry & Solid Surface Continued… Bedroom 3 Wardrobe shared by my hubby and teenage son Bedroom 3 shallow bookcase for our novels and comics

May_dream 1 was the one who had a friend that bought her the painting in Vietnam as housewarming gift. She saw similarity in our paintings and mentioned it in my blog. Maybe she can help u?

Thanks. Feel free to use my carpentry plans above for yr planning if required. Shall charge you a min fee of 1 cup of kopi

5. Carpentry & Solid Surface Continued… Living Room TV Console Kitchen Cabinet Breakfast Counter BR3 MBR

5. Carpentry & Solid Surface Continued… MBR TV Console MBR Vanity We spent many hours planning, discussing with ID contractor and carpenter, then re-planning, then more discussing. The list went on and on. We spent most time on living room TV console cum storage and kitchen cabinet. In our old 3-room flat, we had an open concept kitchen with the kitchen sink cum breakfast counter right in the middle of living room (see this picture). So we wanted something different this time. (A) And we couldn’t make up our mind whether to hack away all walls between kitchen and service yard or to retain 1 side. In the end, we kept 1 side near to the sink. And put in a top and bottom cabinet with glass backsplash. (B) Then we had a hard time planning the living room TV console as we wanted to keep everything minimalist, yet at the same time stylish, does that make sense? So if you look at the door sizes, you will notice different sizes, to accommodate our 2 gigantic karaoke speakers and a 5.1 surround home theatre system. I browsed through many magazines and gotten inspiration from some. But we had to work closely with carpenter to bring our ideas to real life. For example, below the 42” Plasma TV, we wanted a sliding system without aluminum tracks. So we discussed with carpenter whether he can customize to old-school design – so the doors are sliding on tracks cut into the console. But he said he can only try to put in white rubber tracks. Then later he told me my idea will work after he has experimented on the tracks. And there was the problem with the numbers of doors. We had to ensure our players, amplifiers and cable TV set top can fit into each hole (there are 4 doors and 1 empty space for the length of 5 doors, so anytime we slide the door left or right, there will be an empty hole) See this picture. Choosing laminate and solid surface is easier as we wanted the same laminate and solid surface uniformly for the whole house. But still, there are many shades of whites, quite a number of brands e.g. Jennings etc, and different thickness (the darker wood grains underneath will be more obvious if the laminate is thicker e.g. 8mm as compared to 6mm etc. For sold surface, we used back the same brand that we had for our old 3-room flat, just a different kind white shade. We shortlisted some laminate samples and spread them on our white tiled flooring, side by side with solid surface sample. ID contractor gave us some suggestions when he saw us scratching our heads, wondering which white would pair off better with our white tiled flooring, white wall painting and white solid surface top. But as usual, we have already made up our own mind and brushed off his suggestion. But frankly, we should have listened to him cos the end results are much whiter than we first thought Have to wear sunglasses Anyway, now we are used to it after moving in for sometime.