Umaisarah

Hi SGK! May I know which dining light and ceiling fan you bought? I oso recently bought lightings from them, and scared tt if same model, I oso kena hidden costs when it comes to install. I did ask the salesperson if the dining light need their ppl to install since it's glass and got hanging rods, and they said no need, the light comes in a complete piece, no need to assemble. They didn't mention anything abt the fan. Did u go to their main branch at 515 Balestier? I think I know which one u referring to. She got long hair, right? Ya lor, she quite blunt but I find her ok lah. She the one who recommended me the dining light. On the plus side, I won a PS3 in their fortnightly lucky draw, heh heh

That's a nice area to hv breakfast or a soothing cup of tea in the afternoons. R u planning to get a bird for e cage?

For those interested in buying Clipsal Zencelo switches, got these prices from Choo Chiang: W=White, C=Colour 1-gang: $5.50(W), $6.50 © 2-gang: $9.00 (W), $10 © 3-gang: $14 (W), $15 © 1-gang, 2-way: $8 © Was disappointed the switches only come in either all-white or all-coloured, cannot mix and match . I really like the dark-switch, white faceplate combination I saw in their online brochure.

Wah, $2222 is sure one lucky nbr! Lightings.com.sg just called to say I won their lucky draw, leh.... One PS3 coming my way

I went to their website. Their designs not bad. Will chk them out soon. Thanks for the tip, Zelly!

Hi, PNC welcome to RT! I currently live across the MRT track from you I send my kids for swimming lesson at the pool every Sunday. but we going to move to eastern side in a few months time Going to miss the area cuz spent all of my childhood there. Hussein was also the one who served us when we were at that 'big chain reno shop'! Was quite a nice guy but didn't quite like his pushy tactics (was saying tt special price valid for a few days so must cfm early). And tt time, we weren't sure if want ID or contractor.... Saw him again at Expo last weekend when we went to consult with our ID, I think he recognise us, so we quickly change direction, we so pai seh cuz never came back to him Eh, post your floor plan and pics leh so we can hv better picture of the place. How many rooms is it? This is one of the 'newer' flats right? What do you intend to do? Will it be a major overhaul. My friend told me recently that an EA or EM house at Stirling Road got sold for $900K! Wah liau, crazy price!. Dunno true or not. Price like that cuz the layout is very unique. The bedrooms are all downstairs (?). Do you know what kind of layout is this? Actually, I'm in love with the HDB terraces along C'wealth Ave West, near the CC and mosque. Hope they're still around when I move back there in 15 years' time!

Yes, yes No relaxing even if you engage the most famous and expensive ID. RT is full of stories of pple who take their ID and contractor for granted and got burnt. Unless you the type who heck care and dun mind living in a house which doesn't hv any of your personal touches or inputs at all. That's why I like your home, Mickey! When pple see, they sure know it's yours Very unique and different, with its own personality. Something you said in your blog about other houses being almost the same, with the same feature wall, TV console etc, really strike me, cuz I think that's what my house is going to be No $$ to make it unique and anyway, can't change a lot to the structure of the place. But hopefully with the soft furnishing and the odds and ends, it'll look more like Umaisarah & Family home.... Can't wait to see the final completion of your house. Take so long leh..... but you're like the 'real' Mickey Mouse...I nvr see him throw a tantrum!

Anyone heard of Koan Lighting? It's an online store, based in Singapore which sells 'Asian-inspired' lights. I dunno how I came across their website, but I ended up ordering 2 sets of their ZE Light. They have a buy-1-get-1-free offer, so in total I hv 4! What is ZE light? Well, its a DIY light which you assemble yourself according to the design you like. I liked it cuz it was just the type of light me and DH wanted for our MBR and it was cheap. $39.90 for a 30-cm diameter lamp (without the light cord and bulb). Here's a pic. They sent it to you in 30 plastic pieces and you're supposed to fix them up together like a jigsaw puzzle. I bought 4 sets, so tt's 120 pieces, and I can make a 60-cm diameter lamp. Tried to superimpose the lamp in my MBR 3D drawing and this is what I came up with: Look quite nice, I think The walls of my MBR look quite plain, so I'm planning to get some decals. Found one at Winkplay which matches the ZE lamp perfectly

Wah! Your eyes so sharp one, sure no ID can smoke u Well, e 3D drawing is just tt, a drawing. I dun xpect it to b drawn to scale nor be an actual representation of how e real thing will turn out. At least it helps me visualize how e materials n colour combination will work. My ID has actually gone thru e perspective drawing with me which is more impt cuz e carpenter will use it when they construct the thing. My ID asks if I want 500 or 600mm for e depth. I choose 600mm n tts e depth of my current computer tbl so I think it's ok. Sm thing goes for e other carpentry works. If e ID just show 3D n nvr follow up w u on detailed measurements n perspectives then I agree tt ID is not to b trusted. So customer must b smart enuf to ask n find out. To depend entirely on e 3D as a reference is also not correct cuz I consider it just as a tool to visualize. Anyway tt's my opinion only mah. Bottom line is customer must oso do hmwk lor.....

Here's the 3D for eldest daughter room, she's going to 12 this year, and so really growing up. What's with kids these days? She's into purple, hot pink and black! what happen to blue and pink and yellow? Doing the study table and top hung cabinets. Bringing over our old Billy Bookcases. She chose the purple colour wall herself. If you notice the bay window, one end will hv this slanted ledge for her and her sisters to chill out while spying on the neighbours. I'm also going to have that slanted ledge for the MBR for me to chill out and check out the hunk.... in my room lah...... To sidetrack, I came across this Canadian furniture company which specialises in unique hand-made furniture. It was featured in RT. It's called Straightline Design. Check the website out. I made some enquiries, and yes, they do not come cheap, just like this Tree Bookshelf I fell in love with Mbe KIV for next bonus time Finally, 3D for my other 2 daughters' room. This is where the major carpentry works happen. Doing the bay bed and the loft bed with the study table below it. We requested for the loft bed not to be too tall (about 1.6m) as we're going to have a ceiling fan in the room. With this design, we free up the floor space so they can chill out and hv more space to throw their mess about But they still hv place to do their h/w or revising. But one of them has got to share study space with the eldest next door. Wall colour supposed to be yellow but didn't come out well in the 3D rendering.

Oh, sorry $100 for the chairs, hmmmm not bad....mbe I'll check it out. Where in Sims Avenue is it? I planning to go that area this Friday. Want to check out Choo Chiang for switches.

Managed to scan my 3D drawings using my office copier (sshhh....don't tell anyone Here's the 3D for my Living/Dining Room. Main works I'm doing here is the TV console (2-tier on a raised platform) and feature wall (a pair of ceiling height wood laminate 'pillars' - u can see only one of it at the far right of the pic - and a suspended laminate wall in between for the TV). Also the L-Box above the TV console and false ceiling at dining and Veneer L box in the middle of the room, dividing the living and dining. I really like this one, saw it in a mag and asked my ID to incorporate in the design. There's also a Stucco wall for the dining feature wall. The furniture shown here is just for show. Eg my sofa is L-shaped but it is in natural material, brownish colour with dark brown covers. But I'm planning to change the covers to B&W stripe for the top (leaning) part and yellow for the bottom (seating part). I saw an actual sofa with tt combination in one of my shopping expeditions. I think it will help brighten up the place but not sure if the combination will be too far out My curtains will also be dark - tt's why I'm planning to change the material for the living room again But the darker colour will be a nice offset to the plain bright walls, so it's 50-50. Mbe I'll just change the day curtains colour Next one here is for my MBR. I'm not actually doing anything much here, just the L-Box around the room, the study table on the bay window and a TV wall (cannot see). I'm planning to have a hanging light near the round pillar as a decorative piece, otherwise the room will look pretty boring. DH chose the wall colour, he really likes it as it reminds him of our (soon-to-be) old home (aawwww!). My ID managed to scan in the picture of my new bed for this drawing

Ah, you want to join the Henner club I only found out abt the club after I signed with my ID. Good luck on your ID search! Any plans to do a blog?

I dun intend to change my table cuz I really like it, despite the scratches and stains. But tt teak sideboard has to go. Either I revarnish for $600 or get a new one, or dun hv a sideboard lor. saves some space at my new place

I've got this solid wood 2mx1m dining table, 6 teak dining chairs and a 1.8m teak sideboard. The dining table is in fairly good shape, only scratches and colour fading on the top. The dining chairs and sideboard is pretty bad with mould and faded varnish/wax. Dun hv pictures to post rt now, mbe later when I'm not so lazy anyway, contacted www.furniturereborn.com.sg which specialises in revarnishing, repairing and making your old furniture look brand new. I know abt them cuz I happen to see their van on the road one day, and the co. name stuck in my head. Surfed their website and they had pictures of how they did their work, and was quite impressed. Aloysius and his dad (I think) came down to assess the condition. They said my teakboard and chairs were very poorly done in the first place, so tts why its mouldy and faded. (**** you, Mirage Teak House! No wonder I bought it so cheap tt time!) They quoted me $1,800 to revarnish the three items - $1,200 for the dining table+6 chairs and $600 for the sideboard. I thot might as well i buy a new sideboard, can get for below $500 (anyone wants a mouldy teak sideboard ). But I want to keep the dining table and now torn whether I should part with $1.2K to revarnish it. Or should I just lv it be? Its still in okay condition except for a very obvious stain left behind by a very hot pot. I dun feel like revarnishing the chairs cuz I dun find it comfortable, but dining chairs are so ex, especially the nicer-looking ones. Frankly, I'm looking for more modern design but DH still wants wooden chairs, so I'm trying to slowly psycho him. Went down to The Life Shop sale at Balestier last weekend, but nothing really caught my fancy. So, for the time being, me and DH has decided to KIV this. More impt to buy lights (which we have done, yeah!) and switches. Hvn't contacted any other company for 2nd opinion yet cuz no time. Mbe will try Mr Wood Varnish. Anyone knows any other company who can do revarnishing for much less than $1.2k?

Just glad that I can help. Yah, my to-do list is growing and growing by the day. sigh...the closer i get to the big day, the more I realized I'm running out of time!

btw, cute title u hv for yr blog. For a minute there I thot Lonely Planet had put another guide book out on a strange country called apacadl . what does that stand for? Sorry I dun understand Chinese

Hi Zelly Welcome to RT! Wish I have good news for you but like others hv said $20K for reno + furnishings & appliances is pushing it a little. Are u including air-con into the picture? Not sure what kind of quality you going for, cuz as they say, you pay peanuts you get monkeys, hope you don't get offended. I have put in some unit costs to help you budget, not sure if this is the lowest, or market price but is what I got from my 'research'. I'm sure others will hv their own experience to share. If u hv not done so, do read up Ossify's blog (all 20 pages of it ) cuz tt's a rich source of info on prices for D-I-Y renovation. He's the guru ok, here goes: 1) painting the place over with easy clean paints (still thinking of the color theme for each room) budget about $1-1.2K for whole house 2) Downlightings for dining, living, and 3 bed rooms. (yeah false ceilings too) downlights average price is $17-19 for plain white frame and 2x13W bulb. Estimate mbe u need 30-40 for whole house (since u include bedrooms), so tt's already $680, Hvn't include false ceiling price. Budget about $2.50 - 3 psf, $6.50-8 psf for L box and $8-10 psf for cove light box 3) normal energy saving lighting for toliets, kitchen and store room. Est mbe abt $30 for each light x 5 = $150 4) granite top for bay windows. Any reason why u use granite? Ossify will recommend u use acrylic . I'm using plywood+laminate, cheapest quote I got was abt $30 pfr. 5) various rewiring Are you rewiring the whole house? If yes, budget about $1-1.5k, and that's excluding replacement/extra switches or sockets u need to buy. 6) curtains(black out and day curtains) for all bed rooms and living room Oh, yes, this is a real wallet burner. Jimmy Textiles prices are not bad. $2.5K is reasonable if it's for the whole house and u want day and nite curtain. If u want cheaper, mbe u can try buying the material in JB, then get someone to sew for you? There's this mega fabric store, like a giant Spotlight, in JB but I can't remember the address. I can dig it up if you're interested. Some forummers have recommended MGL curtains at Eminent Plaza. 7) vanishing of the wooden flooring No comment on this, as hv no experience. Living 1) Storage tv console (I have the design i want but i do not know it is workable) You'd need to hv a sense of the dimensions to enable the carpenter to quote. Mbe u want to try Google Sketchup to draw it up? One contractor told me they will quote you separately for the console (ie the one on the floor) and for cabinets or shelves on the wall. The design u want does not seem to be too complicated so they may just quote u on pfr or psf basis, and the design is flexible. Cheapest quote I got for carpentry works for TV console was $250 pfr, so say u want a 6-feet console, tt's about $1,500 already. Throw in another $1k for the stack cabinets you wanted. 2) Tiling of Balcony (2m x 2.5m). No comments as hv no experience, but you can easily budget the price range of tile you want and multiply by the area you want tiled. MBR 1) short cabinets at the bay window No helpful comment here 2) wall paper 1 side of the wall, else it will be via decals. You can choose a nice wallpaper design from Goodrich for less than $100 per roll, but its the labour charge to do it up that costs a bomb. Goodrich costs $300 per wall. I think curtain places like Jimmy Textile can also do, and their installation costs is cheaper by mbe $100. If you're thinking of wall decals that cover most of the wall, Winkplay charges $10-14 psf without installation. Anyway good luck on your reno! Look fwd to your postings to see if u can succeed in psycho-ing your hubby to up yr reno budget

I like your dining chairs! May I know where you get it from and what's the price? is it part of a set?

Did u call them up to cfm? Cuz this was where they were before they moved to the former HDB building. Actually went down to the Jln Kilang Timor showroom to view, then a few months later I went down again to cfm to buy and then discover they're longer there. It was a while later then I discovered they were at former HDB, and only becuz I saw their ads in the papers. As I said, last time I was there was a few years back, so not sure if they're playing the hide and seek game again... Actually I hv reason to check them out too cuz I'm moving house so want to find out if they give free service to dismount mirror at my old place and mount it again at my new place.

Updated To Do List 2

Updated To-Do list 1

In other big news....got my 3D drawings at last But ID hvn't emailed to me the soft copies yet so cannot post it up lah. At last can visualize what my house look like with the materials and colours I've chosen. Oso got the work schedule, so hv already planned out when to be on site. Already submit my vacation leave plan to boss so he won't disturb me during tt period. Hv oso set moving day to 20th May! Nothing auspicious on tt day except that it's my hubby offday, the kids will hv finished their exams and its a weekday so hope to get cheaper moving rate.

Finally some updates! Signed some mortgage documents at the lawyer's office last week. So, the house now officially belongs to my bank and CPF. And I'm going to rent it from them for $XXXX a month. Just like my car. Oso found out from the lawyer that I'm gonna get my keys at the end of the biz day on Apr 9 cuz ***bank will only release the $$ on the very day itself and refuses to do it a minute earlier. Which means I can only officially enter my new house on Sat afternoon (cuz got work stuff in the morning). Can't wait! Can't wait! Planning to get the ID and electrician together on that afternoon too so can settle all the electrical works. On to more 'damaging' news..... $2,222 burnt! Go, tikam the number for those of you who are so inclined! (and dun forget to share with me if you strike!) Yep, lightings.com is now $2222 richer becuz of me. Bought foll items from them: - 32 downlights for living, dining and MBR - 2 LED downlights (in place of halogen) for dining feature wall - 1 crystal hanging light cum wind chimes for dining room - 3 ELMARK VIP 99 52" Ceiling fan with light kit for bedrooms - 1 ELMARK VIP 99 52" Ceiling fan for MBR - 1 ELMARK VIP 9 56" Ceiling fan for Living Room - 6 ceiling lights in various designs for WIW, HSS, Yard, Balconies - 4 T5 tubes for TV console wall Hv got pic of my dining room light, will upload when I'm home later tonite. Actually, can find it on their website. Go to Chandeliers and Hanging Pendants, it's model no. D80104L9. Recommended to me by one of the sales person there. I like the wind chime sound effect when the rods strike each other. It uses halogen lights though 'Funny' story I must share when I went lighting shopping yest. I've got my mind fixed on going to lightings.com (cuz of all the tve comments here) but after we park, my DH asked to go into the 1st shop we saw at the corner there. The name of the shop ends with the other name for a donkey which I shall not type here for fear of offending anyone Anyway, we spent nearly an hour there to go through my lighting shopping list, choosing the downlights, dining room light, fans (the salesman was pushing AMASCO brand). etc etc. So in the end, the quote was about $2,298 or thereabouts. Actually, the salesguy quoted us $15 for the downlight which is even cheaper than lighting.com (which I thought was the cheapest already). But price for the other items was comparable to lightings.com. He saw us hesitating and slash total price to $2,150 and then to $2,100 but here's the catch (always is one, isn't there??) 'Offer' price is only valid if you sign up with them, TODAY, THAT VERY SECOND. If you step out to let out a fart (oops, sorry) and come back in, price revert to original, non-offer price. So, he tell us, downlight original $22, he gives us for $15, dining light $XXX, he gives us $YYY price etc etc. Wah, he so generous with the discounts, but is not confident enuf that his price is low that he has to FORCE us to DECIDE to buy NOW so that we won't go out and compare price and DISCOVER that we can actually get it CHEAPER elsewhere. This was the 1st shop we ever seriously ask for a quote so how can we confirm??? I can't stand this kind of sales tactic but if that is their kind of business model or strategy or whatever, sorry I'm not that kind of buyer. So we politely said goodbye and walked off, and went to lightings.com which was a few doors down. To be fair, he was nice about it, but he blew a big commission for being so inflexible. Lightings.com price was cheaper for the other items we bought except for the downlights, and their 110% price guarantee was actually difficult to get. Not sure if anyone managed to get a refund due to this policy. I asked them 'Does your guarantee refer to the offer price the other company quote you or the original non-offer price?'. She didn't really answer the question but say that they check out the other shop's price each time customer claim the guarantee. And she said they won't send their staff, but somebody else. Well, really depends if the person they send over will get offer price or not right? Like I told her that other shop quoted me $15 for downlight but only valid as long as I remain in the shop and nvr go out, so how to prove? Aiyah, all this are gimmick lah, and bo pian, just accept it lah. Also was quite disappointed in the range in lightings.com shop. Thought there'll be more, like I almost give up finding my dining light there (didn't find anything interesting) but then the salesgirl showed me that light, switched it on, and I fell in love.....

If you're talking about designer wall mirrors with frames in diff sizes, there is this shop The Mirror House. It used to be at Jln Kilang Barat at Bt Merah, then it moved to the former HDB building. I bought a 1.9m x 1.4m mirror in wood frame from them abt 4 years back. Not sure if it's still at Bt Merah. Why don't you try googling it and see what you come up with? Post back here if you're successful