sumobear

Hi Mint, I understand your frustration totally because I have bad experiences with my contractor during renovation too. He gave me problems like fake paint, wrong measurement for washing machine bay, cracked plastered walls and flooring. There are so much arguements and complains, I was really feeling rock bottom during that time to the extend that I keep venting my anger on my wife. I think I have done a good job in giving him the specification of the renovation but unfortunately he never comply. As for the air-con issue, your ID has not much say in trunking coz the air con people will always run the trunking the shortest way, they can save cost on the pipes. If you find the trunking is in bad location, ask your ID to propose the possible solutions to conceal them. As for chemical washing, cannot expect them to give you hotel standard kind of washing. You still have to do your own washing after that. Many contractors and IDs are sweet talkers when trying to close a deal with you but after that things change, I think such problems occurs to many people before. After my home renovation, I learnt my lesson that a Liar will always cover a lie with another lie....so you have to be smart and tactical to catch them off guard. My contractor gave me a hard so I returned him with a hard time too, another words he is at my mercy too.

Our living room has a shortage of sitting space for guests so we got more chairs for our home, 2 retro rubberband chairs. Then I have resprayed a tulip chair given by my grandmother and place it in our study room.

erm...its 18 & 19 Nov....18 for the customary and 19 for the dinner. So I am going to get super busy with things...suppose to dress up my home for that day but I havent find the suitable decor for my home yet, still hunting high and low.

Congrats! Your photos gave me a memory flashback of my ROM last year and now I am just waiting for my customary wedding to come in 2 months time. Cherish all this moments, it is only once in a lifetime! Cheers

For you reference...very nice interiors http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanka/sets/72157594159428728/

Erm...I think both of us are big spenders but I am better at saving money

I think there is a spray called the pet repellent that you can spray to your furniture to avoid you pets from going close to it. It is odourless and will not stain your furniture. Found out about this product when I was at Space Furniture but I am not sure where to get it, maybe you can check the pet shop.

Hi Mist, The cuckoo clock is very simple...my sis gave me a box of leftover vinyl stickers so I just cut out the design on the sticker and paste it on a piece of clear acrylic...same way like what you have done for your glass panel. As for the design, I did the illustration on computer and print out. It is a trial and error piece so my craftmanship is kind of poor...so the cuckoo clock will look better from far. !! The burner is about $35 if I can remember correctly then the incense is about $30+...we love the smell alot. When we got home that night, we set the burner burning, have our wine and snacks, and watch television. Feel so relaxing...shiok. Oh yah that is TinTin! _________________________ Hi Applefreak, Have alot of DIY ideas in my mind but just do not have the time to do it...erm maybe I shouldn't call my ideas DIYs coz I think they are more like my art pieces. Not to worry about your home...it will be nice. Just have to add accessories around your home to create some highlights. _________________________ Hi Cantona, Yah she is sweet but she is quite a shopaholic so when one person spend, the other party have to save in order to balance our finance loh. We realised that we have been induging ourselves with luxury home accessories.

Then that is ok, its your style so do not get affected by other people.

Dun envy...you can also do it and in fact everyone can achieve it. Sometimes just refer to books and magazines to see if there is anything to "follow" but dun follow blindly coz it is very difficult to copy and will end up with no originality. Then sometimes it is your personal instinct to tell you whether certain things are placed nicely or not. It is your home afterall, just do whatever you feel is nice... no rules.

Mrs Sumobear bought me an oil burner from Tangs when we were shopping at Vivo city on last saturday. I hestitated on buying it for a while because of the price but in the end my generous wife bought it for me with an excuse as a belated birthday present. She picked a bottle of Lavendar incense and 2 items cost about $70. (To Mrs Sumobear: Thanks Darling!) Then on Sunday, I added some paintings and artififacts to our study room. I DIYed...it is the cuckoo clock graphic, supposed to add the clock mechanism but in the end I think it looks good like this...hehe

Erm how about tie up a bunch of dried twigs that is sprayed in colours and mount on to the wall? Then can use it to hold some photos or lightings....Or how about having some shelves for photo frames, IKEA got some cheap and nice stuffs....Or hang one or a few nice table runners on the wall with a pole...Or hang a simple bamboo blind and cast some light on it, quite lifestyle looking.....quite alot of options!

Erm speaking of MJ table, I have never like to have one because I find it very ugly and very hard to match an interior...I always hid that big piece of MJ table in the storeroom.

Hi... Ok thanks so much...so can walk in and buy?

Hi Oonik, The cost of renovation is actually the same...every charges is per unit like hacking, removing derbris, water proofing, tiling and etc. For both kitchen and toilet, you must be very careful with the waterproofing because the unit below you may suffer during the renovation...there will be bound to have water leakage and cause water leakage and stains on your neighbour's ceilings. Normally such situation, your contractor have to go and rectify the problem without any charges. Then another issue will be the sand cost issue, some contractor try to cheat people with the pricing of sand because of the hike but then again how much of sand can you use for a small space.

Hey Mace, You did mentioned about energy saving halogen, where did you get them? And what is the price range in the market?

Erm...well...huge pictures are always nice. Not necessary to be canvases, can buy those printings from IKEA or do a photo collages and hang on the wall also can. Pictures can help to breakdown the big area of walls and to create a focus rather than having a plain wall.

Yah maybe what you say is true..enjoying my new home. On the other hand why I am slow at doing up my home is becozs of cash flow loh.

Yah I will...just have to wait until I have some spare time to do. Dunno whether am I really very busy or just simply prefer to rot at home...time files loh! I am planning the design for the next canvas design. Hopefully I can get things done before wedding. Wedding date is coming soon but I have not kick start yet! sigh...feel lost man!

I love decorating but my accessories are always small...cleaning will be a killer. So I am looking for big items now! Thinking to do another big canvas print with something more drama for another feature wall!

Yah it is the chest with the pullout drawer from IKEA.... I still feel that my living room is very bare loh...no money to buy new accesssories os have to salvage old stuffs. Wedding is coming close so we have to be very cautious with spending. The bamboos, glass vase and pebbles are contribution from the closed flower shop at club street. I am currently doing up another little corner of the living room. Wanna use the bamboos to conceal the electrical point but cannot...still exposed, looks ugly. I also dunno much about fengshui...just do a simple arrangment and place it there for visual purposes and to fill up that little space at the corner.

I am not sure if the myth of having bamboo at home is good fengshui is true but I just find them looking good and filling up the leftover space of the corner in our living room.

Our living room...we managed to decorate our living room with some old picture frames, my photography prints and some donated items like clear vase, pebbles and bamboos. Heard that it is good feng shui to have bamboos at home...

Your upcoming home seem to be in a pretty good condition, even the kitchen cabinets look new. Maybe you can consider keeping them and just change the laminates. Floor and wall tile colours looks good and nice color. Can save some money on reno....just my thought

There are plenty of things which we just have to live with it...as a consumer, we will always want our home to be done up like a showroom condition but unfortunately our real space is not showroom condition for contractors, so there will bound to have some difference. Many contractors and IDs willl promise the sky but give you he11...I think I am somewhere near he11 during renovation. I am really depressed at that moment and I got heated up easily, sometimes scold my wife over small matters. Even until today I can still find some minor problems but I try to live with it coz I do not wish to see my contractor again. Recently when I called my contractor to rectify some problem for me, he was trying his luck to ask me introduce some commerical jobs to him and also want to come to my home to take a look at my furnishing...I turned him down immediately.