paloma

Oops sorry about that, I've just cleared it.

I lost the link after I cleared my inbox. Could you send it to me again pls?

Aww, thanks very much for your encouragement. How is living in your new house so far?

Thanks for thinking so highly of our place, but honestly, i don't think it's magazine-worthy! I mean, I love my home and I'm proud of how everything came together despite having only our imagination to rely on (mostly my husband's) but the reno was actually really simple and nothing very revolutionary. There's still lots to do around here but finding the time and energy is a challenge, not to mention, we have to watch our pockets too! Just as an aside, I've been asked several times how working with a contractor is like and if the coordination for the reno would be more tedious as compared to engaging an ID to do it. I've no experience engaging an ID, so do people have any experiences to share? What are the pros and cons for each?

Hi, the tulip side table is from Picket & Rail and the cushion is from Egg3 if I'm not wrong (my husband bought it).

Thanks for your kind words and for liking our house!

Just be aware that the tiles can chip and crack quite easily. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to clean.

We really like your toilet doors. Maybe in a few years time we'll change ours

The Tolix stools are from Egg3 at Tong Yuan industrial building. We got it during their sale and it cost about $90.

Hi Justin, thanks for your kind words. It's still a learning process for us really. Perhaps things will change around here in time to come.

Hi Sandra, the track lights are from Chuan Huat in Balestier. The one in the bedroom are from lightings.com.sg. But there isn't much of a difference really. The only thing is that we are using LED lights in the living room and halogen in the room.

Oh dear, do take care of yourself. Moving house can be very stressful. And the cleaning and unpacking is not very fun too! There were certain things we were not completely satisfied too but we kind of give and take. I guess for reno, things will never be perfect because it involves alot of workmanship. But good to hear you have moved in, I'm sure you'll start enjoying your place in the weeks to come!

Haha not chim lar Thanks girl, hope your reno is going well?

Since we started this tblog, we've been getting lots of questions about our renovation costs. I thought I'll just put it here that I won't be sharing my renovation cost or any breakdown. Initially I did, but after thinking it through, I decided not to. The main reason is that after we went through our reno process, we learnt that it's not helpful to compare quotations because there are many variables (material, dimension, workmanship, etc.) that determines the final price. And since every reno differs, it may not be fair to my contractor if I share my cost. That said, we do welcome questions and are happy to share our reno experience. But I hope people understand why I do not share my cost freely. If you are really interested to find out the cost, I'm happy to refer you to my contractor so that he can give you a quotation.

Thanks bc2! How's ur place coming along? Did you get your armchair in the end?

Thanks, we'll go check the place out.

Hi neighbour! Saw your comment on facebook and I immediately told my husband his identity has been exposed. Haha.

Yes we went to check them out, they do have some nice carpets but not in the colour and patterns that we are thinking of. But we did get a dining chair from them.

Hi revox88, thanks for your kind words. Indeed, we are relieved that our renovation has finally been completed. We intend to take our time to look around and find furniture that we like. In fact, if anyone has a good lobang for nice carpets and a vintage sideboard (for our study room), please let us know! I think warm lighting is really catching on among homeowners. I look across at my neighbouring block and quite a number of homes now use warm lighting. It does make the house look more cosy

Hi kelhy, this is Mr Paloma. Just thought I'll share something about the lighting at our place. As far as I understand there are a few different kinds of lighting. One of them is the general lighting or ambient lighting and the other ones are known as task lighting and accent lighting. General lighting gives the ambient light, accent lighting lights up something you want highlighted (eg. paintings, brick wall in my case). And task lighting is targeted lighting for certain tasks like reading (reading lamp) etc. I think for a space to be visually interesting, you'll need to use these different kinds of lighting to create some texture. In other words, it's always more interesting to have some parts of the house/space darker and some parts brighter. What I wanted to avoid was to have "office lighting" - where everything is lighted evenly. My personal opinion is that it's harsh on the eyes and less interesting. For my tiny 4-room flat, our 4 down lights in our light box provides the ambient, the LED track lights gives the accent and the dining lamps provides the task lighting for meals. So it's not as bright as an office, but it's not dark either. In fact, most of the time, we'll keep our light box switched off and turn on only our track lights and doorway spotlight. And that's more than sufficient for our needs. We were also quite adamant to get warm white for all our bulbs. Actually many people think that warm white=darker. But that's actually not true. The color of lights is known as color temperature and is measured in kelvins. The brightness of a bulb is measured in lumens. Color temperature has nothing to do with brightness (correct me if I'm wrong). It's possible to have white lights and still be dark or warm white and be bright. Anyway, apologies for the long-windedness. It's my pet topic and I just can't stop talking about it. ha.

We think it's sufficient, but I'm not sure how you define brightness. This is how our house looks like at night with the lights switched on: We had some friends over at our place for dinner today, hence the set up. We finally got round to getting bulbs for all our lights so they are all working now. Here's one along our corridor that we put together with the help of the electrician: The wire lamp shade is from Japan, only cost us about $5 each! On another note, we finally got our curtains and blinds fixed up, yay! After the first shop failed us, we went to Golden Leaf. I must say, their service was excellent and the workmanship was good. Highly recommend them!

Hi, it's actually raw plywood.

Oh they are actually postcards of penguin book covers. I think we got ours online but I've seen it at rockstar in cineleisure. If you have other nice postcards, they'll work too.

Hi, thanks! We really like the design of our fan and the size is just right for our living room. The speed is good so far. No we did not use any cove lights because we felt it didn't suit our design. Our Lbox is just a strip across one end of the living room. We have a few light points in our living room so it's bright enough.