summersann

Aaaaand no renovation is ever 100% perfect, isn't it? In the final phase of renovation, and our ID said he was ready to hand the keys over to us (and also collect the last installment). But when we go down to take a look at the place, there are still so many things to be rectified. Gaps and holes like this one here and there. Paint marks where there shouldn't be any. Stains on the walls and laminates. Chips here and there. Two big stains on the floor.

Here's a picture of the Franc franc banker's lamp!

Still different! Franc franc's one gives the clean look, Brilliant's white lamp's stem is quite vintage looking! Franc franc's one is silver, not dark metal. Small differences, but gives the lamps a very different feel. Your green one is gorgeous! I opted for the cheaper version and got Franc franc's one, so must make compromises haha

But Franc Franc's banker's lamp looks nothing like yours though! At least not the one I saw. It's white and has a cleaner feel, less vintage feel.

I don't know if I'm understanding your question right, but some people pick their moving house date based on the almanac. Don't think there's a "best to have" between handover and moving in. And handover usually means you would have to make your last payment too, so rectification should already be done. Our rectifications are taking quite a while

Happy new year to you too! Our track lights are from i-lite at jalan besar area. Not sure if I'd recommend you that shop since I followed my ID's recommendation and didn't research on where else to get lights from. Each LED light is about $80. No particular reason for the half height tiling. I chose to have the subway tiles at half height because I've always wanted that look. Somehow feels less "heavy". Same reason why we didn't want top hung cabinets. Having said that, full height looks nice from some pictures I've seen, so you could do that too if you want We don't have a built-in dish drainer. I'm just going to get a tabletop one. We're a small family and don't cook as much, so we don't see a need for a built-in dish drainer. Saw a few nice tabletop ones from Howards Storage World No worries about questions! I benefitted much from trawling renotalk, so I should give back too!

Your bedroom doors are lovely and nice show your boy is watching

I've never seen those (and I've been to ikea countless times since we started renovations)! Thanks for pointing them out! Shall look out for them next time. We've mostly been considering the ones at Muji and Franc Franc.

I vote 1! Where did you get these rugs from? I'm currently only finding nice (and affordable) ones from ikea or franc franc

Thank you! We were adamant about having accordion doors for the balcony because sliding just doesn't quite cut it we chose laminates for our kitchen cabinet, so I guess it's wood-grain laminate? Only the Venetian blinds on the first floor are wood veneer.

Yeah, we decided to leave the power box as it is. It's quite cute (at least to me) because of the contrast. Haha

Thank you! Same to you too! Following your blog earnestly!

My two favorite places

The cafe curtains are installed slightly higher than what we wanted. ID will have to change that! Pardon the mess, furniture isn't unpacked or arranged yet.

7 weeks later (pardon the mess of boxed and unwrapped furniture!).

Our house is done! Haven't gone down to take a look, but our ID has informed us that they are ready to hand the keys to us. Will be going down to take a look during the CNY holiday Will probably move in after CNY. I totally understand about burnout from research. I kinda gave up after a while because there's just so much to see and so many different looks that I like Hope your turn to start renovations comes soon!

Stevie General Store (World Savage) Got to love vintage lights! We got one of our favorite lamps from them too. Looking forward to more pictures!

The sofa is very posh, but we're not sure if we want our study room to be more posh or more free-style. Think we'll wait till we move in and see everything come together before getting more pieces to fill up the spaces

The banker's lamp is $159 (or somewhere around there), we got it for 140+ after discount. Not everything is on sale, but quite a lot of things were. I totally understand what you mean though; the stuff we're getting is filling up my spare room (or rather, my mom's spare room) fast. You can aim for this year's GSS! I'm sure they'll have discounts then too.

After Chinese New Year it's almost complete, but there's rectification and the workers are all going off for CNY, so I guess we'll get our keys after CNY! Your renovation is looking good and going fast too!

They're all nice places, but I probably like egg3 and Make Room the most since I bought most of my pieces from there. And IKEA. Hahaha. Budget la . You could check out Air and Commune too, if you haven't already.

I see many of the places that we also went to for our furniture in your list! Wah, you think Grafunkt's prices are reasonable. Your budget must be Looking forward to more pictures!

The SMEG fridge isn't in yet. The IDs knew how precious it was to us, so they were worried that the workers may scratch it by accident. I'm looking forward to it arriving too! No pictures of furniture in the house or the SMEG fridge, but here's some of the stuff we recently got! Am hoping they'll help add character to the place! Our dinosaur plushie/cushion. A round rug for the living room/study area upstairs. Good deal from Francfranc! We finally found a banker's lamp that we like Got ourselves a bright and cheerful pouf from Make Room (really like the pieces they have there) Lastly, We're considering getting this sofa for our study area upstairs. It's a very interesting piece, but we're worried that it might make our study area more serious-looking than we'd like. Suggestions?

Have you paid him in full? As customers, we need to make sure that our requests are reasonable and understand that the other party needs adequate time to fulfil our requirements. As the party taking our money, they need to make sure that what they have done is to the best of their ability, and should definitely serve people with a positive attitude. It sounds like your contractor hasn't fulfilled his end of the deal, and has done slipshod work. Not replying calls or messages until the last minute is horrid. Don't pay him until he responds promptly! If he's already like this before full payment, I can only imagine how he's going to respond (or not respond) after your money is fully in his pockets.