matchalatte
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Everything posted by matchalatte
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got tim wong of hong huat electrical to come over to do a free site consultation after i got my keys. hes really famous on renotalk and is super duper nice! he explained in detail where the trunking would run and drew everything in pencil, all the fan coils, trunkings etc. many charge for 2nd trip but tim's is FOC. his price is also cheaper than quotes i got from many others. going for the mitsubishi MXY-4A38VA compressor with a 24K BTU for my island counter in the dining and 9K BTU each for 2 bedrooms. theres also this funny incident i need to share. i actually contacted tim way before my key collection. then after i found a contractor i casually asked him whether his aircon guy is any good and he said he wouldnt recommend his aircon guy but will recommend me someone good instead. then he gave me tim wong's number lol. i guess tim's the guy then! -
for sanitaryware, i've bought most of the things from taobao : black bathroom faucet (tall one) black stone sink 70cm round mirror with recessed light black bidet spray rainshower for common bath rainshower for MBR bath. im kinda worried it wouldnt fit, and its theres only 1 wall mount for these showers whereas the default hdb one is mounted on 2 places. no idea whether it will be unsightly if i were to remove the hdb's shower bar. gold kitchen faucet carysil nera big bowl granite sink from poh seng hardware. the frame is thinner hence the faucet would have to be mounted on the countertop. brand is german but made in india. couldnt decide between this and blanco naya 6 but decided on this in the end because i didnt like the round edges of blanco and also this one is almost 40% cheaper.
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did some shopping over the past few days. got all my big ticket appliances from gain city sungei kadut. hitachi french door with bottom freezer. this fridge is huge (depth is 80cm inclusive of handles) and will protrude quite abit from my kitchen which is only 56cm in depth. fingers crossed it wouldnt look weird from the side. honestly i dont think the capacity all is that impressive, the door thickness actually took up alot of space due to the touch screen panel. but i like the color, the fact its french door and the freezer is not drawer style like my old panasonic, and also its a japanese brand. samsung & LG fridges look really nice and innovative but i dont trust "kimchi brands" when it comes to appliances. inside of the fridge two bosch ovens, and both entry leveled. the other one is similar to this but is fully analog with no display panel, just 3 knobs. i didnt do research at all prior to buying and i dont care for the functions. because for the past 10 years i've baked with a 28L microwave convection and churned out difficult bakes like french macarons, opera cake, pierre herme's tarts etc with no prob at all so i'd like to think its the baker and not the oven that matters *ahem* lol i actually went for electrolux initially but read so many bad reviews about how their customer service sucked so i actually went back to change to another bosch. bosch 78.5cm two ring burner gas hob bosch 90cm slimline telescopic hood hitachi 9kg front load washer panasonic 43inch 4K smart tv for the MBR 55 inch for living room honestly i think the guys at gain city sungei kadut are all really nice, actually nicer than salesmen from the other megastores. the prices are generally lower than the others, on top of that they also gave some discount, probably around 5-6% off shown price. they had this BTO promo going on which i didnt know when i bought the items so i went back the next day and they gave me $350 gain city vouchers. so in total it probably amounted to 10% worth of savings. guess i'll use the voucher to buy a food processor.
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girl, insist on your own ideas. its your home afterall and YOU are the one paying. moreover its the design he doesnt agree with, not like affects the building structure or something. my contractor is the same thing, he just wants the easy way out and doesnt accept my ideas at all. he would say things like "you'll regret it one day" or "why must you do it this way, it doesnt look practical". luckily when i insist, he will do it.
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bought all my big ticket appliances from gain city too, came up to ard $8K. i didnt realize they had this BTO promo going on and i ended up buying without knowing and went back to ask them abt it the next day. the manager gave me $350 worth of vouchers, on top of that they gave me a discounted price when i made the purchases, so savings came up to ard $700+ (including the vouchers). i think the guys at the sungei kadut branch are also generally friendlier and more pro. they also did price matching by giving me more vouchers after i pointed out best denki is selling an item i got for cheaper. no idea what the prices are for those HDB shops but alot of items are not on display so i think its already a minus since i want to be able to see and feel before buying.
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hi den, i tried sending you a pm but it couldnt get through. regarding mike's shipping, how do you know how much container space you've used already? will they inform you? thanks!
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thanks for the congrats! yeah i wasnt expecting the kitchen to be so tiny, i think mine has one of the smallest 3 room BTO kitchens around, ridiculous. my MBR bath has a recessed portion at the shower area like this : its small but still ok. anyway we'll be extending the shower kerb out to house 2 floor traps within the shower area
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hello fellow baker! maybe we can share baking tips in future hehe. thanks for the congrats!
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saniton
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we finally collected our keys! here are some pics of the bare unit. view from entrance view from living room pool view! main door dining area teeny tiny kitchen that only measures a glorious 1.9m on this side teeny tiny kitchen on the other side. i actually like the lines of the wall tiles! BR1 MBR common bath MBR bath overall im pretty happy with the view. super love the view of the pool and theres no blockage all around. workmanship is seriously awesome, i hereby declare there arent any, or rather, much defects so we wont be filling up the defect form. my only major gripe is the extremely low water pressure. water flow is so ridiculously small even though the valve is at the max, this i probably need to report to BSC.
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i didnt know the laminates that come with banding are the expensive ones. i chose a lamitak one that has banding but my contractor didnt mention anything about topping up. he only said as long as the laminates arent very expensive like metallic ones it should be ok. keeping my fingers crossed that the matching banding wont be a VO. i better ask him!
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thanks for the tips! sorry i may have missed it but where did you buy yr toilet bowl in the end? it wasnt inzwerkz that you bought it from? i cant decide where to buy mine actually, would places like royal fanco or hoe kee be any good? btw i also need yr advise regarding painting! did you manage to look at bigger samples before choosing the color or was it via just the paint catalogs? did the painted wall look similar to the sample or was it darker/lighter/totally different? sorry for all these questions but im very nervous about the paint colors because im going for very strong colors like navy blue, chalkboard green and slate grey. so i was wondering how it would turn out eventually hmm. thanks for the tips on amazon. i have an account and bought books way back in 2009 where there wasnt any promotions or something. so i'll need to look around again
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love your buys! im also looking for toilet bowls, is it possible to get something decent at around the price of $350? really dont have a big budget i've never heard of amazon prime. do you need to join as a prime member, like ezbuy? lol.
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i think alto fabric is really expensive. even for the special group buy price for my BTO, their timber blinds are like $7.99 psf, which works out to probably $600+ for just 1 window. im buying mine from taobao instead lol. it will be around $200, even cheaper if its PVC. love your buys, you have very good taste! cant wait to see your reno progress. anyway i already found a contractor but would prefer not to divulge just yet. maybe after my reno i will lol
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omg i love monstera! those modern plants are really pretty, the travelers palm or banana/plantain leaves are not bad too. but yes the lifesize ones will come up to abt SG $100+, guess will have to bite the bullet and buy, because if buy in sg will be even more ex right? haha. cactuses also nice. btw far east flora selling real monstera, quite cheap only $8+ a pot but its not the deliciosa variety. https://www.fareastfloragarden.com/monstera-obliqua-in-hg-3029-pot.html
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oh cool, looks really nice! actually bigger than i thought. what are dried wheat stalks? like these?
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hello! mr k is really nice and i would have gone with him if not because hes really expensive and refused to give me a breakdown in quotation. he had lump sums in many things, which i didnt feel comfortable. i asked him and he said "im afraid i cant give you a breakdown". nevertheless happy you're going ahead with him. mr k does nice homes and im looking forward to see yours!
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yeah looking at the gas heater catalog now. never been a fan of rinnai nor white appliances! the silver one looks ok la. any idea whether it will work ok with a rainshower? im worried abt the water pressure, but if its better than the water pressure of an instant heater then i guess its an improvement haha. yeah i thought about blanco, but i always hear that their sinks are notoriously expensive. i wouldnt mind if its less than a thousand bucks, and would be a bonus if it comes with the chopping board & dish drainer like the LEIVI one. edit : had a look at the naya 6, seems like the sink is rounded at the inner part. i want a squarish one. i can be anal over things like that haha. mine isnt a resale flat. its a new flat bought direct from hdb 17 years ago lol, so basically the next BTO is like our second and last chance at a new flat. i actually wont be doing much hacking afterall, only 1 bedroom wall and hoping to keep my reno at around 20K or less. we actually miscalculated abt the amount of CPF going back to the special account so...gotta do away with lotsa things. im still optimistic though. i think a nice home isnt about all the built in stuff but how you furnish it. with some plants and trendy furnishings it can look very nice too! taobao has lots of designer replica furniture and lighting and im soooo excited looking at them!
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i think everything looks nice with a digital display and a remote control lol, and its only $100+ price difference so i was wondering why not. i need to go look for threads on these gas heaters because it was a rather last minute decision to use that + gas hob instead of my original plan which was a storage heater & induction hob so im not really familiar with gas heater. hubby kept saying gas is cheaper than electricity so... the black sink is a stone one, not stainless steel in case you were wondering lol : http://c.b1yt.com/h.PehDLE?cv=sZ9oZzpdxv8 i have no idea when my reno is starting, there was some delay on my resale transaction (buyer is in the midst of a messy divorce but didnt tell us) so tentatively im collecting my keys mid aug. so envious that yours is wrapping up soon?? your home looks amazing la! cant wait to see the final result.
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ohhh i love your home! its coming together really nicely. i like the view from the corridor looking towards the grey bedroom wall, its very art gallery-ish! btw can i just check with you regarding the gas heater, which model did you buy? was it the MA-10FE? cant decide between that or the more expensive MA-1210FER. btw nice taobao purchases! i will also be getting a LEVI sink but in black.
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im surprised to read that you feel N from R (we should be talking about the same guy) is expensive. i actually think his quote was really reasonable and thats after speaking to 20 contractors and 6 IDs lol. what was expensive if i may ask? was it the carpentry or everything?
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only walked in to enquire, he gave a handwritten quote on the spot and it was extremely expensive. he actually quoted me $6300 for a sliding door, crazy.
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yeah, i guess the only option you have now is to "tompang" someone. i can help you but it wont be so soon, most likely buying my furniture in sept. if you're not in a hurry then its ok! usually 1 cubic meter is about $150, you can estimate how much shipping you'll be paying lol
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thats insane. if something is too heavy its not worth it to go by weight/vol shipping. i will be using a forwarder that charges by cubic meter aka. container shipping but i havent decided which one to use yet. i will be getting some planter boxes from taobao for my new home, like these :
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all the nice ones are from taobao! are you using ezbuy's prime. if not there are so many other forwarders you can use. what about taobao's official forwarder like 4px?
