bitchy_bride

Welcome to Sengkang. Me to a sengkanians also.... hehe...

1% more to go After more then 2 months of renovating. Finally it's over. They had finally painted all the doors and the gate. The liminating flooring were all done. The correct toilet bowl was send in and awaiting for it to be installed. Now left with the 1% of the final touch up. I am very happy of the final result we had made to the house. Although there are some touch up to be done, at least I can see the completed look of the house, our own house. That's where we are going to stay. Here, I presented u our 99% done up nest. Sorry if it abit too dark. Didnt realised it until I uploaded it to my comp. Weird. My Love Nest - Final Showdown

I will be going down this afternoon to take a look and also to take pic of the 99% completed house. Hopefully I can post it soon enough when I got a chance to "touch" my comp. Really hope nothing goes wrong with our reno (Finger Crossing). It quite tiring to go down to see the tiny updated la.

Good News Just got a msg from our ID, Louis. Finally he have done up the liminating flooring, changing of switches and also touching up of wall. Tomorrow I am going to see the 99% of the completed love nest. Hopefully no more flaws again. Cant wait man.....

Designer Switch We just confirmed with my ID, Louis to change all the switches to designer switches. He quote us $250 nett. Not sure he got charge us ex/cheap leh... Yesterday, he sms my hub, saying he is going to change the switches. Service very fast man. He also doing the touch up of all the house and doing the liminating floor today.... hopefully Sat I can see the 99% complete of our love nest.

Thanks for ur comments. It not really ex. Cos u save the cost of hacking. I think I spent around 1.5K on the master's Loo wall and flooring. The Common and the kitchen around 400+ & 600+ respectively.

Hi, all my windows have window grills. I was thinking of puting blinds rather the those normal curtains, cos it make the room look "heavy". I was a plain blinds like those in Ikea, but realised they cant fit in as we have a window grills which need a longer brackets to fit in.(Dont kw u all understand what I means ma.. hehe). Did ask my ID he say maybe he will make a border on top of the window so that we can do a blinds. My hubby didnt wa to remove the window grills so I have to stick to use it... Anyone have better suggestions?

Worried Leh... Yesterday we went down to meet our ID at our new house. We told him about the wall that was been peeled off after someone paste a masking tape on it and trying to remove it. Apparently the skin just peeled. He say that it wasnt their painting that cos it. Cos the skin that peeled off, it came off together with the orignal paint. Which mean that the previous owner didnt did a good job of painting their walls. My ID say unless u scrubbed off the whole wall are repaint again, but he say usually ppl dont do it. So now what we can do is hopefully we don stick any sticky stuff on the wall... cos I wont kw whether the walls' paint will peeled off ma. Abit worried leh...

Updates and more updates Here we go again, to view our house. Now they have completed the installation of the lightings and also the toilet bowl. Then we realized the supplier give us the wrong size on one of the toilet bowl after we bought it a month ago…hehe, but we managed to get it exchanged. Another week to wait again for the new toilet bowl to be deliver. So now only the common loo was completed except some scrubbing and washing of the loo, cos now it really a mess. They have done the vanity top for both our master loo and the kitchen. It came out quite satisfying. Only the master’s loo left out the toilet bowl and the sink, cos when we were there that day, the contractor told us that they are waiting for another man to cut a bigger hole in the vanity top so that they can fix our sink. Again the TV Console wasn’t done yet. !! Some lighting they did for us was fine but one of the lights they fix it looks abit not right. Anyway, we are meeting our ID tomorrow. When the house was almost completed, more and more flaws coming out. A lot of touching up to do. Getting tired of going down to see the outcome. Here are some of the latest one I took last Sat. Pic 1: The downlights were fixed. Pic 2: More downlights were fixed. But the TV Console wasnt done yet. Pic 3: Our small little shoes area. Pic 4: The dinning light from Ikea. Pic 5: Our light in our Master Bedroom. Pic 6: Our light in my MIL's Room. We had the same one in our Study Room too. Pic 7: Our light in our Living Hall. Pic 8: The almost completed Master Loo. Pic 9: The vanity top was fixed at last. We didnt change the cabinets as it is still very new. (Left by the previous owner) Pic 10: The hardworking workers fixing our toilet bowl and the mirror cabinet. Noted: All the lights except the dinning light were bought at "The light Source" @ Balestier Road.

Almost There... Going down to view our nest on Saturday has become our weekly routine. And today is Saturday. As I see, the nest is almost 90% done... Yipps!! Although the kitchen is not fully done yet, the rest was almost done with some minor touch up. Now the house look much more like a house now, everything was clear and they even help to wash the walls tiles in the kitchen (there was a big patch of unknown yellow stain on it). Our wardrobe doors is back and fixed. Our master loo's shower screen was fixed in and so is the vanity top cabinet. Just that the vanity top wasnt fixed in yet. Our TV console was fixed up too except some minor touch up to be done and our bedrooms' doors was painted with the color that match well with our wardrobes. They havent install the toilet bowls and our lighting. Louis say he will get it done by next week. After completing all that and with the final touch-up, our nest will be hand back to us. The fridge arrived today although they are late for 1 hour. Here I present you the 90% done of the nest: Pic 1: The living room with the uncompleted TV Console. Pic 2: A closed up of the TV Console. Pic 3: Our Master's Loo. The whole loo is changed. Vanity top to be up in a week's time. Pic 4: A custom-made TV Console in the 2nd room (MIL's Room). Pic 5: A new color for the wardrobes. It was stained over. Pic 6: Our new Toshiba fridge. Pic 7: Our newly painted bedroom's door. Pic 8: The shower screen (I can see lots of fingerprints) Pic 9: View taken from another angle of the living room.

Hi, I oni kw that the middle downlight I got is a double tube, cost $25 per pcs. As for the small downlight, it cost $22 per pc more ex cos it gold. I am not sure of the brands as I was in a rush. Will post more this weekend once the lights is up..

Here comes the Hitch I always thought my renovation is going very smoothly. Since the nest is almost 80% done, nothing will go wrong.... but it didn't. It's not anything serious had happened, but it just delay the reno longer. Louis called my hubby yesterday, saying that the vanity top for our kitchen is out of stock. We have to choose another color to get it make. Another problem is, the fridge is coming today and the top wasnt even fix yet and is now out of stock. Which mean we have to leave the fridge in the undone kitchen for 1 week. I wanted to change the delievery date, but it was a very last min call and "Audio House" need at least 3 working days to be informed. Oh well... we just hope the fridge will not get stolen(touching wood every 3 mins).

Unexpected Yesterday, we got a call from "The Light Source", asking us whether can change the delivery of lights from Sat to today. Luckily the timing is at night, if not we are unable to make it. Hope all the lights are in good conditions.... No hiccups allowed.

Yup... On a budget ma no choice. Before that I didn as my ID, he say it ok as long as it the 1st time overlay.

On the 4th weeks The house is almost 80% done. On the Friday night we went down to meet up with our ID and to make some changes to our new house. I realised each time they done up abit of the work, I would always have some comments to make, which is not so nice, cause it make me a very choosy person. Anyway I am so glad of the outcome of the house. The toilet bowls was send to us on Sat noon. The walls paints, the colors of the cabinet and the kitchen door was nicely done up. We were quite satisfied with their workmanship. Especially the existing cabinets he done for us. We didnt hack away the cabinets, instead we want to use it but to do away the color. Louis, our ID suggested us to do staining. Which is, they polished off the existing color and repaint a new one and paint over a protection paint so that it wont fade off. It was much cheaper then to hack away and rebuild a new one. Most of the stuffs were nearly finished, except for the loo & kitchen vanity tops, the tv console and the feature wall and some minor changes we had just make. As for the liminating flooring for our rooms, he will leave it for the last to do it. He did say that the house can be hand over to use for another 2 more weeks. At last we managed to get our lights from "The Light Source" from Balestier Road. We spent around $900+ for 4 ceiling lights for the living room and the 3 rooms, 11 big downlights (all in double tube) and 6 small downlights (all in single tube). I guess ours is the cheapest cause from the forum I read, most of the forummers spent nearly $1K+ on lightings. We were happy with the purchases. Here are some photos taken on saturday: Pic 1: The Living room, we choose ICI Dulux Pentalite "Sandstone". We only paint one side of the walls. Pic 2: The Altar, they stained the color and remove the upper border, given a more modern look. (Note that the cupboard is missing? It still with the factory doing the liminating) Pic 3: They cover the kitchen top with a board, but the vanity top was still with the factory. Almost there. Pic 4: Our Master Room, the parition was removed and a new color was painted. We choose ICI Dulux Pentalite "Sandstone". Pic 5: Our Study Room, we choose ICI Dulux Pentalite "Cornfield" for one side of the walls. Pic 6: Our 2nd room, which is my MIL's room, we choose ICI Dulux Pentalite " Cherryblossom" for one side of the walls. She will love the color we choose for her. Pic 7: The shoes cabinet area, they removed the door frame and stained the color, we choose walnut color for all the existing cabinets including this shoes cabinet. Pic 8: Closed up of the walls tiles in our master toilet (sorry for the color as the walls tiles wasnt clean up yet, it still dusty). Note also that it is overlay. Pic 9: Closed up of the floor tiles in the kitchen (pardon for the color as the floor tiles wasnt wash up yet, it still dusty). Note also that it is overlay. Pic 10: Another closed up of the floor tiles. Pic 11: Closed up of the color of the existing cabinets. Pic 12: Our kitchen door. Same color used for the existing cabinets. Pic 13: The living room, wall awaiting for the feature wall and the TV Console.

Little Glitch After the viewing on Sat, we had a few requirements to make. We want the existing cornices to be change and also to ask him whether is there anyway they could change the toilet door handle. Unfortunately, Louis, our ID say it comes like this. No choice, we had to change the handles ourselves then. We also realised they throw away our existing toilet light's cover! I saw the cover dumped at the corner together with the deris. We called Louis and ask him, he say he will go down and take a look. No matter what, we are not going to buy a new one to replaced it. Other then this little hiccup, everything is functioning well. Another 2 weeks to go... I am getting excited about the new look of our house.

Latest Updates It's the 3rd week of our renovation. The house is getting more and more messy. They remove the cornices, the partitions, the existing downlights and even the wardrobe doors. I really cant imagine how my house going to be like. Of course, there are some which they have installed, like the common toilet's sink + tap and the toilet doors (I dont really like the handle on the door, so out). My mum bought us a fridge, Toshiba. I dont know much about the quality of all the brands of fridges. I read some of the recommendation from forum, but I didnt get what they have recommended. We bought our fridge from Audio House, according to the salesman, our fridge comes with a kind of light which can preserved the food more fresher. And also they have a 2 years warranty for Toshiba. Actually, I quite like the Samsung fridge, but he say that the fridge was made in Thailand and it only comes with a 1 year warranty. As you know older folks knows which is good or bad of fridge/electrical appliances to get and since they are paying for it, we just agreed to what they recommended. They even come with a lucky draw and if we won the 1st digit of the 1st price, we can get the fridge for 50%....haha... Here are some of the pics taken yesterday.... not much though cause most of the things were still the same. Pic 1: They remove the wardrobe doors for both rooms. Pic 2: As promised, this is the master room where the existing partition is removed. Pic 3: They have change the toilet door, see that handle, is so out of place (we are going to have it change). Pic 4: The Kitchen top was removed and to be replace by a new color. Pic 5: The door frame was removed. Pic 6: They have installed the common toilet sink + tap.

Our new purchase Nothing much to update about the renovation except we saw them doing the piping when we went down yesterday. Coincidently, our ID, Louis came by when we were about to leave, we discussed about the updates and was told that our reno will be done by 1st week of July. We head down to Balestier Road to search for the lights for the nest. We need 11 downlights and 6 small downlights... gosh! That didnt included the lights for all the rooms. The weather didnt help us much, as it was raining almost the whole day, making it difficult for us to travel. At the end of the whole search, what we got was a stiff neck and aching legs. As for the lights, we might ask the ID to bring us down to get it. But of cos we managed to get our Queen-sized bed + mattress, single bed + mattress (for my MIL) and the sofa. All items from Home2be. Their services is good, too good in fact, and of course the price were reasonable. We spent a total of $5K+ for all the items we bought. I realised is not an easy task to choose something you really like and when we found the right one, there is the color or the materials to choose again. Sometime it does make me feel frustrated but I love the end result. Enjoyable. This is the sofa we got. It's a sample, the real one will only be deliver with the rest after the renovation is all done up nice and clean. Notice the color chart in the picture, how not to get frustrated when comes to choosing the right color? Ohh, we managed to get the toilet bowls yesterday... finally.

Bathroom Fixtures 2 week ago, we went to Jalan Besar to source for our bathrooms and kitchen fixtures. Both taps for the bathrooms were bought @ PS, as we cant find those tap we really love (we want something different). On Sat, we went down to our new house for the delivery and to see the renovation progress at the same time. Nothing much change except they did some wiring for the lighting, oh we havn't search for our lighting yet. Here are some of those they send on sat cos they forgot to send one of the mirror cabinet to us which we totally forgotten about it. We still havent buy the toilet bowl yet... Haha... I will post more once these are install nicely. Kitchen Tap Common Bathroom Tap Common Bathroom Sink Master Bathroom Tap Master Bathroom Sink

The Start At last our renovation start. I am so excited! Is been a hard time choosing the materials and colors for the house. Here are some pictures taken after the renovation started one week ago. Pic 1: Overlaying of tiles. We choose a cream color cause we want a cleaner look for the common toilet. Pic 2: We hack away the partition. (I know the pic didnt show it clearly, will post an updated one again. Pic 3: We hack away the study table and the cabinets. We want to make use of the space there. Pic 4: Overlaying of tiles. From a blue color to a dark greyish. The kitchen top wasnt done yet. (Will update more once it's done. More photos from the pervious post. Pic 5: We hack away the TV Console for the 2nd bedroom and make a new one. Pic 6: We didnt do anything much to the living room, except for the door frame which I will post later. The living room is still in a mess with all the cements, tiles and all the ugly wiring hanging out.(Pls ignore me in the pic) Pic 7: Another view of the living room. We hack away the existing display cabinet & the TV Console. Pic 8: Overlay of walls and flooring. I choose a darker color for our bathroom so that when we do "business" we will feel more relax.... hehe

Me stay @ Blk 255 .... on the highest flr.. Will only moved in after my wedding... which I think will be next yr...

The search for Interior Designer Although we got our house in March, but we didnt start looking for ID until late April. Due to our busy schedules, we hardly got time to look for one. Even when we have time, we usually forgot about it. Sometime, I do forget that I have my own house...haha, maybe I still cant accept the fact after a month later. We went through some forum and people's recommendation, we decided to send a few of our floor plan for the ID to quote us. After a few comparsion, we finally settle for this company, A&D Interior. I like their service, not pushy and open to ideas. Best of all my ID, Louis was recommended by some forummer. He was never late for our appointment and he give alot of ideas for us to think about and he will try his best to fit our budget, which I love the end result.

U too stay @ Compassvale? Which Blk?

Our Nest Buying an almost prefect house wasnt an easy task. We went thru the HDB webbie hoping to get a good one but what it was left was those low floors, ulu location, chinese ethic full (those "hot" area) or the houses too small. We give up after we got unsuccesssful for the balloting at the Redhill area. We went to look for housing agent. The 1st agent was a lady. She seem new to the field but her service wasnt that bad, somehow she is not enthusiastic enough. Apparently she seem to give up on us after we went to view at least 10 units, to which we dont even like it. The 2nd one was a guy, around early 40's. He was introduced by my hub's colleague. He was a very pleasant man with good stance towards his service to client. Although we went for almost 10 units of viewing, he never give up on us. We do sometime feel abit guilty for been so chosy. Anyway, this blog is not about my 2 agents, it about my nest. After almost view for about 20 units in total, we finally came to this house. Located along Compassvale Road, our house is on the highest floor and it a point block (whatever it means, it sound good). It a 5 room flat, when we step in, the 1st thing I saw was that the living room is huge. With 3 rooms, a kitchen that comes with a bomb-shelter, 2 bathrooms and a huge living room, is more than enough for a family of 3 and 2 dogs. And so we made the deal. It took us about 2 months after our ROM to get the nest. We were so thrilled when we went for our 2nd apponitment to get our keys. But of course our heart stop a sec when we see our CPF account dropped vastly. And now we are the proud owner of Compassvale.

We bought a 5rm resale flat at Compassvale (116sqm), highest flr (15th) corner hse, total demage cost $299K