sarah833

Hi June Where do you plan to place the eight door wardrobe? We have the exact same layout and I find it a little suffocating to have a tall wardrobe opposite the bed, and it makes the room a little darker with the wardrobe blocking part of the window. I moved the four door scanteak wardrobe to the other spare bedroom after I moved in and bought a second hand small vintage wardrobe from the Shophouse , and been sitting on the idea of building a custom make storage solution in the mbrm until last week. Making a 250cm long x120cm tall cabinet with wood like frame and white doors. Plan to put some posters/paintings and decorative stuff on top of the cabinet. If I need more storage space in my bedroom, I will explore building a cabinet under the window. I am a big fan of Scandinavian design and love how my friends decorate the space under the windows in their sweden flat/house.

I did my reno beore CNY and that was about the rate I paid, my main contractor told me the rate will go up by $5 per point after CNY due to the increase in the foreign worker levy, and there might be another round of adjustment mid year when some new foreign worker policy is in place.You should be able to get some discount if you are not engaging the electrician's service through an ID or a main contractor? I am very happy with the workmanship and attitude of the young malaysian electrician boss, didnt ask for discount but got him to help put up the hammock and 5-6 big posters/paintings. took him 2-3 hours to do the job.

yes they were busy doodling while the older boys were having fun with the hammock cum yoga swing. My brother even asked if he can draw on the laminate floor and let the kids play the aeroplan game ( 跳飞机). I bought the pendant lights from a shop at geylang. didnt think much of it when the guy showed the silver light with ordinary bulb to me and my main contractor until he mentioned that he can spray paint it black and change the ordinary bulb into Tungsten/vintage edison bulb. you can get it much cheaply from Amazon, and here (I think, this place is frequent by IDs and contractors) http://www.catalogue.com.sg/ Did the double doors to make my mbrm appear bigger. They are made of solid wood and cost $480 each, $100+ more than the laminate wood door. love the effect!

hey you should really pay your MP a visit, lovely greens! the window grills put up by the previous owner were pretty new too but I am really not a fan of window grills, I even asked my contractor to remove the metal gate at the main entrance but she insisted that I keep it for security reasons. ah, didnt know that you cant view the pics from the link I attached. how about this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/51314298@N04/ ?

try to get enough signatures from your neighbours and tree huggers to save the trees? :-) I didnt level my balcony too due to the,restriction, and am glad that I chose to layer the existing tiles on the floor and balcony walls with cement screed. Now I can leave the balcony windows open without worrying about it getting wet, and water the plants,without worrying the floor getting wet. I moved in before CNY, got my keys on boxing day and took 3-4 weeks to do up the place except the kitchen and two bathrooms (seller renivated 2+ years ago). Got the contractor to remove all window griils and was pllanning to do without windows for the balcony ciz I love the paranomic view from the,dinning area, but almost all my guests disapproved lol. Put up a double glaze window n March, mainly to shield off the dust and noise from the side road. The chalkboard and hammock are clear favvourites with my nieces and nephews!

hey june think our 5i flat has the exact same layout! Love the greens outside your hall, mine is overlooking a small hill but sadly its been flatened to give way to a new BTO project. noticed that your balcony is not leveled to the same height as the hall , like mine. is it due to the new HDB restriction about levelling balcony?

bleucheese have you started your carpentry work? I did a bar counter that sits in between the kitchen and the hall,. Kicked up a big fuss when I saw the carpenter used silicon to level the bar counter on the uneven ground. They could have done a more neat job by taking note of the uneven ground during construction instead of using silicon (my kiwi fren who was a profesional handy man and an architect think so too). my contractor told me its a common practice in singapore to use silicon, and she has learnt a lesson from this encounter and will explain to her clients in future. now I have to take extra care when I mop the floor...

hmm dont think so? I used PERGO at my old,walkup apt and a german brand laminate for my current flat. didnt see any silicon being used. I will get them to redo if i see silicon being used. The window company guy gave in after I asked if he will come and change the silicon for me when it gets mouldy.

Hi bleucheese I engaged a main contractor for my reno project except the double-glaze windows for the balcony (used one that is recommemded by a number of RenoTalk folks). You should be able to demand the contractor to rectify the tiling defects if you cant live with it? I am happy with the overal result of my reno project and its not without issues of course . but i have learnt to be more forceful towards the end of the project and get things done up nicely . One thing I have learnt is contractors are very fond of using silicons to seal up gaps as a quick fix. I refused to accept using silicons to seal up a small gap at the corners of two other bedrooms by the laminate company, sent the worker back without fixing and came bqck few days later with a proper solution by changing a section of the laminate (took the more experienced uncle and his assistant more than two hours to fix), I also refused to accept the use of silicon by the window company to seal up the small gaps between the walls and the new windows. the more senior worker gave in and even helped me put up six curtain rods while waiting for the cement to dry.

lHey I enjoy reading your straight-talk blog, keep up the good work ! you should be proud of yourself to be a home owner at the tender age of 26 and fill the little nest with things from your TO-BUY list slowly. Continue to dream big for the little Beast!

no problem! check this out, think this guy found a shop at balestier that carries the smaller version of E27 track lights http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=57557

bought it at premiere lighting , address 701 geylang road #01-03

sorry newbie here, dunno how to pm. pic here http://www.flickr.com/photos/51314298@N04/ paid $85 for one incl the 15w e27 bulb. its about the size of my 7.7" tablet, italian design made in taiwan. letting go at $50 was planning to change the LED ceiling light for the study/guest room to the tracklight using the spare track holder but the lighting shop's electrician didnt hv the time to do it before i moved in before cny.

I bought my tracklights with E27 holder from a shop at geylang lorong 35/37 this Jan. have an extra one to let go below cost. interested? can send you a pic

I bought two heavy duty hooks from a hardware shop and get my electrician to fix it on the ceiling using his power drill.

the fans look identical except for the brand, both comes with abt 8 tiny screws. the only difference is Novita provides the small screw driver but Iona does not. I cheat a little by using 5-6 screws after I did the cleaning, no issue so far :-)

Novita has the exact same design as Iona, i have both 16" fans in cream color http://www.novita.com.sg/Fan/View-all-products.html I bought the Novita fan for abt $129 (or $139) 3 years,go, and the exact same one from Iona at Tangs for half the price last year. both works but not sure if its my bad luck three of the screws on the Iona fan cant be unscrewed, quite a pain when cleaning the fan

Its a very individual taste. So far all my girl friends love the mood setting lightings and guys generally prefer it bright. The guy at the lighting shop made some recomrndation and allowed me to change the walttage of the bulbs, and even allowed me to change a LED light I bought for my bedroom to the energy saving tracklight. I went to my flat with a can of sapporo beer and rojak at night after the electrician put up the lightings to get a feel of the brightness and made some adjustments.. :-) I love the vento vino fan too but not the price . Used back my old cream color Novita retro fan and placed it on an IKEA step ladder (had it vanished by the painter) for my bedroom. Bought an Iona fan with the same design for half the price a year ago.

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ya man! I am the kind who doesnt like to haggle over price, just felt it was a little over priced when I was quoted $120 for a door handle ( + lock) and I needed four in total (two for the double door @ master bedroom and one each for the other two bedrooms). went to check out the price at the shop at jln besar I frequented 10 years ago and bought from them instead.

Yes its a little pricey coz my main contractor who brought me to the shop gets some benefits I am sure, but on the whole I am happy with the total cost, service and workmanship of the entire projevt Was considering buying the track holders from amazon before I visited the shop, but changed my mind after seeing the different price range and quality of the finished products. For this reno project I let the contractors supply the items if I feel the price quoted is acceptable. The only exceptions are door handles (the door company quoted $120, I paid $25 for similar items at a shop at jln besar) , the double-glaze windows for my balcony (difference of over $400). And curtain/blinds.

Thanks! I bought the wine rack in Copenhagen 10 years ago . Got the idea of a chalkboard bar table from a scandinavian design website. The chalkboard and the yoga swing/hammock are clear favourites among my nieces and nephews

hi bleucheeze I bought the lightings from Premiere Lighting Centre at 701 Geylang Road #01-03. look for Mr Lim at the shop paid $60 for the two meters track and $85 for the light holder. The shop offers one year warranty for the energy saving reflectors and is quite flexible in dealing with exchange/return. (got a fiull refund for one of the holder as I find three holders for the living area is a bit of an overkill).

oops forgot to include the link http://www.megaman.cc/products/cfl/reflector-series/BR1315i/?voltage=110v

Yes there are. I bought mine from the lighting shop my contractor recommended. Its an italian-design taiwan-made tracklight that uses energy saving bulb .like this The shop supplied me with 15W warm white bulbs for the tracklights at my bed room, living area and dining area , and LED clear white bulb for the tracklight at the kitchen area because the energy savings version was out of stock .