korilala

Hihi, yah I suppose that's why most ppl dont shop on Rakuten Japan yet. One way you can do is to use the Chrome function of Auto-translate (although the translation is a bit funny at times). Anyway, I tried googling for a similar item in Taobao, so I think if you want, can consider getting from Taobao? http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.532.KVisRB&id=37961025370 HTH ~!

Hi Songz, Sorry for the late reply! Rice Dispenser and Takeya containers both from Rakuten Japan. Links as follows: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/manmaru/10095780/ (Rice dispenser) http://item.rakuten.co.jp/manmaru/10119962/ (Takeya containers) HTH!

Visited the new place again today to check on the painting as well as label our toilet fittings for the plumber to fix at the right bathrooms tomorrow. Was there in the evening and we spotted this solo painter finishing up the second coat of paint. Looks pretty good, although it was too dark to take any good pictures of the walls. We got a nice surprise when we saw that our new switches have been installed, and I really like the color combi, although the camera phone does no justice to the real thing. It's more of a shimmery pearl in real life, with a darker tone of brown, to fit with our theme. Not sure why my pictures are still turning out in the wrong orientation though I have already rotated it in photobucket. The service yard huge ugly pipes have also been boxed up very nicely, much to our delight! Cross my fingers that the renovation will progress smoothly!

Hihi, here are the links for the rice dispenser and cereal bowl. But both are from Rakuten Japan, so the site is in Japanese. \ http://item.rakuten.co.jp/mhomestyle/10008500/ cereal bowl http://item.rakuten.co.jp/manmaru/10095780/ rice dispenser HTH~!

On the right side of the oven interior, it was printed Made in Italy... of course I don't really know if they can simply print without meaning it.But I guess I don't really need a very high end oven, so as long as it can do its job and last me for a couple of years (2 years warranty given), it should suffice for now, given the price I paid. Anyway, I got the EF BN1950S. Picture of the oven just above your post.

My purchases from Mega Discount yesterday. The EF oven with mirror glass! Shall not think about horrible finger prints, but just focus on the mirror glass. Haha. Sharp Plasmacluster Air purifier for baby's room Sharp Plasmacluster Air purifier + humidifier for MBR. Larger coverage area means I can also put it in the living room instead if the haze gets really bad! *touchwood*

Hihi, just saw your reply and I also had the same idea of wrapping the shower sets! haha. Anyway, for the EF range, I decided to get it because the sales person showed me the Made in Italy logo which was printed on the oven itself. I trust that they would not be able to have this if it is not made in Italy?

Anyway I think we will make it clear to the ID that the workers can use the common WC if they need it, but we will not want them to make use of the shower sets, regardless of whether it's just cold water or not. Call me paranoid maybe, but I don't want to risk them somehow spoiling/damaging my shower sets, and then claim that it was originally in this state when they installed and etc. I would prefer to avoid any disputes if possible, so easiest way would be to simply tell the ID that the shower facilities are out of bound to the workers. At least if any happen, they will be liable for it. Or worst come to worst, I will just cling wrap my shower sets, haha.

Thanks for all your replies! Mine is a BTO so the positions of the WC and taps are quite fixed? I checked with my ID and was told only WC and the shower set would be installed first. I expressed my concern on the workers using my shower set to take showers in the house, but no reply as yet. Guess I will follow up with ID on this again, as I am fine with them using WC, but feels weird if they start using my shower set even before me and hubs! On a side note, we finally bought our oven from Mega Discount City together with two sets of Sharp air purifier. Got a made in Italy E F build in oven for $500. Can't seem to find much reviews on it, but since it's within my budget and at least not made in China, I just took the gamble. Finally settled all major electrical appliances purchase! Only dining set to go and I am almost done with my shopping! Can't wait!

I skipped kitchen ones cos I think even do nicer PVC interior, most of the time also only I see. For shoe cabinet, cos mine is white itself so I am okay with white interior. As for toilet, really no budget so sacrificed too, haha.

Mine quoted me an extra $450 for internal pvc for full height study bookshelves and $760 for two rows of full height WIW. It's not cheap, so I only got it for the more important carpentry work.

Haha, I think it's very normal! So long 买得开心, that's most impt! hehe

A short update on what has been done. Air con company sent their men over for the first installation of the trunkings and pipes. As we did not take leave, so we left it to our ID to oversee the installation, since prior to that we had already met up with the air con side people for a site survey. Installation seems alright, with most of the trunking well hidden, except for MBR because of the weird location of our outlet point to the aircon ledge. Oh well, I suppose after painting, it should be able to blend in. Review on air con company so far... the customer service side is really good, although installation team seems quite problematic from time to time (they requested if we could postpone our first installation on the day of installation itself, but we insisted that we couldn't change the dates) and in the end they managed to stick to the original timing and arrangement. Trunking looked alright and presentable, so we shall see how final installation goes. Painting work will be done today. All rooms will be painted in Nippon Vinilex 5000 Snowflakes, with a wall in the MBR painted Maldives Sand. We also confirmed our grilles and blinds installation. Renovations seems to be progressing smoothly for now, and we are really looking forward to end completion soon! On a side note, just wondering if this is the norm, our ID actually mentioned that the plumber will be coming in this week to fix the bathroom WC and shower fixtures. So does this means the workers will be using our WC and shower too? I do understand that they need to relief themselves, but I am not really comfortable with the idea of them showering in my toilets, using my new toilet fixtures. Any advice on what I should do? Thanks!

Our major purchases As mentioned previously, we got most of our electrical appliances from Hoe Kee and Best Denki. Below are pictures of the models we purchased. (mainly for me to remember, so that I can refer to them when they are delivered) Panasonic 42" FHD LED TV Samsung inverter fridge Samsung 7kg front load washer Bosch 6kg vent dryer Fujioh FS890 Hood Fujioh glass hob with safety valve Frankly speaking, before we purchased these items, we did not do much homework as we felt that electrical appliances nowadays don't really last anyway and we just needed a basic unit. Also, replacements for these were far easier, so we simply picked those that seemed more pocket friendly, environmental friendly and less energy consuming.

3D design and conceptualization Prior to starting our ID search, we (mostly myself as the hubs have left the entire designing part to me to decide on) already had a rough idea of what kind of theme we wanted and the possible layout. I did a brief drawing using Microsoft Powerpoint as below. After meeting and confirming our ID, we informed him of the design we were looking at and he went on to work out the 3D design from there. It took two weeks before we received the 3D drawings and even as the renovation is progressing, most of the 3D drawings are not accurate representation of what our new place is turning out to be, though we did not request for a re-drawing, as we were quite alright to proceed without them. Sharing some of the 3D drawings provided by my ID. The images are not very clear as these were taken from the original hard copies he passed us. Foyer area Living room Study WIW Kitchen Most of the changes made were on the color schemes, as I felt that they did not bring out the Japanese feel I wanted for the house. Also, the flooring shown in the 3D drawings will be different from my actual flooring.

That one u probably gotta go measure how big is ur intended shower area first? Cos we measured according to the shower kerb set up by the ID first before finding one of the nearest dimensions. The jap site is not the same as the sg one unfortunately. And most of them don't ship direct to sg, so you have to use forwarders such as Vpost or Tenso!

Hihi, Yup, I am combining the bedroom next to MBR together to form 1 huge MBR. The bedroom will be my WIW instead. Just did not hack the walls, so that in case we might need more rooms in future, always easier to change locations of doors than reconstruct full walls.

The transformation thus far... Sharing some pictures of our renovation work done Service yard windows/ door removed Kitchen cabinet base and fridge base constructed. City gas pipes up! Toilet tiles laid Study walls being constructed Recess wall in MBR sealed MBR entrance shifted forward It's been almost 2.5 weeks since renovations started. ID has been pretty on the ball, updating me on the progress and communicating with me pretty often via whatsapp. In fact, we have met up with ID for like 3/4 times during this period to discuss more details, and for her to confirm all the nitty gritty stuff. Painting will be starting next week and we have also already met up with the carpenter to discuss about carpentry details. It's been a joy working with our ID so far, but we will reserve our final comments and reveal his/her identity at the end of the renovation process when handover has been done.

Hallow, The kitchen towel holder was slightly below $25 and rice dispenser around $30 after factoring in shipping charges.

HDB Defects I think HDB must be really glad to have buyers like me and the hubs, because we actually did not submit any defects report! As we did not engage an ID straight away, hence we only went to the unit and did our own simple checks for popping/hollow tiles, wall thickness, functioning/ rusty window panels etc. Things seemed pretty alright and therefore we ended up NOT submitting any defect report. Haha. However, we spotted two defects only after renovation started! First one was we realised that one of the switches in the house was not positioned straight. That wasn't really a major issue though, since we were going to change all the switches in the house anyway. Then, our ID pointed out a huge defect to us... our ceilings was sloped! We had a false ceiling installed in one part of the living room for our downlights, and after installation of the false ceiling, we realised that one side of the ceiling is actually taller than the other! That was quite a shock to us, as it really did not cross our minds to check that the ceilings were of equal height. However, we consoled ourselves with the fact that HDB probably won't be able to do much, since this is like a structural defect? And our ID also assured us that after painting works, the difference in height won't be noticeable as well, and hence we simply let it pass. Our Renovation Details This being our first home, we decided to do a proper renovation, and hopefully be able to stay here for the next couples of years. Plus, setting up a new home is so tiring and pocket-burning, I doubt I would want to go through it anytime soon! After we confirmed our ID, we listed down a series of work that we would like to do for the new place. Some of the details are as follows: Foyer Replace tiles with dark colored tiles for Japanese genkan effect Construct half-height shoe cabinet Construct wall partition Living room Construct settee with storage by living room windows Construct TV console Construct false ceiling above settee area for downlights Flush recess wall Build storage space (our mini store room) Kitchen Seal up existing kitchen entrance Hack and construct new kitchen entrance Hack and replace existing service yard windows/doors Construct kitchen and fridge bases Construct 13 feet top and bottom kitchen cabinets Build extra washing point in service yard Study Construct new walls for study Construct glass windows for study Construct full height bookshelves Construct full length study table with drawers Bedroom 1 (Baby room) - (no work done) Bedroom 2 (WIW) Construct 2 sets of 12 feet casement wardrobes Install Japanese-look alike sliding doors Master Bedroom Shift existing door entrance forward Flush recess wall Construct L-shape false ceiling for downlights Toilets Overlay existing tiles with new tiles Replace existing HDB basins Replace original toilet fittings with our own fittings purchased All in all, I think the bulk of our renovation cost went into carpentry work. We did toy with the idea of simply buying from furniture shops like IKEA and such, but aesthetically it simply did not look pleasing enough, and also there were many underutilized space if we bought off the rack as there would be gaps here and there. Hence, we decided to bite the bullet and splurge on our carpentry work, and we pray that the quality would turn out well, so that these can last us for many years.

Hihi, I got these from rakuten japan. I think Muji and Takashimaya carries some of these items in similar designs too, just that of course the price is doubled/tripled most of the time.

Haha, cos it was nearing lunch hour, so I just extended my break into the lunch hour and typed away...

Part 5 Ocha teacups Mini grinder Soup/ cereal bowls Breakfast tray Toilet bins Waste paper bins Phew! After uploading these pictures, I just realised how much I have been buying. It's just so hard to stop shopping!

Part 4 Japanese style rice bowls Plates Appetiser/ soup bowls Dessert bowls Udon bowls Air tight porcelain container

Part 3 Chinese wok Sori Yanaga pot Sori Yanaga frying pan Sunao cutlery Stainless steel clothes hanger Cushions for living room